Chapter 41

41 The Scent On You

Lucien took long strides toward the two werewolves on the bed and yanked Annalynne to her feet. He shot Kinnon a murderous glare.

“What did you do to my sister???”

If an Alpha was considered a king, then an Alpha’s daughter was nothing less than a princess. An Alpha’s son was the pride of the Alpha, but an Alpha’s daughter was the dignity of the whole pack. Although the Silent Walkers Pack had fallen to such a state after losing the war with the Night Prowler Pack, no one in the pack would ever let Annalynne be toyed with!

All thoughts of peaceful discussion to negotiate deals regarding the Silent Walkers Pack fell off the table as soon as Annalynne came into the picture. Lucien would rather kill Kinnon on spot. He did not expect Annalynne to clutch at his arm and said hastily, “Big Brother, it is not what you think.”

Annalynne was trembling next to him. She was shaking like a leaf. It was not how an innocent person would behave.

Lucien turned to Annalynne with bewilderment.

“Can you explain why you are even here if no one took you here? Don’t tell me that you...”

Lucien was unable to finish his words.

“Don’t tell me that you came here of your own volition” was what he wanted to say originally.

.....

Tears started to build in Annalynne’s beautiful eyes. She started to sob uncontrollably in front of her brother.

“Anna...”

Lucien was not an impulsive person. His instinct told him that there was more to the story than what appeared on the surface.

Lucien pulled his crying sister into a hug. He pressed a kiss against her soft hair and inhaled her scent. His sister smelled like gardenia flowers with a light trace of mint. There was no other scent that stuck to her.

Annalynne was still pure.

Relief flooded Lucien’s heart like a dam of water breaking and sending waves and waves of water to extinguish a forest fire within an instant.

It was natural for family members to smell each other upon meeting. So Annalynne too inhaled her brother’s scent while she was pressed against her brother’s neck. Her eyes flew open in surprise.

There was someone else’s smell on Lucien.

Annalynne was shocked. She wanted to ask but she was not dumb enough to expose her brother in front of Kinnon Youngshaper. Especially when considering the marriage proposal and the well-being of her own pack.

The woman simply looked at Lucien in a daze. Lucien knew the meaning behind Annalynne’s looks. Shame crept up his throat, turning into a lump of sticky something that refused to go away.

“Ahem,” Lucien cleared his throat.

He disentangled himself from his sister and pushed Annalynne behind him.

“Can you tell me what is happening here?” Lucien demanded from Kinnon.

The handsome Alpha of the Night Prowler Pack gave him a faint smile but did not answer. Lucien probed parts of the man that were not hidden under the blanket. His white shirt was unbuttoned. Underneath, layers of bandages covered Kinnon’s torso and abdomen.

“Kinnon, how did you get hurt?” Lucien asked in disbelief.

An Alpha was always heavily guarded. It was thus sheer impossible to catch an Alpha off-guard. The Alphas were usually hurt or killed only during wars.

Was the Night Prowler Pack engaged in a war with another pack so soon after winning over the Silent Walkers Pack?

Kinnon pulled his shirt close as if to hide the wounds underneath. He chuckled to himself as if Lucien just said something funny.

“Ah, it was nothing. Just a sudden ambush.”

A sudden ambush?

How dumb did Kinnon take Lucien for?

The latter approached Kinnon and stood by Kinnon’s bedside. Kinnon calmly looked up at Lucien, wondering what the man planned to do.

Lucien boldly pulled Kinnon’s shirt apart and stared at Kinnon’s heavily bandaged upper body.

“It was a frontal attack,” he remarked.

“It was nothing,” Kinnon said. “I was careless.”

Lucien raised an eyebrow. Careless? Could an Alpha who was seasoned in wars be injured like that due to carelessness?

“Big... Big Brother, the truth is...”

Lucien shut his eyes in reluctance.

No.

Annalynne was better not involved in a homicide attempt of Kinnon Youngshaper.

“Anna, can you excuse us for a while?” Kinnon asked, cutting through Annalynne’s attempt to explain rather abruptly.

The woman still wanted to say something, but she then decided not to.

“Then, I... I will be in the south garden.”

“Sure. Lucien will come in a while.”

The door shut close behind Annalynne, leaving only Kinnon and Lucien in the vast bed-chamber.

“Tell me the truth,” Lucien demanded. “What happened?”

“I have only that one explanation for my injuries. It is inappropriate for me to elaborate on the rest.”

Which meant that the rest of the story should come out of Annalynne’s mouth. Lucien gritted his teeth in displeasure. He was not sure how to even begin the talk.

Kinnon pulled Lucien closer to him. His eyes wandered from Lucien’s eyes down to his nose, his mouth, and finally settled on the side of his neck.

“I am more interested in this,” Kinnon slowly said, his hand flew to Lucien’s nape without warning and pinched the mark wound that had yet to heal from his last encounter with Ronan. Lucien winced from the stinging pain but he did not resist.

When Kinnon took his hand off Lucien’s nape, there was some blood pinched between his thumb and index finger. He rubbed it between the two fingers and showed it to Lucien.

“What is the meaning of this?” Kinnon demanded, his eyes looked fierce. Despite being wounded, he looked ready for another fight with Ronan Silverback if needed.

“You slept with Ronan.”

His grip around Lucien’s arm tightened.

It was no longer a question but a statement. Ronan’s smell on Lucien said it all. There was no use denying it. The scent that stuck to someone after sexual intercourse did not go away quickly. Married couples who did it again and again were eventually stuck with their partners’ scents.

Lucien looked Kinnon in the eyes and confirmed his discovery. “Yes, I slept with him.”