Chapter 73: SEVENTY-THREE

Love Nani went to the table and dropped the tray, before coming back to where Lucas was, she took his hands in hers and shook him a bit.

“Lucas!!! Lucas!!! Please listen to me… Can you hear me? Are you okay???”

Lucas opened his eyes and took his hands from Nani’s. “Relax Nani, alcohol does nothing to wolves, else I would’ve taken so much more.”

“Thank the goddess!” Nani said, letting out a sigh of relief, thank the goddess she came on time before Lucas tried anything worse to himself to try to take away the ‘hurt.’

Lucas couldn’t have felt any worse in his life, before when he had feelings similar to this, Vivian and Ria where always there for him, before Ava came along and the feeling of being with her superseded the way he’s ever been with any other woman, and now, he has no one, no one here to comfort him. He felt someone hold his hand again, turning his head in the direction of the contact and seeing Nani’s face. Of course, his sweet Nani, he’d even forgotten for a second that she came here.

“She left me Nani; she’s gone forever.”

“I know, but I came here to tell you to stop feeling pity for yourself and man up, you’re not to blame for what happened, and neither is she.”

“I should have never kidnapped her.”

“She is your mate; she was meant to come to you.”

“And she did, she submitted, she even chose to stay with me even after I told her she could go.”

“You let her go before?”

“Yes, I wanted her to have a choice, and not be forced to bend at my will, and she chose to remain here even though her duties remained unfulfilled back at home.”

“A Luna choosing her personal desire over her duties? It’s never been heard of. She could’ve been punished severely if she were found out.”

“Yes, but she never considered that.”

“There’s no way that Ava didn’t know about the punishment Lucas, she knew that if her alpha or anyone found out what she’d done, giving another man her claim when it should’ve been given to her alpha, she would’ve been guilty of offending her pack’s customs but yet she didn’t care, she chose to stay with you! She loves YOU Lucas!”

“No, she doesn’t. She loves her betrothed, she said it herself to my face.”

“Nonsense! Do you really believe that? Do you really believe that she’d stay with you for this long if she didn’t nurse any feelings in her heart for you? Do you really think she would choose your presence over his if she were truly in love with him as she said? The pull of the mate bond on her was long gone, she could’ve left after that, but yet she chose to stay, because there was something more sustaining keeping her; LOVE!”

“She’s gone now, there’s no chance of us being together.”

“That’s a lie, there’s every chance, you can still go after her now. The news of losing her betrothed has distorted her, she’s not thinking clearly. If she goes back to her pack to tell them and confess where she’s been she’ll be punished for sure and only the goddess knows what form of punishment this new alpha might give her, he might even kill her.”

Lucas didn’t answer.

“Lucas???”

“Please leave me alone Nani.”

“Fine. I’ll leave you alone to think about it, but you don’t have much time now, Ava might be happy to die to ease her soul and her guilt for the destruction she’s caused, but you, you’ll never have another chance at fulfillment if you lose her Lucas De’ Clan.”

**********

It was afternoon time when Layla reached the house where Ava, Ray and Ethan used to live. She came here first because she wanted to know exactly what happened, and who better to tell her than Ethan himself?

She walked into the house, changing back to her human form and entering her bedroom to wear some clothes before looking to see who was around, she realized the house was empty, of course someone would have heard her come in but no one was at home, she didn’t want to make an appearance at the packhouse, not yet, at least not until she found out what happened to Ray and seen him for the last time, she was very sure she’d be denied that chance before her punishment, if she survived it.

She was in the kitchen when she heard the front door open, thank the goddess someone had come, she ran through the corridor to check who it was, and it was none other than her friend, Nicole.

Nicole jumped at the sight of her, unable to believe her eyes, all the blood drained from her face like she’d seen a ghost.

“Ava!!!”