Page 36 of Destined to the Lycan
I burst out laughing, both because of how unimpressed she was and by the stunned expression of the latest illusion. It was a man in his late twenties with common clothes clearly too big forhim. He was kneeling in the grass where he had been frantically trying to pick up gold coins and precious gems that had spilled out of a large pouch. He had been a petty thief who struck a big win by robbing a rich jewelry merchant only to meet his demise in the Haunted Woods. Many fools met a similar fate in their ill-advised attempts at recovering his loot.
Truth be told, I actually considered going after it myself. Because of my sickness, most wild beasts and demonic creatures gave me a wide berth. My blood was poison to them, so they didn’t bother with me. In the end, I chose not to as I had no need for wealth. What was the point without anyone to share it with?
According to the rumors, a powerful sorcerer successfully retrieved it a few years later.
“You’d be surprised, my mate, by how many fools would have fallen for this trick. Greed is a powerful thing,” I said teasingly even as pride filled my heart.
The haunting melody was now playing full force. By rights, my woman should be all but fighting a losing battle against its enticement. Granted, the amulet I gave her was working overtime in shielding her from its appeal. But it still should have been difficult for her. And yet, she seemed unfazed aside from her natural discomfort to be surrounded by so much evil magic.
A mother carrying an infant was approaching the edge of the road but suddenly froze. Then, to my shock, she vanished into thin air, and the haunting melody stopped abruptly. My spine stiffened, the tension I felt reflected on my woman’s face.
Ears perked, nostrils flaring, I tried to detect what could have possibly frightened the spirits away. Unfortunately, we were downwind, which prevented me from smelling whatever lurked ahead, while they would get a good whiff of our scents.
I removed my shirt and extruded my claws, ready to jump into action if needed. And then I saw them. Three Aegarims leapt out of the forest and onto the road. Amara gasped, thescent of her fear slapping my nose even as I cursed aloud. Those wretched things were fast and hunted in groups of three or four.
“That’s not an illusion, right?” Amara asked, her voice thick with fear.
I stopped my horse and jumped down. “No, those are wild beasts, and they’re coming for you.”
Calling them ‘wild beasts’ was quite an understatement. Aegarims were abominations. They had once been proud Lycans like the rest of our clans. But hunger for greater strength and power sent them down a dangerous path. They consorted with evil forces and performed unholy experiments on themselves. Bit by bit, they lost their sentience to feral urges, reflected by their shifting appearance.
Gone were their lustrous fur and muscular bodies. Instead they now resembled the twisted offspring of a rat with a scrawny Lycan covered in dark green scales. The five golden horns jutting from their rat-like, impish faces and the golden spikes lining their spine were the remnants of their fornication with demons. They ran on all fours like in the olden days of their former glory, but their front legs were anatomically closer to a human’s but with oversized hands that only possessed two long fingers tipped by vicious claws.
As unholy creatures themselves, the Aegarims didn’t fear the spirits in the woods and were immune to their illusions. They regularly fed off mystifiers, which explained why they all fled the minute the beasts showed up. But Aegarims craved human flesh, and especially the brains of sentient beings.
“They can smell my blood is bad, so they won’t attack me. They will be relentless unless I get to their leader in the woods.”
Even as I spoke, I stripped out of my pants. There was no time for me to fully undress as the creatures were racing at dizzying speed towards us.
“In the woods?!” Amara exclaimed as if I had lost my mind.
“I’ll be fine, my mate. Nothing will attack me here. I’m cursed. Once I kill their leader, they will scatter. Stay on the path and keep moving. I will catch up to you,” I said in a commanding tone.
“But what if there are more beasts ahead?!” my mate exclaimed, while pulling a dagger out from its sheath on her belt.
“No others will wander on their territory. I care for you, Amara. Promise you will stay on the path. I can’t lose you!”
“I promise!” she replied in a trembling voice.
Lifting myself on my tiptoes, I crushed her lips in a far-too-brief desperate kiss, then ran towards the incoming beasts, who were now barely twenty meters away. I shifted even as I ran, my underwear tearing as my body expanded. I should have sliced them off first to spare myself the pain of the fabric digging into my flesh before it finally snapped. But my anger at the incoming creatures who would dare threaten my mate reclaimed all of my attention.
I charged the male in the middle, slamming into him with enough force to send him crashing into a nearby tree. The second one attempted to run past me, but I grabbed it by its back leg, my claws digging into its flesh as I held on to it before spinning around and flinging him with all my strength towards the third one who was barreling down towards Amara. He struck his companion with massive force. Even from where I stood, I heard at least a couple of their limbs breaking from the force of the impact.
They lay stunned, their limbs tangled as they struggled to get back up. I ran to them as my mate galloped past us. With a vicious swipe, I raked my claws along the flank of the third Aegarim, all but eviscerating him. The second one, which I had used as a projectile to knock off his companion, opened its massive jaw in an attempt to bite my face off. I grabbed his mouth with both hands, carefully avoiding the countless daggerteeth and spread it impossibly wide open until the lower half broke right off. I slammed the beast’s destroyed face onto the ground, and stomped my foot on its neck, crushing it. The creature emitted a gurgling whimper, and a violent spasm shook its body before it went still.
But I was already on the move.
Amara was racing ahead with my horse following her. But the first beast I had sent crashing into the tree had recovered enough to give her chase. I raced after them, fury giving me wings as I quickly caught up to my prey. With a powerful leap, I landed on the creature’s back, flattening it to the ground. It emitted a guttural sound as air rushed out of him. My heavy weight crushing the creature kept its lungs from expanding enough to breathe. It thrashed beneath me in a vain attempt to knock me off. I savagely sank my fangs on each side of its nape and snapped its spine. After a brief, high-pitched, whimper, the creature went limp.
Movement in the forest caught my eye. At least two more Aegarims were racing in the cover of the woods towards my mate. For a split second, I considered going after them, but it would only encourage more of them to follow suit. Instead, I ran into the forest, howling loudly to make sure they heard me. Their steps faltered as they glanced in my direction and realized where I was headed. As expected, they gave up chasing after my mate and darted after me.
To my shock, only a few meters into the woods, I spotted nearly a dozen more beasts scattered nearby. It was extremely unusual. Aegarims usually lived in small packs of six, and rarely more than ten. This one easily had more than double. A single whiff of me sufficed for them to scatter. I didn’t chase them but followed my nose to the matriarch. I made a beeline for her.
Realizing what my intentions were, the pack rallied, throwing themselves in my path to protect her while sheattempted to flee. Like us wolves, Aegarims had a fairly complex language based on howling. In this instance, she was sounding the retreat. My bloodlust demanded that I decimate her entire pack before her very eyes and then tear her to shreds. Had we been closer to the full moon, I likely would have done so in my mindless rage. But my mate was alone on the road in the Haunted Woods. My need to protect her superseded any primal urges to shed blood.
With one final warning growl, I gave up pursuit and raced back to my mate, my bloodlust unsated.
Chapter 8
