Chapter 30: Chapter 30

[Lucien’s POV]

As I put the bottle of alcohol on my lips, Celeste snatched it away from me and I looked up, throwing her an infuriated glance as if to ask her what her problem was.

“Give it back,” I said, stretching forward my hand.

She tossed it in the trash can and glared furiously at me, but it was I who should be doing the glaring. I ignored her and just stood up from the stool and went to the refrigerator to take out another bottle of the bitter alcohol.

“Is this why you cut short our mission in Manhattan? To stay here and drink yourself to death like a poor pathetic loser?” she inquired, with an underlying tone of disgust.

I ignored her and walked back to the stool, belching loudly.

She frowned and looked like she wanted to puke. “Lucien, snap out of it. Forget about the alcohol and go and speak to your woman right this minute,” she said in a commanding tone, standing in front of me with her hands akimbo.

“I don’t have a woman,” I replied, opening the bottle and taking a sip from it.

“I’m talking about Nivera, dummy. She clearly wants you and all she needs right now is for you to be there with her,” Celeste said.

I gave a bitter laugh. “Oh, Celeste, you are quite the dreamer. Can’t you see? Are you blind? She doesn’t want to have anything to do with me. She made that very obvious the moment she kissed that bastard right in my presence,” I said.

Celeste shrugged. “Well, that’s not what I saw, Lucien. She might have kissed him but…”

I cut in. “You really should stop spying on people through that weird witchy mirror of yours,” I said.

“Whatever. What I am saying is that the Alpha is taking advantage of her and she is confused because while she has feelings for you, the mate pull is making her think otherwise,” she explained

“I get what you mean, Celeste, but Nivera doesn’t know what she wants and it’s already too late. You saw it with your own two eyes. She has been marked and claimed by the Alpha,” I said.

Celeste scoffed. “Since when did you care about werewolves and their useless practices? So what if she’s been marked?”

“Celeste…”

“The Alpha is going to announce his acceptance soon, and it won’t take long before they are married and she becomes the Luna. Go and get her now before that happens,” she said.

I heaved a sigh. “Why are you trying so hard to get Nivera and I together?” I asked. It was so unlike her as she was usually nonchalant about things like this.

She shrugged. “Nothing. I just feel bad for not telling you when she was reborn. If I had told you so, you’d probably have gotten her out of that Pack before she got mated to the Alpha King and perhaps, things would have been different and she’d be by your side right now,” Celeste explained.

A faint smile found its way to my lips and I just patted her on the shoulder. “You don’t have to keep feeling guilty about that. You thought you were doing what’s best for everyone, and I no longer hold it against you,” I said.

She returned the smile. “Thanks, Lucien.”

The scent of her blood reached my nose and I smiled inwardly. “Apparently, Nivera just sustained an injury. That will be my excuse to go and see her,” and without another word to Celeste, I closed my eyes and teleported to another dimension: Nivera’s world.

“Ouch,” I heard her say as she stared at the injury on her index finger, looking around for something to use to clean it up. Beside her was a bowl of oranges and a knife, and I suspected that she must have cut herself while peeling the oranges.

“Can you even do a single thing without sustaining an injury?” I asked from behind her, announcing my presence.

She appeared shocked to the bone and turned her head slowly, then blinked her eyes rapidly several times to make sure it was me who was standing right at the back of her and she wasn’t hallucinating or imagining things.

“Lucien!” she half-screamed, half-whispered as she jumped off from the bench in the garden where she was sitting and ran towards me.

“Nivera,” I said, as I pulled her into a warm embrace the second she appeared in front of me.

For a little while, we were like that, but she suddenly pulled away and just kept staring at me like she was probably confused or something.

“What… what are you doing here?” she asked, gazing into my eyes.

“I came to see you. We didn’t get to finish our conversation the other day,” I said.

She bit her lower lip and looked away, acting confused for a minute. “Our conversation? I thought it had pretty much ended when you saw me kissing the Alpha,” she said.

I clenched my fists, trying to suppress the anger I could feel so clearly building within me. “He kissed you, Nivera,” I said.

“Yeah, and I kissed him back,” she said.

I ran my fingers through my hair and paced for a moment then stopped. “Nivera, I didn’t come here to talk to you about whether or not you kissed the Alpha. I came here to speak about us,” I explained.

“Us? There is no us, Lucien, and you know that. Besides, the Alpha already marked me and you should probably give up now,” she said, then showed me the mark on her neck.

I ignored the irritation that surged through me and stepped closer to her again. “All I see there is a scar. Celeste can heal that for you if you want,” I said to her.

“Why are you doing this? I belong to the Alpha now,” she cried.

I scoffed. “Belong? No, Nivera. You do not belong to anyone but yourself. You are your own person, and instead of allowing yourself to be taken advantage of emotionally by the Alpha, take a stand and search your heart for who you truly want to be with. The mere fact that he kissed you, marked you and fucked you isn’t enough reason for you to decide you want to be with him,” I told her.

She fiddled with her fingers nervously. “If we weren’t meant to be, the Moon Goddess wouldn’t have mated us to each other,” Nivera said.

“And if we weren’t meant to be, your blood wouldn’t call to me,” I stated, holding up her index finger which had dried blood on it.

“What do you want me to do, Lucien? Even if I do feel something for you, my hands are tied now. I loved all the time we spent together and I’ll forever cherish the memories we made, but I’m with the Alpha now. He’s willing to go against his people for my sake, and I just can’t leave him hanging,” she explained.

“So, that’s it? You’ve chosen to stay by the side of the Alpha, then?” I asked.

She blinked back tears. “Yes, I have. I am sorry for causing you pain, but I know you want what’s best for me and trust me, the Alpha is right for me. He’s in love with me and he even remembers how he helped me out eight years ago which shows I have always meant something to him. You can be rest assured that I’m in a good place, and you don’t need to appear in front of anymore,” she said.

“Oh. So you’re not just breaking my heart, you’re also cutting me off completely,” I noted.

“It’s nothing like that. I can’t keep seeing you to prevent you from being more heartbroken and also, I don’t want you to be caught one of these days,” she said.

“Is that all?” I asked.

“Lucien, you’re a good person. Someday, you’ll find someone that’s just for you, but that person isn’t me. Again, I am really sorry for…”

“It’s okay, Nivera. It’s cool. Enjoy the rest of your life with the love of your life, Alpha Tyler. I’ll be sure to drink a potion to ensure that not even the smell of your blood draws me to you. Goodbye,” I said, and before she could say anything else, I was out of her sight.

In the whirlwind of dust that was sweeping me back home, I could hear her break down and cry loudly behind me. If she had known it was going to hurt her this much, why then had she said no to me? Why had she cut me off completely? Why didn’t she just run away with me? To me, our story was already over and I couldn’t care less what happened to her anymore.