Page 31 of Their Mate
I nodded quickly, sweat stinging my eyes, scanning the shadowed corners of the deserted Dublin streets. Every instinct screamed at me that danger lingered nearby.
A whisper of sound that rustled softly ahead sent my pulse surging. Declan froze instantly, hand snapping to his side where blood still seeped slowly from his wound.
“You hear that?” I asked, adrenaline prickling sharply beneath my skin.
“Aye,” Declan whispered tensely. “We’re not alone.”
The shadows shifted, rippling violently as forms materialized out of the darkness, massive and hulking.
Fuck. Lycans.
Standing upright on two legs, they moved with a twisted, lumbering gait, every step accompanied by the sickening crackle of joints that shouldn’t exist in the real world. Moonlight gleamed across patchy, coarse fur that covered bulging muscles, stretched obscenely over elongated bones. Their arms hung unnaturally long. Their fingers were tipped with jagged, yellowed claws crusted in dried blood and grime.
They staggered forward and then paused, sniffing the air. A rush of icy dread raced through me when their cold eyes landed on me.
“Shit,” Declan growled, backing up cautiously beside me. “We can’t fight them like this.”
The lycans advanced slowly, jaws parted in vicious snarls, yellow eyes glittering cruelly beneath the dim light of the moon. Their claws clicked ominously against the cobblestones as they prowled forward, circling us and blocking any escape.
My pulse thundered wildly, panic twisting into furious resolve. Declan and I moved, standing back to back.
One lycan lunged first, jaws snapping viciously toward me. I dodged barely in time, grimacing as pain lanced through my injured leg. Declan slashed fiercely with his knife, driving another attacker briefly back with a snarl.
A bite from a lycan would result in us turning into lycans too, and we were not having that.
Declan stumbled to the left, bloodied and pale, his strength faltering. “Aidan!” he shouted hoarsely, fear and desperation thickening his voice.
I staggered toward him, heart pounding, but the lycans closed in, teeth bared hungrily, moving to deliver their final killing blows.
In an instant, my mind flashed back, a bittersweet rush of memories cascading through me with vivid clarity, back to the life I’d once known, one that seemed impossibly distant now. It hadn’t been perfect, but it had been ours, and that had always been enough.
Declan had been at the center, as he always was, solid and unwavering, a steady heartbeat around which we’d built our world. Kait’s laughter echoed in my memory, bright and infectious, cutting through even the darkest moments. She’dalways been quick with a joke, a gentle touch, or a fierce, protective glare, depending on what the moment needed. Then there was Lila, warm and gentle, with eyes soft as twilight. Her quiet strength had anchored us all, bringing calm even in the midst of chaos.
I remembered the late nights gathered around our small fire, the soft murmur of their voices blending into one comforting sound. My heart clenched painfully, aching for a life stripped violently away. I hadn’t realized how deeply they’d carved their place inside me until they’d been ripped from my grasp, leaving a hollow emptiness nothing had been able to fill since.
Now, with the pack of monstrous lycans circling us, with blood seeping from my leg, staining the pavement beneath me, that empty place inside my chest yawned open and screamed, raw and ruined. If death was coming for me tonight, at least I’d once held something beautiful. At least I’d loved, fully and fiercely, even if I’d lost everything in the end.
Then a sudden, deafening war cry ripped through the night, ferocious and guttural, echoing powerfully through the desolate streets of a ruined Dublin.
The lycans froze instantly, ears flattening against their heads, bodies tensing with primal fear. The cry rang again, louder and even more angry, radiating sheer strength and authority.
The monstrous beasts hesitated only a moment longer, snarls dissolving abruptly into terrified whines. Then they scattered quickly into the darkness, fleeing as though Death itself had arrived to claim them.
Panting raggedly, blood dripping down my body, I turned warily toward the source of that powerful cry. Declan struggled toremain upright beside me, his breathing shallow, eyes wary and exhausted.
A figure moved slowly from the shadows, massive and imposing, steps steady and confident. The faint glow of streetlights silhouetted a pair of broad shoulders and a tall hulking form.
It was bigger than a lycan, but still human in some ways. We hadn’t encountered anything like this before.
I got the distinct feeling that this development wasn’t an improvement of our situation.
“Who the hell—” Declan rasped weakly, his words dying in his throat.
I squinted cautiously, trying to discern the figure’s identity through blurred vision and exhaustion. My pulse thundered painfully, every instinct on high alert, my breath held tightly in my chest.
The figure stepped forward slowly into the pale moonlight, his powerful presence filling every inch of the narrow street.
And then he spoke.
