Page 54 of Destined to the Lycan (The Shadow Realms #3)

Remus

I fell out of a place I didn’t quite understand and back into my body. Pain engulfed me as I evolved from my weak form into an apex predator. I welcomed it, embraced it. Soon, it would allow me to sate the endless hunger in bloodlust that whipped my blood.

Even before I finished shifting, the sound of my bones cracking and reshaping themselves still popping in my ears, I limped towards the door, my gait straightening as I completed my transformation.

All thoughts of running wild and hunting the countless prey begging to be savaged by me ended the moment I opened the flimsy door that sought to keep me imprisoned in this room.

The most irresistible scent lured me to a room just a few steps away. A hunger like no other immediately twisted my insides. Saliva flooded my mouth, and blood pumped in my veins as anticipation increased my heart rate.

I reached for the door handle. My need for violence felt cheated when I found it unlocked. That didn’t stop me from slamming it open. It smashed against the wall with a cracking sound as some of the wood splintered under the strength of the impact.

It pleased me.

I almost used my claws on it to shred it to pieces, but the irresistible aroma of my sleeping prey beckoned me.

Although glad for this easy meal laid before me, I once more felt cheated, but this time out of the thrill of the hunt, the intoxicating scent of fear, and the blissful screams of terror and pain as I decimated my prey.

However, the stench of death lingering over the female almost stopped me in my tracks. Her meat was foul, poisoned, and decaying. Surprisingly, it didn’t repulse me the way it normally should have. The poison coursing through her was familiar to me. It was mine, but not quite.

Nevertheless, the female’s underlying scent still made my mouth water, and my innards knot. But it wasn’t hunger that triggered that reaction. Something about her didn’t make me want to feed or maim… I wanted to claim her.

But why?

The female was a weak and helpless creature, visibly at death’s door. Killing her would be a mercy. Killing her would grant me the pleasure of the destruction I craved. And yet, my skin was heating in an unnatural fashion, while my blood boiled, and my cock swelled, gradually growing erect.

Surely, the sickness coursing through her was messing with my head.

In one powerful jump, I leapt onto the bed, landing on my hind legs at her feet.

I dropped to my knees, my hands on each side of her calves.

A wave of fury swelled through me when the impact didn’t wake her, even if the mattress shook under my sudden weight.

The wretched female was denying me the terror that was rightfully mine before I ended her life.

But that scent...

I yanked the thin blanket covering her and sniffed her legs up to her crotch.

Blood rushed to my cock, and it hardened painfully as a powerful need set my loins ablaze.

With a single swipe of my claws, I ripped her flimsy dress to shreds, scratching her skin in the process.

A few beads of blood seeped out of a shallow cut right above her navel.

A painful growl rumbled out of my throat as another wave of burning need twisted my insides.

On instinct, I licked the blood and nearly spilled my seed.

I released a powerful howl then rubbed my snout all over her skin as I inhaled her scent, heedless of the stench of death that failed to hide her more alluring aroma.

I lingered for a brief instant between her breasts where it was a little stronger before sniffing a path up to her neck.

A flurry of nonsensical images began flashing before my eyes.

The female was smiling at me with a tender expression.

In the next image, she was kissing me. I could almost taste her on my tongue.

Then she was naked, her back arched, and her face dissolved in an air of pure bliss as she cried out in ecstasy.

The woman curled up against my wolf’s flank, rubbing her face against my fur.

And then she was laughing while throwing a stick.

I shook my head, infuriated by what had to be some kind of mind trick.

My prey was creating some sort of distraction while pretending to be asleep.

I slammed both my hands on the mattress on each side of her head to wake her.

She remained still. Anger surged within me to be thus ignored.

I grabbed her shoulders with both hands, my claws sinking into her flesh as I shook her.

No reaction.

However, the smell of her blood called to me.

I leaned forward to lick it. But movement at the edge of my vision had me jerking my head to the left.

The sight of her palpitating artery whipped the burning need in my loins into a frenzy.

Her scent—more potent in the crook of her neck—wiped out what control I had remaining.

The savage side lurking at the edge of my consciousness took over.

I only realized that I had bitten her when the divine taste of blood exploded on my taste buds—tainted though it was.

Any rational thought fled my mind as I surrendered to my feral side.

I emitted an enraged growl, furious to have been denied her terror.

But I would punish her by tearing her apart.

Opening my mouth wide, I lunged to rip her throat out, but a blinding light shot out from her chest.

I howled in pain and jumped backwards off the bed, away from the unnatural light stabbing my eyes. Arm raised before my face as protection, I blinked and tried to assess the source of the threat.

To my shock a tall silhouette approached the bed from the right.

I couldn’t clearly see who it belonged to under the glaring light.

Then it suddenly faded to a weak glow on the woman’s chest. Only then did I realize it emanated from a golden necklace I had previously ignored.

But that, too, I dismissed from my thoughts. The male held my entire focus.

Where did he come from? There were no other entrances into this space. Had he been here the whole time? If so, how had I not noticed?

He doesn’t have a scent…

That sudden realization took me aback. Everything had a scent.

In the split second that it took me to register all of this information, the male sat on the bed next to the female.

He tilted his head as he examined the mangled wound my first bite had left on the fleshy part of the woman’s shoulder, just above her left clavicle.

Seeming completely unfazed and unbothered by my presence, he glanced back at me with an unimpressed expression.

“Tsk, tsk. So messy! That’s no way to treat a lady,” he said in a conversational tone.

His lack of fear in my presence infuriated me. But seeing him lean forward and kiss the woman’s lips shattered something inside me. A single word exploded in my mind.

“MINE!”

Blind fury swept over me. I lunged at the male, who moved away at an impossible speed, sending me crashing against the headboard of the bed.

He was but a couple of meters to my right.

I leapt forward and swiped my claws at him, but once more, he moved at such dizzying speed that it almost looked as if he had vanished and reappeared near the window.

He raised a taunting eyebrow and smirked provocatively.

I roared with rage and jumped towards him, hoping to pin him down on the floor before feasting on his face to wipe that mocking grin off.

This time, he didn’t just dodge my attack, he twirled out of the way towards the door.

I crashed hard into the dresser, my teeth rattling in my head as I slumped to the floor.

Pain radiated in my right shoulder, which had connected solidly against the corner of the dresser.

I jumped back to my feet only to find the male leaning against the door frame, legs and arms crossed.

“Did that hurt, pup? Such unnecessary violence,” he said with the most disingenuous air of sympathy laced with a hint of disapproval. “You need to rein in that temper, or Amara will choose me over a mindless animal like you .”

Amara!

I knew that name. It awakened a powerful longing and a rabid possessiveness.

Enraged, I swiped at the dresser, tearing off part of the wood, and sending the lamp sitting on top flying towards the foul male.

He effortlessly sidestepped it, then swiftly backed away when I started running towards him.

A buzzing sound resonated behind him as he appeared to be yanked backwards out of the room.

Only once he turned the corner did I realize a pair of bug wings hung from his back.

I didn’t have time to try and make sense of how these appendages suddenly appeared on him.

Instead, I burst out into the corridor to find him only a couple of meters away from me.

My mouth watered at the thought of his blood pouring down my throat and of the sound of his bones shattering between my teeth while he screeched for a mercy that would never come.

To my dismay, just when I would have caught him, the stripes beneath his blue skin glowed brightly, blinding me.

The next second, he had vanished, replaced by a giant bat that flew to the end of the hallway.

If not for him turning back into his oddly painted human form, I wouldn’t have believed it was truly him who had morphed into a different shape.

This time, he leaned against the railing of the stairs, crossed his legs again, then began to pick at some non-existent dirt under his nails.

“Fight me, you coward!” I growled, my words barely intelligible to my own ears.

I couldn’t recall ever having to use speech with prey. But then, I couldn’t recall ever being able to indulge in the hunt. What vague memory I had of my past awakenings involved some sort of cage that prevented me from answering the call of the moon.

But this taunting, I knew with certainty that I’d never experienced it before.