RISE OF THE LYCANS - Mates and Bonds

*** CHAPTER 34 FREED HAS BEEN REWRITTEN. Apparently, I was in a hurry to get to my birthday cake and missed a few things.

I have expanded the fight scene to include our MC more, and I fixed a few plot holes.

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Lukas

My claws scraped along the green wallpaper of the hall when I sensed them coming.

“Shifters!” I snarled.

“Rogues?” Ranger asked, and then we saw them.

“Darc pack warriors,” Alpha Orléans growled. “Jules must be here.”

There had to be at least two dozen filling the end of the hall, all with death wishes. I shifted my upper body and charged with my claws fully extended. Lycan claws were much longer than shifter claws, and I saw the fear reflect back in the eyes of the first warrior I sliced down.

A few had already shifted into their wolves because they relied heavily on their wolf side for battle and failed to train properly in human form. A brown wolf leaped for me, and I slashed his chest wide open. Another tried to sink his claws into my still human leg and was met with Alpha Orléans’ black Alpha wolf pouncing on him.

Ranger snapped the arm of another, and I continued cutting them down. A big fat warrior who seemed to rely on his heft, came crashing down and Alpha Orléans tore at his face. One of the warriors got past me and Ranger, and I heard the snarl of Uncle Zeus behind us.

My claws dripped with blood, and the carnage stacked up the hall. Something sharp pierced my arm, and I looked down to see a silver blade sticking out of my flesh. My beast roared his outrage, and I speared the warrior through his throat with my claws. His eyes bulged wide, and as I looked into them, his thoughts flowed through me. I had read his mind without trying.

I shifted my head back to human form, but continued the assault.

“They’ve all been promised lycan mates,” I snarled, sending an elbow crashing into another warrior, who dropped to the floor.

“There aren’t enough lycans,” Ranger replied as he snapped the neck of another.

“The demon told them about venom.” I kicked another in his family jewels and dropped him for Alpha Orléans to finish off.

“So, she wanted Storm for her venom?” Ranger asked as he tossed another warrior onto the pile.

“I’m not sure,” I replied, alleviating the last warrior of his throat.

I looked down to find my fur and claws covered in blood. I shifted my upper body back, and my eyes fell to the silver blade still embedded in my arm. There was no sting or burn, and I wondered if it was really silver after all. The black wolf that belonged to Alpha Orléans looked up at the blade and gave a low whine.

“I can’t feel a thing,” I told him.

“Are you sure?” Uncle Zeus asked.

“Maybe it’s not real silver?” I said as a dying warrior near my foot moved. “I feel fine,” I assured them as I stomped on the throat of the warrior who reached for my foot.

Ranger stretched his hand out and touched the part of the exposed blade that wasn’t buried in my flesh. With a hiss, he immediately pulled his finger away.

“It’s real silver,” he announced.

I removed the blade and stared curiously at the wound. It felt like a normal scratch, and I sensed it was healing already.

“Could I be immune?” I asked Aunt Hazel.

Her hands started moving vigorously as she signed. “I don’t know. Balthazar didn’t believe that lycans were immune, but he was immortal for so long. The Hall of Records was written in hieroglyphs, so there’s a possibility that something was lost in translation. Your grandmother was a silver wolf, and she was immune… Storm is the same.”

“You don’t feel a stinging burn at all?” Uncle Zeus asked.

“No,” I shook my head. “We can figure it out later, I need to find my mate.”

“Sol!” Ranger started stepping over the bodies in search of his mate. “Mateo is going to kill us!”

We rushed into a large parlor that looked frozen in time. Black mist floated in a circle beneath a large chandelier, and I couldn’t see through it. It shook something in me, and I grappled with my beast for control.This belongs © NôvelDra/ma.Org.

“SELENA!” I roared, needing to find her.

“Welcome, Lycan King,” a female voice echoed back, and I wondered if the demon was standing in the middle of the mist, using her henchmen as shields.

Aunt Hazel’s voice floated through the mind link to all of us. “The demons have combined their magic to keep the enchantment on this room.”

“What kind of enchantment?” Uncle Zeus questioned.

“Most likely to keep you from shifting or using an element.”

“Alpha Orléans is still shifted… If I step back out into the hall and shift, I could return in my lycan form.”

“Does it prevent you from using your magic?” Ranger questioned.

“Of course not,” she said, shaking her head. I felt her energy change, which triggered whispers from the mist. Her hazel eyes turned dark, and the emerald scarab hanging on her neck started glowing brighter. “Stay behind me,” she whispered.

The mist was so thick that I knew there had to be more than one demon forming it, but I couldn’t tell where one started and the other ended. My fists clenched tight at my sides, and I felt my beast trying to shift. I didn’t have time for these games and needed to find my mate. I could sense her near, but she was nowhere in sight.

A thunderous voice I had never heard before resonated in warning.

“Cease now, or I will make you,” Aunt Hazel ordered. My eyes connected with Ranger’s, and I blinked in disbelief. Ranger looked just as stunned hearing the power that emerged from his normally soft-spoken mother.

An eerie sound of chatter spoken in the demon’s language filled the parlor, making my beast snarl. I tried to shift my claws but couldn’t. The fog spun faster and faster, and I wondered if it was a trick to have one of us attack the fog only to be trapped inside.

“Enough,” I bellowed out, my eyes desperately seeking my mate.

The back of my neck prickled, and the corners of the room were swarmed with black mist.

“How many demons are there?” Ranger whispered, and I knew he was just as anxious to find his mate.

“Selena?” I called through the mate bond and heard only silence.

The cloaked demon appeared on the other side of the room, dressed in the same cloak she wore at the cemetery. I couldn’t see her horns, but I knew they were under there.

“You must stop this at once, or I’ll send all of you to the deepest depths of Tartarus,” Aunt Hazel warned.

“Isn’t this a nice surprise,” the she-demon cackled. “Another little mage who thinks she can challenge me.”

Aunt Hazel was good at concealing her magic, but this was the first time I had ever witnessed her release her full aura. She looked straight at the demon, welcoming the challenge as she stretched out her full power. The invisible energy billowed out from under her and around her. It was a tension of imposing strength that left me speechless as it spread across the room with enough concentration to shake the chandelier.

“Perhaps I was wrong about you,” the demon uttered in surprise as the weight of Hazel’s power hit her.

“Why are you here?” I demanded.

“The same reason you are,” the demon snarled. “I want my mate.”

She held her clawed hand out and whispered something under her breath. A red orb came to life in her palm, whirling with a dark force. Hazel moved her arm in a swiping motion, and explosive energy knocked the demon back into the wall. The demon fired off the orb, but Hazel gave a lazy wave of her hand, and it evaporated into nothing.

“The obelisk has been destroyed, and your magic is weak in this realm,” Aunt Hazel said as her palms started to glow green like the scarab around her neck.

“And your magic?” The she-demon questioned. “Merlin’s?”

“Try again,” Aunt Hazel replied as she swished her hand in the air, sending the demon hurtling into the wall on the right side of the room. She crashed into an old hanging portrait of someone I didn’t recognize, and the gilded frame fell to the floor. The demon staggered to her feet with a snarl. Alpha Orléans’ wolf wagged his tail and gave a happy bark.

Her eyes narrowed as she tried to sense the origins of the magic. “Circe?”

“Wrong again,” Aunt Hazel clipped, and a green flash shot from her hands that sent the she-demon sailing through the air again. This time, I felt the walls of the room vibrate from the tension of the energy coming from the little she-wolf standing in front of me.

“You have no business here, child of Hecate!” The demon snarled as the whispers of the mist grew.

“Selena?” I tried calling my mate again. “Are you able to mind link with Sol?” I asked Ranger.

“Yes,” he replied. “She said they’re locked in a cell.”

“Why can’t I hear Selena?”

Just then, the she-demon’s mist swirled, and a form emerged from the black fog. A tightness gripped my heart as I saw my smiling mate standing in the place of the demon. She stole my breath for an entirely different reason. Her rounded stomach was heavy with our pup, and I knew the demon knew.

“It’s not real,” Uncle Zeus barked.

I had heard demons were cunning creatures that could shapeshift, but this was more. This was a threat. If she wanted me to trade myself for the safety of my mate, I would.

“Sol said the demon is Lilith,” Ranger told us through the mind link.

“Who’s Lilith, and why can’t I hear my mate?”

“Lilith was cast out of Heaven and is believed to be a powerful demon,” Ranger replied. “Lilith has the Moon Goddess trapped here, and Sol thinks they’re keeping Selena with the Goddess.”

“You’re Lilith?” I questioned. “What do you want from shifters?”

“That is a matter your Goddess needs help deciding,” the demon version of my mate replied in a voice that wasn’t my mate.

“The Moon Goddess is here?” Uncle Zeus whispered.

The she-demon evaporated into complete mist, and a violet-colored ball of fire was launched at us. Aunt Hazel muttered something I couldn’t understand, and the fire vanished. I could sense Lilith’s anger and frustration rising with each passing minute as she realized the magnitude of the power she was facing. Without Ramses, her power was limited in this realm.

My uncle’s voice came through the mind link. “A demon fights in mist form because they’re vulnerable in solid form,” he explained. “She’s getting ready to attack.”

Alpha Orléans snarled, baring his teeth at the demon, ready for a fight. Even if I could shift, my claws wouldn’t be able to slice through the demon if she was in mist form, and my beast wanted to rip her apart limb by limb.

“I’ll cast a defense shield over you,” Aunt Hazel replied through the link.

That’s when I felt it… the energy pulsed around us like a bubble of protection. It spread over my skin, soft and warm, keeping us safe.

Another ball of violet flames was tossed in the air, but it wasn’t aimed at us. It was aimed just above the massive chandelier, and it was then that I noticed something unusual about it. The underside had been altered with spikes, and the entire frame had been dipped in silver.

The flame hit the metal chain just above the chandelier, and the spinning dense mist of demons scattered in different directions to reveal what had been concealed.

“SELENA!” My mate was tied to a chair beneath the chandelier, which had started to fall.

“NO!” I screamed, rushing for her.

Pain exploded inside of me when it crashed down on her, knocking her and the chair backward. My heart stopped beating, and my beast roared. I reached for the chandelier, not caring that it was silver. Not caring that I had left the safety of Hazel’s shield. Adrenaline pumped through me and I used my lycan strength to flip the chandelier that weighed a few tons off my mate.

I felt a crunching blow to my side and turned to find a demon version of the priest hovering over me before he shifted into mist again. A second black misty form rushed for me, and a tentacle-like arm swung inches from my face. A green flash of light hit the mist, and it turned to ash.

“Selena,” I reached for my mate and realized Ranger was beside me.

I cradled her head as my beast howled in pain. Her face was bruised, her nose bleeding, and her lower lip was split. Her breathing came in short, shallow breaths, and fear surged through every cell of my body. The wooden chair had snapped under the weight of the chandelier, so I knew she would also have broken bones and internal injuries I couldn’t see. Ranger worked to untie her from the broken pieces of the chair. One of the silver spikes had pierced through her thigh and another through her shoulder, but it was the one through her stomach that gutted me.

I felt the barrier of protection blanket us again and sensed Aunt Hazel had moved behind me with Uncle Zeus at her back. Black mist rushed toward us but was repelled back when it met the invisible barrier that was cast around us.

“Should I try to find Sol?” Ranger asked with a hint of panic. “Sol might be able to heal her?”

Alpha Orléans gave a yap, he had experienced Sol’s healing power earlier. His wolf darted for a door on the other side and disappeared in search of Sol.

“Open your eyes, Princess,” I called to my mate, but she was unresponsive.

I wasn’t sure if Ranger would be able to safely find Sol and the others. Alpha Orléans had just disappeared and may have walked into a trap. We knew they were in a cell, but we didn’t know where and what kind of enchantment or trap it had in store for us. Aunt Hazel was behind me, casting her magic and picking off the demons one by one. The walls shook, and glass shattered as she fired off her counterattack.

“Lukas, tell me what to do,” Ranger begged. I could hear her pulse growing weaker. She had lost so much blood, and the silver had already infected her bloodstream.

“Selena, please…” I knew what I needed to do. It was the only thing I could do.

“Lukas?”

“I’m going to turn her,” I told him.

“Now?” He asked.

“She’s not going to make it,” I told him as I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth to stimulate the venom that would turn her into a lycan.

“Will the venom make her immune to silver?” He asked.

“Balthazar said the venom sets off a burning reaction in the body that purifies before the genetic change.”

“A burning reaction in the body? What about the pup?” Ranger asked, and my hand shot to the lower region of her stomach.

I knew the transition would be a painful process for her, but I wasn’t going to risk losing my mate. She had silver in her bloodstream, and I didn’t expect our baby to survive that. I was a selfish bastard, and I refused to be in this world without her. If I needed to die with her, then I would.

“I’m sorry, little one.” I silently begged my unborn child for forgiveness.

My canines dropped, and I felt the venom coat my teeth. I lowered my head to her neck just as the floor shook. Cries echoed in the room behind me, but all I could focus on was my mate. Her flesh was hot against my mouth, and I quickly sank my teeth into her tender flesh.

I wasn’t sure if I needed to do anything else, and I suddenly wished I had asked Uncle Balthazar detailed questions: How long would a transition take? What can I do to ease the pain? Should I give her a second dose of venom if she’s injured? Will she lose our pup? Will she hate me for saving her and not the pup?

Pulling away, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and met Ranger’s sympathetic eyes. I didn’t know what else to do, so I reached my arms under her and cradled her limp body to my chest. Her heartbeat seemed to grow weaker, and a scream of pain threatened to burst from me. I silently begged the Moon Goddess not to take her from me.

“Fuck! Storm’s vision,” Ranger whispered, shaking his head.

“Come on, Princess,” I begged. “Please don’t leave me.”

“Did you inject her already?” Uncle Zeus asked.

“Stay with me,” I kissed her forehead.

“Yes,” Ranger answered his father’s question. “Her heartbeat is faint.”

“Lukas, she’s going to be fine,” Uncle Zeus assured me. “The transition takes time.”

I looked around the room and noticed the splatters of ash where demons once stood. Between the carnage in the hall and the destruction in this room, it was an onslaught, and my beast wanted more. All of this wasn’t enough for the suffering my mate had to endure, and he roared inside of me.

A creature that resembled the priest we had seen at the church appeared in front of us, wielding a silver scorpion whip. He seemed to be missing an arm and continued to lash the whip against the invisible barrier in frustration. He had morphed into a half-bear, half-man creature, and I knew he was one of her strongest.

This fucker was her second-in-command, and he had a hand in what happened to my mate. My pup. A feral rage overtook me, and I sprang for him. My close-fisted punch landed on his face. Someone had struck my mate in the face, and I suspected this filthy creature.

To wield the silver weapon in his hand, he had to keep some portion of his body in form. I wanted to shift my claws more than anything and slice him to pieces, but I would have to settle on my bare hands. I sent another punch to his throat, unsure if demons even breathed air, and he staggered back.

Another demon creature resembling a leprechaun rushed for me, and my foot made contact with his head before he could turn to mist. A long tentacle coming from the missing area of the demon priest’s arm tried to wrap itself around my leg, and I stomped it down beneath my foot.

The demon pulled back, trying to free his tentacle, but I kept it pinned beneath my full weight. He swung his arm back, preparing to strike me with the silver whip, and I snatched it as it came down. Blood ran from my hand as it tore into my flesh, but I knew my lycan healing would heal me fast.

I used the scorpion whip to slice off the tentacle I had secured with my foot, and he roared as it turned to ash. He took a swing at me with his free hand, and I dodged the blow. A yellow flash shot in my direction and it was met with a green flash belonging to Aunt Hazel.

We had trained with human weapons in our pack, and I pulled the whip back, ready to end the creature. In one smooth sideways flick, the whip cracked forward and wrapped around his neck. The small silver blades lining the tail were made for tearing through flesh, but I wasn’t going to tear through his flesh. I was going to cut his head off.

With one hard yank, the whip pulled tighter, and his fat head rolled off his body. It hit the floor with a thunk and rolled to Lilith’s feet before turning to ash. She screamed in rage as her second-in-command lost his head.

I pulled the whip back, ready to send her back to hell when I felt the energy shift in the room.