Lucy’s POV
PRESENT TIME
Disgraceful fear or timidity was what made a person a coward. That was what my father used to tell me years back. As an Alpha, he knew all about bravery, but he had also come face to face with a few demons of his own. Many times, he had wanted to run away, and live with his head shoved under a pile of sand. He had wanted to pretend that the weight of the world no longer existed upon his shoulders. Each and every time he found himself at that point, something reminded him of who he really was, and why he couldn’t simply walk away.
“People think that bravery is the absence of fear. It isn’t,” he had told me. “True bravery is standing in the presence of fear, but never allowing it to stop you from moving forward.”
I didn’t know why his words chose that very moment to return to me, but maybe it had to do with the fact that my first instinct was to take flight when I heard the shuffling coming towards me.
Like a wild cat, I leaped forward and away from the shade of the tree I had been resting upon, and used the momentum to spin myself around using my knee as a pivot.
My assailant froze midway, staring at me with his eyes wide open.
I released a sound that was a combination of a groan and a relieved sigh. “Shaun! What exactly did you think you were doing?”
“I simply wanted to surprise you,” he said, recovering from his mild shock and taking a seat underneath the tree. He patted the grass beside him. “I’m sorry I scared you, it’s much too soon for such games.”
“Yes it is. I’ve had more than one kidnapping encounter so I have grown really sensitive to people sneaking up on me,” I grumbled, even though I was already crawling to the patted spot beside him.
He took my hand as soon as I was seated, and placed it on his thigh. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m not angry,” I said.
He leaned in so that his face was right in front of mine. “But you’re not happy either. I can tell.” He gently patted a finger against my nose, smiling a little. “Your nose twitches when you’re infuriated.”
Surprising even myself, I closed the gap between us and latched on this lips, making sure to nibble on the lower one before pulling away. The contact hadn’t been enough, but I was trying to get a message across.
A dark look passed over his eyes. “Should you have done that?”
I smiled coyly. “I simply wanted to.” I ran my tongue over my lower lip, enjoying the way his eyes followed the movement. “Now, we’re even.”
“So I should scare you more often, is that what you’re saying?”
“No, you shouldn’t-mmh!” I clutched the fabric of his shirt as he pressed himself close to me, kissing me deeply. His hands went down to my waist and clutched me tightly, as though he was scared that someone was going to snatch me away from him.
“Lucy . . .” he said, breathing against my mouth. “I love you. I’ll always protect you.”
I believed he would have done his very best to keep me safe, but I had seen enough of the cruelty of the world to know that oftentimes, it wasn’t so simple to keep certain promises. But in that moment, I didn’t want to think too deeply into it, so I nodded and kissed him a final time before I had to drag myself away from him.
“Have you heard anything else from the scouts?” I asked him, trying to calm my racing heart.
He shook his head, already looking in a better state than I felt. I didn’t know how he could manage to look so normal after what just passed between us. Or maybe he was merely skilled at hiding such emotions when he wanted to.
“Nothing else yet. I’ve told them to halt all operations until we return.”
“We need to get back soon,” I said. “I know your aunt isn’t ready to let us leave, but the longer we stay here, the more dangerous things become.”
“I know, I’m working on it. Also, I’ve been wanting to ask what happened between you and her. You haven’t been quite the same since you went to see her that day.”
“It’s nothing.”
“Just tell me.”
I sighed. “She just told me that she had heard about my relationship with your father and wanted to be certain that I wasn’t trying to exploit you.”
“That’s strange. I never mentioned anything to her, and even if Seth can get a little talkative at times, he wouldn’t have told her such a thing. Someone must have told her not long after she met you.”
“It’s not like it was a secret, Shaun. A lot of people were aware of my marriage to . . . him. I was even surprised that she didn’t know right from the onset.”
But Shaun wasn’t giving up on his suspicions. “No. I think someone told her about it on purpose, because knowing our aunt, she would have pushed back against it. It’s even more surprising that she never came to tell me anything.”
“Life is too short for me to start pondering other people’s motives for the things they do, Shaun. Let’s just forget about it, please. It’s in the past now.” To change the topic, I shifted the conversation to something else. “How’s Scott’s matchmaking going?”
He gave me a knowing look that told me he understood what I was trying to do, but he went along with it anyway. “I don’t know, honestly. The girl comes around to see him so much, but he’s like a wall. I feel a little bad for her.”
Good. As long as Scott kept holding out, the woman would definitely lose interest. People like her didn’t seem to be fixated on their desires for too long.
“Why did you ask?”
“No particular reason. I’m just a little wary about her.”
“Any particular reason for this ‘wariness’?”
The reason even sounded very ridiculous to me. How did I want to explain that I wanted him and his brothers to stay away from her because she had openly claimed that she had a fantasy about sleeping with all three of them and was looking for an opportunity to carry out her sinister objective?
“Just be careful around her, okay? She’s not as innocent as she looks.”
“That’s too ambiguous. How exactly isn’t she innocent?”
“She’s trying to sleep with all three of you,” I whispered to him, too ashamed to say the words out loud.
His rumbling laughter made my cheeks flush with heat. I smacked him on the shoulder, pursing my lips. “Are you serious?”
“I’m sorry, what did you say? She wants to sleep with all three of us? Well I can’t say that it’s the first time a woman has admitted similar sentiments about us,” he said, almost looking smug.
“I’m being serious. You have to be careful. Warn Scott too. Who knows what she’ll do to get you guys trapped in her web.”
“We’ll be fine, sweetheart.” He got up to his feet and pulled me up with him. “But right now I don’t want to talk about other people,” he said, looking deeply into my eyes. “Those kisses weren’t enough for me. I’m hungry for more.” From the heavy-lidded look in his eyes, I didn’t need any more information to help me understand what he was talking about.
I yelped when he lifted me off my feet and into his arms, and took us back inside and to the privacy of the room we shared.
–
AUTHOR’S POV
Anabella angrily took a swig out of the wine bottle she swiped from her mother’s storage. The liquid burned against her throat in a delightful way that stirred up her insides.
Hidden in the quiet of her own bedroom, she spread her legs open on her bed and imagined the very thing that had been going through her mind since she had encountered the triplets. She played the perverted images deep in her mind, while squirming in reality as though her thoughts were a reality.
Madness.
If anyone saw her then, they would have thought her to be one possessed, but she could have cared less. All that mattered to her was deriving a quick, earth shattering pleasure.
When she finally reached a self-induced climax that had her knees trembling, she lay motionless with her knees bent like a spider’s, staring up at the ceiling of her room.
“I will have them all!” she said to no one but herself. “I will taste them . . . Starting from you, Scott.”
And she knew just the perfect way to execute her plans. She had already hatched an idea for a send-off party for the triplets before they went back to Moongrowl, and the Luna had happily welcomed the idea-even putting her in charge of the planning.
For her, things were finally falling into place, as long as that woman who had followed them stayed far away.
She had thought that informing the Luna about that woman’s past would have been enough push to get the triplets’ aunt to send her away or even cancel the engagement between her and Shaun, but somehow, nothing fruitful had come of it. Pressing deeper into what happened would have undoubtedly caused suspicions, so she had already accepted that as a loss. But there were plenty more ways she could ensure that no one got in the way of her plans.
She took a glass vial from her dressing table, and admired it in the light. The apothecary had told her it was potent enough to knock out a bull. Just two drops, and whoever took it would fall into a sleep like death itself. Also, they would recollect nothing that had occurred before their slumber.
A perfect concoction.
She was eager to use it immediately, but she had to be strategic. The patient dog ate the fattest bone, after all.
The moment would present itself soon enough.