Reborn as the Lycan Beta

Chapter 3. How Could He Be so Strong?

Sylvan POV

Somewhere in Kielder Forest

I could feel my lungs constrict and expand painfully. My eyes were dry but felt like they were submerged in the depths of the North Sea. For every step my legs grew heavier, my arms screamed, and my head throbbed like my heart just melded with my brain.

“Daddy…” my kid, my little Morgan sniffled in my arms. Despite the cold air and the occasional sting of leaves and branches about us, they were no match for the stabbing sensation from my dear son’s hot tears that soaked onto an exposed part of my shirt underneath my jacket.

This, however, only spurred me on. Still, I couldn’t help but grit my teeth and consciously blink away my eye fluids to keep them from dropping as my heart pumped painfully harder.

The gods of this world are f**king unfair.

It took me four f**king years to rebuild what remained of who I was after losing everything, including my lost memories. That’s nearly half a decade of creating a name that I could truly accept as my own, and finally finding true happiness and eventually feeling that I’ve found myself a new home.

Why, after all this time — why did the deities of this world decide to play with my fate again?

“We’re almost there, son…” I whispered in my softest and lowest voice possible. I think. “Hold on to me tight… we’ll find our way out of here soon…”

Somehow, my boy heard it, because I could feel him slowly nodding as he held on. Carefully, he adjusted himself; his arms and legs wrapped around me like a monkey would. Or a spider, perhaps? Or a koala — whatever that creature is.

I was not sure where I got that term. All I know is it’s a creature. That, and somehow, it’s one of those stray bits that occasionally invaded my mind for these past four years. Maybe it was a memory I got from somewhere, like from reading a book? Or maybe it was from a trip before four years back? Heck, I really don’t know.

I shook my head at such foreign intruding thoughts. Now was not the time to get distracted when there were so many enemies out here and from where we had warped out from.

That’s right. We were warped — we just stepped out of this humongous gaping maw that was part of this gigantic stone head figure that seemed to have grown right in the middle of the Forest…

-+oO Flashback Oo+-

That early morning

Somewhere in Northern Forest

Northeastern England

The nightmare visited me again.

I gasped as I woke up with rivulets of sweat down my forehead, my eyebrows, my neck, and my back.

“Mmmm” came a female voice by my side. “Hon, are you alright?”

It was then I realized I was with my beloved wife, Nautia. Last night, after making love and cleaning up, I fell asleep spooning her from behind. Now I rose to a sitting position.

Nautia, who a while ago had been sleeping in the crook of my arm, now sat up, pulling the duvet to cover her bare chest (although I don’t think she needed to; I think she’s lovely enough and I don’t mind seeing her curves when we’re alone together) while she rubbed circles on my back.

“Was it the dream again?” She asked.

I merely nodded as I turned a bit and grabbed her for a tight hug, breathing in her unique scent.

Nautia, as usual, giggled. Somehow she found it funny that I, despite being a human, could smell her. Her aroma reminded me of petrichor, chocolate, and vanilla. Super comforting, it now reminded me of some breakfast coffee or chocolate.

That’s right — I was no stereotypical English bloke who preferred to have tea; I was as much into chocolate as coffee, actually.

I eased into a more even breathing while I took account of our surroundings. The room, though still dark, already hinted at late dawn; the sun had already poked its crown among the forest trees outside. I could somewhat smell the morning forest fog rolling in, along with the dew on the grass and leaves in bushes and trees.

“Thanks, Love,” I hummed at my beautiful wife, before cupping her face to give her a sweet and deep kiss.

“Mmm morning breath,” she protested.

“I’m sorry,” I said as I gave her one more hug before pulling out of bed. I was in my boxers and stood to head to our ensuite toilet and bath.

“No Hon, not you,” she giggled. “Me… I probably smell and taste like j**z.”

“If you’re smelling and tasting like my c*m,” I chuckled as I did my business, the door slightly blocking anyone’s view. “Then what would I smell and taste like? Your sweet p***y?”

“Sylvan!” She protested in embarrassment.

I roared with laughter while I felt my member slowly coming to life recalling last night’s activity. I could imagine her now: her skin, especially her cheeks, flushed with a shyness that just hadn’t seemed to disappear even after marrying her all through these years.

Man, I love my wife!

I had just cleaned up and was about to remove my boxers to reenter our bedroom when I heard a shout.

“Mum! Dad!”

“Morgan! It’s still early, little bloke! What in the name of Selene are you doing waking everyone in the house up?!” hollered a woman’s voice — Nautia’s sister, Nieva.

“Mummy! Daddy!” It was followed by loud and nonstop knocking.

I chuckled as I went out of the room while Nautia hurriedly put on some shirt, shorts, and a lavender bedrobe with white moon and stars. I quickly grabbed my blue bedrobe on a nearby sofa and wore it properly before I opened the door and immediately picked up our son, Morgan, who had been standing by the door. He was three years old and turning four today.

“Happy birthday little man!” I tossed him up and carried him round and round. He squealed, then deftly landed in my arms to return a smooch I gave him on the cheek, and another to his mum.

“Happy birthday Morgan!” Nautia beamed at our boy as she hugged us both.

“So you knew it was my birthday?” Morgan said, playing with his hands.

“We do,” Nautia said. “And we’d have surprised you today, but it seems you’ve woken up early.”

“Sorry, Nau,” Nieva said. “I was going downstairs to prepare breakfast but it seemed I woke him up.”

“Don’t you feel sleepy?” I asked Morgan. “Were you too excited?”

“Kind of,” he said. “I heard you and Mum playing last night. So you were planning to make me a baby brother or sister?”

Oh, Goddess! Where in TwinWorlds did that come from? Nieva’s face had turned into a tomato while her cute lips were alternating big and small Os like a fish. Her sister, on the other hand, turned beet red while covering her mouth and having her eyes drift off to the side.

“M-Morgan,” I c**ked an eyebrow as I huffed. “Did you take a peek last night? Or eavesdrop on our door?”

“No Daddy,” he said. “I could hear you and Mummy making my younger brother or sister.”

“Hear us?” I gaped. “B-but Morgan, where did you get that we can make babies?”

“Sylvan,” Nautia hissed; her eyebrow c**ked really high as she gave me a warning look that our son didn’t see. I winked at her to give some semblance of assurance, but deep inside I was also astounded.

“Well,” Morgan pouted as he scrunched his eyebrows together, all while playing with his hands. He looked so cute I wouldn’t be surprised if these two ladies with me were holding back their own squeals to keep the matter in hand. “The uncles in the commune said so,”

“Which uncle?!” Nautia growled. “I swear I’m gonna give them an earful for being such bad influences on our little boy!”

“Uncle Vance,” he said innocently. “And I think there’s Uncle Ben, Uncle Zoren, and Uncle Tom.”

Oh goddess, I thought, smacking my palm on my forehead while still holding our boy with my other hand.

—

The entire day had been busy for the Kirknewton-Hethpool Lake Commune. After all, you only get to celebrate the son of a Commune Leader’s next in line once a year. My wife Nautia was Edmund Eda’s eldest adopted daughter. In a few months, Edmund would be retiring and would’ve formally passed his position to my beloved wife, and I’m proud and excited for her, the strongest hunter in the commune.

While people mostly disagree and tend to push me forward, I always begged to differ — I mean, who was I who had only joined the community four years ago, and with a major portion of my memories missing at that? Regardless, I fell in love with my wife and she with me.

I guess it’s why people in our commune could only expect nothing less from our son Morgan, who had been displaying potential ever since he began kicking in his mum’s womb. Yet despite that, we always believed our boy to be just a boy, first of all — which is why, first things first, we always make sure he gets to enjoy what every other kid in our neighborhood does.

So yes, the entire day had been busy because everyone was preparing for a humongous party in our community in the afternoon. Our town square, bordered by our chapel-town hall, the sheriff-courthouse-jail building, the grocer-chemist store, and the diner-pub, was the venue for the party. The open area, usually filled only with grass and things like tires, culvert pipes, and bits and bobs of children’s playground and, was set up with flowers, art decals, and balloons. Surrounded by tables and benches, a platform stage stood in the center. It was decorated with flowers and balloons, too, and had hand-made colorful signposts that read “Happy Birthday Morgan!”

Our little boy, of course, had been so restless this morning and would’ve seen the surprise, so I had to humor him and take him fishing on the lake beyond the hills that bordered our commune. It wouldn’t be his first time to have a lake bonding with me, but today had been his first to catch his own fish.

“Dad! Dad! I caught a fish!” I will never forget his excited scream when his fishing rod bent and danced above the water. I quickly went by his side and was about to help him pull the line back. I could sense that it was a big one, maybe even too big for my boy, because he was screaming excitedly.

“I can do it, Dad, I can do it!” He screamed excitedly.

“Don’t jump,” I reminded him, although deep inside I was also holding myself back from fr**king out and screaming with joy. I wanted to pull the line back for him but imagine, to my surprise, his tiny fingers were able to work on the line and pull the fish back.

I mean — how could my kid be so strong? Adrenaline?

“It’s here! It’s here!”

“Easy-peasy!”

It was a struggle for the boy, and I had my hands out ready to help just in case. I held my breath to keep myself from moving an inch and spoiling the boy’s moment.

“I’ll get you!”

“Almost there!”

“It’s here! Aaah!”

“Go go go!”

We shouted and hollered in excitement for what seemed like half an hour, but it was probably only a minute or two. During the last centimeters of the pull, I finally assisted him.

“Huuuuuuge!”

“Oh my goddess it’s a humongous birthday fish!” I howled in excitement. It was so gigantic and unbelievable that I had it immediately placed on the container with water that we brought along. I don’t know how, but I did it so fast since the little man was already jumping in excitement.

“Daddy, Daddy! I caught I huuuuge fish!” My son cried, tearing up, sobbing, and laughing at the same time. He had other words and was talking so quickly and excitedly while expressing his emotions. I took him into my arms and swung him around.

“Birthday fish for my birthday boy!” I shouted. “Birthday fish from the goddess!”

My son screamed and shrieked in happiness. The fish was indeed big — a 51-centimeter pike. But what four-year-old boy would be able to pull such a fish out of the water?

I was so happy and proud of him, that we had the fish properly stored so we could bring it back for his birthday party. Not that everyone would get to eat it, but we’ll make sure to turn it into the best birthday celebratory dish ever!

“I’m so proud of you, little man,” I huffed as I held him tight. “Happy birthday, Buddy.”

“Thank you, Daddy,” he squeezed me as tight as his little arms could.

“The fish is a good omen, my boy,” I told him.

“Good omen?”

“That’s right,” I told him. “An omen is a sign.”

“A sign?” he said. “Good sign?”

“A sign of good things to come,” I nodded. “It’s like saying you will probably get more gifts today, or maybe we’ll meet visiting friends. Maybe your Auntie Grace and Uncle Sam will visit us today from their commune. Maybe you’ll even meet your cousins Terry and Julie.”

“Or more toys and more kids like me!” He giggled.

“Yup, yup,” I patted his head. “Like getting more gifts or meeting new friends.”

Back then, never did I realize how wrong I was.

—