Page 42 of Forbidden
“You know I hate them, Royce,” Lucien said. “I attended them only for the sake of the kid. I have no fondness for being gawked and sneered at. Please. Don’t make me attend this house party.”
Royce gave him a long look.
“And it has nothing to do with Aksel?”
Lucien’s stomach clenched. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Lucien, I’m not blind,” Royce said with a sigh. “I know I’m rarely home, but even I have noticed that you and Aksel avoid each other these days. Haydn says it’s actually been like this for a year.” He gave a rueful smile. “Which was news to me. I really need to spend more time with the family.” He ran a hand over his face tiredly. “But this job has been sucking me dry; it’s a good thing Haydn works so close or I would neglect my mate too.”
“Everything is fine, don’t worry,” Lucien said, forcing a small smile.
Royce’s dark eyes bored into him. “Did he do something to offend you? Do I need to have a talk with him?”
“No!” Lucien said. “Look, we did have a bit of a... disagreement, but the fault was entirely mine, not his. Please don’t bring it up with him.”
Royce hummed thoughtfully, not looking entirely convinced. “Fine,” he said. “But I will not allow you to become a hermit, Lucien. You will attend this party. It’s a perfect opportunity to socialize: it’ll happen in your own home. No one will dare to insult you in your own home.”
Lucien wished he could have Royce’s confidence—or rather, Royce’s naivete.
***
There were fifty-two guests in total, and eighteen of them were young omegas from some of the most influential families in the country.
“Nothing but the very best for my son,” Vagrippa all but gloated as they waited outside the house to greet their guests.
Aksel’s lips twitched into something that wasn’t quite a smile, but his face remained stony, his eyes inscrutable as he looked steadily at the arriving guests.
Lucien averted his gaze away from him and looked at the arrivals, too.
His stomach knotted up when he saw a gorgeous omega walking toward them. The omega was very young and startlingly beautiful. His coloring was similar to Lucien’s, but he was about fifteen years younger, if not more, and his body was normal: lithe and fit, his flat chest and stomach accentuated by his elegant clothes.
Lucien immediately became painfully aware of his own body. He had stopped being self-conscious about his curves while he and Aksel had been having sex, but now, seeing the young omega Aksel had supposedly approved of… Maybe Aksel had just been humoring him all along and he actually preferred slim, fit omegas. It would make sense.
His stomach clenched when Aksel stepped forward and shook the omega’s hand. He couldn’t see Aksel’s face, but he could see the omega’s: it was lit up with a lovely smile, and his eyes roamed over Aksel’s handsome face before traveling over his tall, muscular body.
A noise threatened to leave Lucien’s lips, a feral hiss. He wanted to put his body between Aksel and that omega and bare his teeth. He quashed the stupid urge and breathed steadily, trying to get a grip on his emotions.
He had no claim on Aksel.
Aksel wasn’t his.
He could be perfectly polite and amicable.
He would be perfectly polite and amicable.
Lucien repeated it like a mantra and managed to put a smile on his face by the time the omega and his companions turned to him.
“Welcome,” Lucien said, stretching his hand out.
His smile froze on his lips when his gaze shifted to the omega’s companions.
One of them was Lucien’s father.
Their eyes met, and Lucien felt like the ground was moving from under his feet.
It wasn’t as though he’d never seen his father in the past two decades. He had seen him at some social functions, but always from a safe distance. They’d never spoken in the twenty-two years since his father had thrown him out of his home.
His father looked... old. His green eyes, so much like Lucien’s own, were unreadable as he gazed at Lucien. After a long, charged moment, he gave a stiff nod. He didn’t shake Lucien’s hand.