Page 34 of His Reward
Even though we weren’t bonded, I could feel Boston’s anger flare. Whether he was aware of it or not, he’d balled his hands into fists, like he wanted to pound my brother into the ground. I would have stood by and cheered if he did.
“Ignore him,” I said instead, resting a hand on Boston’s arm. “He’s just sour because he knows that even covered in scar tissue, I could still skate circles around him.”
It was a juvenile thing to say, and Marco looked like he wanted to hurl something just as infantile back at me, but we were both saved from embarrassing ourselves as Dr. Barber stepped into the room and said, “I hear someone’s going home today.”
The tension in the room dissolved, mostly because Marco made some excuse and then left the room, Mom following him. I hoped to God that Mom would give him a piece of her mind.
“Home for now,” I said, smiling as best I could at Dr. Barber. “I’ll be back tomorrow for more fun and games with Gemma.”
Dr. Barber laughed. “Well, at least you have a big, strong alpha to take care of you in the meantime,” he said.
“Oh, Boston is just a friend,” I said, gazing up at Bos. The smile I gave him and the look I got in return probably contradicted my words, but I didn’t care. Boston was my rock, and with the way my family was treating my recovery and my future, I would probably need him if I was going to make it back onto that podium someday.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Boston
Marco Monteverdi was a total bastard. It was unbelievable to me that someone pushing thirty could act like such a child around his brother, but I guess jealousy did weird things to people.
What concerned me even more were the subtle hints he’d dropped about the whole dating-marriage-kids plot Mr. Monteverdi had spelled out a month ago right in front of Lucien’s face. I didn’t think Lucien had picked up on those hints, but the fact that they’d been made rubbed me the wrong way.
Mr. Monteverdi had pushed me to speed things up with Lucien multiple times in the last month. He’d even “sweetened the pot”, as he called it, by suggesting he would buy us a family home and set up trust funds for any grandkids we gave him. The man was bound and determined to turn Lucien into some sort of happy-sad story of an omega who had once had a chance at greatness, but had ended up with the consolation prize of traditional omega spouse and family roles instead.
It set my teeth on edge that the things I wanted the most, a life with Lucien as my omega, dovetailed with Mr. Monteverdi’s selfish and demeaning plans for his son.
“So that’s it, then?” I asked Dr. Barber as the man finished up Lucien’s discharge exam. “He’s cleared to go home?”
“Well, he still needs daily therapy for the next week to keep those scars from tightening up,” Dr. Barber explained. “We’ll gradually reduce that to every few days, then every week, and so on. But yes, for now, you’re as good as gold, Lucien.”
I felt the slight jolt from my omega at Dr. Barber’s unfortunate choice of words.
“Thanks, Dr. Barber,” Lucien said, standing from the bed and walking over to the closet where he kept his things. “It doesn’t really feel like goodbye, though. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I look forward to it,” Dr. Barber said before leaving.
Lucien waited until the man had left the room, then turned to me with an unreadable look and said, “Good as gold.”
“Well, you are,” I said with as big a smile as I could manage.
Lucien huffed. “Tell that to Marco and my father.”
I headed over to the closet to help him pack his bag. “They’re idiots if they think something like a little scar tissue is going to keep you from competing again someday,” I said as I took the armful of things Lucien had pulled off of shelves. I grabbed the bag from the top shelf and took everything to the bed to pack it.
“You don’t have to do that, you know,” Lucien said, following me with more stuff.
“What, pack your bag for you? I don’t mind,” I said with a shrug.
“No, I mean trying to boost my confidence by telling me I’ll be a champion again someday.”
I straightened and stared at Lucien. “Do not, and I repeat, donotlet your father and Marco get to you,” I said. “I have no idea why they think you don’t have any fight in you, but they’rewrong. Dead wrong. I, of all people, know how resilient and determined you can be.”
I’d added a touch of Dom to my voice as I spoke to him, and Lucien rewarded me with a pink-cheeked grin that could almost be described as bashful. We hadn’t spoken overtly about anything kinky in the last month, not with Lucien’s recovery as intense as it had been, but maybe now was the time to start again.
“I keep bouncing back and forth between wanting to prove to them that I’m as strong as any alpha,” Lucien said, depositing the rest of his clothing on the bed, then rubbing his forehead on his good side, “and being so tired that I just want to crawl under a blanket and forget who I used to be.”
I stopped packing and looked at him. “You’re Lucien Monteverdi,” I told him. “Nothing can take that away from you.”
“Yeah, but what does that mean?” Lucien asked on a tired sigh, then helped me finish packing the rest of his things. I sensed that was the big question he was wrestling with, now that his body was healing. Souls healed at a much slower rate.
