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And with that, he walked out of my bedroom and my life while I stood naked watching him.
The pounding pain in my chest wouldn’t cease. I stared at the closed bedroom door as Dillon’s departure echoed through the room. Memories of him trailed throughout my apartment like his soft lingering scent.
As much as I wanted to wallow in it, to lose myself completely in the memory of him, I couldn’t. It wasn’t over. It couldn’t be. My heart refused to accept it.
Within the room’s deafening silence, a name flashed through my mind. Lucien was a wolf and had been the closest thing I had to a friend growing up. He lived in Paris and my wolf needed to run.
Grabbing my phone, I dialed his now seldom-used number.
“Hell of a time to call, Remy,” Lucien’s cool voice hummed lightening the tension cinched tightly around my chest.
“I’m in town. You up for a run?”
“It’s been a while. How about a drink first?”
“Sure. Fine,” I said desperately trying to escape the echoes of Dillon’s goodbye.
“Le Bar Diamant?” Lucien volunteered with genuine warmth just like the old days.
“I’ll be there,” I murmured, hanging up.
I threw on a white shirt and dark jeans and got out of there. Entering Le Bar Diamant, I looked around. The bar was wrapped in velvety darkness.
Seeing my cousin for the first time in years, I got his attention. Heading over, we hunkered down at a corner table. The hum of conversations surrounding us blanketed us in solitude. Being handed a glass as soon as I sat down, I took a swig and stared at my old friend.
“I hear you’re getting hitched,” Lucien started, swirling the amber liquid in his tumbler.
“Got backed into a corner,” I admitted before taking another drink.
His sharp green eyes studied me. I could see his empathy shimmering beneath the hardened surface of wolf pack upbringing. Seeing my discomfort, Lucien switched topics.
“I have something to do. Care to join me? We can run after,” he said, his voice taking a mysterious turn.
“Oh yeah? What’s that?” I asked hoping it came with a fight.
“I’m going to an auction.”
“Seriously, Lucien, how many useless trinkets do you need?”
He shrugged and smiled with a hint of mischief sparkling in his eyes.
“Alright. Let’s go,” I told him gulping down the remainder of my drink.
Following my cousin out of the bar and into the cool Parisian night, eventually we arrived at the auction. Entering the heavy metal warehouse doors, I realized that this wasn’t like the auctions he had dragged me to in the past.
Spilling into a dimly lit room the awaiting crowd consisted of the richest and most spoilt within French society. Although I only knew a few of their names, I recognized all of them. Everyone here was human.
Turning to my cousin to find out what was going on, he appeared tense. His green eyes jumped from person to person searching for someone.
Watching him warily, my wolf perked up. This was a side of Lucien I hadn’t seen before. His quiet intensity and strange restlessness made him look like his wolf was on a hunt.
The crowd’s mummers fell silent as the auction began. When the first items were presented, I understood at least a part of what was going on. The indigenous masks and centuries-old swords weren’t pieces that could be sold at a respectable auction house. Because even if they weren’t stolen from a museum, they had to have been taken from their cultural homes without the permission of the native people.
Watching Lucien as the items got more interesting, he didn’t move. The carefree nature that was on display just an hour earlier was gone. In its place was a deadly seriousness I didn’t recognize within my friend. And when the gasps from the night’s final prize filled the room, I could smell Lucien’s wolf fighting to get out.
Turning back to the auction stand, I saw it. The auction’s last item was a Bengal tiger. Pacing back and forth in its cage, it looked as dangerous as it did scared.
I couldn’t take my eyes off of it, it was astonishing. Its majesty was devastatingly misplaced in the seedy world it had found itself. And turning back to Lucien in search of his thoughts, I saw as my cousin’s focus hardened.
