Page 25 of Destined to the Lycan (The Shadow Realms #3)

Amara

I startled awake, confused to find myself in a warm and comfortable woodhouse. Despite the horrible injuries I vividly recalled sustaining, I couldn’t feel any pain or discomfort anywhere in my body.

The joyous flames of a fire danced in the hearth.

Gas lamps illuminated the room, giving it an almost dreamy halo.

The pleasant scent of roasted nuts and hot cocoa tickled my nose.

How my brain managed to register that this stove to my left was empty made no sense as my focus laid squarely on the otherworldly creature in front of me.

He slouched in an empire chair near the fireplace.

He was beautiful in a terrifying way. His eyes—a deep and unsettling shade of red with the vertical pupils of a snake—stared at me with an intensity that made me want to squirm.

Underneath his grayish blue skin, lightning-shaped stripes appeared to pulsate with a soft glow.

Whitish-blue hair tumbled down to his clavicles in soft waves.

It framed a haunting face, very human in appearance—like his body—with a square jaw, plush lips stretched in a taunting smirk, and a proud nose.

He narrowed his eyes at me. His exquisitely long lashes cast a shadow, making him harder to read.

“Welcome back, Amara Sanni,” the stranger said in a purring voice.

It was just as haunting as his face, with an accent that didn’t quite qualify as British, but definitely not American.

He straightened in his seat, his impressive abdominal muscles tightening for a split second.

He was naked except for a white, Grecian skirt which fell to his knees, a golden belt, and Roman sandals laced up to the middle of his calves.

If not for his unusual skin, he could have been one of the gods of the Olympus.

“Who are you? Why did you take me? How do you know my name? And where are we?” I asked in rapid fire, as I glanced around the room with that last question.

I hadn’t meant to respond that way, but my mouth just ran away with me.

Instead of snapping back at me, the stranger chuckled.

“So many questions,” he said tauntingly. “I am Lyall. A little bird told me about you. And this is my temporary home,” he added, waving at the house.

That he hadn’t answered why he took me didn’t go unnoticed. Although I intended to press him on that matter, I rejoiced that he was at least communicating in an unthreatening fashion. Forcing myself to speak in a non-belligerent or accusatory tone, I calmly pried further about recent events.

“You pretended to be Remus and then created that horrible illusion where I died, didn’t you?” I asked softly.

“I did,” he replied with a shrug.

“Why would you do that?” I asked, genuinely baffled.

“For fun? To see your reaction? To test your skills? Or maybe just because I can…” he said in an almost pensive fashion.

He was obviously baiting me, likely wanting to stir an outraged reaction from me.

But this male was an apex predator. I wouldn’t give him any reason to get worked up and lash out at me.

Although I wasn’t physically restrained in any way, my body felt unnaturally weighed down, as if an invisible force was shackling me to the comfortable padded chair he had settled me in.

Is any of this even real? Am I trapped in another illusion? Is he still testing me?

Too many questions were firing off in my mind. For now, I could only play along and hope to come out on the winning side. Above all, I needed to understand what his intentions were.

“Okay. But that still doesn’t tell me why you took me against my will,” I said carefully. “If you just wanted to test my reactions to your illusions, you could have asked.”

“I will let you take a wild guess as to why I took you,” he replied in a dangerously sweet voice filled with a dare.

I frowned, unsure as to what kind of answer he expected. By the way he had phrased his sentence, he seemed to imply that the answer should be obvious.

“Honestly, I cannot think of any reason why you would,” I said in all sincerity.

“I suspect that you already know that I’m sick.

My blood is poisoned. If you planned on eating me, it would almost certainly kill you.

That could explain why you haven’t bothered—assuming that was your intention to begin with. ”

He burst out laughing, the sound full and throaty in a way that I found quite pleasant. If he wasn’t so deliberately intimidating, he would be an extremely attractive male.

“Yes, it is a very nasty poison that courses through you,” he conceded with almost malicious glee. “But it’s no threat to me. I could devour every single morsel of your tender flesh and remain unscathed.”

My jaw dropped as I stared at him.

“I’m what you could call a doppelganger. I absorb the appearance, knowledge, powers, and skills of anything I eat,” Lyall said smugly.

“Permanently?!” I exclaimed.

He chuckled and shook his head. “Some things, yes. But other things, no. However, I’m immune to all poisons. So eating you won’t hurt me.”

He stated that last sentence with an undeniable threat. But my mind went back to the beginning of his previous description of his abilities. If he absorbed the appearance of anything he ate, did that mean…?

“Where’s Remus?! Please tell me you haven’t hurt him!” I pleaded, fear twisting my insides.

His gaze darkened, and his face took on a hungry, almost sensuous expression. The sharp tips of his fangs peaked between his parted lips, and he placed his right hand over his crotch, as if to adjust himself.

“Fuck, the scent of your fear is divine,” he hissed as if he was fighting to keep control over some primal urges. “It was to be expected as your natural scent is also delicious. Even the stench of death clinging to you fails to ruin it. No wonder the pup wants you.”

“Please, tell me he’s alive!” I begged. “Please tell me you haven’t hurt him.”

He tilted his head to the side and studied my face as one would a strange creature that defied logic.

“I haven’t… yet,” he said at last.

A choked sound of relief escaped me. “Then I beg you to leave him be. You already have me. If it’s food you want, then eat me and let him go.”

To my surprise, my offer appeared to anger him.

“Why would I?” he asked in a harsh tone.

“Remus is a good man!” I exclaimed.

Lyall huffed with disdain and waved a hand. “He’s cursed and an outcast. The pup is a danger to others. Even his blood could kill.”

“He’s sick!” I countered, outrage audible in my voice. “It’s not his fault that he was born this way. Despite all the hardships he faced, he still turned into a good man. From the moment we met, he’s been kind, protective, and honorable towards me.”

My jaw dropped, and I recoiled when Lyall slammed both his hands on the arms of his chair, his face twisted with fury.

“You don’t know him!” he spat angrily. “You’re vulnerable and desperate, easily manipulated by anyone who could give you an ounce of hope. For all you know, he’s just playing you.”

I shook my head firmly. “Even though he and I just met, I trust him with my life. We’re Twin Flames.”

Lyall snorted, his anger seeming to fade as quickly as it flared, and a disdainful expression settled on his features.

“Are you?” he asked mockingly. “He could just be saying that to get you to blindly follow him.”

Once more, I firmly shook my head. “His physiological responses to me are undeniable. Others of his pack also noticed. In fact, it was one of them who pointed it out to me, and I was the one who forced Remus to confess.”

Lyall clenched his teeth and stared at me quietly for a few seconds that felt like an eternity. Why was he so displeased about the connection between Remus and me?

“And so now you’re in love?” he finally asked, his voice dripping with contempt.

I gave him an unimpressed look before replying. “Of course not. As you said so well, I don’t know him as we’ve only recently met. But I love how I feel around him and the wonderful way he treats me. If I survive this sickness, there’s no doubt I will fall madly in love with him.”

He snorted again, looking at me as if I was stupid. “How idealistic. Except that your perfect Twin Flame utterly sucks at protecting you. He abandoned you in the middle of the Haunted Woods, and I only had to stroll in and nab you.”

Although I had indeed hated that he left me on the road, he had not abandoned me. Remus did what he believed was the safest approach at the time. This blatant attack against my man only whipped my need to defend him.

“Remus didn’t abandon me. He made a difficult choice under dire circumstances. He had no reason to think you would be lurking nearby. In fact, he said that no beings like you ever wandered in that area. So what were you doing in the Haunted Woods?” I challenged.

“I will grant that his assessment was fair,” Lyall conceded with a taunting smirk. “I shouldn’t have been there, but I was curious about you.”

My eyes widened. “About me?” I echoed, confused. “Why? How did you even know of my existence? I’m nobody, just a chandler from a small town.”

“I wanted to know who was so bold and arrogant to want to kill Ranael,” he said, his voice and expression hardening. “My little test proved you completely unsuited to face the demon wolf. And you think you can just show up and subdue him?”

“What?! No! I don’t want to kill him!” I exclaimed, stunned. “I don’t know who told you that, but it’s completely false. I’m going there seeking his protection. Did you not see me recite that incantation in your illusion?”

“His protection?” Lyall asked, taken aback. “For what?”

“So that he will bite me with his snake tail to counter the poison that’s killing me, without inflicting me any other harm,” I replied in a factual manner.

Of all the reactions he could have had, sitting there, gaping at me as if I had grown an extra limb on my forehead was the last thing I expected.