Page 69 of Lucien

“No one asked you,human.”

Luc growled at that. Fox had a fucking death wish; that was for sure.

“Don’t talk to him like that,” Danny scolded from behind Roman.

“Mind your fucking business.”

“Speak to my mate like that again and I’ll rip out your vocal cords,” Roman said.

“Enough!” Luc let his monster out into his voice, enough to ensure all these badgering idiots—Jamie excluded, of course—were silent before he continued at a much lower decibel. “There has been a misunderstanding.”

“Yeah. Like I said, he didn’t kill anyone.” Jamie tried to step out in front of him, and Luc allowed the compromise of standing side by side, a firm hand on Jamie’s arm, ready to pull him out of danger at a moment’s notice. “Luc found the body that way. He didn’t drain anyone.”

Dane cocked a disbelieving brow. “And you just left it out in the open?”

Jamie looked to Luc with a question in his eyes before turning back to the twins when Luc shook his head in answer. “Well, he didn’t findthatbody, I don’t think. He found a different one, okay? But he didn’t killyourdead body either.”

“Perfect!” Fox threw up his hands. “That’s two humans drained since you came to town.”

“I’mtellingyou it wasn’tus,” Jamie bit out.

“Yeah, no.” Dane shared a glance with his brother. “We don’t believe you.”

“How do we know it wasn’t one of you two?” Jay’s question, posed from where he remained seated in the living room chair, stopped the twins short. They both looked him over slowly, as if just realizing he was there at all. He seemed unbothered by the attention, his small face placid as ever. “How do we know one of you isn’t going feral secretly and the other is trying to cover it up?”

Fox scoffed at his theory. “Impossible. We’re already tethered.”

“Where are your mates, then?” Jamie asked, the excitement in his voice indicating he thought they were winning this round.

The twins shared a look. “We’re tethered to each other.”

It took a few seconds for the two of them to realize how everyone in the room was looking at them, Luc included.

Dane blanched. “What? No.”

Fox shot them all a death glare. “Fuckinggross. Jesus.”

When everyone continued to stare, Fox threw up his hands for the second time. “Do you all really knownothingabout yourselves? Not all tethered bonds are romantic, people. Bonded souls don’t have to beliteralmates.”

Jamie gave a soft whistle. “Well, damn.”

“We’ve been stable since the day we were turned,” Dane muttered, clearly pissed at all of them for their assumptions.

“And—” Fox shot a wink at Jay. “—we can fuck whoever we want.”

Jay shook his head. “No thank you,” he said politely, looking back down at his book.

Dane smacked his brother on the arm, for once earning his own death glare from his asshole twin. “It’s cool to educate you and all, but the point is, it wasn’t one of us.”

Luc hadn’t really thought it was, but he was at least somewhat amused by the distraction. And it was a revelation, of sorts—he’d had no idea that bonded souls could be platonic. As far as he knew, neither had anyone else in the room, other than the twins.

Had Evrard known? Had he known about bonded souls at all?

“Well, it wasn’t us either.” Jamie looked a second away from actually sticking his tongue out at the twins. Saucy thing.

Fox looked around the room. “You all believe him?” he asked, gesturing to Luc. “I mean, look at him. I’ve never seen him without his fangs out. I’ve never once seen his human face. Even if he didn’t kill these two particular humans, it’s only a matter of time before he does it with someone else.”

“Then I’ll turn,” Jamie offered, his voice firm with conviction. “Right here and now.”

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