Page 41 of Destined to the Lycan
“You… you could help me! You’re good with poison!” I swiftly added when he stared at me in confusion.
He recoiled and looked at me as if I was insane. “Why the fuck would I help you?”
“Because you can! Because it’s the right thing to do!” I replied as if it was self-evident.
“I’m a monster,” he countered in a tone that implied it should be obvious. “I don’t help people. I play with them until they go insane, or until I tire of the game. And then usually eat them.”
I held his gaze for a few seconds, and then the oddest sense of peace washed over me.
“No, Lyall,” I said in a calm but confident voice. “What you are is a doppelganger. Being a monster is a choice. You can choose to be good.”
He huffed, his expression making no doubt he thought my sickness affected my reasoning.
“Why would I? There’s no fun in that. Fear and pain taste like the nectar of the Gods.”
“So does happiness,” I challenged.
He made a disdainful gesture. “Happiness is too hard to elicit. Mortals are masochists. Even when an idyllic life is handed to them, they will turn away from it and seek the path of sorrow and hardship.”
“People make poor choices, it doesn’t mean that they crave pain,” I argued. “The harder something is to attain, and the more rewarding it is. Where’s the fun in just settling for the lowest hanging fruit all the time?”
“Because chasing after the fruit out of reach means that there’s a chance you will never claim it,” Lyall countered. “And assuming you finally do, it will either have gone too ripe or fallen on its own to rot at your feet. But right now, I really want to hurt you while you’re still just perfect to be harvested.”
I didn’t know how to react or respond to those words. He meant them. The dark side of him hungered to unleash the violence that dwelled inside. And yet, I wasn’t afraid. At least, not thathewould cause me harm. The same way an almost immediate connection had formed with Remus briefly after we met, I felt something similar—although different—with Lyall.
It made no sense.
Before I could come up with an answer, Lyall suddenly stiffened. He slightly turned his face to the right, and his eyes went out of focus. At first, I thought he was trying to listen to something beyond my human hearing. Then his vertical pupils dilated, and I realized he was visualizing something in his mind’s eye. Moments later, he refocused on me, his expression mostly unreadable, and yet a hint of anger had seeped back in. His pupils narrowed back to a slit, and the redness of his eyes—which engulfed his entire sclera—appeared to take on a darker, more ominous hue.
“Your pet is looking for you,” he said in a neutral tone.
I perked up and would have leaned forward if the magical force pinning me to my chair hadn’t restrained me.
“Remus is near?!”
“Mmhmm,” he replied, his face initially unreadable before a malicious smile stretched his lips. “The pup is playing my game. Search as he may, he will never find you without my consent. In fact, I think I’ll feast on him first.”
“No! Let him go! He’s no threat to you,” I exclaimed.
“I’m well aware of that,” he said disdainfully. “But I’m hungry.”
“Then eatme! Like you said, I won’t make it anyway. But he has his entire life in front of him. Please, leave him be.”
Once again, my words infuriated him. Even though the little voice at the back of my head shouted that I had nothing to fear from Lyall, I plastered myself against the backrest of my chair when he lunged forward. Both his hands resting on the arms of my chair, his nails extruding in terrifyingly long claws, he stopped with his face inches from mine.
“You don’t fucking know him, and yet you would die for him?!” he hissed.
I swallowed hard but lifted my chin defiantly.
“Yes, I would,” I replied, holding his gaze unwaveringly. “He took a major risk for me when no one else would. My survival was always a long shot. But at least he tried, and for a while he gave me hope when there was none to be found. So if I must die, I will gladly do it for him. But I refuse to be the cause of his death.”
The right corner of his upper lip quirked up in a snarl. A million different thoughts fleeted over his otherworldly features as he stared angrily at me.
“You assume it’s either himoryou,” he said in a sickly-sweet voice.
“You can’t eat both of us!” I exclaimed, flabbergasted.
“Says who?” he challenged mockingly.
