RISE OF THE LYCANS - Mates and Bonds

Lukas

Alpha Pierre Darc will lose his right hand for touching what wasn’t his.

The human driver had parked under the shade of a big tree, giving me the perfect view of her across the street. She had cut her long, curly hair to shoulder-length and looked as beautiful as ever. She smiled at something he said, and my lycan let out a low snarl. I tried to remind myself that she wasn’t mine.

Watching as he reached over with a damn handkerchief, he wiped her mouth, and I saw red. I wanted to tear the square fabric from his hand and shove it down his throat. To watch him gasp and gag on the fucking thing. I considered pulling the air out of his lungs and watching him die slowly, but Selena would know it was me.

Her head tilted back in laughter, and I felt a hot spear pierce through my chest. She was enjoying his company. Of course, she would. She was a beautiful, unmated female and could date anyone she wanted. Unless Darc was her mate… then he was a dead man.

I zeroed in on her neck, no mark yet. If Darc was her mate, he would have marked her already because Alpha’s are possessive bastards. My beast snarled at the idea of anyone marking her, and I was sure the driver heard the rumble in my chest. I needed to get out of here before I decided to kill the unsuspecting Alpha.

“Parisian Grand Hotel,” I ordered, and he immediately pulled away to the eighth district. I could hear his erratic heartbeat and knew I was making him nervous. His brain didn’t understand what I was, but it somehow knew I was dangerous. We reached the hotel in record time, and I tipped the anxious man a hundred euros.

“Ah, Monsieur LaRue,” the concierge greeted me.

“Monsieur Crow. Lukas Crow,” I corrected him.

“Excusez-moi,” he bowed his head. “I apologize, Monsieur Crow.”

“It’s okay,” I assured him. “The family genes are strong, and I’m sure you have more than a few LaRues visiting right now.”

“Merci beaucoup,” he thanked me and handed me a golden key card to access the penthouse floors. “You have suite five in the corner. The family is on the rooftop terrace having breakfast. It is a beautiful morning to take in the view.”

“Thank you.”

The elevator went straight to the terrace, and the doors slid open to the perfect view of the Eiffel Tower. Though it was on the other side of the Seine River in the seventh district, it seemed to tower over the entire city.

“What’s the golden dome over there?” Sol pointed west. She had the same curly hair as her sister, but hers was still waist-length and floating in the gentle breeze.

“That’s Les Invalides,” I replied, pulling a chair at the table. “It has served many purposes in the past, including a hospital, a retirement home for war veterans, military museum, mausoleum, and church.

“Mausoleum?” Sol questioned.

“Napoleon’s tomb is under that dome,” Ranger told her. “He was the most roguish of rogues.”

“You mean rogue… as in a rogue?” Cynder asked.

“Yes. Many historical people who did extraordinary things throughout human history were shifters,” I told her. “Uncle Balthazar said Alexander the Great was a lycan.”

“It’s pretty wicked when you think about all the history he’s lived through,” Flaym said. “All the women he’s been with.”

“Like the Goddess who cursed him?” Caspian smirked.

“Not just the Goddess, but I heard Cleopatra was in love with him,” Ranger laughed.

“Hey!” Sol protested. “That’s Persephone’s father… can we be a little more respectful.”

Something in the way she protested reminded me of Selena. She had the same wide, soft brown eyes and natural pouty lips as her big sister. Sol was younger, impulsive, and naïve compared to her sister. Judging by how Ranger looked at her, he seemed annoyed at being chastised by the young female.

“Did you get a room with a Jacuzzi?” Flaym asked as he reached for another egg.

“He just got here,” Ranger told him. “Let the man sit down and eat.”

I looked around the terrace, expecting to see other family members. My parents and Selena’s parents were nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s everyone?” I reached for a large savory pastry with meat.

“The Crows from Australia are staying next door at the Four Seasons along with the Cortez’s from Spain,” Caspian told me.

“Our parents are next door visiting with them,” Sol added. “They’re meeting with the Orléans pack and a few others this evening.”

I wanted to ask if Selena was joining us for dinner tonight, but I couldn’t speak. If my parents were meeting with the Orléans Pack this evening, Selena would likely have dinner alone with her parents and sister. I probably wouldn’t see her again until the ball, where I’d spend most of the evening ignoring her and trying not to kill anyone who danced with her.

“The others?” It was all I could manage to ask, and I hoped someone would mention her.

“Zane and Zander got delayed,” Caspian said. Zane was the current Alpha of the LaRue Crescent Moon Pack. He was two years older than me and still had no Luna. “Gunner, Brick, and Archer LaRue are coming with Aspen and Lily LaRue late tonight.” It seems my cousins from other LaRue packs were all traveling together.

“I take it Constantine and Atticus are coming in tomorrow?”

“Greece is less than a three-hour flight from here,” Ranger nodded. “They’re coming with Adonis, Cristos, Lykos, and Toula.”My Theodorus and Kappas cousins were also traveling together.

“Great, with so many relatives at the mating ball, I doubt any of us will find a mate,” I chuckled. “Unless the Goddess wants us to inbreed.”

“Does it really matter if it’s a fifth cousin or something?” Flaym laughed. “I’m not related to the other branches of your family, so Valaria might be my mate after all.”

Laughter erupted from Caspian and Ranger. Valaria Theodorus was a born lycan, and much like my sister, she was a force to be reckoned with. She was far more Alpha than most Alphas.

“Where are your parents?” I asked Cynder.

“There’s a food exhibition at Le Cordon Bleu today. Dad left a credit card so we could go shopping. We were hoping Selena could take us, but she has class today.”

“You and Sol cannot go trotting off alone in Paris. This city is known to have vampires,” Ranger said.

“Relax, Champs-Élysées is around the corner,” Cynder said. “It’s the most popular shopping strip in Paris. We’re not going far, and I’m sure we won’t be the only shifters shopping.”

“It’s not safe for you,” Ranger seemed to say to Sol. She stared wide-eyed at him before she mustered the courage to speak.

“Then you’ll have to take us,” she replied softly, and Ranger paused a moment before he nodded in agreement.

“Fine,” he said curtly. I noticed his blue eyes flash black and sensed his wolf on the surface.

“Everything okay?” I asked Ranger through the mind link.

He lifted his coffee cup and took a drink before he replied. “I’m fine. I don’t like babysitting spoiled brats.”

“When you say brats…” I grinned. “Do you mean the kind you want to pull over your lap and spank?”

“Cynder is our cousin,” he linked back.

“And Sol is not,” I grinned as he shook his head. “Who knows… she might need help shopping for a new bra or something.”

Ranger let out a low growl, and I couldn’t help the laughter it drew from me. All eyes turned to him as he tried to compose himself. Caspian flashed a knowing smile. It was something we often teased Ranger about.

It was obvious that Sol harbored a crush on Ranger for years. When we were pups, she had fallen into the pond only to be rescued by him. She would attend the training session to watch, but she never took her eyes off him. He had dismissed her as a silly little girl, but the way she looked at him reminded me of the way I felt about her sister.

Fuck, the Moon Goddess was cruel. My fists clenched tight as I suppressed my frustration. Wolves were naturally sexual creatures, which is why most found their mates when they reached maturity.

Not only were shifters having problems finding their mates, but the females who reached maturity had to get a heat-suppressing injection once a year. Shifters were naturally attracted to their mates, but a she-wolf in heat would drive an unmated wolf crazy with the need to rut.

This was all new ground that started over a decade ago once we realized pairings were not occurring as quickly as they usually did. Mating ceremonies had become few and far between, which had impacted the number of new pups being born. Perhaps Storm was right? Maybe the Moon Goddess had forsaken us.

“Are we visiting the Moulin Rouge today?” Flaym asked.

“It won’t be open until later tonight,” Caspian said. “I’m going to shower and get some shut-eye.”

“Ohh, can we go, too?” Sol asked.

“No. There’s some nudity,” Ranger clipped.

Cynder folded her arms across her chest and shot Ranger an incredulous glare. “When has nudity ever been a problem for our kind?”

“I’m not explaining to Wylder or Mateo why I took their daughters to a sultry cabaret show,” Caspian said, standing to leave.

“We’re leaving to go shopping,” Ranger announced. “We’ll be back in a few hours.”

I took a quick shower and pulled the black-out drapes closed. The bed felt like a cloud, yet I couldn’t get comfortable. My beast was tense from seeing her with Pierre Darc.

How long had she known him?

Was he her mate?

Why didn’t she say anything?

I rolled over and adjusted the pillows. I thought about the way the sun danced off her hair. The way she threw her head back when she laughed. Then I growled in frustration and rolled again. I needed to let this obsession with her go. Tomorrow was the mating ball, and if I found my mate tomorrow, the bond should be strong enough to make me forget Selena.

It was early in the evening when the sound of my phone pulled me from sleep. It was Caspian.

“Hello?”

“Bonjour,” he replied in a lofty fake French accent. “Your parents asked if we wanted to join them for dinner with the Bordeaux pack and I told them we already had plans.”

“You told them about our plans for the new club?”

“Yeah, then I asked Uncle Ares if I could borrow his whip to spank pretty girls,” Caspian chuckled. “No. I told them we had dinner reservations at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant.”

“And they believed you?”

“We do,” he said. “Flaym has a connection. It seems the head chef used to cook in New York. Be ready to go in an hour.”

I met Ranger and Caspian in the lobby and scanned the champagne bar, looking for Flaym. The elevator doors dinged open behind me, and I looked to ensure he was appropriately dressed.

“Looking good, Monsieur Flaym,” the evening concierge greeted him.

“Merci beaucoup,” Flaym replied.

“The limousine has been arranged for your use tonight, and the champagne is chilled,” the man bowed his head.

“Thank you,” I reached into my pocket and slipped him a tip.

“How was your shopping trip today?” I asked Ranger as the limousine pulled away.

“They sure know how to spend money,” he chuckled. “We went on a wild goose chase when they thought they spotted Selena at Galeries Lafayette.”

“Selena?”

“It wasn’t Selena,” he replied. “The woman had shorter hair than Selena and was with some guy.”

Selena’s hair has been shorter since we last saw her. Was Darc taking her shopping? Was he so important that she would rather spend time with him than her family?

“Did you get a good look at both?”

“No. They disappeared by the time we made it to the ground floor. Anyway, Selena had class today, and she’s celebrating with her classmates tonight.”

“We are going to have a great time tonight,” Caspian said. “Who knows, tonight might just be someone’s bachelor party before tomorrow’s big night.”

“Should we take bets?” I asked sarcastically.

“Like, who finds their mate first? Or who has the prettiest mate?” Flaym replied.

“At this point, I’m just hoping someone finds their mate to prove Storm wrong,” Caspian smirked.

“If the Moon Goddess was upset with us, you’d think that one of our family members in the realm of the moon would have sent us a message,” Ranger said as he glared out the window.

Our namesakes had passed on to the realm of the moon in the stars before we were born. Both had been known to pass along messages when something dire was happening in our world, but it had been years since anyone had an encounter with the afterlife.

“Wouldn’t someone need to have a near-death experience to be able to visit the realm of the moon?” Flaym questioned.

“I suppose we could toss you off the Eiffel Tower,” Ranger snickered.

“Anyone have a bungee cord?” Flaym laughed, but I wasn’t sure I understood the humor.

“Bungee cord?” Caspian asked.

“Oh, come on! American Werewolf, Eiffel Tower…It’s a classic,” he let out a dramatic sigh. “Never mind,” he fell back into the leather seat, shaking his head in disbelief.

We reached the Eiffel Tower’s security entrance, and I immediately scented the two shifters working as security. They both lowered their heads to me, and I stepped closer to the first guard.

“The restaurants… are they pack owned?” I questioned.

“Yes, my King,” he replied with a heavy accent, exposing his neck. I fought the urge to correct him and remind him my father was still the Alpha King, but it was only a matter of time before I took over.

“Which pack?”

“The restaurant on the first level belongs to the Darc’s and the one on the second level belongs to the Orléans Pack.”Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

“And we are dining at which one?” I asked Flaym, but the guard answered for him.

“At Alpha Orléans special table. We’re honored to have you.”

“Thank you,” I nodded and moved to the glass elevator waiting to take us up.

“Your chef friend…” Caspian started to ask Flaym.

Flaym smiled. “Colette Auclair.”

Caspian chuckled, shaking his head. “The older she-wolf who seduced you and stole your virginity.”

“Best morning after breakfast I ever had!”

“No one makes better breakfast than Grandma Dori,” Ranger said as the elevator lifted past the lower-level restaurant where people were waiting to be seated.

I don’t know if it was the mention of her name or my imagination playing tricks on me, but I thought I saw Grandma at the Darc Restaurant. The Elevator carried us swiftly to the next floor before I could take a second look. I shook my head, knowing it was impossible. Grandma wasn’t in Paris, and she certainly wouldn’t approve of spending money on fine dining where the portions were small and the cost was high.

We were seated at a table closest to the windows, looking out over the Seine River and the rest of Paris. Most eyes in Paris would be looking at and admiring the Eiffel Tower at night, but tonight, we were inside the Eiffel Tower with a spectacular view of the city.

“Chef Colette is sending all seven courses to the table for you, and a special course for Monsieur Flaym” the waiter informed us.

The sommelier made wine recommendations, and though the wine had no impact on shifters, we selected a bottle of red. I was hoping for a classic French beef bourguignon with crunchy bread, but the high-end menu had lobster, venison, veal, scallops, foie gras, caviar, and fish. Flaym didn’t want to miss a thing, so we passed the plates around, sampling a little bit of everything. The food was delicious, and Flaym ordered a second venison and lobster. I looked out at the city, wondering where Selena was having her pre-graduation celebration tonight and with whom.

“No, Flaym, you’re not taking a doggie bag,” I heard Caspian say. “Finish your desert so we can go.”

“Lukas, you want the chocolate, fig, or pear?” Flaym asked as he looked over the platter of desserts.

Before I could answer, an alarm sounded, and lights started flashing.

“What’s that?” Ranger asked the waiter.

“I’m so sorry, that’s the fire alarm. The restaurant needs to be evacuated immediately.”

********

Who's been to Paris? What was your favorite or most memorable experience?