MAEVE
I returned home two days later. John still hasn't called, and for the past two days, I've not been able to get what happened in the club out of my mind.
Lucien Thorne backing me against the wall, his fingers brushing over my wet folds, his mouth hovering over mine, his dark eyes drinking me in, our breaths labored and my heart racing.
It was dark and sinful to the point that it followed me to my dreams and woke me up in the middle of the night with a soaked core and racing heart.
That was the main reason why I decided to return home. I wanted to be with John. I wanted to talk things through with him. If I were with him, I wouldn't think about Lucien again.
I opened the door of our apartment to meet the shock of my life. The apartment had been cleared out; the sofas and TV were gone. There was nothing, not a single thing in the house.
I initially thought I had entered the wrong apartment, and I stepped out, only to confirm that I was indeed in the correct apartment, but there was nothing in the house, not a single sign of life.
I went to our bedroom to see that John's side of the wardrobe was cleared out. The only thing in the house was my personal belongings. Alarm bells went off in my head, but I was definitely overthinking this. John couldn't have taken off, especially not with my life savings with him.
I called him, but it went straight to voicemail.
"Hello Maeve, you're the only one who would call this number and by the time you're listening to this, I'd have been long gone. I approached you because of just one thing: the fact that you're Alpha Thorne's stepdaughter. I wanted to use your influence to get into the Thorne Empire, to get close to Lucien, and build an empire of my own. But the only thing I got from you was how you didn't want to use their influence, how you wanted to build your business by yourself. God! How stupid could you be?"
He spat with so much venom that the force splintered my heart and forced me to the ground.
"All these years, I've tried to convince you to ask for their help, to just live up to your life as the stepdaughter of the Thorne Family, but you just… I feel like I've wasted the last three years of my life with you. Since I can't get those years back, I'm taking off with your money. I'll take it as a payment for three years of pretending to like you. I'll take it as a payment for the three years that I wasted with you."
It went off then, and I tried his number over and over again. It didn't go through again. He was with my life savings, the money I had pooled together from working multiple jobs for almost three years. We agreed to open a Cafe together, and that was why I quit my last job three months ago. Now he has gone with my life savings.
I kept trying his number before finally giving up. I was alone in that house with no furniture and with nothing to my name. I remained in the house till the next day, hungry and with swollen eyes from excessive crying, when the house agent entered the apartment with a new prospective tenant.
He wasn't expecting to see me in the house because John had canceled our contract and even taken back our deposit. So I had to quietly pack my clothes and belongings into two suitcases and leave. I didn't have anywhere to go. Tracy's boyfriend was visiting from England, so I couldn't go to her apartment.
I had no other friends. It was hours later that I called the last person I should call, because of a couple of reasons.
My mom.
I didn't tell her all the details of what happened. I only told her that I had a tough breakup and I needed somewhere to stay for the next couple of months.
Her reply was: "Come home, Maeve. You have a room and a whole family here."
So I went home. Home was a sprawling mansion with numerous rooms and a compound large enough to accommodate 500 dancing people. It was the house of Alpha Thomas Thorne, the alpha of Shadow Claw Pack and Mom's husband.
Mom was too excited to see me. We haven't lived together in 3 years, and I kind of kept her at arm's length these last three years because most of the invitations she extended to me would have Lucien in attendance, too.
But now, circumstances beyond my control had forced me to move back into the same house with him.
I wanted to shower and sleep the evening off, but Mom wouldn't have any of that. She dragged me to dinner with her husband, who was equally excited to see me. He told me I was welcome to stay for as long as I wanted. And he even promised to tell Lucien to fix me up with a job in their company.
I turned it down, but he insisted, and Mom buttressed his point by telling me not to stress myself out looking for a job when they have a whole company.
I couldn't argue any further without making it obvious that the reason I didn't want to work at the Thorne Empire was because of Lucien.
Speaking of Lucien, he wasn't around yet, and I was hoping I could finish my dinner and retreat into my room before he got back. I had no such luck because I soon felt him before I even heard his footsteps.
A maid entered first with his briefcase and curtsied a greeting at us before disappearing up the stairs.
Lucien Thorne entered next, his steps slow like he was in control of time, and his grey suit so perfectly tailored that it looked like a second skin on him. His face was all high cheekbones, sharp jaws, pointed nose, lips that seemed coated in blood, and eyes that looked like a stormy cloud over a dark ocean with hair…
"I'm home," was his curt greeting toward the dining area without even glancing in our direction, and the sound of his voice was enough to make my body tingle with awareness.
"Welcome, Lucien," Mom said enthusiastically. Why don't you join us for dinner? We made your favorite."
"I had an early di…"
"Join us for dinner, Lucien." Alpha Thorne commanded, and Lucien looked up at him, eyes glazed over my frame, and even though his gaze didn't stay on me at all, my body tingled with more awareness.
"Alright, Dad."
He walked into the kitchen and returned a minute later, his hands washed. He took his seat opposite me, and a maid miraculously appeared to dish his food.
"My daughter," Mom started when the maid left, "Remember her?"
Lucien's reply was a barely noticeable nod and a non-acknowledgement of my presence.
"She has moved in with us," His Dad added, and for the first time, Lucien's expression morphed from impassiveness and dismissiveness to something else.
I couldn't exactly decipher his expression, but it seemed like a mixture of shock and anger. He turned to me then, and for a brief second, the redness of his wolf's eyes stared at me.
It startled me.
"She just lost her job, so you should find a position for her in the company. You studied Business Administration, right?"
I started to reply, but Lucien beat me to it, "There are no vacant positions in the company."
"Then create one for her. She's family. She can't be jobless when we have a whole empire." Alpha Thorne's tone was final, and Lucien's hold tightened around his fork. He didn't let go until the steel cutlery bent in half.
The rest of dinner was Mom and the Alpha conversing about things I had no idea about. I wanted the time to go faster, or at least for Lucien to leave first. It was uncomfortable being in his presence, and even though I tried to ignore him, I couldn't help but dart occasional glances at him.
That was how I noticed the beads of sweat on his forehead, the way he was pulling at his tie as if it were suffocating him, his eyes morphing into those of his wolf and changing right back before it could transition.
He was uncomfortable.
"Are you okay?" The question slipped out of my mouth before I could stop myself. That drew the attention of Mom and the Alpha. First to me and then him. His sweat had disappeared, and his eyes were normal.
"Do I look like I'm not?" he asked, his eyes blank and his tone curt.
"Ohhh, sorry."
The dinner ended not long after that, and I was too relieved to lock my room door after me. I collapsed on my bed and pushed the thoughts of Lucien Thorne out of my mind.
I needed to find a job, which wasn't at The Thorne's Empire. I couldn't imagine working for Lucien. We'd probably be mandated to go to work together, and I couldn't bear to spend a minute longer than necessary in his presence.
So, I need to find a new job and get started with my legal research. This involves suing Johnson for stealing my money without getting Mom involved. I didn't want her to know that my relationship with Johnson ended that way.
Those were my recurring thoughts until I drifted off, and a strange sound woke me up. I woke up with a start and flipped the bedside lamp on. Nothing was in the room, and I couldn't hear the sound again either. I started to lower myself back to the bed when I heard it: a low growl, a hiss, and then a whimper of frustration.
I sat up at the animalistic sound. There was silence for a while before the sound came again, and it was so quiet that I barely heard it. My interest was piqued now, and I stood up from the bed. I needed to know where that sound was coming from and what that sound was.
I stepped out of the room and walked toward the sound. It was coming from the end of this west wing, where I thought I was the only one staying, but now with the familiar heady scent I was starting to smell, Lucien Thorne probably stays here too.
It was probably him, and I should definitely turn back.
But I didn't. I kept walking until I got to a lounge at the end of the lobby. It looked like a mini living room with a sofa, a TV, and a fridge with a cabinet. Lucien Thorne was currently by the refrigerator, shirtless, back to me, and drinking water.
My throat dried up, and I stopped.
"Hmm," I cleared my throat, "I thought I heard some strange noises."
He rinsed his cup and turned to me, slowly, like he had all the time in the world to do just that. My thoughts actually turned to mush at the sight of his bare chest with his bound muscles, biceps, and well-toned upper body that looked like it could work mine to frenzy with little to no effort.
My throat suddenly became parched, and I needed to drink water desperately.
I also needed to return to my room and lock my door.
But I remained rooted to that space and I couldn't take my eyes off him, off his chest… I was so carried away, and when I snapped out of my reverie and looked up at him, my heart jumped to my throat.
I instinctively moved back in alarm because Lucien Thorne was now leaning against the cabinet, his eyes blazing red with a hungry, deprived, and animalistic look.
And he wasn't looking at me. He was looking at my throat, and the more he looked, the hungrier his eyes got.
"Lucien?" I called out, my voice sounding shrill to my eyes, "Are you okay?"
"You shouldn't have come here," he enunciated each word, and he pushed himself off the cabinet to stalk towards me, "You shouldn't have moved into this house when your blood smells like that."
"What are you…"
He bared his fangs, and before I could think of a thing, he closed the distance between us with an alarming speed that wasn't a typical werewolf's, and his fangs disappeared into the crook of my neck
I screamed.
I screamed as pain, one that I've never felt before, ricocheted through my entire body as he drew and sucked the blood from my neck.
My mouth opened to scream again, but what came out was a low mewl of pleasure. Something unexplainable was happening to me. A burst of pleasure that shouldn't be possible was spreading from his fang that was still buried in my throat to every single part of my body, especially my brain that sent signals to every other part, including my core that was now aching, throbbing, and pulsing.
"Oh my god." I moaned shamelessly. It was too much, too overwhelming. This blinding pleasure was wrecking me apart in the most beautiful way. I wanted more. I wanted him to suck faster. I wanted him to do other things too, like slipping his hand into my panties and rubbing my wet pussy lips.
"Lucien, please," the plea fell off my lips like a sob, and I instinctively tilted my head to give him better access to my neck. He hummed a groan of satisfaction as he sucked faster and his hold on my wrist tightened.
"Please, I need… more, please. Touch me, touch me here," I grabbed his hand and placed it on my crotch, and the contact, even though I was clothed, made me hum in utter bliss.
I mindlessly used my hand to control the movement of his palm, and I rubbed up and down, up and down, till my wetness dripped past the thin fabric of my night gown and coated his fingers.
He pushed my panties aside, and I threw my head back in ecstasy when his fingers made contact with my bare flesh. He rubbed faster as he sucked harder. My mind was exploding with pleasure, insane, unexplainable pleasure that made stars explode on my eyelids and wrenched mindless, unintelligible moans from my mouth.
I was on cloud nine.
"Yes, oh my god. Just like that, please." I begged shamelessly and jolted when he pinched my clit. My orgasm came in a shockwave that made my body shudder and made me scream his name.
The sound of his name on my lips must have unlocked something in him because he jerked back, like he had just been scalded with hot iron.