one
“Look who I found sitting all alone at the back of the bar.” Alek escorted three oddly similar bottled blondes to the end of the bar where Lukyan and Mylo sat. They weren’t identical, but the women had definitely taken makeup and hair lessons from the same person. Each had her hair coiffed in long, honeyed blonde soft curls, and shiny lips glossed in a soft pink that Lukyan supposed was intended to look natural. Perhaps if Lukyan were drunker the effect would be more convincing.
Blonde number two unhinged herself from Alek’s arm and scooted close to Lukyan. He contemplated offering her his seat but stopped himself. That would only encourage her to stay longer. She stuck out one manicured finger and ran it up his forearm. “You look lonely.” She stage whispered the words in his ear. Lukyan wasn’t sure if she did it so that he could hear her over the din of the room, or because she wanted others to witness her pickup attempts.
He looked down at her finger, her nail was painted a frosted pink. Ugh. He hated pink. There were so many nicer colors. He listed off a few he would have preferred on the woman’s nails.Red, navy, blue, taupe, black, purple, butter yellow, teal. Anything but pink.He forced his eyes back to her face and pushed a smile to his mouth. He hoped he looked friendly. “Not lonely. I just don’t talk much.” There, maybe she would go away.
“We don’t have to talk.” She sidled closer and placed her hand on his shoulder. Her breast pushed up toward his face. Lukyan hated this part. He never quite knew where to put his eyes or hands. He grabbed his drink and held it in both hands while forcing his gaze to her face. Her eyes were encased eyelids by long false eyelashes.Eyeball prison.One more reason to find a way to convince her to look elsewhere. There was nothing worse that going to bed with a supermodel and waking up to a woman with a hairy spider look-alike on her cheek.
When he didn’t respond to her comment she tried again. “You look like you could use a drink." She smiled prettily at him. This is the part where he should say,Why yes. Would you like a drink as well?but he couldn't. He didn't want to have a drink with her. He didn't want to be here. She was not his mate and he was damn tired of trying to have conversations with women that weren’t right for him.
He held up his drink and rattled the ice. “I have a drink, thank you.” He looked at Alek. The man was a natural at flirting. Currently, he had his arms around blondes number one and three and was taking turns whispering in each of their ears. Mylo, as usual, looked disinterested. He and Lukyan were alike on that front. Lukyan’s disinterest largely stemmed from shyness, or at least it used to. Now it mostly stemmed from frustration. Mylo, however, was just stern and taciturn and unwilling to be social unless it suited him. Mylo would have preferred to stay on the slopes all night, skiing until dawn. Lukyan would much rather be looking at the stock market numbers and planning his next moves for investment.
The blonde tried again, this time sidling closer and bumping her shoulder against his. “How long are you planning to stay here?" Lukyan took a deep breath.
“We got here this morning, and we are scheduled to stay three more days, although I'm not sure if I'll make it. I have a lot of work back at the office."
“That’s a shame. I think you should take the entire three days. That’s how long we are planning to stay.” she ran her hand up and down his arm. Her touch annoyed him. He only just stopped from visibly recoiling against it. He gave her one more assessing look. There was nothing wrong with her, in fact, she was really quite pretty. She just wasn't the one. He swallowed his exasperation.The one. Ha!He had almost given up searching for his mysterious mate. There was no point in it, anyway.
Lukyan’s thoughts must have swamped him because when he looked up again the blonde had moved away from him and was standing on the other side of Mylo.Good luck with that, blondie.Lukyan was relieved that she had left him alone. He was in no mood to make an attempt to be social.
Mylo gave the girl a polite smile while she chattered away about something. Lukyan didn't bother to listen to what she had to say. He was over this already. He had tried to put on a polite face when Alek suggested that everyone meet for drinks before dinner, but he was finding it harder and harder to keep up the pleasant front. If Cate and Dimitris didn’t get here before he finished his drink he would leave.
“Sorry we’re late!” Cate swept into the group and gave everyone a big smile.
Dimitris pushed his way into the circle, pulling Cate to his side and kissing her cheek as he did so. “Yes, sorry. We had somethingcome up.”The alpha waggled his eyebrows and Lukyan had to fight to keep from rolling his eyes.
Even less appealing than making small talk was studiously avoiding eye contact with the newly mated, and embarrassingly handsy, shifter couple.Lukyan did not begrudge Dimitris his happiness, the alpha had waited a very long time - over one hundred and fifty years - to find his mate. He deserved every single bit of the joy the Goddess had granted him; Lukyan just didn’t enjoy seeing Dimitris’ happiness expressed so freely. Not only was it uncomfortable to watch, it reinforced the emptiness Lukyan felt every time he thought of his own nonexistent mate.
Cate playfully pushed away from her mate. Dimitris pulled her back to his side and kissed her full on the lips. The two laughed at their own lovers’ antics. Lukyan pasted a smile on his face and swallowed another mouthful of his drink. He would need to order another one soon.Everyone deserves happiness, Luk. The Goddess will give you your mate… eventually.
Until Dimitris found his fated mate, Lukyan had never given finding his own much thought, but after seeing his best friend fall head-over-heels in love with a woman that he had known for less than a second, it was harder and harder to not hope that his own love story would happen soon rather than later. The thing that made it worse was knowing that Cate and Dimitris’ love for one another was only growing with the passing days. The more they got to know one another, the more evident it was how perfect a match the Goddess had made. His best friend was happier than any shifter deserved to be, and his beautiful mate practically glowed from the attention she received from her alpha. Lukyan tried not to be jealous, but it was hard to not covet his friend’s joy.
He looked back at the blonde and contemplated taking her back to his room. He didn’t have Alek’s natural charm, but he was rich and good looking, a combination that gave him a free pass with most women. The blonde caught him looking and twirled a lock of hair around her manicured finger.Ugh.An evening alone suddenly sounded better and better.
Cate turned to the blondes, “Ladies, I hope you don’t mind, but I have a table reserved and I’d like a bit of time alone with my family.” Their faces all fell in an eerily similar fashion. They must have all taken the same lessons on flirty disappointment right after they finished up sexy bed-head school.
Alek placed a light kiss on number three’s cheek before turning to number one. “I’ll find you after dinner, yes?” She smiled, pleased to have been the chosen one. A part of Lukyan wanted to tell her that she was just tonight’s choice. Tomorrow the game would begin again for Alek. Instead, he picked up his glass and followed Cate and Dimitris to a booth in the back.
“I’d like to make a toast. To Lukyan, cousin, nerd, and all-around worst skier in the family. May he forever continue to be terrible with women, otherwise, Mylo may never get laid again.” Alek held his vodka up in a mock salute. The youngest of the Volkovs, Alek was as keen on seducing women as he was on slinging a barbed comment at any and all of his family members. Lukyan was his particular favorite. Normally he took the jests in stride, but lately, they bothered him more than he cared to admit. Clearly, his irritation and discontent were leaking over into other aspects of his life.
Raising his own glass, Lukyan retorted, “To my cousin, Alek, womanizer, and all-around worst in the family.” Mylo chuckled. Though he was the serious one, Mylo always seemed to enjoy Lukyan’s and Alek’s insults.
“That’s enough of that,” Cate chided. “We are here for a much-deserved break from the real world. I finally felt comfortable enough leaving Peter with Mikaela and Yerik for a few days, and I won’t have my vacation ruined by your childish banter.” Peter was Cate’s six-year-old son from her first marriage. Dimitris had been begging her to go skiing for months, but she put him off until she felt comfortable leaving Peter at home with the pack.
Dimitris pulled Cate close and kissed her forehead. “If my mate says you have to play nice, then you have to play nice.”
Alek laughed, but Lukyan was feeling too raw to find the humor in any of this. “Speaking of breaks from the real world, I believe I will go for a run while you four enjoy dinner this evening. My wolf is in need of a little alone time.”
“Luk, your wolf is always in need of alone time, but he’ll have to get over it. My mate will be very sad to see you miss dinner. She has looked over the entire menu and has set out a list of required items for each of us.” Dimitris picked up Cate’s hand and kissed it.
Something in the look Cate launched across the table to Lukyan said she was wise to his disappearance tactics. She pulled her hand from Dimitris and patted his cheek softly. “I think if Luk wants to go for a solo run, he should. Everyone needs a little time to themselves on occasion.” She gave Lukyan a soft smile.
“That’s nonsense,” Alek chimed in. “If the weather update is to be believed we are in for one hell of a huge snow storm tomorrow evening. No one on the entire resort will be out in the weather, which means we will have the entire place to ourselves. Lukyan can do all his introverted, weird solo running then.” He sat back in the booth as if his word was gospel, which made Lukyan’s wolf paw even harder inside his body to get away from the table.
Lukyan began to mentally tick off all the reasons why he should stay in the bar with his family.One, leaving now would be rude. Two, if I’m rude to Dimitris’ mate, I may not live to find my own. Three, Alek would get too much joy out of Dimitris killing me, and I should never do anything to give Alek joy. Four, I am a bit hungry, and should probably wait until after supper to go for a run. Five, I need to get used to being near Dimitris and Cate since it could be years until I find my own mate. Six, —
“Lukyan.” He snapped his focus to Cate.
