Offered To The Beastly Alpha

Olivia’s POV

​For several seconds, I could only stare at him as the meaning of his order slowly sank in. This was no longer just about finding out whether Owen had secretly entered the packhouse. Lucian wanted them to investigate me, too.

​Leo nodded. ”Facial recognition should make it faster, Alpha. The system can search the recordings for both of their faces instead of having the security team manually watch everything. We should have the results in less than an hour.”

​”Good,” Lucian replied. ”Do it.”

​”Lucian,” I called quickly.

​He finally looked at me.

​”Is all of that really necessary?” I asked, trying desperately to keep my voice steady. ”I already told you I haven’t seen him since I came here.”

​”And I told you I don’t believe you,” Lucian replied coldly.

​The words hit harder than I expected, but I couldn’t even focus on that right now. If Leo’s team really could search two months of recordings in less than an hour, I didn’t have much time to figure out exactly what those cameras might have captured.

​Leo glanced between us before giving Lucian another nod. ”I’ll get the team started immediately.”

​”I want a quick report,” Lucian ordered.

​”Yes, Alpha,” Leo replied before turning and leaving the room.

​The door closed behind him, leaving Lucian and me alone again. I remained where I was, staring at the door as a much deeper fear began to settle inside me. They weren’t simply going to search for Owen anymore. They were going to search for my face. Every camera around the packhouse would be searched for me, showing where I had been, who I had spoken to, and what I had been doing for the last two months.

​At first, I tried to convince myself that there was nothing to worry about. They wouldn’t find secret meetings between Owen and me because there hadn’t been any. Then I remembered the clinic, and my stomach dropped. Owen had approached me near the packhouse clinic before. We had spoken there. I didn’t know whether there was a camera covering that area, but if there was, his face and mine would appear together. Lucian would know immediately that tonight wasn’t the first time I had seen Owen since coming here.

​But that wasn’t even the worst thing those cameras could have captured. The moment Lucas entered my mind, my fear grew stronger. Lucas and I had spoken around the packhouse several times, and most of those conversations could probably be explained. But then another memory came back to me. The garden. The kiss. My blood ran cold as I remembered that Lucas and I had kissed in the garden.

​I tried desperately to remember exactly where we had been standing that night, what part of the garden we had been in, and whether I had ever noticed a security camera nearby. I couldn’t remember. At the time, checking for cameras had been the last thing on my mind. If there had been one, then the footage existed.

​But if the cameras had captured Lucas kissing me, why hadn’t anyone said anything? Why hadn’t Lucian known? Why hadn’t security reported that the Alpha King’s brother had kissed his wife? The questions rushed through my mind until the answer suddenly occurred to me. Maybe no one had ever watched it.

​There were cameras everywhere around the packhouse. No one could possibly sit and watch every second of every recording unless there was a reason to search through them. The footage could have been sitting there this entire time, unseen and forgotten. Until now.

​I slowly turned my head toward Lucian and found him already watching me. I immediately tried to control my expression, but it was too late. His eyes narrowed slightly as he studied my face, and I could tell he was trying to figure out exactly what had caused the sudden fear on my face.

​”Lucian...” I started.

​”Don’t speak,” he said quietly.

​I immediately closed my mouth.

​”Sit down,” Lucian ordered, pointing toward the couch across the room. ”We’re both going to wait for the results.”

​My stomach tightened even more. I wanted to argue, but one look at his face told me it would be pointless. Lucian wasn’t going to let me leave this room until Leo returned with that report.

​I slowly walked toward the couch and sat down, placing my hands on my lap to hide how badly they were trembling. Lucian didn’t say anything else. He returned to the bar, picked up his glass, and poured himself another drink before walking back toward the large window. He stood there with his back to me, staring out into the darkness as he slowly drank.

​The silence was horrible. I sat there staring at Lucian’s back while my mind went through everything the security team could possibly find. There were two things that frightened me more than anything else, and unfortunately, I already knew there was a good chance both of them had been caught on camera.

​The first was Owen. I had just sworn that tonight was the first time I had seen him since coming to the Full Moon Pack, but that wasn’t true. He had approached me near the packhouse clinic before, and if there was a camera nearby, it would have caught us together.

​Worse, if the camera had recorded our conversation, Lucian might hear something that could lead him toward the truth about my identity. Even without audio, the footage alone would prove that I had lied directly to his face.

​Unfortunately, Owen wasn’t the worst thing the security team could find.

​Lucas was.

​I closed my eyes briefly as the memory of the garden returned. Lucas standing close to me. The conversation between us. And then the kiss.

​Oh God.

​I had kissed Lucian’s brother in the garden of Lucian’s own packhouse. What had I been thinking? At the time, cameras had been the last thing on my mind. I hadn’t looked around to see whether there was one nearby because I hadn’t expected anyone to ever search through weeks of recordings looking specifically for me. But now Lucian had ordered the security team to use facial recognition on my face. If there was a camera anywhere near that garden, they would find it.

​And if Lucian saw Lucas kissing me...

​My eyes slowly opened and returned to Lucian’s back.

​I was in deep shit.

​Lucian had nearly lost control just because he thought Owen was my lover. What would happen when he discovered that I had actually kissed his own brother? He would go into a rage. Worse, he might go after Lucas. The relationship between the two brothers was already complicated enough. They had argued because of me before, and Lucian had already shown how jealous he could become whenever Lucas was involved. If he saw actual footage of Lucas and me kissing, there was no telling what he would do.

​Oh God, please help me.

​I didn’t even know what I was praying for anymore. That the cameras hadn’t captured Owen? That there hadn’t been a camera in the garden? That the facial recognition system somehow missed me entirely? Anything. I would take anything.

​More than thirty minutes passed, and neither Lucian nor I said a single word. He remained near the window with his back to me, occasionally taking a sip from his drink, while I sat on the couch staring at him and trying not to imagine every possible way my life was about to fall apart.

​The longer we waited, the worse it became. Every minute gave my mind another opportunity to remember something else I might have done somewhere near a camera. I started thinking about every conversation I’d had outside my bedroom, every person I’d spoken to around the packhouse, and every time Lucas had been anywhere near me. My hands were cold despite the warmth of the room, and I kept pressing them together to stop them from trembling.

​Lucian hadn’t moved much, and that frightened me almost as much as the investigation itself. I couldn’t see his face, so I had no idea what he was thinking. Was he angry? Hurt? Already convinced I had betrayed him? Or was he simply waiting for the evidence before deciding what to believe?

​I wanted to tell him something. Anything. But he had ordered me not to speak, and right now, I wasn’t even sure opening my mouth would help me. Every explanation seemed to create another lie, and I was already struggling to keep track of the ones I had told.

​Nearly forty minutes had passed when a knock finally sounded at the bedroom door.

​My entire body stiffened, and Lucian stopped with the glass halfway to his mouth. Neither of us moved for a second before he slowly lowered the glass.

​”Enter,” he ordered.

​The door opened, and Leo walked in.