Imprinted Hearts

Chapter 8: Her Emails!

"That bastard!" Lucien snarled, pacing back and forth in his room. Louie, sitting on the bed and Leo sitting on the sofa, both exchanged exasperated looks and sighed. He'd been like this for hours. "How dare he imprint on Hope! I saw her first! She is my imprintee, and he's just some ass hat who wants to fuck around and find out! Well, he's going to learn really quickly that he's fucked with the wrong person!"

"Lucien," Leo tried to reason again. "Imprinting isn't something you choose to do. You didn't choose to do it. He didn't choose this either. There has to be something else going on here that we're not considering."

"Please don't throw yourself into another shift-rage," Louie pleaded. He laid back on the pillows and put his hand over his face, as if not wanting to relive the images he'd seen. "That was the most disturbing thing I've ever seen in my life."

"I will tranquilize you again if you don't calm down some and think about this rationally," agreed Leo.

"Rationally?" Lucien bristled. "How can I think about this rationally when someone out there has imprinted on my so-called soulmate and wants me to share? I hate people! You know that!"

"You don't hate us," Louie pouted.

"We're not people, we're friends," Leo replied, probably to soothe Louie's feelings a bit.

Lucien wanted to roll his eyes at the two of them.

"How would you like it if someone imprinted on Alexis?" Lucien snapped.

Louie bristled at the idea. "Don't bring my misfortunate love life into this. This is your problem!"

"Well, what do you suppose I do? Hm? I can't kill him and get away with because he's imprinted too. We can't sue him because he was protecting his imprintee too! I can't do anything except get pissed off," Lucien said, his voice getting growly with the effort to not rage-shift again. "And consider the many ways I could dispose of him with my money just to appease myself a tiny, microscopic, little bit!" Lucien took a few breaths, trying to calm himself, but in the end threw his hands up in frustration. "AND IT'S NOT WORKING!"

"Maybe if you thought about this rationally, instead of irrationally angrily, we could actually reach a conclusion that would make all parties happy. But nooo what do I know I'm just an old human with a bone to pick with a youngling werewolf who thinks it's cool to plot murder instead of coming up with a logical solution to his problems," Leo replied shrugging theatrically and leaning on his hand against the couch arm.

Lucien glared at Leo.

A ding from his watch caught his attention, and he glanced down at his wrist and suddenly, his anger dissipated.

"She emailed me!" he said with an exuberant smile.

Leo did a double take at the sudden change of emotions.

"What did she say?" asked Louie.

"She gave me book recommendations!" he said excitedly.

"Oh, what books?" Louie asked.

"Who cares?" Lucien snorted. "She emailed me and now I can start a conversation with her!"

"Uh," Louie said, exchanging another look with Leo. "What are you gonna talk to her about?"

Lucien paused, then turned towards Louie accusingly. "You know what? Shut the fuck up!"

"What the fuck?" Louie laughed. "I'm just saying if you want to start a conversation with her, use what you've already got in front of you!"

"Fine! I'll talk to her about the books, but I'm going to use it as a chance to hang out with her and see what I can do to get in with her before that damned werecat can," Lucien replied.