Chapter 98 - Just remember, no growling

HADRIAN

Her gaze prickles over my skin. I can feel her watching me from her bedroom window. Her gaze burns brighter than the sun beating down on my body. Springtime in Aldea is definitely a lot warmer than in Sanguinem. I didn’t have to take off my shirt, but I like how her eyes linger when I do. I find her frequently looking at my shoulders, chest and abs. And sometimes they linger just a little to long on the apex below my waist.

“Just come tonight, It will be fun.” Lucas says, demanding my attention.

“No.” I cross my arms over each other. They are swollen from the work-out, but not near what they used to be. I’ve lost a lot of muscle in the past months. Rebuilding them to the size they were will take time, but I can already see an increase.

“Come on, all the guys are going.” Lucas lays a hand on my shoulder and I narrow my eyes at him. Humans are touchy beings. I understand the desire to touch a mate. I understand it all to well, but for the rest, I don’t get the concept.

The worst thing is watching Emma receive an abundance of touches and hugs from everyone but me. It makes me want to tear their arms away and shield her against me.

I look up at Emma standing behind the window. My heart rate accelerates at the connection through our eyes. The tug in my chest is strong and even Nero’s presence gets stronger when I’m near her. If only she could recognize what this is.

Her cheeks flush when she realizes that she’s been caught. Lucas keeps nagging at me in the background. I watch her until she leaves from the window. The heat of her gaze disappears and is replaced by the now cold afternoon. The sun disappears behind a cloud and takes away its warmth.

“It’ll be fun.” He sends me a wide grin and I can see excitement in his blue eyes. It shines in the ring of silver. Lucas is lucky that he is Emma’s brother, it makes me want to be on good terms with him.

“I didn’t say I was going.”

Every week on friday everyone in Aldea meets at the local tavern. Every week Lucas tries to get me to go with him.

Lucas chuckles as if he already knows that I will. “Just remember, no growling, no prickly werewolf and no Emma.” He raises a finger at each point.

There is nobody in the house and I keep one ear trained on any sounds of footsteps around us. He has been trying to get me to conceal the fact that I’m a werewolf in a den of humans. Apparently, I’m not human enough.

“I don’t like your rules,” I grumble. Lucas has not left me out of his sight after that night of the bonfire where I almost ripped an arm from Dex. It’s the only time I’ve been able to get alone with Emma and hold her in my arms.

Lucas releases my shoulder and walks over to the porch of the empty house. “And try to laugh when someone makes a joke.”

He sinks to the wooden porch and I join him. “I’ll laugh when it’s funny.”

“You’re hurting my feelings, man,” Lucas grumbles with a pout but is quickly over the hurt. Sometimes Lucas seems to just realize something, like he has always known it but just forgot. It causes strange mood swings and even stranger confidence. He calls it his gut feeling, but I know it's related to the fact that his mother is a werewolf.

“You should try to talk to other people, maybe some of the girls?”

I eye him with a scowl. “No.”

“I know, I know, you’re in love with my sister.” He says as he backs down with a roll of his eyes. He lifts his hands in surrender. “I don’t get it why, but—“

His words make me growl. Lucas points a reprimanding finger at me. “I said no growling.”

“Then don’t insult my mate,” I say with another growl. A soldier would fall in a bow with a string of apologies, but not Lucas.

“First, she’s my sister. I’m allowed by law to make fun of her. That’s how things work in our world. Second, according to what you told me, she’s not your mate.”

“She will be.” I have to believe that she will.

Lucas shakes his head as if dispelling an unpleasant thought. “No, I don’t want to know. Never talk to me about you wanting to mate my sister. It’s gross, disgusting and should not be talked about, ever.”

“I can’t help it. She’s my other half.” Being apart from her causes me physical pain. I howl together with my wolf at the distance to our mate.

“I think I’m going to puke,” Lucas says with a hurl and it actually makes me chuckle.

I can’t help the smile tugging at my mouth. I have definitely done things with Emma that will have him appalled. The memories stir heat down my spine. I clear my throat and school my face. I understand not wanting to know about your little sister like that all too well.

“I just don’t get why you haven’t told her that she’s your true mate.”

Lucas has been asking many questions in the past few weeks. I figured out rather quickly that Emma didn’t divulge much information to her brother. Like the fact that their mother is alive or that they are half-werewolf. But those are secrets that are hers to tell.

“Besides you blocking my every way to her?”

Lucas places a hand on his chest. “Protecting my little sister from lecherous wolves and men in general is part of my duty.”

“I don’t want her to choose me just because the Moon Goddess created this connection. I need her to want it.”

“Right, Moon Goddess.” Lucas shakes his head and lies down on the porch with his hand behind his back. “You know, you make it very hard for me to believe you.”

——————————

The tavern is loud and everyone seems to scream to hear each other over the noise. The music booms off the walls so loud that I can feel it rapture my eardrums.

The whole town must be crammed into the space. They all hold bottles of beer. It seems like a weekly thing in Aldea. On Fridays, everyone gets wasted until they are unable to walk.

Lucas drags me further into the space and bodies get pressed against mine. Hands run over my shoulders and back. They sear my skin and my body recoils at the touch. Anger starts to simmer in my core.

There is laughter and someone shouts next to me. Her shrill voice is so loud as she tries to get my attention.

“Can we leave?” I grumble.

“What? We just got here.” Lucas says, luckily a lot less loud than others.

“Jack, have a beer,” Dex calls loudly from the bar. Girls flock around him, but he hands me a bottle through the bodies. Dex laughs when one of the girls talks in his ear about how charming he is.

He raises an eyebrow when I don’t immediately take the bottle from his hand. I slowly take the bottle and stand there for a moment. Lucas is talking to someone I don’t know.

The noise is all consuming and this is not my idea of fun. I turn around and move around the bodies back out of the tavern. I take a deep breath of cold night air.

I throw the beer in the trash and make my way back to the house. I walk to the lonesome house and freeze when I open the door and I’m met with the most intoxicating scent on this planet.

*Emma is here.*