Chapter 62: Obstacles
LUCIAN’S P.O.V. V.
The quiet hum of my office was the closest thing I had to peace these days. Papers cluttered my desk like a battlefield—contracts I’d deliberately ignored, reports I’d outright refused to read. Two years. Two exhausting, fruitless years of searching for Teresa. My chest literally ached with the weight of her absence, a dull, constant throb that no amount of distraction could dull. Even Ares,was a miserable lump of fur and snarls, pacing around in my head like a caged animal. His growls had become my brain’s new background noise.
I was signing another document—probably something important, though I couldn’t be bothered to care—when Kenneth knocked on my door. The sound was a polite little tap, but it grated on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard.
"What now?" I snapped without looking up.
Kenneth stepped in, managing to sound both professional and completely over it. "Jennifer’s here again, Alpha."
"Oh, for the love of— That child again?" Ares groaned, his voice laced with exasperation. "Does she have a death wish? Because I can help with that."
Jennifer. The human embodiment of nails scraping a whiteboard. For the past two years, she had made it her personal mission to ruin what little sanity I had left. Ever since Teresa vanished, Jennifer—her insufferably stubborn stepsister—had been haunting me like a ghost that refused to be exorcised.
At first, I thought her father had sent her. It would’ve been just like that man to try and weasel his way back into my good graces, hoping I’d forgive their family’s appalling treatment of Teresa. I shut that down immediately. If anything, the only thing her father deserved from me was the utter annihilation of his estate.
But Jennifer? She wasn’t here on her father’s orders. No, she was here because she was Jennifer.
"Tell her I’m in a meeting," I growled, fully aware of how pathetic my excuse sounded.
Kenneth raised a brow, clearly unimpressed but too well-trained to show it outright. "Understood, sir." He turned and left, but not before I caught the hint of a smirk tugging at his lips.