The Wolf Moon: Friends to Lovers Wolf Shifter Romance

Chapter 6

Iwas stirred awake sometime in the night by Cynthia, who hovered over me quiet as a ghost with a candle in one hand. She offered me her other hand and I took it without thinking, something about her presence comforting to me. With quiet determination, she began to lead me through the temple.

I had rested in what appeared to be a housing area on the top floor of the temple across from Cynthia’s room. She led me back down to the main level of the temple, where wolves had no doubt previously come to worship the Goddesses and make offerings for their blessings. Now it was forever silent, removed from their culture.

Cynthia led me further down a more secretive set of stairs until we were walking through storage units. I spotted shelves of canned foods and preserves, but wasn’t given enough time to see exactly how extensive the food storage was. I was pulled to a rather dusty cupboard and led through the cobwebs until Cynthia stopped to quietly lift an overhead latch.

She climbed the steps that would lead outside first and I looked up after her. I could see the night sky, stars studding it quietly and the waning moon resting among them. As I looked at it, my immediate thought was Cynthia’s words whispering about the Crone and her oracles. I followed Cynthia up the steps, looking around briefly.

The exit wasn’t too far from the back of the temple, but well into the woods so that there was plenty of cover. The buildings of the lycan village were dark with sleep, though many lights flickered in the distance for those who were restless in the night. I stared only a moment before looking into the woods uncertainly.

“If you wish to return to your village, you’ll want to go that direction,” Cynthia lifted her candle towards the woods, pointing south with determination before turning those wise eyes on me, “You’ll walk straight into a creek. If you follow it east, it will lead to a river. Follow the flow of the river and you will find your village.”

I looked from her to the direction she pointed once again, every cell in my body demanding that I abandon my position and return back to my family immediately. How long would it even be before the King Alpha went to check on me at the temple, if ever? If he didn’t find me, wouldn’t he just assume I died in a wall somewhere? I could hide every Wolf Moon among my people until eventually this entire situation was a bad, distant dream.

But if Cynthia was right… if the Goddesses told her the truth, my people would be facing a horrible doom in the future. They would perish by the month of my birth this year. I would no doubt go down with them. I reached for the blade, now firmly strapped around my leg once again familiarly.

“And if I wish to follow a different path?” I asked Cynthia, turning my head just enough to look at her with determination. She had been watching me the entire time, waiting for me to make a decision, and satisfaction crossed her features briefly.

“The building you are looking for is there,” She informed me, turning around completely to face the lycan village. She used her free hand to point at a taller building, well into the village, but still easy to see. She looked at me once again, “And the room you are looking for will be on the second floor, the last door on the right.”

Cynthia stepped to me, lifting her hand to touch my face softly.

“No matter where you go. No matter what path you choose, the moon will always be with you,” She told me, her voice hushed and kind. She moved her hand from my face and turned away. I watched as she reentered the hidden path into the temple, gaining a last glance of her hair shining in the darkness before she closed the door above her. The door was nearly invisible among the forest floor. I could understand why it was missed.

I glanced into the forest once more, wanting more than anything to run for it. And then I turned away to begin my hunt for the King Alpha. I hid between buildings, moving as silently as possible. When having to run into the open, I kept low and watched for signs of life warily. As I moved closer to the building Cynthia pointed me to, I spotted a lycan walking out of a separate building. I quickly ducked down, my hand on the hilt of my blade carefully.

When the lycan walked past without glancing in my direction, I waited until they were out of sight before proceeding. It took some time to get to the building I wanted and when I did, I spent a considerable more amount of time staring at it determinedly. It appeared either unoccupied or the occupant was sound asleep. The former would have been preferred.

I looked around once more and when satisfied that the area was vacant, I crept towards the building easily. The front door was too in the open and it was likely it would be locked. I stayed against the wall of the building, hidden from view, and reached above me to try a window. The first one wouldn’t budge. I tried two more before finding one that opened under my touch.

My heart was pulsing loudly in my throat as adrenaline began to pump determinedly throughout me. I lifted the window further and then twisted around, sheathing my blade before gripping the window ledge firmly. I looked into the building carefully, not spotting any signs of movement. And then I lifted myself up and through the window, feeling like a bandit; a mad, insane bandit. I planted a foot on the floor of the house carefully, my bare feet silent in the air.

When I was fully inside the building, I shut the window to prevent wandering eyes from wondering if someone might be in their fearless leader’s house. I snuck through the building slowly, avoiding any and all furniture. I found the stairs and followed them to the second floor. I looked left briefly, my eyes taking in the hallway with a few doors. Then I turned right, walking purposely.

The last door was already partially opened, which felt like a bad omen to me. That or the Goddesses had used some voodoo to open it for me. Here, they might be whispering, he’s in here. Sic him.

I opened the door further, slipping into the room despite the fact that my heart was panicking. My sight was greeted by a sleeping form atop of a large bed. The King Alpha was lying on top of the sheets, positively spread out and resting with ease. It was as if he hadn’t just sentenced some innocent girl to die a horrible death of starvation in an abandoned temple.

I got mad just looking at him, his scarred yet handsome face sleeping peacefully.

I crouched slightly, removing the blade from its sheath quietly. Then I began to move towards the King Alpha slowly. He was shirtless, revealing even more battle scars across his chest under the moonlight. If I had to guess, I wasn’t the first person to attempt to assassinate him. It made me nervous.

He was centered squarely on the bed, far from the edges as if to purposely make it harder to carry out the deed. I hesitated when I reached the bed, looking from the edge to him with unease. I was fit enough to have more strength in my blows than most girls in my village, but I would still need two hands if I wanted to drive my blade into his heart as intended. At the same time, I couldn’t touch the lycan or else he would definitely wake up.

I crawled onto the edge of the bed carefully, holding my breath as it sank under my weight. When the King Alpha didn’t move, I moved closer to him, blade still in hand. I expected him to wake any second and thought perhaps I should come up with a backup story, but nothing came to mind so I only proceeded.

When I was close enough, I hesitated a moment longer. I could try stabbing him from the side, but I had approached him from his right side, my left. It meant I would have to reach further over him to hit his heart. I would probably miss or not be able to put all my strength into it. I closed my eyes for a moment, tightening my hands into fists stubbornly. And then I began to move even closer to him.

I lifted my body lithely over him until I was straddling his form, keeping myself raised enough not to touch him completely. Now satisfied by my position, I gripped the blade with both of my hands, holding it above his chest for a moment. I aimed for his heart, hesitated, and began to shift the blade in a way that would avoid the scars already on his chest. I wasn’t sure why I didn’t want to disturb them and the thought was enough to frustrate me.

Abandoning my attempt to be nice, I lifted the blade above my head. I stayed in this position, poised for my attack, for a moment longer than necessary. It was like when I had an arrow trained on his eye. Do it, I demanded of myself, but again my body refused to listen.

I tightened my grip over the blade over and over again, my body tightening under it as well. I must’ve moved above him, enough to move against him. Suddenly, his eyes flew open; those steel blues reflecting the moonlight as they found me above him.

I struck, aiming for his heart blindly. He immediately reached for my wrists, snatching them in his grip dangerously before rolling over me roughly. I lifted my knee, slamming it repeatedly into his abdomen as best as I could and tilted my wrists under his grip to prevent the blade from piercing me instead. His tightening grip demanded I drop it, but I firmly refused.

I wanted to scream, finding myself in a brawl, but my mouth remained closed with focus as I fought his powerful form. I felt the edge of the bed below us and I thrust my entire body into throwing us off entirely. I heard the satisfying collision of his head against the bedside table as he released me with a grunt.

The blade fell across the floor unhelpfully and I immediately crawled hastily for it. Just as I nearly reached it, hands gripped the back of my legs and pulled me out of reach. I was suddenly pinned under him, his hips holding mine down and his legs tight around mine to prevent me from movement. I immediately tried to knee him between his legs, but he easily saw it coming and shifted to avoid it. He moved to prevent me from attempting further attacks on his lower regions.

I used one hand to grab his ear viciously and the other to slam into his nose as hard as I could manage, but my target was offset by the struggle and it wasn’t as hard as I would have liked. Still, he growled at the resulting pain, blood already leaking from his head from my previous attack.

He pinned my dominant hand on the floor above me while I continued my attack on his ear. When he targeted that hand, I immediately began to claw at his face, which drew frustrated snarls from his throat as he bared dangerous fangs at me. He ripped my hand from his face and pinned that with the other, roughly pulling them both under my head until I had to lift my chin to avoid the discomfort of the position.

We were suddenly left silent and panting on the floor of his room, my body officially incapacitated under his dominating grip. I wanted to kick myself. I should have ran back to my village after all. I wasn’t a secret assassinator of lycan kings. It was stupid of me to think I could even manage it.

“You’re supposed to be locked up in the temple,” Alpha Roman abruptly growled, frustration painting his features. But at the same time, there was something of a delight in his expression as though he were pleased to see me here. At first, I thought it mad, but then when evaluating my own emotions I felt a form of excitement in having him close to me as well. Perhaps it was this strange insanity that had prevented me from performing killing blows when available.

“I got out,” I stated the obvious, narrowing my eyes at him firmly.

“You got out and you didn’t run home. Instead, you thought you would come kill me in my sleep?” He turned his gaze from me to the blade just out of my reach. He lifted his free hand and grabbed it, causing my heart rate to increase exponentially. “How’d you know where I slept?”

“I’m a hunter, remember?” I responded sharply, squirming under him when he lifted the blade over me. He didn’t appear to believe my excuse and began to run the blade over my side slowly.

“Who told you where I sleep?” Alpha Roman asked me dangerously, following the blade with his eyes pointedly. I began to panic, trying to think of anything that wouldn’t get Cynthia in trouble with him.

“I’m… I’m…,” I faltered momentarily and then winced when he pulled my wrists further under me roughly. “I had a vision from the… from the Crone!” He paused then, looking up from the blade and instead peering at my face.

“Are you claiming to be of the oracles?” He asked me, his voice low with growing impatience. Something told me this was both the wrong and right answer. I shook my head and then also nodded hesitantly. “The Goddesses wish me dead, now? Is this what you’re telling me?”

I didn’t answer this question. A chuckled rumbled through him, demented, angry, and at the same time amused. Something in my soul liked his laugh, despite the darkness of it. It pulled at that wildness inside me, drawing it to the surface until the King Alpha froze against me. He inhaled briefly before holding his breath determinedly.

“You’re tempting my wolf, Milena,” He growled at me dangerously.

“I don’t mean to,” I whispered, my voice strained under such an unusual feeling.

“There might have been a time when I asked the Goddesses for a mate several… several years ago,” He continued, shifting forward to breathe in my scent deeply. After a moment, he lifted the blade from my side and I whimpered, afraid he would turn it on me. Instead, he abruptly turned it on himself, driving it squarely into his heart with an angry grunt. I gasped at the sight.

When he didn’t drop dead above me, I felt like I truly had fallen into insanity. He ripped it from his chest as he had done my arrows, my blade now bloody and his chest healing before me.

“When they refused a mate, I instead asked the Goddesses to kill me,” He dropped the useless blade on the ground and pulled one of my hands from under me roughly. I whimpered as he pressed my palm against his healing wound determinedly, a look of anger enveloping him. “It’s been centuries, do you understand? It’s been centuries and the Crone refuses my life. She’ll take everyone around me. She’ll take you, even. But never me.”

I was staring at him with disbelief and horror, my initial thoughts stuck on the fact that Cynthia had sent me on a suicide mission. But then I truly took in his words and my eyes trailed from his to my hand on his chest. I stared at it for a moment and then began to move my touch over his other scars. They were wounds, caused by centuries of life. An immortal werewolf; it was a nightmare if I had ever heard one, both for him and for the humans.

“The challenge… everything was pointless,” I whispered, wanting to be disgruntled but distracted by his body so close to mine. That wild power flared within me, recalling the challenge and the feel of that thing within me. I was surrounded by the King Alpha’s empowering scent, untamed and dangerous yet… desirable. Aware of my own thoughts this time, I fought the urge to pull him to me and breathe him in as I had before.

“You smell of human in one moment and wolf in another,” the King Alpha said suspiciously, narrowing his eyes as he huffed above me with restraint. “Why would they grant me a mate now? And one which was among the humans… they must have stolen you from us. Or perhaps you were thrown out; a defected wolf.”

He released his grip on my remaining pinned hand and planted both of his on the ground on either side of me. He lowered himself further until his lips were over my chest carefully. It would have been a perfect time to attack him, but I remained frozen under him. I was afraid if I moved, I would throw myself to him as I had before.

“I’m not a wolf,” I managed painfully.

“We could find out for certain if you’d just… shift,” He growled the order dominatingly. I whimpered immediately, feeling that unfamiliar touch of something crawling under my skin. Yet no bones snapped and nothing changed on the surface. His scent became even more addictive around me, as though the closer I got to whatever connection was between me and the werewolves, the more drawn to him I was.

“What’s happening to me?” I asked him fearfully as that power thrilled throughout me.

He was still as a statue above me, his muscled tensed and poised as he watched me.

“A normal lycan would have shifted even if they didn’t want to. You’ve rejected me three times now,” He stated simply, as though I had a choice in the matter. “What should I do with you, Milena?”

I wanted to demand him to let me go home. But still Cynthia’s warning ran through my head; that I needed to stop this Alpha before the Hunter’s Moon. I obviously couldn’t just kill him, as he proved tonight. There had to be something else I was missing.

“Let me stay,” I abruptly requested, an expression of surprise gracing my features before his.

“No,” He growled angrily in response. His hands tensed into fists against the ground. “If you’re an oracle wolf or even a defect wolf, I should banish you immediately.”

“I’m not a defect,” I snapped in irritation, “What does that even mean?”

“It means you were born with deformity that would render you useless to the pack. Missing legs perhaps or-” He was peering at me, his focus beginning to fade. He shook his head firmly.

“I’m not missing anything!” I gasped, offended. “And that’s just barbaric!”

“You’re not staying. I would-” He stopped himself from continuing, struggling with his own thoughts.

I hesitated, thinking over everything I had learned about the lycans so far. And then I lifted my chin, revealing my neck to the King Alpha on impulse. He growled lowly, the sound vibrating along my body and reaching into that wild power within me. I wanted to crawl away, but I held still submissively.

“Let me stay,” I requested once again, swallowing with difficulty. “I’ll be… I’ll be your mate or… whatever that is.”

“Is that what the Goddesses requested of you, then?” He asked me with frustration, his hatred of his deities thick in his words. I wondered if it would be the right answer to deny this or to say it was true. The Goddesses hadn’t requested anything, really. I hadn’t received any visions, but I couldn’t very well admit that and keep Cynthia safe at the same time.

“Then let’s make them regret it,” The King Alpha suddenly growled, grasping me firmly before lifting me to him roughly. I gasped in surprise and then cried out when he bit me viciously. His fangs buried into the curve into my shoulder, but it felt as though they went even deeper.

I grasped at his arms tightly, whimpering against him as his bite bled into my soul possessively. That wild part of me was drawn out, thriving under his powerful bond. I could feel it just under my skin, settling and stretching over the length of me as if making my flesh its home. For just a moment, I wondered if perhaps I was something else; something untamed and of nature itself. Yet my body remained human in the King Alpha’s embrace.

He ripped his bite from my flesh none-too-gently, panting with exhilaration.

“You may be mine now, Milena,” He snarled at me dangerously, “But make no mistake; I won’t ever be yours.”

I struggled to take in air momentarily, reaching for my neck briefly.

“You bit me,” I merely responded, obviously behind on times. And then I promptly fell into unconsciousness.