Saving the Last Lycan King

Chapter 4

Sophie

It had been a rather awkward walk back to camp and I tried my best to prepare Liam for what to expect once we got there. People have changed along with electronics, cars and so on. He did his best to take in everything I told him and I found myself staring at him on several occasions. Why? I guess I just admired how he acted so calm and collected, knowing that everything he once knew was gone. Was it because he was devilishly handsome and I found myself enjoying how his arm was flung around my shoulder? Maybe, a little bit. I took a look at the time and saw that we only had forty-five minutes before the cab would arrive.

“Surprised to see you’re still here.” A dark voice sounded behind us as we made our way through the camp. I thought we had done a pretty good job sneaking back to my tent to get my suitcases, but apparently not. Nothing goes past Nathan’s hawk-like vision. I turned around to face him with Liam standing close beside me and Nathan stopped in his tracks, taking in the bulky man beside me.

“Who’s this?” His question almost sounded like a sneer and he looked almost offended, as he glared at me.

“Oh, this is Liam…” I started, wanting to see if the short introduction would be enough, but judging the look on his face, he wanted me to elaborate. “He’s my boyfriend and he surprised me this morning, wanting to travel back with me and make a journey out of it.” I told him with a loving smile, pretending to adore the stranger beside me. The lie was somehow easy to tell and I felt an encouraging squeeze on my shoulder from Liam’s warm hand.

“I see, what a nice surprise.” He didn’t sound excited at all and just stared at Liam with an unconvinced look, but extended his hand towards him anyway. “I’m Nathan, Sophie’s now former employer.” He introduced himself and Liam shook his hand, the muscles in his forearms tensing.

“Nice to meet you, Nathan.” I stared at them as no one released their grip on the other’s hand. To say that this encounter felt awkward was an understatement, so I decided to interrupt.

“So, we have to get my suitcases, the cab will be here soon.” They released their grip at the same time and Nathan glanced down at me with suspicious eyes. I intertwined my hand with Liam’s and pulled him after me towards my tent. Just as we were about to enter the tent, I could hear Nathan yelling behind us.

“I’ll see you soon, Sophie.” His voice sounded calm, but with a hint of a threat and it made a shiver run down my spine. How would he react if he found out about me sneaking the Lycan King out of his tomb? What would he have done if he had found Liam first? My mind was racing with questions and theories, but a warm hand on my cheek pulled me out of my train of thoughts. His touch made me take a deep breath and I almost forgot where I was the moment my eyes met his hazel ones. I couldn’t explain why my body almost melted from his touch, but it confused me and I pulled back after a few seconds, wanting to create some distance between us before my heart exploded inside of my chest.

“Why is your heart sounding like a bird is trapped inside?” He asked me quietly as I pulled my suitcases closer to the entrance of the tent. But he was right, my heart was racing like I had just been running a marathon and I just stood there, staring at him as if he was an object on display in a museum. I had never seen a man this handsome before and it made me feel uneasy about myself, because I still didn't quite understand how he was even alive, let alone how it was possible for anyone to look this perfect. He must be centuries old and that just didn’t fit with the fact that this beautiful young man was sitting in front of me. His muscles were bulging, as if he had spent his whole life training, as if he had just left the gym. He was much taller than me with a confident posture, his whole aura demanding respect and attention. Maybe that was why I couldn’t stop staring at him? The only thing giving away his real age, was the way he was speaking. He had a very proper way of speaking and, honestly, it was very charming and fit him well. But why wasn’t he speaking French? I had expected him to, since he was buried in the rural landscape of France. I thought of myself as a specialist in Lycan history, but apparently there was a lot I didn’t know about them and I was eager to learn.

“Sophie?” His voice pulled me out of my train of thoughts, again. Feeling a little embarrassed that I had just zoned out yet another time, I sighed deeply and sat down on a stool.

“Liam, can I ask you some questions?” I inquired, watching him carefully as he got settled on another stool before he nodded.

“Why are you buried here in France?” He raked a hand through his now shorter hair, showcasing a perfectly flexed bicep in the process.

“This is where the last of us were forced to retreat. Before that gruesome night, I lived on our estate near London.” His words made me wonder what happened on that night, but judging by the look on his face, I wasn’t sure if he was ready to talk about it.

“I live in London.” I tried to converse and he smiled brightly at me for some reason I couldn’t comprehend.

“When were you buried?” I winced at my choice of words. “I’m sorry, that was an insensitive choice of words.” To my surprise, he looked very composed and unaffected by my words.

“If I remember correctly, it was the 28th of April, 1897. A dreadful day for my kind.” I could see the pain in his eyes as he sat there reminiscing about the past. They were almost glistening in the soft glow of the sun.

“How old are you then, if I may ask? We’re in the year of 2022 now.” I gulped as I waited for him to answer, but I could already tell that he was a lot older than me.

“152 years in your sense of time,” He started and my eyes widened slightly, as I took his age into consideration, “but that makes me... 29 Lycan years.” He shrugged it off as if it meant nothing and he hadn’t just told that he was over a 150 years old. “How old are you?” I just sat and stared at him with my mouth agape and wide eyes, trying to form a sentence, but failed miserably.

“I uhm… I’m…” A deep chuckle reverberated through his chest and he stood up, only to come closer and he knelt down in front of me, placing a calming hand on top of my own. “ 26.” I managed to croak out and he smiled gently, as he squeezed my hand softly.

“See? We’re practically contemporaries. Almost the same age, both living in London… Who knows what the Goddess has in store for us?” His smile never faded, not even when he stepped away to sit back down on the stool. Goddess… He must be talking about the Goddess of the Moon. She was another thing I needed and wanted to learn more about. I glanced down at my watch and figured we still had some time to kill before the cab arrived.

“Goddess? Can you tell me more about her?” I asked him softly, preparing for rejection, but to my surprise he started to explain.

“The Moon Goddess Selene created us at the beginning of time, together with the other Gods and Goddesses and their creations. We were meant to balance and protect nature and so she gave us both the body of a human and a beast, along with the ability to phase between them. The legend states that not all of the Gods and Goddesses were fond of our brutal appearance, but Selene promised them that we didn’t mean any harm, besides our very reason for existing. As long as the Lycans helped to balance nature fairly, we could live freely.” He closed the book in his hands and leaned backwards over the chair to put it down on the desk again.

“So what happened?” I blurted out, desperate to hear an end to this incredible story, which sadly felt very real all of a sudden.

“A human was killed,” His voice was laced with both sadness and anger, “A Lycan killed a man who hunted and killed his mate.” I couldn’t speak and hoped that he wanted to elaborate, because this was very unsettling to hear.

“When God, who created humans, found out, war was declared and peace vanished along with all hope and sense of safety. After many years of being hunted, home was no longer safe and we had to flee and hide. But the hunters were smart…” He scoffed at the mention of hunters, whatever that meant. “… They quickly found out that if you kill one part of two already bonded Lycans, you can easily kill the other, because under normal circumstances, Lycans held powers unlike any other creature. Before I knew it, we had to pick someone to go into hiding with our most precious scrolls, books and belongings, to wait for the day to be uncovered by the surviving Lycans. Once food and water runs out, we can slumber for many years, depending on the amount of training the Lycan has. I wanted a young mated pair to be buried, thinking that they would at least be able to produce an offspring for our kind to survive, but the majority voted for me.”

A knot in my stomach appeared as I tried to put myself in his position. Watching your whole world being torn apart, your family being hunted or even killed before your eyes. It must’ve been horrible. Did he loose his family in such a brutal manner? My stomach churned again, as I imagined him with a gorgeous and pregnant woman in his arms.

“What about your family? Did you loose your mate?” My voice was barely above a whisper and the reason annoyed me. He wasn’t mine to be jealous of. He was allowed to have a past. His warm hazel eyes met mine again and he wore a soft expression on his face.

“I lost my entire reason to even be alive the day they locked me inside of the cave,” His words stung a little and it felt like he just confirmed whatever my mind had put together, but I waited for him to finish nevertheless out of respect, “but somehow, I was brought back to life the moment you fell through the hole in the ground. You give me a new purpose.”