Chapter Ninety-nine

Claire didn't notice Killian’s absence till Lukas left, it was a little bad habit of hers. Whenever she was in Lukas' arms, she tended to tunnel the rest of the world out.
She was pleased that they had managed to get Killian on their side but she had no intention of getting too friendly with the Emissary. It was best if there was a bit of distance between them.
With her first appointment out of the way, Claire felt more confident. She had something else on her mind, something that she had been thinking of for a while now.
She wanted to learn all that there was to werewolves.
She could ask Senite and she knew that the sweet werewolf would be all too happy to tell her everything she needed to know but she felt like Sabrina would understand her more, seeing as they were both similar.
Claire had grown up amongst werewolves but they were a secretive bunch so she might as well have grown up with just humans. By the time she moved out to college, there were no werewolves outside of werewolf-designated zones anymore.
Sabrina had grown up both as a human and a werewolf, she was the perfect goldmine to get all the information she needed. If there was anything she needed further, she could always ask Senite.
With her mind made up, she decided to call up Sabrina, the half werewolf had given Claire her personal number, and that was what she called.
Sabrina picked up on the second ring, her excitement palpable through the screen of Claire’s phone. "Luna Claire! Oh my goodness! I can't believe you called!"
Claire was a little overwhelmed, she still didn't know what to do when people treated her like that, especially when they were very important people too. “Hi Sabrina, what do you say to another lunch date?” She offered.
Sabrina was all too happy to accept her offer and right away they decided to meet that afternoon, at a different place this time, a new cafe which was lowkey. It was like the half werewolf knew exactly what Claire needed, after their date was set up, Claire hung up feeling lighter.
She knew about mating marks and Fated mates but that was because they were things that had personally happened to her, she couldn’t wait to learn all that there was to know. There were only a couple of hours left to her lunch date, she wanted to finish up everything she needed to do so she could spend the rest of the day with Lukas. It didn’t matter if all she got to do was just sit and watch him work, she wasn’t going to let their duties put distance between them at the start of their relationship.
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Claire returned from her lunch date with Sabrina far later than she had been expecting. It was already late in the afternoon, the sun starting to lose its intensity as the car she was in drove up to the high gates.
Rosie hadn’t come with her this time at her own insistence, she was followed closely by another car full of bodyguards as Alec couldn’t be the one to keep escorting her everywhere she went.
There was also no threat to Claire’s life at the moment, the Rogues were all wiped out, and Roman would only make a move when he had someone else to do his dirty work for him. It didn’t hurt to be cautious though, and it calmed Claire down to know that backup was just a few minutes away.
Rosie came out to meet her just as she came down from her car, “Welcome back, Luna Claire,” She said and Claire could see the relief in her eyes. “I didn’t think that you would be out for so long.”
Claire started for the mansion, “Neither did I, I’ll be taking the rest of the day off.” She tagged on.
Rosie’s expression brightened at this, making Claire shake her head fondly. If she let Rosie have her way, her assistant would make her take the day off every single day.
She took a shower after returning to her bedroom, staring at herself in the mirror as she brush out her blonde curls. She thought back to the lengthy conversation that she had with Sabrina, going over the new information she had learned.
She already knew that werewolves were a species that evolved alongside humans, that was common knowledge but she didn’t know that werewolves and humans used to be at war. Well, calling it war was a stretch, it was more like werewolves wanted to live in peace but humans kept hunting them down.
This forced the werewolves into hiding but with the advent of technology, they slowly started coming out of hiding. Humans were still just as unreceptive to a different race as they always were but at least this time, they weren’t trying to kill werewolves anymore, they were just very prejudiced and given fewer rights.
Although Claire was human, she would agree that humans were the villains in this story, it was why Lukas hated humans so much and still did. She wondered if she could do anything to change the current course of things, that was such a lofty dream though. She might not be able to make any drastic changes but she would try to do her own little part to resolve the centuries-long feud between humans and weres.
The information she had gotten from Sabrina hadn’t been all dark and sad, the half werewolf had told her that because Lukas was from an ancient line of werewolves, the chance of her giving birth to a werewolf was very high.
Half werewolves were the same as other werewolves, they just had a human parent. There was no information on a possible human-werewolf hybrid but according to Sabrina research was underway. Neither side was too eager for the research to provide any results though which was understandable, there was no telling what merging the DNAs of both species would create and it was best to remain ignorant in this case.
Claire made her way to Lukas’ office, she hadn’t been there very often, as a matter of fact, she had only been there once when they were about to meet up with Killian for the first time, and she had been taken by a maid. She remembered the way there quite vividly though so she didn’t need to employ the help of a maid.
She knocked softly on the door to Lukas’ office and waited, she had dressed in casual clothes, just wanting to keep Lukas company while he worked.
The door was pulled open to reveal a surprised Alec on the other side of the door, “Luna Claire?” He said in pleasant surprise.
Claire looked past in to find Lukas seated behind his imposing desk, his gaze riveted on her. “Hi,” She smiled nervously, wondering if her presence was going to be a nuisance after all.
Alec already stepped backward to invite her in though and Claire had no other option but to step in, her face feeling hot. It had seemed like such a simple straightforward plan when she first thought it up - all she had to do was come down to Lukas’ office and then sit beside him or something and watch him work, but now that it was actually happening, she realized how ridiculous her plans sounded.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything important?” She spoke up while walking over to Lukas who had gestured at her to come closer.
Lukas pulled her onto his legs when she came close enough, burying his face in her neck to breathe her in, “Not at all,” He murmured, holding her close. “How was your lunch date?”
Claire was a bit overwhelmed, she hadn’t been expecting Lukas to put everything aside to pay attention to her. “It went fine, I wanted to keep you company while you worked,” She added in a softer voice, finding it easy to say because of how receptive Lukas was.
The response she got was one of Lukas’ rare smiles, “Anything you want, love.”
Lukas hadn’t been playing around when he said that, he not only let her stay in his office for as long as she wanted, he insisted on having her sit on his legs the entire time. At first, Claire was very self-conscious, it didn’t help that Alec was present and the Viceory acted like nothing was amiss. Lukas also wasn’t very helpful as he kept sneaking in kisses and checking up on her at every chance he got.
Eventually, she got used to the attention, getting so comfortable in Lukas’ arms that she started to feel drowsy. She couldn’t follow their conversation, and she wasn’t required to so the steady cadence of their voices lulled her into a daze. She didn’t fall asleep though, she had come to keep Lukas company and she was going to keep to her word.
Although there was a lot of drama in the life she had gotten, and instead of the peaceful, and quiet life that she dreamed of, she was plunged into a fast-paced one. But there were quiet moments like this, where she could get to be held by Lukas and listen to his steady heartbeats, which made her think that maybe it was better this way because now she would learn to further appreciate the little quiet and peaceful moments she got with her husband.