AGAINST THE RULES: their scentless omega-Chapter 64: Unexpected encounter
A knock came from Lucian’s holding room door , two soft taps that almost blended with the low hum of the monitors.
"Come in," he said absent-mindedly, eyes still glued to the digital map spread across his tablet. Colored dots pulsed across the screen, each representing a rider in motion. His stylus hovered mid-air as he calculated possible routes.
The door creaked open slowly.
"Hello...?" a gentle voice called.
Lucian paused momentarily. The stylus slipped from his fingers and rolled across the desk. He lifted his head , and froze.
Tracy.
For a second he wondered if he had misheard or imagined her. She stood just inside the doorway, sunglasses resting on her head now instead of her eyes, fingers lightly clutching the strap of her purse as if she wasn’t entirely sure she should be there.
"Oh— uh... you can come in," he said, straightening in his chair. He gestured awkwardly toward the couch beside the wall. "You can sit."
"Oh, thank you." She offered a polite smile and walked in, her heels making soft, careful sounds against the floor before she lowered herself onto the couch.
Silence settled between them almost instantly.
Not the comfortable kind , the kind that pressed against the ears and made every small movement feel amplified. Lucian cleared his throat, glancing at the water bottle on his desk, then back at her.
"Do you... need water? Or a drink maybe?" he asked, trying to give the air something to hold onto.
Tracy shook her head gently. "That won’t be necessary." Her voice was softer than he remembered, less sharp around the edges. "I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m here, right?"
Lucian hesitated. He wasn’t sure what answer wouldn’t sound rude, so he simply remained quiet and waited for her response
What could she be wanting to say something that she comes to me?
She exhaled slowly, shoulders dipping. "I wanted to apologize. About last time." Her fingers intertwined on her lap. "I acted like a bitch."
Lucian blinked, the what now? , he searched his memory. Their first encounter , flashes of sharp words, cold glances, tension that wasn’t even fully about him. He remembered the hostility, but it felt distant now, like an argument overheard in another room. Was it that time when I mistook her for a crazy fan , but why is she apologising now?
"Don’t tell me you forgot our first meeting," she added, narrowing her eyes playfully.
"What? No — no, of course not,its just the timing right now was a bit off" he replied a bit too quickly.
She studied his face for half a second, suspicion flickering, then she laughed it off with a small shake of her head. "Well... that means you don’t hate me, I guess."
"Hate is a strong word, don’t you think?" Lucian answered, offering a mild smile.
Tracy’s smile lingered, but it thinned at the edges. "You never really know when someone despises you while wearing a perfect smile," she murmured. For a split second her gaze drifted away, as if recalling something unpleasant , whispered conversations, laughter that stopped when she entered, compliments that never reached the eyes. She caught herself and straightened. "I just... wanted things between us to be normal. I didn’t want it to be awkward after I get married to Hunter."
Lucian’s body stiffened almost imperceptibly.
The word married echoed louder than it should have. He nodded once, mechanically, the polite response arriving before the emotional one. "Yeah. Normal is... good."
Her phone suddenly vibrated, breaking the fragile calm. She glanced at the screen and sighed. "Oh — sorry. It’s Daryl. My manager." She stood, already slipping back into the composed public persona like a jacket she couldn’t remove. "He’s probably panicking because he lost sight of me for five minutes. Just when I thought I’d get a chance to breathe."
She moved toward the door, then paused and turned back. "Anyway... good luck. To you — and the red team."
"Thank you," Lucian replied.
The door closed softly behind her.
For a moment the room stayed still, the faint buzz of electronics returning to dominance. Lucian looked back down at the map, but the colored dots blurred slightly. Lucian remained standing where Tracy had left him, fingers still resting lightly on the edge of the desk as if his body had forgotten to move. The door had already closed, the echo of her heels long gone, yet the air still felt disturbed , like water after a stone had been thrown in.
"...That was a weird meet," he murmured to himself. Talking to Tracy was definitely not in my bucket list
But if he was being brutally honest, it wasn’t unpleasant. Tracy was... beautiful. Not just in the polished, camera-ready way the world saw, but in the quieter moments, when her voice softened, when her smile wasn’t rehearsed. She had seemed sincere. Tired, yes, but kind. And the hardest truth to admit, the one that scraped against his chest, was that she would probably make a good wife to Hunter.
They looked right together.
A power couple.
The type magazines loved, the type families approved of, the type society labeled perfect.
I can see why father chose her as a spouse
The thought tasted bitter, though he couldn’t tell whether it was jealousy, resignation, or simply the sting of realizing that some outcomes fit too neatly to be challenged. He exhaled slowly and shook his head, trying to push the thought aside like an unwanted notification.
The commentator’s voice suddenly blasted through the speakers, snapping his attention back to the present.
"Things are not going well for the Red Team, ladies and gentlemen!"
Lucian’s head jerked toward the screen. The live feed zoomed in on a biker cutting sharply through a turn, the engine’s roar vibrating even through the broadcast.
"Their flag has been taken by the Blue Team ,Bulldozer himself!"
The camera angle shifted, revealing the unmistakable red flag secured behind Bulldozer’s bike, whipping violently in the wind like a captured banner on a battlefield. The crowd’s roar surged, a wave of excitement and disbelief crashing over the arena.
Lucian heart dropped
