The Lycan King Just Won’t Let Go

I held the little packet of medicine so tightly in my hand that it cut into my palm, but I didn’t loosen my grip. I couldn’t after the struggle it took to even get them. 

The doctor had warned me again that Aria’s lungs were weakening, that her fevers were worsening, that we were running out of options. 

I pushed through the cold night air, my steps slow, heavy… like each one was dragging a piece of me along the dirt path. I was tired. 

Gods, I was so fucking tired. My body felt wrong, it was all weak, sluggish, like my veins were moving sludge instead of blood.

But I forced myself forward because my little sister needed me.

Aria always needed me.

And I always showed up for her. Always.

By the time I reached home, my breath was unsteady, my fingers numb around the herbs. 

My only thought was getting to her room, giving her the medicine, brushing her hair back like I always did, telling her everything would be okay..

I headed straight for Aria’s room, every instinct set on making her a little more comfortable. Just a little.

But halfway down the hall…

I stopped.

Because the door to my room was strangely a little open. 

I stepped closer, and took a peak. What I saw made my heart stop completely. 

Ryan, my fiance was on top of my sister, Aria, his voice was low, raw and, thick with pleasure.

“Fuck… you feel so damn good, Aria.”

I didn’t move.

I couldn’t move.

I just stood there, frozen, like my soul had been ripped out of my body and left somewhere on the floor.

He was thrusting in and out of her with so much force and my Aria, the fragile girl I had spent my whole life protecting was arching into him with her fingers clawing at his skin.

My knees buckled.

I slapped my hand over my mouth to stop myself from making a sound because the scream crawling up my throat felt like it would tear me open from the inside out.

My fiancé.

The man I grew up loving.

The man I was betrothed to was so deep inside my sister.

And then she gasped out, breathless and shy:

“Ryan… am I moaning too loudly? someone might hear…”

His laugh—low, breathy, intoxicated tightened something in my chest until I swore it physically snapped.

His answer came out low… smug… hungry… the voice I once thought was only mine.

“They won’t… my little wolf.”

My little wolf. That was what he used to whisper into my neck when he held me. When he pretended I was enough.

And Aria, my sister, my own blood, she whimpered back, her words soft and trembling:

“My stupid sister went to get some medicine for me, but I’m feeling worried, what if she comes back sooner than later…”

She was talking about the medicine I was still clutching in my shaking hand.

“She wouldn’t,” Ryan groaned, his breath ragged. “That last medicine is particularly hard to find… she would waste a lot of time outside.”

And then Aria let out this desperate moan, the kind that made my stomach twist and my heart crack:

“F‑fuck… don’t talk too much… just make me feel good…” He thrusted his dick even deeper into her. 

The words poured into the hallway, into my ears, into the deepest place of me that still believed my family wouldn’t hurt me… that Ryan wouldn’t betray me… that I wasn’t as stupid as they clearly thought I was.

I stood there… frozen… breath caught in my throat… the medicine almost slipping from my fingertips… as their moaning sounds swallowed me whole.

I was still trying to decide whether to confront them immediately or run away when I heard my sister say. 

“Just when will that bitch die!” my sister snarled, her voice dripping with hate so thick I didn’t even recognize it as hers.

My stomach dropped. My ears rang.

Bitch?

Me?

From Aria?

Ryan’s voice came next—low, lazy, utterly unbothered.

“Are you sure you’ve been giving her the right amount of wolfsbane?”

I felt my knees buckle.

Wolfsbane.

Poison for werewolves.

Enough to cripple. Enough to kill.

“Yes, I have,” Aria replied so sweetly I wanted to scream. “I make her porridge every day as appreciation for what she does for me… and that’s when I put it in. Should I double the amount I put in?”

A sharp, broken sound escaped my lips, too soft for them to hear, but loud enough to tear through my chest.

My little sister… my own blood.

I pressed a hand over my mouth as Ryan chuckled, the sound dark, cruel.

“Just relax honey, it’ll soon be the right time. She’s already lost her ability to conceive anyway. Very soon it’ll be her death. I wonder what she was thinking…” He scoffed. “A mateless, dormant wolf like her thinking she can be with me.”

Their laughter mixed—two people who should have protected me, loved me, cherished me—mocking everything I was.

Aria added, bitter and sharp, “If not for my biased father, I should have everything that belongs to her! She’s just a thief, I hate her so fucking much!”

That was it.

That was the last thing my heart could take.

I stepped back… one trembling step, then another… my vision blurring, my lungs burning as if the poison they fed me had finally reached my soul.

I turned… slowly at first… then faster… until I was out of the corridor entirely, running even though my legs were shaking, running even though my chest was splitting open.