An Alpha's Love And Fire

Chapter 8: Gasoline

-Lucian-

I was poking the food in front of me with my fork, not really having an appetite. I wasn’t sure why I joined tonight’s dinner again. Maybe because I didn’t really have anything else to do. I wasn’t spending my time with some stranger, since I had now found my mate, I only wanted her. I really f*cking wanted her, but Cecilia was not going to be convinced so easily. She had pushed me away, and I had made her a vow that I would make her fall in love with me, but how?! How was I going to do that, when she didn’t even want to see me? It was a damn hard puzzle to solve.

“Not hungry?” Lily asked me.

She was sitting further away on the other side, but she always seemed to know when something was bothering someone. She had a special gift and was therefore perfect for being a doctor. Rose sat beside her, smiling her sweet little smile, and looking at me like Lily, almost analyzing me.

“Not really,” I told her.

“Is something bothering you?”

Everyone started to look at me, and I felt very much put on the spot. I wasn’t sure what to tell them, but then I thought it over. Maybe I should tell them the truth. They could help me convince Cecilia that she should be mine. I opened my mouth to answer when suddenly someone entered the dining room. It was someone from the border control, looking rather worried.

“My king, someone has requested to enter the territory,” he said.

“Who?”

“He says he is here to see someone,” he said.

“And who is that?”

The male looked at me.

“Me?” I asked.

He nodded, yet looked at me in a … strange way. I couldn’t quite understand why he was looking at me like that, but then I turned to the king and shrugged a little.

“Maybe it is important,” I said.

The king sighed.

“Fine, let them enter.”

The male nodded and quickly left, but not before glancing at me again. That was so strange, I thought, before turning to the king again.

“Who did you screw over now?” he chuckled.

That made everyone laugh, but I was very confused. While, of course, I could maybe have given someone the wrong idea, I didn’t play people. I was honest with what I wanted and walked away if they didn’t want the same thing.

“I … I really don’t know what this is about,” I said.

“I guess we will figure out soon,” Garrett said. “Are we going to see who it is or not?”

“All of us?” I asked.

He smiled.

“I would love to see some female kick your ass.”

“How do you know it is a female?” I asked and stood up.

That made people laugh a little too, as we all walked out of the dining room. The king and queen walked in the front, smiling and talking while I kind of fell into the back, hoping if someone had come looking for a fight, the others could slow the person down. I was not scared of fighting the person, but I had gotten quite strong, and it wasn’t always I knew exactly how much power I put behind my punches. I could lose it if someone got me really angry. Had I slept with someone who was mated to someone? No, at least not in a good while. I often stayed clear of those, because I knew the drama it could bring, and I didn’t want that, but maybe it really was someone’s mate or husband who had come looking for me. Who knew?

The king was the one to open the door, while I tried looking outside to see who it was. But I couldn’t see the person, so I pushed forward until I could look around the king, and then … I froze.

“Luc, I hear you have been looking for me,” a way too familiar voice said.

I swallowed hard, as I stared into the same green eyes as me. My heart started to beat faster, and I knew my past had come back to haunt me. I had tried looking for him, so I could fix it before he found me, but I had put it away after we had killed Connor, hoping it would stay buried. Now I knew it wouldn’t.

“Are you not going to invite me in?” Landon asked.

“Don’t, my king!” I said, before stepping in front of him. “Don’t f*cking let him in!”

“Oh Luc, come on! Are you not even going to invite your brother in? I thought we were closer than that,” he said.

I growled deeply, before I threw myself at him, so we both went tumbling down the stone staircase and rolled over the gravel that led up to it. I couldn’t think straight, all I saw was that night he disappeared, the flames, our parents screaming. I could have stopped it all, but he was my brother. My twin brother. We looked so much alike, except for the giant burn scar he had on the right side of his face. He almost looked a bit like two-face from Batman, just not as bad. The skin was all scarred now, and the hair didn’t grow on that side. He used to look a lot more handsome, but the consequences of what he did that night showed clearly now.

We rolled around, trying to get on top. I threw punches at him the best I could, but of course, he had not spent his time getting weak. He was strong too. Not as big as me, but he had definitely used his time training and getting stronger. We had been kids last time I saw him. Now we were grown alphas, both so damn angry.

“Lucian!” I heard the others yell, as they walked towards us.

Landon pushed away from me, and we both quickly stood up, but then I saw he had a flask in his hand and he threw the smelly gasoline at me before he pulled out a lighter and turned it on. Everyone froze, as they saw what he had planned.

“No, no,” he said. “This is between brothers.”

I growled lowly, as I stood there, covered in gasoline.

“I could have used normal alcohol, but you know I love the smell of gasoline,” he said.

I just narrowed my eyes, as I looked at him, hating him for everything he had cost me.

“What are you doing here, Landon?” I asked.

He smiled, as he ran his eyes all over my family, getting a good look at every one of them.

“As I said, I heard you were looking for me,” he said, as he turned to me again. “So, I thought I would come to say hello.”

“Don’t play this game,” I told him.

His smile grew, and he knew I was done with this sh*t.

“All right, let me jump right to it then,” he said. “I want my pack.”

“Your pack?!” I asked.

“Yes, the one you handed over to our dear little cousin Madelaine and her mate Evan,” he said.

“Well, as you just said, they own it, not me! I can’t give you something I don’t have,” I said.

My brother almost looked at me disappointed, and the way he tilted the lighter from side to side, made me lean my weight back, not sure if he was really going to throw it at me. Fire was something no one, not even the supernatural, could fight. It would burn through my flesh faster than I could heal.

“Well, since I am the firstborn, then it was never really yours to give, was it?” he asked.

I slowly realized what his plan was here. It was why I had not wanted the pack in the first place, because I knew he could always come back and claim it, and even if the pack wanted to follow me, they couldn’t ignore the natural order. Landon had been born seven minutes before me. He was the rightful heir and their alpha. It was why I had passed it over to Madelaine, hoping it would be safe with her, but now I realized, legally, it was never mine to hand over.

“Now, you’re going to give it back to me,” he said.

“I …”

“Not done speaking!”

I swallowed hard, as he tipped the lighter from side to side again.

“You see Luc, I have been waiting for the right time to come home,” he said. “And claim back what was always mine!”

“You were a kid. You couldn’t have inherited it!” I told him.

“I would just have gotten rid of our uncle too, and then I could,” he said.

“You killed our parents, and you expect the pack to follow you!”

“I had it all f*cking planned, but then you had to go ruin it!” he shouted at me.

He stared at me with so much hatred, but he always had. Ever since we were kids, he had been … hateful. Full of anger and an ugliness, that just wasn’t in me. Even as kids though, he tortured me, hurting me whenever he could, and sometimes would get away with it as well. I knew our father really tried changing him and believed he could change, but something was just wrong inside Landon. He didn’t want to turn better. He wanted to be like this. Cruel.

“I was trying to save them,” I said.

“As I said, you ruined it,” he said.

“Landon, the pack is not mine anymore!”

“No, it is mine!” he said.

“I can’t just give it back to you though. Madelaine and Evan are already leading it, and they are doing a good job at it. The pack is loyal to them.”

Madelaine and Evan had not come to join dinner tonight. Sometimes they stayed in their territory and enjoyed eating together just those two or together with their pack members, strengthening the bond between them all, but I knew they would know about this soon. Maddy would know Landon was alive, and he had always been. Everyone thought I was the only survivor because I didn’t tell them about him. I let them believe he was dead because I hoped he would stay away, and because … despite everything … he was my brother.

“I don’t care,” he said. “You get back what was never yours to give, or I will take it with force.”

“Landon …”

“Do you think our sweet little cousin can scream as loudly as our parents when I burn her alive?” he asked with an evil smile on his lips.

“If you get near her—”

“Or maybe I should pay a sweet little beta a visit.”

I stared at him scared now.

“Yeah, I have been keeping track of you. Since when do you trespass just to see a little beta?” he asked.

I glanced over at the others. Lara was here tonight though, and she was looking at me confused, probably slowly connecting the dots.

“She is your mate, isn’t she?” he asked.

“I …”

“What? Does the luna not accept you two together, or is it the first time my dear brother has had to chase someone?” he asked. “I guess it pays off not having half your face burned off.”

“You did it to yourself,” I said.

“Sure, let’s act like you weren’t the one who burned it,” he said.

“You started that fire!”

“You were the one who couldn’t finish what you started,” he said.

“Landon!”

“I will give you … a week. Then I want everything to be ready or I will burn our cousin alive and make her mate watch before I come for the rest,” he said and pointed at the others, who couldn’t do anything but stand and watch because I was still wet from the gasoline. “Your choice, Luc. I bet I can really make your mate scream.”

“If you touch as much as a hair on her …”

“You will … what? Burn the other side of my face? You know everyone always thought you were so perfect when we were kids. They never saw the dark sides of you. They will now though, and then you will know what it is like being all alone,” he said, slowly backing away. “I have missed you, brother.”

“Landon!”

“One week! The clock is ticking!”

He walked back to where his car was, never taking his eyes off of us, and always ready with the gasoline and the lighter. We had to watch as he drove away, before everyone turned to me, really wanting some answers … Yeah, I should have known my brother would come one day. That was why I had not been here when Chris died. I had thought I could fix it. I had thought I could finish what I started that night. I had thought I could kill him, but I had not been able to find him, and now he had found me …