Chapter 3: The Lycans’ Kingdom

I stood frozen, Ricardo’s blood dripping between my fingers. His head lay at my feet, his eyes open in an expression of eternal surprise. His decapitated body stained the white sheets we had shared for so many nights with blood.

“How…? When…?”

I didn’t remember the exact moment I had done it. How was it possible that I, a weak and cursed omega, had killed the most powerful alpha of the Lobezno Pack? My body trembled—not from fear, but from a strange mixture of horror and satisfaction.

Cristina’s screams pulled me back to reality.

“MURDERER!” she shrieked, curling into the bloodstained sheets. “YOU’RE GOING TO DIE FOR THIS!”

Her hand reached the alarm button beside the bed. Immediately, a piercing howl echoed throughout the mansion. Within seconds, I heard hurried footsteps racing up the stairs.

I had no time to think. I acted on pure instinct.

I lunged toward the window and, without hesitating for a second, jumped from the third floor. The impact against the ground was brutal. I felt my bones crack, my newly closed wounds reopening. But pain was secondary now. Survival was what mattered.

I shifted into my wolf form, ignoring the burning sensation the transformation caused. My wolf was small compared to others, but agile, fast. And I had something they didn’t: the desperation of someone with nothing left to lose.

I ran toward the forest as I heard the guards howling behind me. They were stronger, faster, but I knew every corner of that forest. Every stream, every cave, every hidden path. For five years, while Ricardo ignored me, I had explored these lands as my only escape from loneliness.

I could feel them getting closer. Their growls echoed in the night, their paws crushing leaves just meters away. They were about to catch me when I saw the highway lights through the trees.

“Humans. They won’t dare follow me there.”

With one final effort, I leapt over the guardrail and threw myself onto the road. A massive truck roared past at that very moment. I miscalculated the jump and nearly fell beneath its wheels, but at the last second I managed to cling to the back with my claws.

The icy wind lashed my face as the truck sped away. Through my wolf’s eyes, I watched the guards stop at the forest’s edge, howling in frustration. They wouldn’t dare pursue me with so many humans nearby.

I don’t know how long I clung to that truck. Hours blurred into a haze of pain and cold. My wounds bled again, soaking my fur. Dawn found me trembling, weak—but alive. Still alive, and that was all that mattered.

When the sun began to warm my skin, I decided it was time to let go. I didn’t know where I was, only that I had put enough distance between myself and the Lobezno Pack. The truck was crossing a bridge over a wide, rushing river.

“It’s now or never,” I thought.

I released my grip and fell straight into the deep waters below. The impact felt like crashing into concrete, but the cold water enveloped me, washing the blood from my wounds. I swam with all my strength to the shore and dragged myself onto the sand, gasping.

I shifted back into my human form without even realizing it. I was naked, wounded, starving. But free.

I walked through the forest all day, hunting small animals to feed myself. Every step was torture, every breath an effort. Finally, as the sun began to set, my body gave out. I collapsed onto a bed of leaves, and the world went dark around me.

---

“Good God, child, what happened to you? What are you doing alone in this forest?”

A rough but kind voice woke me. I opened my eyes and saw an elderly woman leaning over me, her wrinkled face filled with genuine concern.

“You’re a wolf, aren’t you?” she continued. “A human wouldn’t survive those injuries.”

I nodded weakly, too exhausted to speak.

“Come. I’ll take you with me.”

The old woman pulled a blanket from her backpack and covered my nakedness. With no other choice, I followed her along a winding path through the trees. Every step was agony, but something in her determination gave me strength to continue.

After what felt like an eternity, we arrived at a massive wrought-iron gate. Two imposing guards flanked the entrance. They were enormous—much larger than any wolf I had seen in the Lobezno Pack. Even Ricardo, with all his alpha arrogance, would have seemed small beside these men, who stood over six and a half feet tall.

To my surprise, both guards bowed their heads respectfully to the elderly woman.

“Good evening, Beta Amelia,” one of them said.

“Beta? This elderly woman is a beta?”

We passed through the gate, and I stood speechless. This wasn’t just a territory—it was an entire city surrounded by tall walls and ancient trees. At the center rose a mansion three times larger than Ricardo’s, imposing and majestic.

A sign carved in stone caught my attention: “Lycan Pack.”

My heart skipped a beat. I had heard stories about this place—legends whispered in hushed tones. The Kingdom of the Lycans, the most powerful pack in the world. Legendary wolves, ruthless, with powers beyond what any other pack could dream of.

And I was in their territory.

The elderly woman—Amelia—led me toward the mansion. Servants stepped aside with bows, casting curious glances at me.

Once inside, Amelia brought me to a room where she cleaned and bandaged my wounds with expert hands. She gave me clean clothes and hot food. Only when my stomach was full did she ask:

“Where are you from?”

I hesitated. My curse limited me greatly, but it also protected me. No one could sense my scent. No one could track me.

“Very far away,” I finally replied.

Amelia studied me with penetrating eyes but didn’t press further.

“If you don’t want to tell me why you ended up like this, that’s fine. We all have a past we’d rather forget,” she said calmly. “As long as this doesn’t bring trouble, you can stay. As you’ve seen, King Lycan’s pack is prosperous, and there’s work for everyone. You can be a servant; I’m always in need of wolves. You’ll start tomorrow. For now, rest. Those wounds need to close.”

She showed me to a small but clean room and left. I silently thanked her for not asking more questions. For now, I would stay. I had nowhere else to go.

---

Very early the next morning, Amelia woke me. She explained that she was the beta in charge of King Alaric’s mansion—a very strict man not everyone had the honor of serving. She handed me a maid’s uniform and introduced me to the rest of the staff.

The place was so vast that more than ten omegas worked in service. They looked at me curiously, but no one asked about my scars. Perhaps here, in the Kingdom of the Lycans, battle marks were common.

“From now on, your name will be Emili,” Amelia told me as she showed me my duties. “Forget who you were before. Here, you have the chance to start over.”

Emili. A name so different from mine, yet perfect for this new life. I nodded, grateful for the opportunity to reinvent myself.

We were in the main hall, ready to begin cleaning, when a dull thud startled us. A body fell from the third floor, crashing onto the marble floor with a sickening impact. It was a young woman, and her body… her body was split in half. Her organs spilled across the floor in a pool of blood and viscera.

I looked up toward where she had fallen from. On the third-floor balcony, I saw the silhouette of a man. Tall, imposing, broad-shouldered, with a presence that made the air around him seem to vibrate. But what froze my blood were his eyes: red as blood itself, glowing with barely restrained fury.

My entire body bristled. I had never felt such overwhelming, primitive, powerful energy.

“Another one,” an older man sighed, appearing out of nowhere. From his uniform, I assumed he was the butler. “That makes three this week. At this rate, no one will want to attend to him.”

Amelia shook her head, unsurprised.

“You know he can’t stand the slippery ones. Most likely, like the others, she tried to seduce him despite my many warnings,” she said with resignation.

Then she turned to me, and for the first time I saw something like compassion in her eyes.

“Emili, this will be your first task,” she announced, pointing at the mangled body. “Clean up this mess.”

I looked up at the balcony again, but the man was gone. Only the lingering sense of his presence remained, like a storm that retreats but promises to return with greater force.

As I approached the body with a bucket and mop, I realized I had escaped one monster only to fall into the claws of another—possibly worse.