The 5-time Rejected Gamma & the Lycan King novel Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Lucianne, Xandar and Christian skipped lunch in the dining hall for lunch at Christian’s home. Annie had wanted to meet Lucianne ever since Xandar first told Christian about finding his mate at the annual meet-and-greet.

The cousins and Lucianne herself really wanted to start digging into the audits, the real ones, so it sounded like lunch at the residence of the Duke and Duchess was the perfect plan. Lucianne was also concerned with how Ellia, Ben and the other two families were holding up,

so when Xandar asked if she wanted to go, she didn’t hesitate to say yes.

Christian’s villa was about the same size as Xandar’s but the interior had more portraits: Xandar explained that Christian had been fascinated with art for as long as he could remember. His wife, Annie, loved flowers, which explained the colourful flower beds around the house, and the many, many tall vases and small pots at every corner of the rooms in their home.

Lucianne was quite nervous about meeting Annie. Xandar told her that Annie was nice but Lucianne wasn’t sure if they would click as friends. Things would get rather awkward if they had no common interest to hold a simple conversation. That was the reason why Lucianne could never get close to females who only talked about make-up, latest fashion trends or celebrity news. She never kept up with those things. She mentally planned to just get Anniet o talk about flowers as a last resort to avoid any awkwardness.

Christian strode quicker than usual after he entered through the front doors of his home, making his way to the guest lounge where Annie was waiting. It was the first time Lucianne

saw Christian walking ahead of Xandar. The Duke didn’t look back as he made speedy steps t o his wife of seventeen years. 2

Xandar and Lucianne made it to the lounge just in time to see Annie in Christian’s embrace a s the Duke pecked a sweet kiss on the Duchess’s cheek before muttering an affectionate ‘Hey’ to his wife, looking deeply into her eyes. Her eyes matched his affection as she pecked a kiss on his jaw.

Lucianne took in the lounge with light-colored walls against the marble-tiled floor. A chandelier hung from the ceiling in the middle of the room, and its lights brought out the colors of the posh velvet sofas and bocote wood furniture. Exquisite was the only way to describe the lounge.

Xandar was only looking at Lucianne the entire time her eyes studied their surroundings, and he couldn’t help but peck a kiss on her temple because of how cute she looked when she was being a curious cat. Lucianne was so caught up with the sophisticated lounge that she merely offered her mate a shy smile as her hand reached out to touch his arm in tenderness. Her small hand on his hulking muscles was enough to make Xandar’s animal howl internally with pride and ecstasy.

Christian interrupted his animal’s happy moment when he brought Annie to his cousin and the new-found Queen. Annie was only a little shorter than Christian. Her lilac eyes shone beautifully against her tanned skin. Her shoulder-length hair was straight and brown. She wore a plain pink shirt and white shorts. Even so, she was anything but plain-looking because her facial features made everything she wore stand out in her own way. With a warm smile, she reached out to give Xandar a brief hug before she turned to look at Lucianne who had a friendly smile on.

Annie smiled graciously as she offered a bow and said, “My Queen, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

Lucianne bowed back and Annie stood with Lucianne. The Duchess had clearly been briefed b y Christian about the new bowing formality. When their eyes met again, the first thing Lucianne said to the Duchess was, “Can we not do that the next time we meet, Annie?”

Annie chuckled lightly, and to Lucianne’s surprise, pulled Lucianne into a brief hug like she did with Xandar. After letting her go, Annie said, “Christian did say you weren’t very comfortable with formalities.”

“I’m still not actually.” Lucianne admitted sheepishly. “And I prefer if you could just call me Lucy.”

“What?! That’s not fair!” Xandar exclaimed. “Babe, you only let me call you ‘Lucy’ days after we met! You met Annie less than a minute ago.”

Lucianne then looked at Xandar, whose eyes were soft with affection until she asked, “Should we start analyzing the audits? There’s probably a lot to go through. We don’t want to be here for too long if we want to keep suspicions at bay.”

Xandar groaned as everyone felt the romantic atmosphere around them break with Lucianne’s words. The King then mocked annoyance and complained, “Lucy, first you let a person you met for less than a minute call you how I wanted to call you since the first night w e met. Now, you can’t even give me a moment to revel in your being without you talking about Queen duties! Do I even matter to you?!”