Loving The Cursed Lycan

Four

"Greg!"

"I brought you this," He gasped, his eyes wide with fear and disbelief. He lifted the sheath and bladeI had previously had wrapped around my leg for my hunt. I looked at it to him, considering how absurd he was.

"Are you crazy?"

"Maybe you can fight them off," He pleaded, the only hope in his mind being the thing in his hands. I hesitated, but I didn't want to see that look of despair on his face any longer.

I stood and stepped my foot forward.

"You'll have to put it on," I told him, "Hurry!" He reached under my dress and tied the strap around my leg as quick as his clumsy hands would allow. Just as he finished tightening the strap properly, I was yanked away painfully. I yelped and Greg aimed to tackle the lycan capturing me. My aunt caught him, pulling him away in the opposite direction.

"Fight them, Melissa!" He cried out. "Don't let them kill you! Promise me! Promise me!"

I was ripped away, a cloth suddenly wrapped around my eyes to blind me from my surroundings. As I was taken from my village, all I could hear were cries of pain and despair, and among it all was my younger brother's voice fading away but still demanding over and over again for my life.

"I promise," I whispered to myself faintly.

I had no possibility of calming down or finding serenity during my moment of horror and impending death because my hands were bound behind me and my sight had been taken away. I took deep breaths, struggling to free myself from my shackles while my wrists ached.

I would jerkily turn my head from side to side, pretending to see what was going on around me. The only comfort was the feeling of my blade rubbing against the strap around my leg that was hidden by my dress. I was afraid that during this Wolf Moon hunt, I might be blinded and bound.

I was forced across a treacherous surface that was intended to trap my feet on rocks and roots when we arrived, or so I thought. I stumbled twice before being picked up by powerful arms and not-so-gently slung over their shoulders.

The position wasn't comfortable, but I could only manage small, fearful cries in response.

I thought about how I could beg for my life, but I already knew that wouldn't work. These were enormous beings that resembled gods. They were revered, feared, and treated as gods. It was terrible and forceful, but it was somewhat of an honor to be chosen as a sacrifice. And all of the sacrifices were in vain.

Never.

Werewolves were not kind animals. As I was thrown hard to the ground, I yelled. I quickly attempted to stand up straight, covering my knife, while reaching for the ground with my hands to try to figure out where I was. I was inside since the floor was made of stone. I slid off and my back slammed into a wall hard.

"She smells... wild," A female voice stated without emotion.

"Apparently, she pissed off Alpha Caesar," A man responded simply. "They put up a fight this time, though.

Had to drop a few humans before leaving."

"At least she's not a crier. Those are so annoying," the woman stated, but I was still stuck on the previous statement. Drop a few humans? Did he mean someone died in the attack? It was something I should have

It was something I should have expected, considering how lowly lycans thought of us, but the pain of knowing some of my family and friends were now dead because of me caused sudden and immense grief.

I clenched my thighs together and scowled bitterly, but I restrained the tears from welling up in my eyes. I paused when there was no more speaking. I waited while keeping an ear out for any close lycan sounds. Even the sound of shuffled feet didn't reach me.

I started scooting down the wall behind me right once, feeling the texture and the ground for any items sticking out. My palm brushed against something at the wall's corner and winced at the quick agony of a superficial cut.

I opened up as much space as I could between my palms and began repeatedly scraping it against the point.

I engaged in this for a very long time. I halted at every sound out of concern for getting caught. I had to control my delight when the fabric finally tore away because I wanted to start crying. I quickly reached for the fabric that was obstructing my vision and removed it.

My eyes took a moment to adapt before they could take in the view of a small, battered detention cell. There was only one barred entrance and no windows. It had to be well into the day by this point, if not close to the evening, even though I had no notion what time it was. And the Wolf Moon would shine as the sun set, signaling the start of the hunt.

In an attempt to find a gap through which to escape, I skated along the walls of my cell, touching every square inch of it. I didn't crawl to the cell's corner until I had attempted opening or smashing the door and trying to burst through the floor.

I remained seated in the corner and crouched down in readiness for an immediate assault. My palm was resting firmly over the hilt of my knife with the fabric of my dress elevated. After what seemed like days, I was eventually met by footsteps. My breath became short as I squeezed the hilt even more tightly out of fear.

With easy, the wolf showed up at the door. The lycan that had traveled with the King Alpha to my town was there. Before he finally opened my cell with determination, he gave my posture a critical eye examination. He had no reason to be alarmed when he could see that I was getting ready to launch an attack, which revealed to me how little he valued my skills.

And it turns out he was correct. As soon as I rushed, I was flung up against the wall. I felt the wall strike my relatively delicate head, but I was too disoriented to even cry out. Instead, I crumbled under the lycan's weight and was quickly pressed against the wall.

"You should have saved your strength for the hunt," The lycan informed me, "Now you'll have a headache on top of everything else."

He ran his hand under my dress where he had seen me resting my own before. I hadn't even been able to withdraw my knife from its found it hidden.

"Sneaky girl!" He exclaimed with amusement before laughing and releasing his grip on the weapon. "I won't tell you if you don't. Maybe it’ll make things more interesting. Come on,then,"I was roughly pulled from the wall and

shoved from the cell. I struggled to keep up with the pace the lycan demanded of me, my head still throbbing and my vision only just beginning to come into full focus.

We stepped outside and I was only able to glance at the horizon of buildings, a far more intricate and well-off village than my own, before I turned the opposite direction and into the woods.

With each step I was made to take, my heart pounded terribly in my chest. Being able to see did not at all lessen my fear. In fact, I started noticing people—werewolves. At first, only a few of them stood there in human shape. But it seemed like there was more the further we walked. They were all either older than I was or younger. I wasn't sure how I would have reacted if kids had also been hunting me. They numbered in the hundreds.

After a while, I lost interest in chasing a single human being during a full moon. Only one or a small number of people may relish the slaughter; everyone else would only be present as witnesses or nearby. it was

What was the point besides senseless murder? I was shoved through the pack and in front of the entire crowd was a single man who stood looking up at the sky watching the moon with a look of intense hatred across his features.

I suspected wolves revered the moon; considering it something with a deep connection to their culture. It was strange to see such a look on a deity shapeshifter when looking at that bright orb.

King Alpha Caesar Stone, as he called himself, turned his steel blue eyes from the sky and found me within his sights. I stared at him, my eyes wide with terror, but again finding something curious and amazing in seeing the silhouette of such a powerful creature standing in the light of the moon.

"Centuries ago, humans broke the peace with the wolf packs by slaughtering our innocents in the thousands. Tonight, we hunt yet another just as they hunted us. We spill the blood of another human. not for the honor of our moon goddesses. We spill this blood in spite of them. We do it for us; for the lycanthropes in our pack and all packs alike."

There were cries of agreement; loud and hungry for a taste of my blood. I trembled fearfully, looking around at the faces of these creatures as they prepared for their hunt. When strong, forceful hands gripped my upper arms, I gasped in terror. I turned to peer at the King Alpha, expecting to be ripped apart right then.

"Run, human. Feel the fear you tried to force on us. Feel the impending doom our mothers felt when your men tore down their doors with horrific weapons. And then feel the pain of their deaths and know nothing you do will save you or your kind," The King Alpha growled, his words thick with historic anger; as if he had been there all those centuries ago himself.

He turned to face me in the direction of the woods, where no wolves were blocking my path. And after that, he let me go. I was standing there motionless, caught in a space where time had stopped and there was silence.

I then took off running.

As I dashed through the trees in complete panic, I exhaled loudly and came close to hyperventilating. I only managed to do this for a brief period of time before tripping on a protruding root and falling violently to the woodland floor. I pushed myself up and took a moment to breathe deeply while resting against the nearby tree.

I attempted to calm my breathing and focused on my little brother. I remembered my commitment to him and to myself as I felt the knife's outline on my leg.

I forced myself back up onto my feet and started sprinting into the trees. I didn't have to run with such blindness. I spent a lot of time in woods like these. I still had the taint of my earlier hunt on my skin. I didn't have to pretend that everything around me was so strange.

As I slowed my pace, I started to unleash short, piercing whistles, followed by tongue clicks. After a few tries, I stopped and scanned the area for animal signs or footprints. I made contact using that passage from my soul that connected with that wildlife, that was so fond of the forest and its creatures.