Chapter 15: The cage
1450 Words
Esmeralda
We went down, and I jumped back in fright when Lucan launched himself at the cage, snapping and snarling at me. I jumped back so hard I fell into Clayton’s chest, he held my waist from behind and said, “take careful slow steps towards him, let him smell you.”
I looked at Lucan who right now was a huge beautiful but terrifying white wolf and with a gentle nudge from Clayton I took a step forward. “Won’t he eat me?” I whispered.
“No, right now, he is all wolf and this is only with our first change, after this he will be much more himself, but he will have to control his wolf urges, it’s good if you let him smell you and recognize you as his mate, you’ll be safer than anyone else once he sees you as his mate.”
I was so scared, but I slowly reached my hand out towards him and held it there, he came over and sniffed my hand through the bars, then he made eye contact with me and gently licked my hand.
I looked back at Clayton, who smiled, “I knew it.”
“What?” I asked.
“He has some control of himself now, only an alpha wolf can do that with their first change.”
He came over and unlocked the cage. “You can stay with him for a while in here, he has some control but not all of it, you’ll be safe, but I’d rather not risk my other wolves right now.”
I nodded and went into the cage with Lucan and Clayton locked it and gave us some privacy. I ran my fingers through Lucans fur, he felt amazing, and I dropped to my knees and hugged him tight. “You’re so beautiful,” I whispered.
He licked my cheek, making me giggle, and I knew that was all Lucan, probably trying to make me laugh. There wasn’t much to do in the cage, so I sat on the floor and Lucan laid behind me, letting me rest my back against him. “You have a couple of zombies to find when you change back,” I smiled. He nuzzled his face against me in answer.
I was feeling sleepy when that feeling of dread hit me. Oh no. I opened my eyes and saw death, its huge black shadowy figure looming above me. “Esmeraldaaaa,” it said in that hauntingly despairing voice.
“Leave me alone!” I yelled and got up to my feet. I was scared, but I was also fed up of being scared all the time too, I’d had enough.
Lucan got up and stood in front of me growling at death, it ignored him completely and started moving closer towards me, and then I saw Lucans fur become alive with ice blue fire, it looked like, it was the most incredible thing I’d ever seen. I felt him throw his necromancy towards death, and then death was gone. At least for now.
I stared at Lucan and whispered, “wow, you can use your necromancy in wolf form, you looked like some sort of wolf god.”
He snorted, and I knew he was laughing at me, so I shoved him.
A few hours passed when Lucan wanted to shift back, somehow he managed to let me know with a lot of nudging me with his nose hard, and I called for Clayton. I was super shy doing it, but luckily, I didn’t have to yell, with his werewolf hearing I knew he’d hear me.
He came down, and I said, “I think Lucan wants to shift back, can he do that?”
“Of course, from now on, he will be able to shift whenever he wants to or even not at all if he doesn’t want.” He let me out and said, “go and wait upstairs, I’m going to need to teach Lucan how to bring on the change.”
I left them to it and waited nervously in the living room.
When Clayton came into the living room with Lucan behind him back in human form, I ran into Lucans arms. “Woah, baby, I’m ok, it’s alright,” he smiled, stroking my hair.
“The fever is gone now,” I said, touching his forehead, he felt normal again.
“Yeah, I feel fine now, the change can’t kill you,” he laughed.
Clayton made us both look at him in surprise when he said, “actually, it can.”
“What?” Lucan asked.
“Not everyone can survive the bite, you did because you’re an alpha, others it depends, the success rate is a lot better if they have an alpha to help them through it.”
“f**k, if I’d known that I would have downed the cure.”
Clayton laughed and slapped his back in a buddy way. “You’re fine, it’s over now, you have control over it, and you know how to bring on the change, the hardest part from here is adjusting to all the new senses and more primal way of thinking, you need to have more control over your emotions if you don’t want your wolf mind taking over.”
“Great,” Lucan replied sarcastically.
“You can still join my pack, obviously you couldn’t be alpha, but I’d be glad to have you as a second in command.”
“No, thanks, if I was going to join anyone’s it would be yours, but I’d rather be a lone wolf than be forced to follow pack rules.”
“You sure? I’d even share some of my females with you.”
“Uh, I’m right here?” I waved at Clayton.
He laughed and said, “sorry, I didn’t know you two were so serious.”
“We are, she’s all I want,” Lucan said and kissed me softly on the lips. He pulled back fast and stared at me.
“What?” I asked worried.
Clayton looked at him curiously and then at me. “I think he just found his true mate.”
“Isn’t that just a werewolf thing?” I asked.
He gave me a dirty look for that comment and I blushed.
“No, our true mate can be anyone, being a werewolf just gives us the ability to know when we find them.”
Lucan lifted my hand and kissed the back of it.
“What a cruel twist of fate to have a vampire as your true mate,” I teased Lucan.
He smiled and said, “I wouldn’t change you for the world.”
I did a silent little eeek of happiness in my head and hugged him. I looked at Clayton and asked, “have you found your true mate?”
“No, I wouldn’t want anyone else if I did.”
“Thank you for everything,” Lucan said to Clayton.
“Sure, you’re an alpha wolf, so you should be fine controlling yourself but you should stay the night just in case.”
Lucan nodded and said, “thanks, I need to head out though and find those two zombies I woke.”
Clayton answered, “do you need any of my wolves?”
“No, I could do with borrowing the car though?”
“Of course, I’ll see you when you get back.”
Lucan gave him a nod and then taking my hand he led me outside. When we were crossing the field to get to the car, he kept looking over at me. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
He smiled, “nothing, sorry, you’re just so beautiful, and I love you and f**k are these new senses intense.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not sure how to describe them, my feelings for you, for example, I’ve always felt this way, but now I know you’re my true mate it’s like everything is intensified and all I want to do is touch you, be near you. I can smell everything too, which is so weird, you smell absolutely gorgeous.”
“I don’t smell like death and decay?” I joked.
“No.” He leaned in and pressed his nose to my neck. “You smell like, Jasmine, the night itself if that’s even a thing and roses.”
I smiled shyly and looking at me, he said, “you are all I want, you are all I’m ever going to want Esmeralda, you’re my everything.”
He kissed my cheek, and then we reached the car and climbed in.
- Writer
