LUCIAN’S P.O.V. V.
The quiet hum of my office was the closest thing I had to peace these days. Papers cluttered my desk like a battlefield—contracts I’d deliberately ignored, reports I’d outright refused to read. Two years. Two exhausting, fruitless years of searching for Teresa. My chest literally ached with the weight of her absence, a dull, constant throb that no amount of distraction could dull. Even Ares,was a miserable lump of fur and snarls, pacing around in my head like a caged animal. His growls had beco my brain’s new background noise.
I was signing another docunt—probably sothing important, though I couldn’t be bothered to care—when Kenneth knocked on my door. The sound was a polite little tap, but it grated on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard.
"What now?" I snapped without looking up.
Kenneth stepped in, managing to sound both professional and completely over it. "Jennifer’s here again, Alpha."
"Oh, for the love of— That child again?" Ares groaned, his voice laced with exasperation. "Does she have a death wish? Because I can help with that."
Jennifer. The human embodint of nails scraping a whiteboard. For the past two years, she had made it her personal mission to ruin what little sanity I had left. Ever since Teresa vanished, Jennifer—her insufferably stubborn stepsister—had been haunting like a ghost that refused to be exorcised.
At first, I thought her father had sent her. It would’ve been just like that man to try and weasel his way back into my good graces, hoping I’d forgive their family’s appalling treatnt of Teresa. I shut that down imdiately. If anything, the only thing her father deserved from was the utter annihilation of his estate.
But Jennifer? She wasn’t here on her father’s orders. No, she was here because she was Jennifer.
"Tell her I’m in a eting," I growled, fully aware of how pathetic my excuse sounded.
Kenneth raised a brow, clearly unimpressed but too well-trained to show it outright. "Understood, sir." He turned and left, but not before I caught the hint of a smirk tugging at his lips.
As soon as the door clicked shut, I leaned back in my chair, rubbing my temples like I could massage the annoyance out of my skull. Ares wasn’t helping; he was pacing in my head like a wolf on a caffeine binge.
"You should’ve let scare her off the first ti she showed up," Ares grumbled.
I snorted. "And risk you tearing apart the entire building in the process? Hard pass."
But honestly? Ares had a point. Jennifer wasn’t just annoying—she was persistent. The first ti she’d ambushed outside my office, I’d nearly shoved her away on instinct. Then sothing bizarre happened: the pain in my chest... lessened. Just a little.
Enough to confuse the hell out of .
That led to an awkward trip to the elders, where I had to sit through their overly long and annoyingly smug explanation. Apparently, my bond with Teresa was stretched so thin it was on the verge of snapping. My body, desperate for any relief, was clinging to anything even remotely connected to her. And, unfortunately for , Jennifer shared Teresa’s bloodline.
"Barely," Ares snorted.
"Barely," I muttered aloud. And yet, it was enough to make her presence tolerable. Just barely.
But Jennifer didn’t know any of that. She just kept showing up, ard with her annoyingly bright smile and a stubbornness that rivaled Ares’ worst tantrums. And no matter how many excuses I threw her way, she wasn’t going anywhere.
Maybe I should’ve let Ares scare her off after all.
On second thought, what if Teresa found out and hated more? They’re sisters after all. One can never be too careful with blood; there’s a reason it’s thicker than water.
*******
An hour later, I finally dragged myself out of my office and to the lobby, dreading the encounter waiting for there. Sure enough, Jennifer was perched on one of the couches, scrolling through her phone like she hadn’t just been told to wait an hour. The mont she saw , her face lit up like I was a celebrity she’d been stalking.
"Lucian!" she chirped, practically bouncing off the couch as she rushed over.
Ares groaned in my head. "She’s like a hyperactive squirrel. A squirrel that refuses to be shaken out of the tree."
"What do you want, Jennifer?" I asked, crossing my arms and trying my best to look as intimidating as possible. No matter how little her presence relieved my pain, I still didn’t want her near .
She ignored the warning tone in my voice and flashed what she probably thought was a sultry smile. It wasn’t. It was about as sultry as a kitten trying to look ferocious. "I was just thinking... maybe we could grab lunch? You’ve been working so hard—"
"No."
Her smile twitched but didn’t fade. "But I thought—"
"No."
"But you didn’t even hear out!"
I pinched the bridge of my nose, wondering how soone could be so determined and yet so utterly clueless. "Jennifer, for the thousandth ti, stop trying to flirt with . It’s disgusting, you’re like fifteen, go find a guy your age."
Her face turned red, and for one blissful second, I thought I’d finally managed to break through the fortress of her delusion. Then she tilted her head and said proudly, "Actually, I’m eighteen if you most know. You’re so grumpy all the ti. Has anyone ever told you that?"
Ares growled in my mind, the sound low and nacing. "Let out. Just for a second. I’ll fix this."
"No one who’s lived to tell the tale," I replied dryly. "Now, unless you have sothing useful to say, leave."
She pouted—an exaggerated, cartoonish thing that made want to either laugh or shove her out the window. But instead of leaving, she crossed her arms and said, "You know, I don’t think Teresa would want you to be this miserable."
The ntion of Teresa’s na hit like a train. My entire body went rigid, and my fists clenched on instinct. Ares snarled, his rage barely contained. "Don’t," I warned, my voice dropping low enough to make anyone with sense run for cover.
Jennifer’s eyes widened slightly, but instead of retreating like any sane person, she pressed on. "I’m just saying—"
"You don’t get to say anything about Teresa," I snapped, each word sharp enough to cut. "Not after what your family did to her." She was so lucky she shared Teresa’s blood because if not...
Her bravado finally faltered. She looked down, fidgeting with her hands as if she’d suddenly rembered how to feel sha. For a fleeting mont, I felt a twinge of guilt. Then Ares, ever the voice of reason, reminded that guilt was wasted on pests.
"Fine," she mumbled, her voice smaller now. "But you know where to find if you change your mind."
With that, she spun on her heel and walked away, holding her head high like she hadn’t just been thoroughly rejected.
"Persistent, isn’t she?" Ares muttered, the irritation in his tone laced with grudging amusent.
"Like a cockroach," I muttered.
******
Back in my office, I leaned against the window, gazing out at the city stretching far into the horizon. The view usually cald , but today, it was just a blurry backdrop to the storm in my mind.
Teresa.
Adam, our best tracker, had picked up her scent—eight towns away, no less. For a brief, hopeful mont, I’d thought we were finally close to finding her. But then, like a cruel joke, the trail had gone cold. It was as if she’d vanished into thin air.
And then there were the damn vampires who started appearing out of nowhere and attacking my pack mbers for no apparent reason.
"Why the hell are they involved?" I muttered, running a hand through my hair for what felt like the thousandth ti that day.
Ares growled in my head, his irritation as sharp as mine. "Who cares why they’re involved? We’ll keep ripping them to shreds every ti they stand in our way."
I sighed. Ares’s enthusiasm for violence, while sotis entertaining, wasn’t exactly helpful right now. "We can’t just start a war with the vampires, Ares. That’s like throwing a lit match into a barrel of gunpowder."
"So? Let it explode. Wouldn’t mind the fireworks."
I rolled my eyes. Sotis, I wondered if my wolf and I shared the sa definition of "strategy."
Still, he wasn’t entirely wrong. The vampires had inserted themselves into this ss for reasons I couldn’t fathom, and their involvent made everything infinitely more complicated. We couldn’t afford a full-scale war—not with our resources stretched thin from the ongoing search for Teresa.
But none of that mattered.
I turned from the window, my hands clenched into fists at my sides. One thing was certain: I would find Teresa. It didn’t matter how long it took or how many obstacles stood in my way.
Even if those obstacles included a fifteen years old infuriating chatter box.
"Oh, co on," Ares chid in, his tone dripping with humor. "Even though we both hate her, she at least helps with the pain a bit."
"Unfortunately. That’s the only reason she’s still breathing around ," I muttered under my breath.
Pinching my temples I sighed, as much as I hated to admit it, our search for Teresa was slowly going to be the death of , my pack included.
Where for the love of the goddess was she hiding!
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