Growing up, stories about the Lycans were all I heard when parents wanted to scare their children to obedience.
They said they were horrible, huge creatures that resemble wolves. That one could see the evilness from their bright eyes that could assault anyone that would stare at them. Some even claimed they could manipulate people.
They were bigger, faster and quicker than anyone. And they used that power to dominate lands and conquer territories that weren’t theirs.
People called them savages, some even proclaimed them as the devils in wolf form. That they were just another form of Rogues that found their own organization and leader.
So when I woke up in a room that was dimly lit, I immediately thought of the worst.
I gasped and sat up on the bed, realizing I was not wearing the same clothes I had worn the last time.
I was in a silky white night gown that went down to my knees and elbows. I also had patches from the wounds I knew I had from the last beating I got from the House.
I stared at the deep cut on my fingers, realizing it had healed completely.
It was my punishment for trying to steal food when I missed a meal after I passed out from getting beaten.
I roamed my eyes to my sitting form on the bed, realizing I wasn’t feeling the same pains I had been dealing with for the last couple of days.
What happened?
The last time I checked, I could barely feel anything but pain.
I traced a finger on the wound I knew I got from the slap yesterday, from where the blood trickled from the top of my forehead, but my hand stopped.
It wasn’t there anymore.
“Who gave you all those wounds and bruises?”
I flinched when a deep booming voice suddenly rang around the corners of the room.
My eyes widened when I saw the very man I last saw before I fell unconscious.
The Lycan King is here.
As I remembered, he was tall, built, had the darkest hair, and the most compelling presence.
He was leaning on the wall where a shadow only casted on his figure, making me see soft silhouettes of his built form as he watched me.
I looked into his eyes, expecting the same bright golden orbs I saw last time.
But all I saw were the most gorgeous pair of hazel eyes. The blue and green fighting over the colors in his irises, defining his sharp and manly features even further.
The lycan king may look beautiful, but his presence didn’t feel like it as it exuded all over the room.
He felt deadly.
My attention went to his fists, noticing how they clenched on his sides as he continued watching me.
“I asked you a question,” he said, his deep voice more raw and hard this time.
I swallowed, feeling how dry my throat was.
“I-I…ah,” I opened my mouth, now staring into his surprisingly deep natural eyes, so contrasting from his wolf’s bright golden orbs.
“P-people f-from the House,” was all I managed to say.
I could feel my wolf stirring, even speaking slowly at the back of my head. Purring at the presence of her mate, but I couldn’t feel any welcoming warmth from the human form of my mate.
“Who brought you here?” He asked, sounding intrigued suddenly.
But his reaction kind of irked me, snapping me out of the trance from my sleep, shock and unearthly emotions from the matebond.
He’s really asking that? He’s the reason why my life was ruined! His kind killed many people including my father! Why the hell am I holding back and submitting to him?
“You're the one who bought me along with some other girls for your messed up tradition,” I gritted out.
My anger was coming back to me; all the hatred and blaming I wanted to throw at the king of the creatures that ruined my life came to me with all force as I stared at the man I hated since I knew of his existence.
My sudden change of tone appeared to take him by surprise, making him take a step closer.
I could feel his presence getting bigger, his Alpha and King aura exuding with every movement he makes; and I don’t know if I was just still all weak because of the injuries and the matebond, or he’s manipulating me, but I felt myself holding my anger in a little.
“The House? From the Underground?” He asked again, instead of reacting to my words.
I frowned up at him, irritated at how he still surveyed my body as if he still wanted to know how I got the wounds and bruises I had. As if he cared.
How could he?
“That is none of your business—oh, I guess it is. Because you allowed all of these to happen to your so-called people! And now you brought me in this messed up tradition you have!”
That seemed to snap him out of his oddly concerned streak.
His eyes brightened a bit as they looked at me with danger. “That messed up tradition saved our species.”
And those words coming from his regal mouth completely burned whatever submission that was forming in me.
To hell with his excuses!
“Your species. You killed so many people just to get their territories and people. And you call that saving?”
I flinched when he suddenly took another step towards me, his jaw tightening at my harsh words.
“You don’t know anything, so keep your mouth shut.”
I heaved deep breaths, getting all worked up at how I intensely wanted to scream at his face but held myself in.
I hated how I was containing my anger once again because of his commanding presence. I hate being controlled, most especially by creatures like him.
“You insinuate that what you do is a necessary evil,” I spoke more calmly, but my temper just dangled on the corner of my tongue.
“But that necessary evil killed my father, the only family I have, and took me to that whorehouse where the worst days of my life happened. How do you expect me to just shut up?”
I expected another comeback from the king, to defend what they’re doing, but the slight changes in his eyes was all I saw before he stepped back into the darker corners of the room again. Casting only slivers of light around his regal face.
Tensed silence filled the air between us as no one spoke. Until…
“I do not want anyone to hear about the matebond. You tell anyone about it, and you’ll see what kind of evil I am.”
Lia, my wolf, whimpered at the harsh and cold tone of the king towards us.
Those hazel eyes of his watched me, but specks of gold dominated in his irises this time, as if he was fighting off his wolf from appearing.
The lycan king started walking towards what looked like a door on the side, not sparing me a glance as he took long strides.
And with one sharp move, he was out of the door; his dominating presence that I had only realized was nothing as heavy as I ever felt before, had gone away.
I clutched my chest, feeling the hurt of my wolf from that encounter.
‘Go to him. Speak to him nicely. He didn’t reject us.’ Lia, my wolf’s desperate plea rang around my head.
I’ve never heard her speak before, except yesterday. And if she speaks like this all the time, I don’t ever want to hear her.
“He might as well have rejected us here and now,” I said, slamming away my wolf to the back of my head.
She groaned and whimpered, knowing how close to home my words were.
He basically said he didn’t want the matebond. He didn’t want to acknowledge it.
So why didn’t he just reject me once and for all?
I was tagged as the ‘Remain’ of the girls from the Offering. “As the Remain, you will be assigned anywhere assistance is necessary.” Miranda Grey, the Head Matron of the services in the Vamos pack, told me as I stood alone inside her office inside one of the few mansions I’ve seen in the territory. Hearing so many terrifying stories about the lycans, I thought there was nothing as savage and as disorganized as their territory was. But I don’t know whether I just had prejudices, or I was dumb down by my hatred to their kind—when I should have taken into account how they are the reigning pack, and someone who reigns an entire community should have an organized and wealthy land—when I saw how civilized, huge and wealthy their pack territory was. It looked like an entire rich city. “But for now, since all the Offered have taken on tasks of their own, and we have sufficient servers, I will assign you to the Office Building.” Just like her surname, Miranda had these gray almost whit
People looked at me as I walked inside the Office Building where I was assigned.Two days had passed since the Offering and people in the Vamos pack were still adjusting to our presence. Well, MY presence. The Remain.Apparently, it was true that for years since the tradition of the Offering was made, this was the first time in a couple of decades that someone was not picked to be taken.So, those girls may have been right to say that, but still wrong at the same time. I wasn’t the very first one! I was just the first one after many years of not having a Remain.Insecure brats. They didn’t even realize it was more pitiful to be taken by someone like an object like that than to be left alone like me.‘We found our mate. That’s why we weren’t taken.’ Lia, my wolf, suddenly intruded my train of thoughts.I frowned, hating how she has the power to do that. Also hating the fact that I was also somehow considering the reason she was saying to be the cause of this—not that I wanted to be pic
“You b*tch!”I groaned before landing on the floor. I held my cheek, the sting and pain from the punch echoing around my skull.“I almost died!” The Warrior bastard screamed at my face, his brown eyes so bright with anger. I could almost even see his wolf surfacing.“N-not my fault… you’re stupid…” I said, satisfaction in my voice despite the electrifying pain in my bones from his punches.Still on the floor, he kicked me on the stomach. I groaned and clenched my fists on the ground. I couldn’t fight physically against him. Not when I knew I was going to lose. So I just stayed curled up there, trying to protect vital parts of my body, and fighting him with words.They had training with firearms this afternoon, and since I was the one who assembled his weapon, his gun ricocheted towards him, almost hitting him on the side of his stomach. To be fair, it was a silver bullet, and one wound from that could be critical. But still, it was his fault for letting me assemble his weapon wh
“Rina?” I slowly opened my eyes, squinting immediately when bright light assaulted my vision. “Hey, what happened?” I focused on the person sitting beside my lying form, and realized it was Maddie. “I got smacked,” I said, my voice hoarse. Maddie didn’t appreciate my nonchalance when she frowned. “You have two broken ribs and a sprain in your ankle. How could you be so casual about this?” “I’ve had worse days. You know that,” I just said and looked towards the side, curious where I was. “You’re in the pack’s clinic,” she said, as if reading my mind. I sighed and lied properly on the bed, remembering only half of the happenings before I got here. I remember getting so dizzy as Sebastian continued trying to make small talks with me. Then I just lost balance and blacked out. I looked at Maddie and saw she was looking outside the window, looking like she was in a deep thought. “What time is it?” Maddie turned to me. “It’s 11 AM already.” I immediately started standing up.
“The king is in the lounge area, maybe we can see him.”I looked at the two werewolf females that were with me in the kitchen. They were both trying to fix their clothes and hair as they watched themselves in the mirror. “I heard Beta Sebastian is also there with him. I think I’m gonna like general meetings because of this.” One of them giggled after saying that.“What’s happening?” I silently asked Maddie who was washing dishes with me. She came here to help me, even when I told her she didn’t need to.She glanced at the two who were still gushing over the king and his beta. “There will be a general meeting in the pack. Everyone has to gather for some important announcement. They say it’s one of the only occasions they get to see the king upclose since he didn’t like meddling with others.”Maddie closed the faucet as I took a towel to dry the clean plates. “Why?” She shrugged. “Him and the Beta didn’t really talk much with others excluding the High Council and other people they
I stared at the full moon in the night sky, feeling all jittery for the event that was coming.“Start lining up.”I turned around, hearing the Head Matron’s voice behind me.Miranda looked at me with those gray strict eyes of her, eyeing the rose pink dress she made me wear. She also told me to tie my brunette hair in a chignon.She surveyed how I looked. A glint of satisfaction crossed her eyes.I sighed in relief. “The king does not allow people to be late in such events. Go.”I nodded at her and immediately walked out of the place.I’ve never seen a Unification before, but I’ve surely heard of it.Some say it's easy, some say it’s painful, but all of them say it feels relieving to be part of a pack. That it would feel amazing feeling your Alpha and your packmates’ presence with your wolf.I’m just not so sure I would find that same relief with my situation. “Rina!”I walked towards the vast ground of the pack territory, seeing Maddie already waving her hand at me. She wore a whi
I could feel my entire body shaking. I could hear everything, feel everything, sense my wolf clawing at me as a powerful force covered my entirety. I could feel my eyes changing to my wolf’s eye color, and when I blink they come back to mine. I instinctively clutched on the table, feeling weak in the knees as my entire body trembled with all of these unnamed sensations. I tried focusing, looking in front as blinding light continued passing through me. I closed my eyes, feeling them burn. But when I opened them again, I saw the same thing happen to the man who seemed to have been struggling in front of me. “Your Highness—“ someone was about to come close to the king, but Sebastian interrupted. “Let him be. It’s the effect of the ritual on him.” Searing sensations started crawling all over my body, and I groaned. But before I closed my eyes to the burn, I still saw how Sebastian’s eyes went back and forth to me and the king, as if he knew something nobody else knew. “Ahhh,” I
I gasped and stepped back, feeling the tremors of fear wash over me at the sight.But before I could even recover, a voice rang around the area, from someone I was painfully familiar with.“Looks like we were wrong after all. There was nothing to be cautious about this girl.”My head snapped to the other side of the place when sounds of people came my way.I instinctively took a step back when I saw the two Warriors that I’ve encountered inside the pack. The one from the Offering, and the other one from the Office Building's lounge area.They had bottles in their hands. And they appeared rugged and drunk as some buttons in their black uniforms were opened. They almost staggered as they continued walking towards me, smirks plastered all over their faces.And just when I thought it was the worst that it could get, those two girls that bullied Maddie appeared behind them, with satisfied smiles on their lips.“Looks like you’ll be the one down low on the ground with our feet on your fac