CHAPTER 97: _BECAUSE YOU’RE YOU, LUCIAN

Lucian’s POV

*****

Lucian and Axel drove to the industrial district of the city via aether craft, navigating their way to the abandoned manor through a holographic map.

The second Lucian’s boots touched the scorched grass surrounding the manor when they stepped down, a chill ran down his spine.

The place felt... Wrong.

There was no sign of life for hundreds of meters, but he could pick up the scent of wolves coming from the manor itself.

"He’s here." Axel suddenly said with certainty beside him, stepping forward and scanning his gaze. "I can sense it. The mate bond—"

"Yeah, yeah. No need to rub the fact that you’re closer to him on my face." Lucian waved dismissively, walking forward without looking back at him, his heavy sigh drowning under the silence.

But then—

"Watch out!" Axel yelled behind him, sending his senses on high alert.

He looked to his left just in time to see incoming darts. He ducked, the darts missing him by a second and hitting a withering tree on the other side of the field.

"Well, I’ll be..." Lucian whistled, glancing back at Axel. "Looks like your sister is out for the kill."

Axel grunted, walking toward him. "Maybe I should’ve let you take the hit."

Lucian growled, grabbing his arm and forcing him to face him, their eyes locking in an intense gaze.

"What’s your problem, Axel?" He asked, squinting and inching closer. "You still scared for your sister? For what I’ll do to her?"

Axel smiled with pure sarcasm, inching close until their faces were inches apart and their breaths tangled in a musky mess.

"Gods know I’ll punish Estelle myself once we find her." The Beta said with a low voice. "My problem is you, Lucian. You and your sudden desire to step in as a ’protective’ mate when you’ve been nothing but shitty all this time."

Lucian furrowed his eyebrows. "Why’s it hard to believe I would turn around and—"

"Because you’re you, Lucian." Axel finally yanked his arm free of his grip. "The great Alpha Prince. The white wolf... Yada, yada, yada. You have an ego bigger than your balls and that ego is constantly threatened by the fact that you have an Omega mate who’s mated to another."

Lucian’s jaw tightened but he didn’t say anything.

Because deep down... He knew the Beta was probably right. Okay, scratch out the probably...

"I actually care for Elian. A lot. And you have no idea how it feels to sense his emotions at such a deep level thanks to the knot." Axel’s golden eyes softened for just a beat when he talked about Elian.

Lucian rolled his eyes, about to continue walking but Axel grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to maintain eye contact.

"If you have any ulterior motives for getting close to him. One that would hurt him..." Axel’s voice was cold, as he drew close to his ear. "I’ll ignore the fact that you’re the Alpha Prince when coming for you."

With one final pat on the shoulder, Axel continued moving toward the manor, leaving Lucian standing there with a dazed expression.

Lucian’s fists curled beside him, but he didn’t say or do anything rash; instead, he walked cautiously for fear of triggering any more traps like the darts.

.

.

He and Axel finally arrived behind a hedge with withering vines on it. It was the closest they could get to the manor without alerting any of the guards they saw patrolling close to it.

"I knew it." Lucian shook his head, glancing from an edge. "She has spies from the palace."

"You give my sister way too much credit," Axel remarked, his voice calculating. "Baron Magnus is definitely behind most of the logistics part of this operation. The only question I have now is... What’s their end goal here? What do they want with Elian?"

Lucian clicked his tongue, cracking his knuckles and giving him a shrug. "Let’s go in there and find out."

Just when Axel parted his lips, probably about to scold him for being reckless, a loud explosion sounded from the manor, sending a shockwave that shook the field.

Lucian ducked subconsciously and so did Axel.

But soon, the panicked shouts of the guards close to the manor echoed, forcing Lucian to peel his eyes open before fixing his gaze on the manor.

"Goddess..." He rasped, his heart beating like a drum at what he saw.

Smoke billowed from the ground floor of the sturdy building where the explosion had hit, a few guards close to the blast range had been knocked out cold and the rest were disoriented.

"The Lunarian officials will be here soon if they heard that explosion." Axel suddenly muttered beside him, stepping forward with his golden and blue armour reflecting sunlight.

Without another word, he bolted forward, taking Lucian by surprise. But the Alpha Prince soon got his senses back and let out a guttural growl from the deepest part of his wolf before joining the Beta.

Together, navigating past the guards was a piece of cake, and anyone they came across was brought down with a slash of the claws here and there.

Their movements were fluid and precise, Lucian showing none of them he came across any mercy until his claws dripped with their blood.

When they found a back entrance with a flight of stairs leading down to a basement, they knew they were in the right place.

They ran in, shadows swallowing them whole.

The air inside was thick, the walls having an odd scent of wheat. Lucian’s instincts screamed that Elian was close... too close.

That’s when he caught the flicker of light at Axel’s hip.

"What the hell are you doing?" Lucian growled when he noticed the Beta slide a small rune-carved disk from his buckle and pressed it against the cracked plaster wall.

The runes pulsed with a dangerous blue light.

"Opening a door," Axel muttered.

His jaw was tight, his eyes fixed straight ahead.

Lucian’s nostrils flared. "From inside? Elian could be—"

"Trust me," Axel snapped, cutting him off as he tapped the runes. "It’s set to blow inward, not outward. The guards won’t know what hit them."

Before Lucian could argue further, the wall behind the hallway erupted with a deafening *BOOM*.

The shockwave tore through the manor’s foundations, rattling stone and splintering old wood. Smoke bled from the seams of the wall, and panicked shouts of guards echoed down the corridors.

Lucian braced against the nearest beam, his wolf snarling as the scent of scorched ash and dust filled his lungs. But underneath all of it, he caught something else.

Blood.

Elian’s blood pooling underneath his limp body on the floor.

His chest constricted, his claws flexing involuntarily at his sides.

"Axel..." he rasped, whipping his head toward the Beta.

But Axel wasn’t looking at him.

His golden eyes were locked on the smoke-filled hall where the blast had gone off, and for the first time Lucian saw something flicker there...

Fear.

"Shit!" Axel cursed under his breath with pure dread before bolting forward.

Lucian’s pulse thundered in his ears as he followed, rage and dread tangling in his gut.

If that explosion had touched Elian... if Axel’s reckless plan had harmed him...

"Out of my way." Lucian shoved the Beta aside, glaring at him before kneeling beside Elian. "Elian? Elian!"

His fingers trembled, his mind was disconnected from everything else as his wolf howled with the same fear he felt crawling down his back.

"Elian!" Aurora’s yell was what snapped him briefly out of his reverie as she ran toward them down the dust-filled hallway.

Aurora’s voice barely cut through the dust when Lucian suddenly stiffened.

Elian’s body jerked, his intoxicating scent spiking, heady and overwhelming, his heat symptoms crashing down in a violent wave.

The pheromones blast outward like a tidal wave, choking the air with raw need.

Lucian and Axel staggered back, the former’s wolf straining against control.

"He’s..." Lucian blinked, swallowing hard to control himself.

Suddenly, Elian’s lashes fluttered open, glazed with fever.

His lips parted, a broken whimper escaping:

"Lucian..."