Chapter 64
Lucie and Aedan both were panting heavily in the middle of a clearing. They laid down while Derrick and Justice stayed beside them looking toward the forest, wondering what had happened.
“Geez, that was close. We almost didn’t make it.” Justice sighed and looked over at Lucie. “You two okay? That was some intense running.”
“You did good, Lucie,” Derrick said in a cooing voice as he massaged her fur.
Abe materialized in front of them and immediately searched for Lucie. He found her lycan and instantly relaxed.
“Thank goodness you’re alright! What did you do to stop them?” Derrick asked, feeling Lucie’s immediate relief as well.
Abe shook his head with a soft smile. “I didn’t. Ken did it. It seems you made quite the impression on him, princess.”
“As long as it’s a platonic impression, I’m fine with it.” Derrick curled his arm possessively over Lucie. When it came to deities, he didn’t have a high opinion of them after what happened to her.
Abe chuckled. “You don’t have to worry. His heart is somewhere else. Right, Lucie?”
Lucie nodded her head and leaned into Derrick’s touch more. She was shocked that Ken had come to their aid but incredibly grateful. She was certain if they’d gotten any closer, her Uncle Levi would have intervened, and she didn’t want to be stuck in her lycan form.
I don’t think we should go that way on the way back, Aedan said with a chuckle. At least now we know I’m the fastest, though.
Lucie jerked her head in the direction of Aedan. I was an inch ahead of you!
That’s cute, Lucie. Really, it is. But you didn’t beat me.
Abe chuckled. “Do one of you two know which one of them made it out of the woods first?” he asked, looking at Derrick and Justice.
The two men looked at one another for a second before they both said in unison, “It was a tie.”
Lucie and Aedan growled in displeasure. That was not what either of them wanted to hear.
Derrick chuckled and wrapped his arms around Lucie’s neck, burying himself in her fur.
“You are too adorable sometimes, Luce.” He held her just like that, buried in her warmth.
This habit of risking their lives was starting to become a normal occurrence for them.
He just wanted them to live their lives together, peacefully running their kingdom.
Nice and quiet, where he could spend his days loving her.
When they finally got back, he would be taking Jasper’s idea of the mini fridge.
A quick snack, rehydrating, and back at it.
He would put what they did during her heat to shame.
They had some long overdue lovemaking ahead of them.
She was healed now, but she wasn’t in the right form.
“You want me to cuddle with you like that too, Aedan? Because I will.” Justice laughed as Aedan snarled at him.
Aedan rose slowly and turned. In the distance away from the forest were the ruins of an ancient past. The area that lycans once dominated. He wasn’t sure at first what he was feeling, after having run for his life. But now he was feeling it … the slight pull.
Lucie, I feel something.
Lucie eased herself to her feet, slowly bringing Derrick up with her. She looked at her brother curiously and watched as he sniffed the air.
What do you smell? Lucie asked, trying to test the air with her nose as well.
I can’t describe it. Something amazing. Something that makes me excited …
Your mate. Lucie looked into the distance. She could see Aedan was now anxious to follow the scent. So much for resting. But she couldn’t blame him. Alright, let’s go. The sooner this is done, the sooner we can shift again.
“We getting back to it already?” Justice asked with a stretch.
“Aedan smells something.” Abe watched the two men nod in immediate understanding.
Justice hopped onto Aedan’s back. “Hi Ho Silver, Away!” He clicked his heels playfully into Aedan, chuckling at the snarl that followed. His cousin wasn’t a scary lycan prince to him.
“Baby, I can run alongside you. Especially after all that running you just did.” Derrick listened as Lucie snorted at him with indignance.
She nudged at him with her nose, encouraging him to get on already.
He sighed but obliged her. He liked being close to her but felt like this was putting a strain on her.
Alright. Let’s see what this is all about. Is the trial simply to find your mate? If so, we seem to almost be done. Lucie jumped ahead, Aedan running at her heels.
He said there was something that only you could do, though.
Aedan was trying to think what all of this could mean.
Was the point of all this just to give him his mate?
He was certain there was more to it than that.
If they had guessed right, and he assumed they had since he was smelling the most intoxicating smell in the world, they were about to find out real soon.
Lucie slowed down as they reached a stone entryway. She waited for Aedan so she could follow his lead. After all, it was the scent of his mate they were now following.
Aedan approached cautiously and both men hopped off of the lycans’ backs. There was no more running now. Everyone wanted to be alert for whatever they found.
Aedan’s heart raced as he inhaled the scent, which was much stronger now. Butterflies fluttered in his chest, and the excitement he felt made him lower his guard. All he could think about was finding the source.
He carefully climbed over the rubble and onto a light gray stone platform. Around the platform were stone stands, as if it used to be an arena of some sort. In the middle of the arena was a dark opening that led down into the earth, and it was toward this hole his feet were pulling him.
Lucie stood beside Aedan and looked down the dark, steep stairway, which looked deep.
She watched as Aedan plunged into the darkness, and she quickly followed behind him.
The instant she did, they heard a loud slam.
The entrance above them had closed, leaving just her and Aedan locked in the darkness.
They both stood there for a moment, quietly pondering the situation. It seemed like Abe couldn’t get through either.
Lucie tilted her head to the side as she heard Aedan walking farther downward.
Aedan, wait for me. She understood he was being driven by instinct, but he still needed to be smart about all of this.
A barrier had just locked them in and everyone else out.
This wasn’t going to be a game of freeze tag where Aedan runs in, taps the girl, and she’s free.
But she could see he was agitated and anxious, moving his nose from side to side, trying to figure out which way to go.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, the path widened, and torches with blue flames illuminated a tan stone walkway.
The fire burned without heat, casting a cold glow that pulled the shadows longer than they had any right to be.
Small brown bricks lined the walls, worn smooth at the edges, the same pattern arching overhead to form a low ceiling that pressed the air close around them.
Lucie moved cautiously beside Aedan, her ears swiveling at every small sound, her gaze tracking every flicker of light that might be something more.
She was going to have to keep a protective eye on him since he wasn’t thinking rationally right now.
Fantastic. Babysitting duty for a lovesick alpha.
Just what I signed up for. The pull of his mate was intoxicating, inhibiting his ability to think clearly, and she wasn’t about to let him walk into whatever this was with his head full of bond-fog.
The sound of trickling water made her ears perk up.
She peered down the corridor and saw it continued to widen, the brick giving way to rougher stone the deeper they went.
It opened into a solid gray chamber, split down the middle by a small stream that flowed through a carved brick channel.
Moss clung to the edges in dark patches, softening the hard lines of the masonry.
Something sat on the other side of the water, catching the light in a way nothing in this place should.
The blue flames flickered over it and revealed a clear crystal taller than either of them, with a young woman curled in a ball at its center.
She looked frozen, sealed, her hair suspended around her face as though the moment she’d gone under had been trapped along with her.
Aedan lifted his nose toward the crystal and his ears pricked forward.
He let out a low sound that wasn’t quite a whine and wasn’t quite a growl, and then he leaped over the stream in one fluid bound.
He pawed at the crystal frantically and began to whimper, the noise catching in his throat in a way that made Lucie’s chest ache despite herself.
She moved to follow, paws already lifting to jump, when the water surged.
The stream shot upward, twisting like something alive, and froze mid-air.
An ice wall formed between her and Aedan.
Lucie could see Aedan’s silver wolf charging into the ice barrier but it wouldn’t budge.
She noticed a black blob moving toward him.
She growled at it as she charged into the barricade.
Then all she could hear was the horrifying sounds of her brother fighting some creature she couldn’t see clearly.
She could only hear his growls and whimpers.
The terrifying roar of the creature echoed through the ice wall, and there was nothing she could do.
She frantically clawed at the ice and continued charging into it, but it was unrelenting and unmoving.
“The future prince should be able to manage just fine. And if not, he isn’t worthy of the crown.” A voice whipped through the air.
Lucie watched as a man with fire red hair appeared in front of her. He watched her with a small smile.
“That is his task. Now is the moment for your choice.”
My choice?
“I am Lycaon. And over there, sealed in a crystal tomb, is the lycan princess. But there is just one problem … she is on the verge of losing everything. I put her in the seal to prevent her death. You have the ability to save her … and only you.” Lycaon frowned and rubbed the back of his head.
“I’m going to be honest. What I’m about to tell you isn’t something easy. It’s a tough decision that will have devastating ramifications. But to restore balance, it’s the only one that can be made.”
Lucie didn’t like where this was going. It felt like she was about to be given a crushing choice.
“Remember how lycans are one with their wolves? You don’t have an extra voice in your head, another existence inside you. This is true for all lycans of the past, and Aedan. To die in your wolf form is to die in your human form. That is what you see is happening to the girl in the seal.
“I can’t just fix and bring back to life what was taken.
But Lucie, you are different. You are a fairy princess and the future queen of the vampires.
You have the ability to make an incredible sacrifice for your brother.
You can gift his mate, the girl who is sealed …
you can give her your lycan existence. This is something only you can do.
In order to give her life, you would have to give up that part of yourself. ”
But I am my lycan. I don’t understand.
“You’re a fairy princess now. The moment that part of you came into existence, you were given this ability.
The wolves will need lycan leaders. The King of the Werewolves has the ability to have lycan offspring, so we just encouraged it.
The moment you became the fairy princess, though, you opened up a whole other possibility.
The chance for two lycans to unite together. ”
The sound of fighting soon quieted behind her.
She turned her head to see Aedan pacing by the ice wall, and relief washed through her.
She turned and looked back at the deity.
So he was telling her she could essentially give a part of herself to this girl, and by doing so, it would give her a chance at life and give Aedan a chance to be with his mate.
But she would no longer be a lycan. She would no longer be able to shift.
“If you still desire to be a wolf, your father can always grant you a werewolf, as he has done before.”
Lucie was going to be the queen of the vampires. She didn’t need a wolf. How will this affect me … with everything?
“Your vampire will take over more. Your vampire strength and pureblood abilities will finally be able to take hold. They can’t now because of your lycan blood.
You will still have your fairy magic as well.
As far as the children you carry, they will be born as purebloods, just like the vampires need.
Even as a lycan, that was already all you would have.
Vampire children with enhanced abilities.
And that won’t change. Obviously, the fairy bloodline will also remain.
” Lycaon pinned an intense gaze on Lucie.
“The decision is yours, though. Take the time you need, because it is irreversible.”
Lucie swallowed hard. She would never feel the earth beneath her paws again.
She would never feel the wind rushing through her fur as she raced through the woods.
It wasn’t everything, but it was part of her.
Hell, it was her. This was like splitting her soul in half and giving half of it to the other girl.
Her paws trembled slightly, but there wasn’t a real decision here.
Her brother’s fated mate was sealed in there.
How could she walk away from that? His happiness was important to her.
She wasn’t sure how she would cope with it, but she knew she would adjust. Her grandfather’s beta lost his wolf during the demon war, and he was doing great.
It took him a while to adjust, but he was now okay with everything.
It was a bit different for her, since her lycan was her.
Would she feel empty? Would it hurt? She turned her head to look at Aedan clawing at the ice desperately.
For her brother … she could sacrifice this.
It was his happiness on the line here too.
And as long as she had Derrick by her side, she would be able to face anything.
She took a deep breath. She had to do this for Aedan. She loved him and couldn’t condemn him to this type of suffering. He would never be able to move on knowing his mate was sealed here. She firmly looked at Lycaon. So how do I give her this part of me? How do I give her my lycan?