Chapter 39

39 Painting Of The Past

A layer of ice formed over Lucien’s eyes as he watched Lillian’s convincing performance. This was the second time someone tried to make him up to be the villain in front of Ronan.

Lucien folded his arms in front of his chest in defiance and turned to look at Ronan with a raised eyebrow, indirectly challenging him. Ronan gave him an annoyed look.

“What is going on in here?” the Alpha demanded to know.

“I... It’s just... I accidentally offended Lucien.” Lillian put a hand on Ronan’s arm. Coupled with the teary eyes, she looked very pitiful. “Please help me apologize to him, Ronan...”

Ronan looked at Lillian’s tear-streaked face. The tears were real, but was she acting or was she not? Oh, but did it matter? Could it be that Lucien was jealous of Lillian and thus attacked her? A victorious smile spread on Ronan’s face.

If that’s the case why not douse more oil to the fire? At the same time, he could show Lillian Woodland his goodwill, so that his insufferable father would stop bothering him for a while.

A smart werewolf should grab every opportunity that was presented to him.

Ronan grabbed Lillian’s shoulder in a loving gesture and pulled the sobbing woman close to his chest.

“There, there, stop crying,” he comforted the sobbing woman with a gentle tone like a good boyfriend that he was not. Then he lifted his eyes and smiled at Lucien.

.....

“Lucien, look at her. Don’t you think you went too far? Be reasonable and stop making a fuss, will you?”

A giant, sour lump of something formed in Lucien’s throat. Lucien was beyond disgusted.

Be reasonable? Him?

Was Ronan going to repeat what Lillian said? That Dane Silverback thought of him as reasonable? Did this idiot Ronan even know what “being reasonable” meant???

Lucien drew a deep breath.

He went through a lot of adversities in the past to be able to stand where he was. These two werewolves in front of him were external factors that he could easily purge out of his life. There was no point getting agitated over them.

Ronan, the bastard, could go and make Lillian Woodland his Luna for all Lucien cared.

Yes.

That’s it.

“I did not mean to make Ms. Woodland cry,” Lucien said curtly. “If Mr. Silverback and Ms. Woodland have nothing else to say, do excuse me. I need to go somewhere else.”

Maybe that was no different from running away, but Lucien could not care less. He went straight to his office studio and locked the door behind him.

He listened to his own heartbeat for a while before sliding down the door to the floor. Ridiculous, he thought. He was an alpha. He should not be acting like some weak-ass woman. To think that Ronan would choose him over Lillian...

“Arghh,” Lucien growled as he buried his face into his palms.

It was clear seven years ago as it was clear at the very moment that there should be and would never be anything between them. He was just confused because he had sex with Ronan the previous day. Yes. That was it. It was just a one-night stand to fulfill both of their urges. Nothing more.

Lucien walked toward the easel that stood in the middle of the studio. It was carefully covered in a white cloth. Lucien took the cover off and gazed at what he had been working on.

It was a painting of two wolves treading through a grassy field in summer. A scene from seven years ago, a memory he was unable to forget. A wolf with brown-red coat and a wolf with jet-black coat. The two of them running around, playing around, rolling around in a vast field of yellowing grass. Taking in each other scents and getting to know each other in the short summer period.

Landon and Beowulf, back when Lucien and Ronan were still happy together.

Lucien took the painting from the stand and stared at it. He liked painting wolves. A reminder of what he originally was. The world he was forced to leave.

He submitted similar kinds of paintings to the art exhibition every year. The paintings were good and his skillful usage of brushes made the wolves come alive. Unfortunately, they were not attractive enough.

These days, art critics liked to see paintings with human beings as subjects. Lucien often got some feedback to paint human beings instead. If he did, the result would be great. But Lucien did not want to. He just wanted to paint some wolves.

At the moment, he wanted to erase the black wolf from the picture. But then he would have to make changes on the other wolf too. Landon was looking at Beowulf a little too adoringly. Lucien himself would never show such an expression to Ronan. But Landon would. Landon loved Beowulf.

Lucien grabbed a brush and started painting over Beowulf. A few hours later, Beowulf was replaced by Seara. Seara was Annalynne’s wolf. She looked a lot like Landon, albeit smaller and cuter. Twin brother and sister playing around together. That was also good.

Lucien set the brush aside and watched his artwork. The more he looked at it, the warmer he felt inside.

That’s right.

Lucien took a deep breath to calm down.

He did not need Ronan to make things perfect.

The afternoon class went a lot more peaceful because both Ronan and Lillian skipped the class. It was Friday, so maybe they already had plans for the evening or the weekend.

So did Lucien.

Tomorrow was the tenth day after he received the proposal from the Night Prowler Pack. It was high time for him to answer Kinnon’s proposal. Thanks to advanced technology, he could have submitted his answer in one click through his phone, but Lucien had other things in mind.

He planned to go to East Temple City, the seat of the Night Prowler Pack this very night. It was necessary to speak to Kinnon Youngshaper personally.