Chapter 3 - You're not my Mate
Luci stared at the man in front of her, trying to process his words. He had just said she was his mate. She felt dread wash over her as he smiled. She had been playing cat and mouse with her mate. Luci knew she needed to reject him now before he got any ideas.
"Listen, I may be your mate, but I will not mate with you." She spoke quietly so no one would overhear their conversation. The man looked at her in shock.
"Darling, you don't even know me, so how can you reject me? I can smell that you're a vampire. My name is Xavier, and I'm a lycan. Can we go somewhere to talk?" Xavier cocked his head to the side while staring at her.
Luci didn't want to talk with him, but if she were going to reject him, it would be better to do it in private. She nodded and started walking through the ballroom toward the room she had her hook-up in earlier.
As soon as they got into the room, Luci cringed. The smell of sex lingered in the air. With Xavier being her mate, she was sure he could smell it too. She saw him sniffing the air, and then he frowned.
"So I take it you've been in this room before, although it doesn't smell like you were talking." Xavier raised his eyebrow at her, and she became angry. How dare he judge her when they had just met?
"You don't even know me, so don't try to assume anything. Listen, as I said, I'm not mating with you. You're right; I'm a vampire, but that doesn't have any bearing on why I'm rejecting you. I've been around for almost two hundred years, and I'm set in my ways. I have no intention of letting anyone mark me and treat me like a piece of property." Luci watched Xavier's face fall with each word she spoke.
Can you tell me your name?" She was taken aback by how soft his voice was, and she almost told him but caught herself.
"I'm sorry, but I don't tell anyone my name, and that includes you. It makes it easier to keep my identity hidden, so when I'm with random men, they can't look me up." Luci spoke casually, and she saw anger flash in Xavier's eyes. She wasn't ashamed of how she was or what she did.
"You sleep around with random men? Do you have no sense of self-worth at all? You're my mate. You need to stop having sex with any man that comes along." Luci felt her face turning red with anger.
"You can't tell me what to do. I don't accept you as my mate because I refuse to be owned by anyone. So if you'll excuse me, I need to find someone willing to have sex with me." When Luci started to walk to the door, Xavier grabbed her arm. She wasn't immune to how his touch affected her, but she ignored it and snatched her arm away.
"Please stay here and talk to me. I don't want to think about you with another man." Xavier's plea surprised her, but she figured it was better to end this now.
"I have nothing more to say. If you don't want to think about me with another man, then forget I exist. As far as I'm concerned, I never met you and don't have a mate." Luci walked past him, leaving the room without another word.
When she got into the ballroom, she no longer had the desire to be with anyone, so she decided to leave. She quickly made her way to the exit and headed for her limo. Once inside, she told the driver to take her home. Luci sighed with relief as she got further and further away.
Xavier stared as the most beautiful woman he had ever met, who also happened to be his mate, ran out the door, leaving him in the small room alone. Her scent was all around him, even when he could no longer see her.
He growled in frustration and ran out of the room. He saw her leaving through the exit, and he ran after her. She was already getting into a limo by the time he got outside. He thought about changing into lycan form and trying to follow her, but too many humans were around.
He had no idea what her name was. He didn't even get a good look at her face with the mask covering half of it, but she was his, and he wanted her. Xavier decided to do whatever was necessary to find her and make her his. He asked the valet for his car and waited.
Xavier was the crown prince and next in line to be the Lycan King. He was in San Diego on business when he received the invitation to the masquerade ball. Going to something like that wasn't usually his style, but he had nothing better to do, so he accepted the invite.
He wasn't typical lycan royalty who liked people waiting on them hand and foot. Xavier enjoyed being independent and not having a bunch of fake people around him. He was close to three hundred years old and had a quiet disposition.
Xavier would rather stay in and enjoy reading a good book or listening to music than partying. He had a couple of good friends around his age, but he preferred to be alone. With lycans living so long, it was sometimes hard for them to find their fated mates. Many times the royals would mark a chosen mate instead. Xavier, however, had been turning down every woman that had tried to mate with him. He always knew he wanted his fated mate.
He thought about his mate who had gotten away from him. He had to find out who she was so he could try to convince her to at least talk to him. Xavier thought about her as he drove. He was angry that she would sleep with any male she came into contact with for fun.
He'd had his share of lovers, but it wasn't random. He only slept with women he was dating. Knowing his mate would jump from one man to another without a second thought made him growl in anguish. It also made him wonder why she did it. Was she lonely or scared to get too close to anyone? Maybe she had been hurt in the past and built a wall around herself.
Xavier had seen her across the room during the ball and seen her working the crowd. He was attracted to her immediately, even before he picked up her scent. His wolf, Zeke, was panting in his head as Xavier thought about her scent.
When he saw her flirting with the man at the bar and then rubbing the towel between his legs, he felt anger like never before. Xavier realized she was doing all that to get to him, so he calmed down. As soon as he got close to her, he couldn't help taking a whiff of her neck.
He pulled up to the hotel where he was staying and gave the valet his car keys. As he walked inside, he saw a couple of women trying to get his attention, but he ignored them. There was only one woman for him now, and no other would suffice.
Xavier went into his room, changed his clothes, and turned on some classical music. He started planning how to find his mate and convince her to be his. He had to figure out where she would be so they could bump into each other again. Xavier looked out over the ocean, trying to imagine where she was right now and hoping it wasn't in another man's arms. He let out a howl of pain before he could stop himself.
When Luci arrived home, she went straight inside and took her dress off. She was angry that she had let Xavier get to her. She got into the shower and let the hot water run over her. Her plans for the night had been ruined.
Once Xavier had touched her, and she felt the sparks, she couldn't think about letting another man touch her right away. Luci figured she just needed a good night's rest, and then she would be ready to have fun again.
When she lay in bed, as much as she tried to get Xavier out of her mind, she couldn't. Luci kept thinking about his smile, his eyes behind the mask, and most of all, how her body responded to his touch.
Luci heard a howl in the night and knew immediately it was Xavier. The howl seemed to reach into her bedroom and pull at her heart. For the first time in over a century, Luci fell asleep crying.
Why did she have to meet her mate? Why couldn't things go back to how it was before? She knew nothing would be the same now, and she may have to run far away to keep him from finding her.