20 Council Meeting

LUCAS

"You're dating?!" the woman, whose head was hovering above the glass table in holographic form, asked Lucas. She said the word 'dating' like she was horrified by the idea of it. "Your people are dying and you're dating?"

Lucas gritted his teeth at her last statement and tried to rein his anger in. The way she had said it insinuated that he didn't care about his people and he hated it.

"No, Aida. I'm not dating," Lucas replied as calmly as he could.

"That girl confirmed that the both of you are dating," she quickly stated like she was expecting that to be his reply. "We all saw the pictures, Harrison! Your people are dying because of a virus you know nothing about and yet you have the time to fool around and go to hotels."

Lucas was currently in his study and talking with four of the council members. As he had guessed yesterday, they e-mailed him because Kyle Stevens told them Parisa Barnes had set up a meeting between Lucas and Jacob Peterson and Lucas didn't inform anyone except his betas.

In the email they sent to him, the council members didn't care that he didn't inform Kyle and the other werewolf leaders, they were angry that he didn't inform them. When Vinay told Lucas he had a call from the council members a couple of minutes earlier, Lucas had thought they were going to rip into him for not telling them about the meeting. Instead, they were ripping into him because of the articles that said he was dating Imani and they went to a hotel.

"I am aware my people are dying, Aida, and I'm trying to put an end to it."

Lucas' patience with the woman was wearing thin and he felt like he was definitely going to lose it if she kept reminding him that his people were dying.

"You're in the spotlight now, Harrison. What are you going to do when the media begins to dig into your life? What are you going to do when they find out about what's happening in Wolfborn?"

"They won't find out about the virus. I'll make sure of that."

He knew what would happen if people found out that there was a virus spreading in the werewolf community. They would panic and that would lead to the human government stepping in and taking drastic measures to control the spread of the virus. Nothing good happens whenever the human government got involved with werewolf or vampire matters.

"You better! What was the result of the meeting you had with Jacob Peterson? Is he going to -"

"The girl he's dating is Imani Tallerico and she's the one that created the cure for the Sirizan virus. I don't understand why he can't ask her to help him," a middle-aged man piped up, cutting Aida off, and Lucas raised a brow at him.

"I said I'm not da-"

"Does he need to ask? There's an audio clip on the internet in which she says she loves him so can't she just help her boyfriend without being asked," another man said.

'For the love of God,' Lucas thought as he let out an exasperated sigh and leaned back in his seat.

"Does she even know that there's a virus killing the werewolves?"

"Of course she knows, Tom!" Aida replied. "He has been e-mailing her about it for a couple of weeks."

Lucas propped his chin on his hand as he watched them bicker amongst themselves. This was how the meetings always went nowadays. It starts with all of them ripping into him and it ends with them forgetting his presence and ripping into themselves.

It was ridiculous. The council members were meant to maintain peace and order in the werewolf community but right now, Lucas saw them as children.

Lucas glanced at Vinay and Ella who were sitting on a couch in one corner of the room. Ella was trying to stifle her laugh as she read the articles about Lucas and Imani while Vinay was watching Lucas.

They kept arguing for a couple of minutes more before one of them said, "But wait, if this virus started to spread two months ago and he's been e-mailing her for a couple of weeks to get her help... Then when did they start dating?"

They all became quiet as they turned to Lucas, waiting for his answer but he didn't say anything and just stared at them.

"Lucas?" Aida finally called out. "Won't you answer the question?"

Lucas kept staring at them for a little while more before he tapped on the red rectangle on the table that said 'END CALL' and all the heads hovering above the table in holographic form instantly disappeared.

'Well, that felt refreshing.' A corner of Lucas' mouth quirked up. 'I've always wanted to do that.'

Vinay's mouth slightly fell open in surprise and Ella looked up from the phone when she didn't hear people talking again.

"Holy shit," Vinay stated as Lucas switched off the computer and stood up from his seat, stretching his hands above his head. "You did not just do that."

"Did he hang up on them?" Ella asked Vinay with her brows furrowed and he nodded before her mouth fell open too. "They're going to rip you apart, Lucas."

"I'm going to bed. You guys should go home," Lucas announced and grabbed his phone from the glass table.

Vinay and Ella said their goodbyes before they left him in the study. Lucas eyes fell on Imani's clutch purse which was on the couch in the corner of the room as he trailed his hand over the cracks in his phone's screen.

He turned on his phone and saw multiple missed calls from unknown numbers. He had picked a call from one unknown number earlier and instantly hung up when the person on the other end asked how long he and Imani had been together. The person kept calling though and the persistence had irritated Lucas, making him put his phone on silent.

His eyes darted to the clutch purse again and he was about to compose an e-mail to Imani when one came in from her.