Pursuing My Rejected Alpha
Chapter 45

Noah was terrified of a lot of things.

Right now, what terrified him the most was the man who sat in the backseat and remained silent during the entire trip.

Noah tried hard to engage Lucien in a cheering conversation, but all he got from the man was occasional hums.

After a while, Noah hung his head and let Lucien dwell in his own thoughts.

As soon they arrived at the pack house, Lucien stepped off the car and marched to the apartment that he shared with Ronan. Once he went inside, he refused to open the door to anyone. Not even to a Healer who came to check on him. At the end of their wits, they had to rely on the Alpha to come and drag Lucien out.

Thankfully, Ronan arrived not long after.

He was not at all surprised to hear that Lucien locked himself in their apartment.

"Leave us," Ronan said before he went into his apartment.

.....

"Lulu...?"

The living room was empty, and so was the kitchen. Ronan went into the bedroom. It was dark inside. The bed was made, no trace of the man that he was looking for.

'Lulu? Where are you?'

...

'Lulu...? Answer me, please.

'The second bedroom.'

He referred to it as the second bedroom, but it was clearly more like a storage room for Lucien's stuff.

The door to the room was slightly ajar. On the wooden floor, Lucien sat cross-legged and pored through his sketchbooks. He did not look up when Ronan entered. His eyes were locked on the book on his lap, but Ronan could see that his eyes were unfocused. Ronan sat next to his mate and put an arm around him. The sight of white bandages wrapped around Lucien's head gave him heartache.

"Hey," he kissed Lucien's cheek.

"Mm," Lucien hummed in reply.

"What are you doing?"

"Just... Looking through my past sketches."

"They look really, uh, nice."

"

To be frank, the sketches were not even half-done. What Ronan saw was a bunch of scratches across the sketchbook. The Alpha was not sure what Lucien planned to draw with the chaotic lines.

It didn't matter. He was not there to talk about art, anyway.

"Lulu, it's fine to be upset," he carefully said.

He promptly shut up when Lucien squared his shoulders and disentangled himself from Ronan's embrace.

"Baby...?"

Ronan hugged Lucien from behind and kissed the small spot on his back. "I am here for you. Just tell me how I can help."

Lucien turned his head slightly in Ronan's direction.

"Then sleep with me."

Ronan stared at Lucien.

"What is it? Didn't you want to help?"

Any other day, Ronan would have tackled Lucien into bed and f****d him all night long when he was provoked in a similar manner. Just not today.

"Lulu, you... You are hurt. Should we not wait?"

He was not referring to the wound on Lucien's head but the one in his heart.

"I don't want to," Lucien insisted. There was an indescribable fierceness in his usually gentle eyes. "I want you to f**k me, now."

Lucien undid Ronan's pants and squeezed his m*****d through his underpants.

Ronan groaned.

"Lucien..."

Ronan did not want to do it, but he was still a man after all. When his lover teased him like that, he was naturally unable to refuse his advances. Kissing wildly, they tumbled into their bedroom and landed on the bed.

Ronan stripped Lucien layer after layer, opening him up like a present. When he wanted to go down on Lucien, though, the latter stopped him. "Don't. I want you to go inside me."

""

Again, Ronan was stunned.

"I don't think you are ready," he said.

"I am," Lucien insisted. "I need you inside me."

"

Inside his heart, Ronan cursed at himself. How could he get turned on by Lucien's words?

The Alpha opened the side drawer and grabbed some lubricant. After coating his massive tool, he poured some on his fingers and squeezed them into Lucien's entry hole. "Ahh..."

Lucien arched his back, not bothering to stifle his moans at all.

Ronan swallowed hard. It was too much provocation. More than what he could bear. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he spread his lover's legs and gently nudged his way inside. Today, Lucien was impatient.

He hooked his legs around Ronan's waist and drew him closer. Deeper.

Ronan tried to resist, but it felt so good inside his mate. Too good. So warm and moist. He eventually gave in to the temptation and let Lucien swallow him whole, enveloping his rockhard erection and taking it into his deepest recess. They made love almost every day, so Lucien's body was used to accepting Ronan's c**k. Almost as if it had been molded to fit Ronan's length and girth. Still, the first thrusts were painful for Lucien.

Not wanting to hurt his mate, Ronan eased himself slowly in and out of Lucien's sweet clutches, thrusting only shallowly in and out. He wanted Lucien to feel good.

The man beneath him wanted the exact opposite. "Harder," he ordered.

"Faster."

"Deeper."

"Lucien, does it not hurt?"

"No."

Lucien grabbed Ronan's face with both hands and kissed him with a fiery passion.

The bed rocked violently as the two men slammed into each other. Lucien broke the kiss and pulled Ronan into a tight embrace. The latter buried his face into Lucien's neck while he pounded into him. Harder, faster, and deeper, just like what Lucien demanded. "Ahh... Aaah...!!!" His moans spilled incessantly from his lips.

"Lulu, my baby... My mate... I love you, I love you so much," Ronan rambled on. "It feels so good inside you..."

Lucien bit into his lower lip. His grip on Ronan was so hard that it hurt. Ronan was stunned when the moaning stopped and the body under him trembled.

Lucien was crying.

"Lulu, I'm sorry," Ronan said abruptly. He must have hurt his mate with his frantic thrusting. The Alpha wanted to withdraw from Lucien's body, but the latter clamped hard around him. "No," he sobbed. "Continue."

"... Lulu, I don't want to."

.....

"You said that you wanted to help," Lucien sobbed. "Help me. I need it."

Ronan gritted his teeth. He railed Lucien hard, stabbing into his insides again and again to give Lucien an excuse to cry his eyes out.

After being pounded into roughly for more than an hour, Lucien eventually passed out. His grip around Ronan loosened, allowing the Alpha to take a look at his crying face at last. "Lulu..." Ronan sighed.

He brushed against Lucien's cheeks with his thumb to wipe his lover's tears away.

If only he could do the same with the pain in Lucien's heart.

If only he could erase the painful memories in Lucien's brain, leaving only the sweet, happy memories behind.

"I love you," Ronan whispered. "I love you so much... My sweet Lucien, my love."

Ronan caressed Lucien's beautiful hair and face again and again while waiting for his knot to deflate. Once the Alpha was able to dislodge himself, he swept Lucien into his arms and carried him to the bathroom. Exhausted physically and mentally, Lucien remained asleep while Ronan cleaned him and put clean clothes on him.

After the Alpha tucked his mate into bed and cleared the smell of their mixed pheromones and s*x from the room, he called for a Healer.

Having been waiting for the summon, the Healer came almost instantly. He checked Lucien's vitals and wound before he re-bandaged the latter's head.

"How is he?" Ronan asked, standing by Lucien's side and crossing his arms before his chest.

The Healer tucked Lucien back under the blanket properly before he answered Ronan.

"Reporting to the Alpha, the head wound is not serious. Mr. Clearwater has a slight fever and his heartbeat is irregular. It might be due to excessive stress." Ronan gave a subtle nod.

That was expected.

"I shall prescribe a herbal concoction for Mr. Clearwater to relieve his fever and calm his mind. Best to take it at night with a glass of milk. I shall arrange for the delivery every night." "Understood, you can leave."

The Healer bowed deeply in front of Ronan and then excused himself to give the Alpha and his mate some privacy.

On the bed, Lucien's eyes fluttered open. He turned to gaze at Ronan who was holding his hand.

"Awake? How are you feeling?"

Lucien lifted a hand to his face and rubbed between his brows.

"Mnh. I am okay."

Other than the stinging eyes and hoarse voice, he did not feel too bad.

The bed creaked softly when Ronan climbed into the bed and pressed a kiss on Lucien's lips.

"I know that you don't want to talk about it," he said.

"Then don't talk about it," Lucien snapped at him with a glare.

Ronan squeezed Lucien's hand and continued nonetheless, "I just want to tell you that you can rely on me. I want to be your strength."

Lucien's gaze softened. Smiling weakly, he caressed Ronan's cheek. "You already are."

Ronan shook his head. He pressed a hand over Lucien's and laced their fingers together.

"I am not. You always choose to depend on yourself, refusing to share your burden with me."

Lucien averted his eyes with a sigh.

"Ronan, I am not a woman."

"I never think of you as one," Ronan furrowed his brows. "Do you need to be a woman to depend on your mate?"

Lucien shook his head. He narrowed his eyes at his mate and said, "You know what I mean."

"Because you are an alpha as well?"

Lucien tilted his head with a bitter smile.

"Of course. I don't think you would like it if I come to you, bawling my eyes out due to some stupid picture. Or sprayed graffiti."

"Honestly? Today, I wish you would."

Lucien chuckled.

"Oh, Ronan, you..."

The Alpha pressed their laced fingers to his lips.

"I hurt too," he whispered. "I feel a lot of pain, Lulu. Will you push me away if I seek solace from you?"

Lucien shook his head. "Of course not."

"Then what makes you think that I will push you away when you need me?"

"... I don't."

Ronan raised an eyebrow.

"If I, with my current position as an Alpha, can throw away my ego and expose my vulnerable side to you, can you do the same? For me?"

Lucien stared at Ronan for a while before he lowered his eyes in guilt.

He envied the man before him a lot. Not because he was an Alpha. Or because he was respected by the entire werewolf community. It was Ronan's openness to a range of emotions that Lucien was mostly envious of.

The man was not afraid to expose his weakness. Fear, sadness, pain. Ronan accepted the negative emotions, internalized them, and used them to become stronger.

Lucien was never able to do that. He would rather suppress the negative feelings and pretend that they didn't exist than address them.

Ever since he was young, he was used to building a huge, impenetrable wall around his battered heart. He did not want anyone to know that he was hurting inside. He growled at others to stay away whenever they came close to inspect his wounds. After he made sure that no one was around, he whined and cried to comfort himself.

But now he was no longer alone.

He and Ronan were bound together as mates. Mates were linked to each other. In body, heart, and soul. Lucien knew that much.

"Mmn," he mumbled, raising his eyes to meet Ronan's. "I will do my best to change."

A warm smile appeared on Ronan's handsome face. As long as Lucien was willing to open himself, Ronan was more than willing to wait for him.

"Alright," the Alpha said. "You should rest. Today was rather stressful."

"Ronan, what did you do to those people?" Lucien grabbed Ronan's sleeves when the Alpha rose to go. He naturally referred to the people who were involved in the riot at the art gallery.

Ronan's expression turned cold when he was reminded of the awful bunch who hurt his mate.

"They are getting what they deserve," he replied cruelly.

"You didn't kill them, did you?" Lucien asked, his eyes widened in terror.

Ronan tossed out a mocking laughter.

"Kill them? Noo."

Why would he? He considered death to be absolution and not a punishment. They should suffer tenfold for what they inflicted on Lucien. Nothing less than that.

Both the Alpha and his mate had a bad habit. They liked to leave their phones unattended, leaving them at the most random places for dead.

Those who knew these two eventually understood that to reach either Ronan or Lucien, they needed to contact Jake or Milroy.

After serving as the Alpha's and the Alpha's mate's phone operator for a few days, Jake had enough. The Beta ruthlessly decided to redirect all phone calls for his two superiors to Milroy.

The poor assistant thus had to single-handedly handle the new responsibility. He loudly complained to Quinn one day. The compassionate Gamma then took the initiative to hire an assistant for Lucien.

"I don't need any," Lucien said when Quinn lay before him a list of prospective assistants from the Infinite Eclipse Pack.

"Do you prefer someone from your birth pack? We can arrange for that," Quinn offered.

"I don't want anyone to follow me around."

"I don't think that's an option, because the Alpha already arranged bodyguards to follow you around as soon as you step a foot out of the pack house."

.....

Thirty minutes later, the Silverback Corporation Headquarters' employees at the reception desk had to come face-to-face with a very unhappy Lucien, followed by two bodyguards who looked like they could snap Lucien like a twig effortlessly.

"I want to speak to your CEO," Lucien said with a grim expression.

"Our CEO is not available at the moment," so the receptionist replied with a practiced line. Because who in their sane mind demanded to see Ronan Silverback and also got to see him?

The receptionist almost rolled with her eyes. Although the man in front of her was delicately handsome, he was also a fool.

"Make him available," Lucien shot the receptionist a glare.

"Sir, I already said that he's not available. Will you please remove yourself from this building? Otherwise, I need to call security."

The receptionist moved her hand to the phone on the desk. This small gesture worked most of the time. Unfortunately, this mad visitor was not easy to scare away.

Lucien sucked in a deep breath. He then huffed in anger but did not make any movement to leave at all.

"Sir, I have to insist that...

The receptionist's words were cut by the ringing of the phone next to her. She reached for the phone receiver and stared at Lucien. Unfortunately, her efforts to make him leave with mere eyes did not work. Shaking her head in disbelief, she chose to answer the phone first.

"You are speaking with the reception desk," the receptionist smiled as she spoke into the receiver. "How can I help y... Huh???"

At the other end of the phone, Milroy's panicked voice was heard.

"Let that man with red-blonde hair up, NOW!"

The receptionist was stunned.

She gaped at Lucien, the receiver still pressed against her ear.

Before she even grabbed the electronic card to swipe the elevator, the VIP elevator at the end of the corridor arrived with a ding sound.

The CEO of Silverback Corporation, Ronan Silverback himself, strolled out leisurely.

He went past the reception desk without granting the receptionist even one glance. His gentle gaze was reserved for his beautiful mate only.

The Alpha stretched out his arms and pulled Lucien into his arms before leaning closer for a kiss. Stunned by Ronan's sudden appearance, Lucien did not even have a chance to dodge the kiss.

"Fancy seeing you here, my love," Ronan said with a chuckle.

Ronan's mischievous smile quickly sobered Lucien up. He promptly remembered the reason he was even there.

"Ronan Silverback, why are you sending men to tail me?" Lucien grabbed his mate's collar and hissed at him. "I hate to be stalked. I thought you would know that already by now."

Ronan gave his mate his most charming smile.

"Not for long."

"Until when?" Lucien demanded.

"It ends now."

"

Lucien blinked at Ronan in confusion.

"Come with me," Ronan said with a mysterious wink.

He dragged Lucien with him back into the VIP elevator. Lucien turned his head around to see that the two bodyguards indeed did not follow him to the elevator. In exchange, a bunch of Ronan's bodyguards did.

It was such a bad joke.

The VIP elevator was reserved for the Alpha's and his entourage's private use. Other than Ronan, only Jake was able to activate it. It was the only elevator that allowed access to Ronan's office on the topmost floor.

The door opened once they reached the aforementioned floor. The first thing that caught Lucien's attention was the huge Silverback family sigil on the shiny marble floor, followed by a young man who stood some distance away. Shaking like a leaf, Milroy was as pale as a three-day-old corpse.

"Ronan, what are you taking me here for?" Lucien furrowed his brows as they got closer and closer to Milroy. "I need to go back to the pack house. Quinn is waiting for me."

Lucien had promised the Gamma to go back to discuss the assistant matter right after he got rid of the bodyguards.

Ronan shook his head gently.

"You can do that later. I want you to be here now."

"What for?"

Milroy bowed deeply before Ronan and Lucien before he turned at the door handle.

"I believe this is a good time to introduce you to every single leader in my pack," Ronan said.

The door opened and revealed a huge, lavish meeting room. Inside, around thirty men and women in suits sat around a huge rosewood meeting table.

They all looked up at the same time when the door opened.

Of the many werewolves inside the room, Lucien had only met Jake and Mara. Both of them gave Lucien encouraging smiles when their eyes met with Lucien's.

Ronan pressed a kiss against the side of Lucien's head while the latter was still intimately pressed against his side.

"I introduce to you all, my mate and the future Luna of our Infinite Eclipse Pack, Lucien Clearwater."

The Infinite Eclipse Pack was a huge pack that boasted more than a thousand werewolves with a continuously growing number. Beneath the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, there were still other ranks that fulfilled important jobs within the pack and also the Silverback

Corporation.

While in smaller packs these ranks merely meant more responsibilities, in bigger packs they meant more power and authority.

Lucien had gone through a similar introduction after he and Kinnon informed the Werewolf Council of their wedding plan. Everything went smoothly back then. He was accepted without any objection. Lucien had been dreading this moment.

He imagined it to be full of rejection just like when he came face-to-face with the Silent Walkers Pack to ask for their help to participate in the war.

Lucien stared at the many unknown faces that looked up at him. He almost expected them to shout curses at him, and hit him with a stone. Too scary... He would love to just turn around and bolt away. But then, they all rose to their feet at the same time and fell to one knee on the floor before him and Ronan.

"We swear to you our allegiance, Luna," they said solemnly while bowing their heads.

Lucien's breath was stuck in his neck. For a while, he was unable to say anything. He just stood there, his slender frame slightly trembling as waves of elation slowly washed over him.

'Are you going to let them kneel forever?' Ronan teased.

41

"Thank you," Lucien choked out. "Please rise to your feet."

They all rose to his feet and beamed at Lucien expectantly.

"From now on, I want Lucien to enjoy all the privileges of a Luna. Our relationship should be made known to the public," Ronan declared.

"Of course, Alpha," Jake answered with a smile.

Lucien's eyes drifted from one person to another. Again, complete acceptance. Not a single rejection, not a single sentence that started with a "But".

No one even mentioned anything about Lillian Woodland.

And the baby.

The scene was almost surreal.

Back in Ronan's office, Lucien was given a cup of hot cocoa with some marshmallows.

"Shocked?" Ronan asked with a chuckle while he traced Lucien's spine with his fingers.

Lucien glared at him.

"You set me up," he accused his mate while sipping from the luxurious thick liquid.

Ronan pretended to be astounded.

"Me? How could I? It was a coincidence!"

Coincidence your a*s, Lucien cursed in his head.

"Why didn't you tell me that you plan to officially introduce me to every single leader of your pack?"

Ronan leaned against the couch lazily.

"Because I don't want you to be all nervous and jittery."

"So, you thought that giving me a heart attack was a much better option?"

"Our Head Healer is here. She can tend to you when you do suffer from a heart attack," Ronan innocently claimed.

Lucien scoffed. He drank another sip from his cup instead of continuing to argue with Ronan.

The Alpha squeezed his mate's hand, prompting Lucien to look at him.

"What is it?"

"Lulu, it is time for us to plan for our wedding, don't you think?"

Wedding?

In the middle of all this mess?

Lucien shrank back. He didn't think so.

"Ronan, we should wait," he said, putting his cup back on the tea table.

Ronan shook his head.

"I don't want to wait anymore. Let's make it official. I want you to be my Luna not only in practice but also in name."

"I thought you asked me to give you five months," Lucien pointed out.

"Nearly four months left now," Ronan corrected him. "And that was to fix the issue with Lillian Woodland. I never planned to delay our wedding plan because of her."

Lucien's eyelashes fluttered lightly when he heard the determination in Ronan's voice. A slight blush appeared on his cheeks, but his lips were pressed together in reluctance. Ronan chuckled. He raised both hands to Lucien's face and caressed his adorable, pink cheeks.

"Sometimes, I do wish that you were a woman," he whispered. "With my son growing inside your belly, you would not be hesitant to marry me."

Lucien smiled in response.

He then took one of Ronan's hands and pressed it against the lower part of his stomach.

"Then why don't you keep trying, Alpha?" He asked seductively.

The corners of Ronan's lips ticked up in delight.

When he went back to the pack house that night, he did what Lucien challenged him to do. Again and again, the Alpha deposited his seed deep into his Luna's body, hoping to conceive a son.

Eventually, sore and battered from the intense lovemaking, Lucien called it quits.

"You are going to kill me if you don't stop now," he chastised the Alpha.

Leaning against a pillow with his arm supporting his head, said Alpha traced Lucien's frame with a finger. The latter's body was full of bite and kiss marks that extended from his slender neck to his shapely legs.

So beautiful.

"I thought you wanted me to try harder," he crooned. "Now you want me to stop. I am so conflicted, Lulu."

The Alpha leaned closer to kiss his mate but Lucien pushed his face away.

"Stop that," he said. "No more kisses for you."

Lucien climbed off the bed and looked around.

"What are you looking for...?" Ronan furrowed his brows at Lucien.

"My phone. I promised Quinn to keep it with me all the time. Otherwise, she is going to stick me with an assistant."

Ronan rolled on the bed and groaned.

"For Goddess' sake, just ask Quinn to buy you a new phone."

"You are not listening," Lucien said while crouching on the floor to look under the bed. "It is not missing. It is just neglected. Oh, there it is!"

Ronan opened his eyes slightly. Lucien found his phone but he was not coming back to bed.

The man crept toward the edge and hoisted Lucien back to the bed.

The latter was so engrossed in his phone that he did not pay Ronan any attention. Dissatisfied with Lucien's response, Ronan bit into his shoulder out of spite.

"Ouch! Ronan!"

"What are you looking at? Is your phone more interesting than me?"

"No, it's just unusual. Lily Brenston called about ten times yesterday."

"Who is Lily Brenston?"

"One of the interns at the art gallery," Lucien replied. "I met them during the five days when I helped out with the set modification."

Ronan's expression darkened within an instant. So it was one of the shameless bunch that made use of Lucien's kindness and then trampled on him thanklessly. Ronan grabbed Lucien's phone and took it away from him.

"Ronan, what are you doing? Give me back my phone."

Ronan held Lucien's phone out of his reach.

"No," he said while circling an arm around his mate's waist. "When you are with me, you are not allowed to touch your phone."

"Don't be childish," Lucien tackled Ronan to the bed and climbed over his body. "It might be important."

"Not more than us," Ronan quipped.

He dropped Lucien's phone to the floor and then flipped their positions on the bed. Lucien was sprawled on all limbs and pinned by his wrists on the bed.

"What are you... Ah!"

Something hard and hot pressed into Lucien's stomach, not unlike a smoldering rod of steel.

"You are hard again," Lucien said with a sliver of amazement.

"Hm, shouldn't you do something about that?" Ronan asked, peppering the man under him with tiny kisses.

Lucien sighed in exasperation.

"You are a s*x fiend," he said before kissing the horny Alpha on top of him.

Ronan's lips curled up in a roguish smile. He grasped Lucien's jaw and plundered the inside of his mate's mouth.

"Hmm..."

Lucien hooked his arms around Ronan's neck and wrapped his legs around the man's back. Both of them sighed from pleasure when Ronan slipped inside his lover.

While the two werewolves feasted on each other on the bed, Lucien's neglected phone started vibrating again. It was another call from Lily Brenston.

After rolling on the bed for hours, they both fell into a deep slumber. The next morning, Ronan was the first to wake up. As soon as he opened his eyes, he remembered what he needed to do. The Alpha slipped out of bed and bent down to pick up Lucien's discarded

phone from the floor. He looked at the display with disdain.

Altogether fourteen missed calls from Lily Brenston. What a zealous woman, he thought.

The Alpha tossed the phone in his hand into the air a few times while he pondered what to do. Should he just take out the phone card and toss it to the dumpster before asking Quinn to get Lucien a new number?

It did not make sense to just take out the phone card, though.

Or should he get rid of the phone altogether?

Then again, Lucien was not dumb.

He would know that Ronan was the one who did it.

The Alpha rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Maybe he should get someone to do it for him so that he could be free of suspicion.

Yes, that's the way to do it.

He could give the phone to someone in the pack to get rid of.

Before Ronan walked another step with Lucien's phone, the owner woke up with a start.

"Ronan, get me my phone," Lucien mumbled from the bed.

"

Ronan cursed under his breath. Did he not f**k Lucien hard enough? Looks like Lucien's endurance improved a lot since the first time they slept with each other.

"Ronan, come on."

Lucien gestured for Ronan to hand him his phone.

"The more you want to get rid of my phone, the more I want to know what's going on. What are you hiding from me?"

"Nothing," Ronan said.

Nothing that you need to know, at least.

Lucien propped himself up to a sitting position with a groan.

"Phone."

Ronan marched back to the bed with a cloudy expression.

"Here you go," he said, thrusting the phone in his hand unhappily toward Lucien.

"Why, thank you, Alpha Ronan."

Lucien flipped the phone in his hand and made a call. His mate climbed back into the bed and lay his head on Lucien's lap.

""

Lucien stared down at Ronan, who did not look like he planned to grant Lucien some privacy.

Lucien sighed in his heart. Never mind, he had nothing to hide from Ronan anyway.

The same thing could not be said about the Alpha, who bit his lower lip anxiously.

The phone rang twice before a frantic voice was heard from the other end.

"Mr. Clearwater??? Oh my God, oh my God! Thank you for calling back!!!"

"Lily? What is wrong? Calm down," Lucien said.

On his lap, Ronan pulled an annoyed face.

"Mr. Clearwater, I... We need your help. Please get Neena and Helene out of the prison."

""

Lucien furrowed his brows. His gaze slowly wandered to the Alpha on his lap.

'Ronan, what did you do?' he asked via Mind Link.

'Meh.'

Ronan buried his face into Lucien's stomach. Why would he bother telling Lucien about his mentees' betrayal? If one of them was shameless enough to call Lucien, then she should have thick enough skin to speak about their ungrateful deed.

Lucien flicked at Ronan's temple and then shook his head in disbelief.

"Lily, I don't know what you are talking about. Why are they in prison? Do you need money to bail them out or something?"

Lily was silent for a while before she started sobbing.

"Mr. Clearwater, don't you know?" her voice trembled in distress. "Neena and Helene are being detained because they sprayed that... that graffiti in the art gallery."

" "

Lucien rubbed at his forehead, loosening the crease between his brows. Pain flashed through his eyes.

Neena and Helene were the ones who sprayed the hateful word across the glass door.

The word "HOMEWRECKER" in red was carved in Lucien's brain, as vivid as the one he saw with his own eyes back at the art gallery.

"Mr. Clearwater...?"

Lily's trembling voice was heard coming from the speaker. "I am so sorry. There is no one else I can ask for help."

Lucien exhaled.

"I

I get it," he said. "Where do you need me to go?"