7. Bathhouse
BATHHOUSE
My yelling had successfully attracted the sea serpent’s attention, giving Leif enough time to slip into a nearby thicket to hide.
Damien seemed to understand my intention and began making more growling noises.
I was slightly relieved when Leif didn’t try to be “helpful” and disappeared into the bushes. He was not some well-intentioned yet foolish omega who wanted to play the hero at the worst time.
The serpent looked agitated. Its dark grey scales flared open, ruffling in a rhythmic cadence toward us, a typical aggressive stance, and each sharp edge glistened with a cold sheen under the moonlight. Its red irises glowed faintly. It hissed, sticking out its long, bifurcated tongue.
I’d heard they “smell” through tasting the air, and I knew it was tasting Damien’s and my scent.
We stood still, exchanging anxious gazes. We hoped that if we avoided its eyes and tried not to antagonize it, it would leave us alone. It was too big for two werewolves to handle, after all.
However, luck was not on our side that night. After tasting the air in Damien’s direction, the serpent suddenly let out a bone-chilling shriek, as though Damien was its nemesis. It opened its mouth wide and spewed a stream of green, sizzling venom at him.
Damien reacted fast and jumped away, and we watched in horror as the venom melted everything it touched, including a big boulder that had been behind Damien moments ago.
Before Damien could steady his steps, the serpent’s giant tail had swiped at him with formidable strength and speed, stirring up a small storm around us.
Damien managed to evade several swipes with incredible agility, but eventually, one powerful lash of the tail struck his waist, hurling him through the air.
His side slammed into a tree before he crashed to the ground.
He was bleeding, both from the impact and the lacerations left by the serpent’s razor scales.
Right now, I had two options. The serpent seemed only to be pissed at Damien for some reason, so I could just collect Leif and run while it was busy with him.
We could claim we were never there, and I wouldn’t have to risk being melted or chewed into pieces by a gigantic monster that absolutely had no business appearing here.
I automatically went for the other option, of course. What kind of coward would I be to leave another werewolf warrior to die?
As the serpent opened its mouth wide, about to bite down on Damien, who was struggling to climb back on his paws, I lunged at the serpent’s head and dug my claws into its scales.
The sharp edges cut into my paws, but I grit my teeth and kept pushing down until my nails sank into its flesh.
It shrieked in pain, whipping its head left and right violently, trying to shake me off, but I clutched at its neck adamantly, holding on for dear life.
But then things became tricky when it started to bash its head against nearby trees and boulders, and I almost lost my grip when I was rammed into a giant tree trunk.
The tree snapped in two, and my head was bleeding profusely, but I managed to hang onto it.
Damien took the chance to leap to the side, then he lunged at the serpent’s tail.
I thought he was crazy at first, because many poisonous spikes were growing there, and its tail was much more flexible than its head.
One swipe at him and he would be done for.
But then Damien opened his mouth wide and bit down hard, and astonishingly precisely, at the base of the tail.
He obviously had some knowledge about serpents and knew their reproductive organs were generally in that area and were extremely vulnerable.
The serpent screamed in agony, and its giant body convulsed.
I took the chance to dig my claws into its eyes. Its howling voice almost split my ears. I leapt down as it rolled on the floor in agony, completely blinded.
Damien lunged at its belly. He let out a war cry and ripped its belly open with his powerful claws.
I joined him in the carnage. My paws sank into the softer flesh on its belly, clawing its guts out. Blood gushed out and sprayed all over our coats. We were bathed in the serpent’s blood when it finally stopped moving.
We panted heavily, staring at each other, and couldn’t believe that we had actually just killed a sea serpent and were still alive.
“Fenris!” Leif ran toward me, his voice shaking.
I tried to tell him to stay away, since I was drenched in serpent blood, but he didn’t care.
We rubbed our necks together in a form of comfort, and he said shakily, “I thought I was about to lose you! Are you crazy! You shouldn’t have charged at a goddamned sea serpent! You could have died!”
“Well, guess I’m too hard to kill.” I grinned.
To my chagrin, Leif then left me to check on Damien, asking if he was alright in the same caring voice he used with me. My eyes met with Damien’s, and for a prolonged moment, we held our gazes, but neither of us said anything.
More werewolves came, including Damien’s companions, Lovel, Helena, and several other betas. They all crowded around Damien, fussing over him, asking if he was okay, expressing astonishment that he had slaughtered a giant water serpent.
I rolled my eyes. First of all, it was a sea serpent, not a regular water serpent. Second, where were these sycophants when their beloved prince was about to turn into serpent shit?
The hunt ended early. Both Damien and I were spent after fighting the giant monster.
Guards escorted us to the bathhouse to clean up.
Leif and I strolled behind Damien’s group, watching the Eclipse omegas fawn over Damien, showing how much they cared about his welfare.
I almost wanted to chuckle as I saw a streak of annoyance slip through Damien’s well-maintained decorum.
Rydel even declared Damien as the winner for killing the largest game in the hunt.
To my surprise, instead of taking the credit, Damien looked in my direction and said, “No, Fenris and I killed it together.”
More eyes focused on me, as though they had just remembered my existence.
Rydel’s nose furrowed in disgust, yet Johnathan smiled at me in admiration, which made me feel much better about the unpleasant, stinky blood stuck on my coat.
However, I suspected this was not some accident. No sea serpent would nest in a mountain lake naturally, and the way it identified Damien’s scent was almost like it was trained to attack Damien specifically.
This felt like a setup, so I asked Leif why Damien and he were near the lake, all alone.
Leif said they started with other companions: Lovel, his sister Helena, and Prince Valerian’s group. But halfway through, Damien asked Leif if he wanted to go check out his favourite spot in the woods, and Leif agreed. They sneaked away when the rest of the group was focusing on hunting a boar.
If that was Prince Damien’s favourite spot, then someone might have put the serpent there, knowing Damien was likely to go there to woo one of the candidates during the hunt ...
Could it be an attempt on Damien’s life?
King Octavian had three alpha children, yet there was only one throne. From what I’d heard so far, Damien was very popular both in the Nocturne court and among other subordinate clans. Could it be that one of his siblings was trying to get rid of him?
I guessed that I was fortunate to have a lovely brother rather than a deadly one.
The royal bathhouse was a famous place in Erevos, not so far from the Vesperfort Palace.
A cluster of beautiful marble buildings were constructed over a century ago, lined with pillars, decorated with unfading frescos, colourful mosaics, and delicate fretworks.
The warm water originated from a natural hot spring in the mountains and was said to have the power to calm and heal.
The chamberlain greeted Leif and me at the gate of the bathhouse, telling us that they had arranged separate bathrooms for us to transform, clean up the blood, stitch the wounds, and rest from the exhaustion. Leif was guided to the spring omegas used, while I entered the alpha’s bath.
It was a spacious room with a large, rectangular pool in the middle, accessible via a few steps. White marble columns lined the pool, each decorated with elegant carvings. Many daybeds were arranged around the pool, and several alphas who had returned from the hunt were resting on them.
White steam danced in the room like faceless ghosts, not thick, but adding a veil of tranquillity. I could discern that several figures were soaking in the pool, already in their human form.
Multiple pairs of eyes turned to me, and Damien’s dark brown irises were among them.
He was resting his head against the edge, his strong arms spread along the smooth marble, abrasions and bruises still visible on his olive skin.
The water was only up to his well-defined, broad chest, and the light specks dappled on his wet skin made me avert my eyes.
I made my way to the rinsing corner, shifting back to my human form.
My fur shed to the floor, revealing my tanned skin, though now mostly covered in blood and guts.
I filled the bucket with water coming from a nymph statue’s mouth and poured it over my head, shaking my hair loose, then grabbed a cloth to wipe off the dirt, blood, and gore from my face and body.
The sea serpent had left a few deep cuts on my palms, arms, and legs, but nothing concerning. They should all heal within a day.
After roughly cleaning myself up, I made my way to the common bath.
To my surprise, Damien’s companions were not there; it was just him and several alpha nobles from other clans.
I heard them whisper to each other as I stepped into the water, but I ignored them and found a side that hadn’t been occupied and sat down, making sure Damien was on the far end of the side, and the space between us was wide enough so that we wouldn’t get into another fight.