Chapter 29 – I used to be able to make her smile like that.
Justin’s POV
It’s not until gone ten o’clock in the evening that my dad finally calls it a day. He’d gotten Lucy to go over the events of her kidnapping at least three times before he finally decided to let her fall asleep on the sofa off to the side of the room. It was clear to everyone that her exhaustion was beginning to take over, and so it wouldn’t be long before she started rambling tiredly on about things we couldn’t keep up with.
Once she’d fallen asleep, we began discussing our next plan of action, including what exactly we’re supposed to do with this Devlin guy. For the time being, he’s locked up in a guest room upstairs being guarded by Max and Helen, but it was obvious earlier that at least half of the Pack want him executed. Lucy, on the other hand, is completely set against the idea, which isn’t surprising at all.
Beck’s still here, waiting for Lucy to go home as he’s under strict orders from her that he’s not allowed to leave until the immediate threat has died back down again. The guy doesn’t look completely settled on the idea of having to stay within our borders for the next few days, but he’s obviously deciding to humour her to keep her happy. Unfortunately for me, this means he’s going to be spending the next few days or so living under the Harbours’ roof, which effectively means he’s going to be living with Lucy for the time being.
Fantastic.
As for the plan concerning the Rogues we’ve decided to change things up a bit. We’re going on the offensive. Instead of letting them come to us, therefore having the element of surprise, we’ll be going to them. We haven’t figured out all the details of the ambush yet, but I feel a lot more relaxed at the idea of having at least something in place.
As everyone starts to get ready to leave, I walk over to where Lucy sleeps on the sofa. She looks so peaceful and I almost don’t want to wake her up; she’s had a tough couple of days.
“Luce,” I murmur gently, crouching down in front of the sofa and shaking her shoulder slightly. “Luce it’s time to go home.”
“Hmm?” she mumbles tiredly, slowly opening her eyes.
“The meeting’s over,” I explain, trying to hold back a smile as she rubs her eyes groggily.
“Huh? I fell asleep?” she asks as she looks around the room slightly disoriented.
“Yeah,” I reply, unable to hold back the smile.
“Oh,” she says with a slight frown as she looks back over at me. “What’s so funny?” she then asks somewhat defensively.
“Nothing,” I say with a shrug, trying to reign the smile back in.
She quietly grumbles something under her breath before sitting up and letting out a sigh. “What time is it?”
“Just gone ten,” I reply, moving to sit on the sofa next to her.
“What?” she asks quickly, glancing over to the clock to see for herself. “How long have I been asleep for?”
“About an hour,” I admit with another shrug.
“Why didn’t anyone wake me up? What have I missed?”
“Luce, you’ve been dead on your feet from the moment we found you earlier, you needed sleep. And I’ll fill you in tomorrow about our next plan. For now, just go home and get to bed.”
“I’m not tired,” she immediately denies, but then yawns two seconds after.
“Riiight,” I say, dragging out the ‘I’ and rolling my eyes.
“I’m not!” she argues, but I know better than to believe that.
If there’s one thing I know about Lucy Jacobs, it’s that sleep is even more important to her than breathing.
“Whatever you say, Lucy,” I reply with a smirk, which in turn causes her frown to deepen.
“I’m ignoring you now,” she informs me, making me laugh.
“Whatever you say, Lucy,” I repeat before looking around at the others.
My dad’s still in mid-conversation with Wayne and mum’s talking to Richard and Louisa whilst Jess stands there looking somewhat awkward.
Well, so much for calling it a day.
Dean, not so surprisingly, is stood in the corner by the desk talking to Amy. The guy is so hooked, but she’s having absolutely none of it. She seems to hate him as much as Lucy does me, which is saying a lot.
“Hey, Shorty, you re-joined the land of the living now then, huh?” Beck asks, heading over and sitting down on her other side.
The smile that finds its way to her lips is like an instant inbuilt reaction as she sees him, and I can’t help but feel the jealousy shoot through me like lightening.
I used to be able to make her smile like that.
“You’re still here,” she says happily, resting her head on his shoulder.
“Of course, I promised, didn’t I?” he replies, nudging her in the side a little with his elbow.
“Hey, guys, you ready?” Amy suddenly calls out to them as she heads over to the rest of her family, leaving Dean stood alone looking more than slightly dejected.
“Yeah,” Lucy calls back and stands up from the sofa. She takes Beck’s hand and pulls him up with her, which also sends another bolt of jealousy through me.
Ugh.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?” she quickly says to me and I nod before she and Beck join the others, leaving me sat alone on the sofa.
“It sucks, right?” Dean says suddenly, collapsing down on the sofa next to me as everyone else leaves the room.
I don’t even need to ask what he’s talking about.
“Yeah,” I agree glumly.
We sit in silence for a few minutes. Mum and dad have apparently decided to call it a day as we can faintly hear them making their way up to bed as we still remain in the office.
“What a day…” Dean eventually sighs, breaking the silence.
“Yeah,” I agree again, pinching the bridge of my nose as I can feel a headache coming on.
“Is she okay? Lucy, I mean,” he then asks.
“…I don’t know,” I admit, thinking back to earlier on in the day, right after we rescued her. “You didn’t see her, man. She was a mess.”
“Yeah, well, I guess that’s kind of understandable. I mean, she was kidnapped by rogues,” he replies.
“Yeah,” I sigh, guilt slowly beginning to churn inside me.
It was my fault.
“And, I mean, the fact that the same guy took out her parents? That’s got to be tough,” Dean continues on, unaware of my gradual inner turmoil.
“Yeah,” I repeat.
“Can I ask you something?” he then suddenly asks out of the blue.
I look over at him to find him watching me with calculating eyes.
“Sure,” I reply.
He’s silent for a few more seconds before speaking up again.
“Is Lucy the reason you broke it off with Rachel?”
Okay, so whatever I was expecting him to ask… it wasn’t that.
Now it’s my turn to stay silent for a few seconds whilst thinking over my answer. Do I tell him? He’s my best friend and future Beta so it’s not like I can’t trust him.
“Yes,” I admit.
He nods to himself, seemingly thinking something over before replying with, “Yeah, I kind of had a hunch that she was.”
I frown at that. “So, what do you think?” I ask.
“About you and Lucy?” he asks and I nod. “Well, I mean, I knew you guys had a thing when you were younger… but it’s kind of a surprise. I mean, you’ve hated each other for how many years now? What brought this on?”
Again, I’m at a dilemma. Do I tell him?
Yes.
“Well… she’s kind of my predestined mate,” I inform him with a sigh.
“Wait, what?” he asks, his eyes widening in shock. “Since when?!”
“Since before the rogue problem,” I admit.
“And it’s taken this long to tell anyone because…?” he asks, looking at me like I’m half mad.
I understand why, though. Predestined mates are practically non-existent nowadays, so when one happens it’s kind of a big deal.
“Because I rejected her,” I reply with a wince, deciding that if I’ve told him this much I might as well tell him that too.
“Dude, you didn’t…” he groans, shaking his head at me. “No wonder she hates me…” he then mutters to himself under his breath.
“What?” it’s now my turn to ask.
“Nothing,” he sighs. “So, what, you rejected her and now…?”
“Now I want her back.”
He snorts a laugh. “Yeah, good luck with that one, dude.”
“Do you think she’d make a good Luna?” I blurt out, wanting to get a second opinion.
Well, who better to ask than my future Beta, right?
“Lucy? Yeah… yeah I think so. I mean, if you asked me that question a few months ago it would’ve been a definite no but, well, she’s really proved herself with this rogue situation, you know?”
“Yeah,” I reply. “Yeah, I do.”
Now it’s my turn to sigh before deciding to change the topic from Lucy.
“So what’s happening with you and Amy, anyway?” I ask, putting the spotlight on his relationship problems this time. “It’s obvious you have a thing for her. How’d that start?”
“You remember that one time I saved her from the rogue attack?” he asks and I nod.
Yeah, I remember, but for a completely different reason to him. I was with Lucy at the time, on our trip to Beck’s, and she was so freaked out I thought she was going to go into a full blown panic attack. Not to mention the fact that she began to strip in front of me. Now that image is going to be burned into my brain forever, I’m sure. I’d never admit that to her, though; she’d kill me.
“Well, it kind of all started then,” he admits with a sigh. “There was just something about her… I don’t know,” he sighs before laughing to himself slightly. “God, we’re so whipped.”
I don’t disagree.
“Anyway, I keep trying to get her to go out for coffee with me sometime because I remember overhearing that, because she always gets up early, it’s the only way she survives her way into the evening, but she keeps shooting me down,” he continues.
“Why?” I ask.
“Because I’m friends with you,” he answers.
“Ah,” is all I say.
“Yeah… she’s not too fond of you either, dude,” he says.
“Trust me, she’s made that point perfectly clear on multiple occasions,” I assure him before asking another question. “So… you think she’s mate material?”
“No,” he says quickly before relenting slightly. “Well, I mean, I don’t know. We don’t have that predestined mate connection so I can’t get a good read on her yet. It doesn’t help that she’s pushing me away either.”
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” I reply.
“What’s it like anyway, the bond thing that predestined mates are supposed to have?” he asks me and I roll my eyes.
“Distracting,” I mumble without thinking.
“Really?” he asks, and I don’t even need to look over at his smirk to know he’s taking the piss.
“Fuck off, man,” I mutter.
“What’s her scent?” he asks, still using his all too familiar mocking tone and I immediately tense.
“None of your damn business,” I all but snap.
The whole point of predestined mates only being able to smell each other’s scents is that nobody else knows.
“Okay, okay,” he replies, clearly finding my reaction amusing. “Scents are a touchy subject, I get it.”
“Ugh,” I groan. “Shut up, Dean.”
“No, no, I’m genuinely curious,” he says, obviously not letting this go anytime soon. “You know, I heard somewhere before that the scents only intensify with the more time you spend together, and that the stronger the scents are the more you want to shag each other senseless. You know, you and Lucy have been spending a lot of time together, dude…”
That’s it.
I am going to punch him.
“Dean,” I warn, letting my Alpha tone slip into my voice as a threat.
“Okay, okay, I’ll stop,” he backs off immediately.
Although, it’s too late now… my thoughts are already on a certain train that I’m sure Lucy would castrate me for if she ever knew.
Is there truth behind Dean’s words? Is that how the bond works?
It would make sense… especially as the bond between me and Lucy hasn’t faded yet despite my rejection, and that it only seems to have grown stronger after the kiss.
That kiss…
God, Dean’s right. I’m so whipped.
“You’re thinking about it, aren’t you?” he suddenly asks, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“No,” I deny quickly.
“Riiight,” is all he replies.
We lapse into silence again for a few minutes before I realise that it’s closing in on eleven.
“I should get going before my dad flips his shit,” Dean says. “I got busted for partying the other night and he wasn’t too happy. He pulled a full on Yoda and gave me the whole ‘you have a responsibility to this Pack and its members, you can’t keep being so irresponsible young Jedi.”
I laugh at that and nod, fully understanding what he’s talking about. My dad has given me the exact same speech multiple times over the year.
As we get up and head for the door I speak up again.
“You want me to talk to Lucy about Amy?” I ask. “She might be able to pull some strings.”
“Um, sure, I guess it couldn’t hurt, thanks,” he replies with a shrug. “It’s weird, though. A couple months ago we both thought we could have any girl we wanted.”
“Yeah,” I agree as we reach the door. “And somehow we’ve managed to find the only two we can’t.”
“We have indeed,” he agrees with a sigh before smirking. “Since when have we ever had girl problems?”
“Since neither Lucy nor Amy will put up with our shit.”
“True,” he says with a snort. “Anyway, I’ve got to run. I’ll catch you later, dude?”
“Yeah, man, see you,” I reply before shutting the door behind him and heading up to bed.
Dean’s words from earlier run through my head…
What a day.
(Hey guys!!! So… here’s Chapter 29!!! I know not much happens in it but I felt like writing a more light-hearted sort of thing, you know? Anywho, I hope you enjoyed it, I had fun writing it. Also, what do you think of Dean? He’s been more of a background sort of character up until recently but I’m trying to bring him forward a bit now due to the Amy situation :)
Anyways, next chapter will be posted up as soon as possible but my exams are closing in on me so I also have to spend time revising. It’s like being back at school with my GCSE’s haha. So… yeah, next chapter is a Lucy POV again and it’s quite a dramatic one! Well, at least I’m hoping it will be haha.
Thanks for taking the time to read this chapter, I’m seriously grateful :) If you liked it then don’t forget to drop me a Vote/Comment/Add/Follow as I’d also be grateful for that :D Erm… so, yeah, I think that’s all I have to say now so byee!)