King of My Heart

SIX

I've been walking around for almost an hour when Lucas mind-links me.

"Hey, I'm free. Where are you?"

"Going towards the parking lot."

"Cool, be there in two."

Lucas shows up while I'm standing next to my car. I parked at the far end of the parking lot which is mostly empty at this point.

"Alright, now spill the details before I beat them out of you," I say as he approaches me.

"Woah dude, calm down. That's why I'm here," he continues speaking, "okay look, Liam you know me. You know I would never start a fight with anyone let alone a douchebag like Daxton. But I was sitting quietly at the pub minding my own business while he started forcing a girl to go home with him."

"So you decided to punch him? It's none of your business what he was doing with that girl. Maybe she was his mate," I say angrily. I can't believe my brother decided to pick a fight over a girl.

"Will you at least listen to me?" He says while throwing his hands in the air. "Of course I didn't punch him over that. The girl was constantly resisting and no one was helping her since everyone at the pub is afraid of Daxton. I got pissed off and said 'leave her alone, she clearly doesn't want you'."

"So you did get involved then?" I ask.

"Of course I did, Liam. What is wrong with you? That girl didn't deserve that."

I roll my eyes. Lucas is definitely the one with a heart in our family.

"Anyway, when I said that, he came over to my table and said 'that's not what your mom thought when I was fucking her last night'."

"What the fuck? How dare he," I say through gritted teeth trying to fight River for control because he wants to go rip out this guy's throat now.

"And then he started going on and on about how their pack was stronger and would kill every single one of our wolves while taking our she-wolves for themselves and how he would especially like to keep our mother for himself. So, obviously I lost it at that point and punched him," Lucas says gladly. "I'm pretty sure if you were in my place, you would've done a lot worse."

He is right. If it were me, Daxton wouldn't have been left alive to go run to his Dad. I try to calm myself down but it's not easy.

Suddenly, the wind blows and I'm hit with the same intoxicating scent as before. I lose my focus and snap my head in the direction where it's coming from. I see the same beautiful girl and she's staring at me. I stare back because my wolf doesn't want me to look away. We stare at each other for a few seconds until she realises what she's doing and quickly turns around and walks away while I'm still left following her with my eyes. Lucas clears his throat. I turn around to look at him, still a little lost in thoughts.

"What's going on, Liam?" He asks with a frown, probably confused that I interrupted such an intense conversation to stare at some girl.

"Nothing," I say trying to sound casual. "Who was that girl? She was staring at us," I ask.

"You mean the girl that you were staring at for like a good 30 seconds?"

"What? No," I try to deflect, wondering if I actually just stared at her for that long and didn't even realise it.

"Oh Goddess," Lucas exclaims, "Liam, is April your mate?"

"Why would you say that," I ask him. This kid is too smart for his own good.

"Well I've seen people finding their mates before. Plus you don't usually stare at girls like that. Also, I'm not dumb Liam," he says while rolling his eyes. I don't reply. "So?" Lucas asks looking at me questioningly.

"So what?" I reply.

"Is she? Your mate?"

"Yeah."

He gasps and looks at me excitedly.

"Come on. You're coming home with me so we can tell Dad what exactly happened," I say as I sit in the car.

"What? Screw that! We have to tell him you've found your mate so you can finally be Alpha." He's almost bouncing in the seat with excitement.

"No," I stay sternly. "I need to get her to the pack first."

Lucas doesn't say anything but I can see a look of determination in his eyes as I drive back home.

We get back to the pack and let our father in on all the details of Lucas's fight. Lucas heads out of Dad's office to go say hi to everyone before he can return back to the city. I stay back and ask my father, "so, how are we going to deal with the situation?"

"I will deal with it," he replies. "You need to be out looking for your mate so I can finally retire," Dad says while dismissing me.

My father trained me to be Alpha after I turned 18. I used to help him out with almost every pack related matter. But for the past couple of years he hasn't been keeping me much in the loop asking me to focus all my time on finding my mate. I used to fight with him over it but eventually I gave up since I realised there is no way my father would agree. He is old and stubborn now. Anyway it shouldn't be that big a deal since I have now found her and just need to get her here so I can finally take over being Alpha.

The next day, I receive a text from Lucas:

Party tonight at the pub. Why don't you come and I might introduce you to your mate. ;)