Phoenix Rising

Chapter Three

"The woman you train in the forest at night," he stated to my utter surprise.

" How do you know that," I questioned while gazing up into his rather expressionless eyes.

My eyebrow arched at him suspiciously remembering the eerie feeling as if I was being watched over the past few weeks.

He had been the one lurking deep within the dark corners of the forest. Why?

I opened my mouth to speak again, but the words died in my throat as the sound of a woman's voice caught my attention. "Fee! Are you alright?"

I craned my neck back to find Lily rushing towards our direction as she was escorted by a rather large, shirtless man. Her demeanor was laced with worry as she closed the distance between us.

Throwing her arms around me she gasped out, "I was afraid something awful had happened to you!"

My body tensed at the foreign feeling of another's embrace causing my eyes to widen. I couldn't recall the last time I had been held. I was sure it was long before my mother and father had passed though.

Not knowing how exactly to react I stood there with arms pinned to my sides. She must have realized my uneasiness as she quickly pulled away to give me an embarrassed glance.

"Oh my, I'm sorry.."

I interrupted attempting to ease her nerves about our awkward exchange, "that's alright, I'm fine."

I hated that I couldn't be normal, couldn't welcome the comfort of another. Although, I hadn't minded the Lycan's touch. He'd made me feel a kind of odd comfort I hadn't experienced before. Despite our embrace having a hint of hostility- I even dared to say I liked it.

That made me utterly more confused than I already was.

I have no wolf so it should be impossible for me to have a Soulmate. Yet he proclaims I as his and demands I pledge my loyalty to only his highness.

"We must leave now." The King gruffly stated pulling me from my thoughts.

I glanced over to find him transformed causing my mouth to slacken once again.

Now my eyes looked upon him with a whole new perspective. This time as a man- not a beast.

He looked so young, maybe twenty-five at most.

Dark black hair was cropped shortly to his head that had my fingers itching to graze it. His glaring eyes made me want to even more so.

I peeped a five O'clock shadow on his chiseled jawline and frankly, he looked a bit disheveled in the most drool-worthy way.

The scar slashed across his eyebrow and eye all the way to his straight-set nose caught my attention. Surly from some type of battle wound that, for some twisted reason, I found made him all the more attractive. The scar along his throat was more visible now, and an odd knot formed in my stomach at the thought of someone trying to kill him.

My eyes took in his wide-built torso while a foreign need to see it bare crossed my thoughts. After, I found myself wondering if there were other scars hidden away by his linen shirt.

I began to travel further down south until a low warning growl yanked me from the lustful haze I'd been trapped in. My attention immediately snapped up to meet his. The King seemed to have noticed my gawking by his heated stare, yet I sensed a hint of amusement lying underneath.

"We must return home by daylight before the tribal leaders arrive." Holding his hand out for me to take The King added, "Come Ajei. Kronos will take us home."

Staring at his outstretched gesture I thought of my parents briefly.

" This was my father's tribe I cannot just leave. They have no Alpha or Tribe leader now that Jack is dead."

Quickly I glanced over to Lilith who wore a rather pleasant look upon her face. I couldn't blame her. It felt quite freeing.

The King's patience seemed to be running thin as he let out a growl of annoyance. " Did I not say your Loyalty lies solely with me now?"

Swiftly he took one large step closing the distance and an odd heat began coursing between us. He roughly grabbed the upper part of my neck, right under my jaw, using his thumb to tilt my head to the side slightly. My toes began to curl inside my boots as his nose pressed hard into the side of my neck inhaling deeply. Any sense I had seemed to blur once he used his other arm to wrap around my back and pull me tightly against him as if trying to morph us into one being. My ear was on fire with the way he seemed to be purring into it somewhat verbalizing his satisfaction.

It was clear this Lycan had no shame nor personal boundaries.

Was this heaven- or Hell in disguise?

His deep, hushed voice strained out as he pulled away slightly forcing me to gaze up into lustful eyes directed at me. " You smell so good I could eat you."

The foreign intimacy clouded my brain leaving me defenseless against him. At this moment I was certain I would let him do anything to me without protest. Including becoming a cannibal and eating me. That's what he meant, right?

However, I needed him to say it. With no wolf to guide me verbal confirmation would have to suffice. How else was I to know for sure what I was feeling was the pull of a Soulmate bond? What if this was just how it felt to be embraced by any attractive man? I had no experience in these things and I'd never longed to have a wolf of my own quite as much as in this moment.

My voice came out in a whispered pitch as I searched for the answer. "Are we, am I- what is this?"

His thumb slowly brushed along my bottom lip while his eyes followed its movement. I felt a sense of longing radiating from him once again. Longing for what though, that was another answer I wished to find.

"You are mine. My other half, my Soulmate. Now get on the wolf."

Abruptly he broke away causing a cold feeling to slice through me as if he had dosed me with a bucket of ice.

Then I felt my feet lift from the ground for the second time today while I was hoisted up into the air. My hands instinctively clamped down on his shoulders to steady myself before I felt my bottom hit a hard surface.

I looked down to find I was sitting atop a solid sheet of dark, steel-colored fur. My eyes anxiously worked their way up to the wolf's head. The shock was present in my features as my eyes met those of the same Grey beast from earlier craning its' neck back at me.

A wave of courage took over me once again as The King removed his hands from my hips clearing my mind.

"You!" I spit out with annoyance swinging a leg over to straddle the wolf's back with narrowed eyes. "You're a right prick you know that?"

A laugh rumbled through the beast as I felt The King climb up and situate himself behind me. The same warmth from before flooded into my backside as his arms snaked around my waist securely.

I tensed for a moment still not used to the intimacy. In return, his grip tightened around me even further urging me to relax.

Maybe I would have, but the chance was taken from me before I would ever find out.

My body went completely rigid as the wolf still staring back at me began speaking. "I am Kronos."

I gasped as my mind looked for a logical explanation, "You can speak?"

Was I hallucinating? Wolves could not speak aloud, only through their link to their shifter.

"Indeed I can little one," was all he said in a deep, otherworldly voice before facing the woods and standing from his crouched position.

We rose high up in the air, and I had to look down slightly to even see Lilith's all-black wolf beside us. Envy swept through me for a moment at her ability to carry her own. She didn't rely on anyone or anything else to travel the lands but herself. It would only take mere hours for Wolves to run through the lands meanwhile, I would have to hike two weeks to make it to the kingdom from here.

Unexpectedly we jerked forward sending my head back smacking right against the King's color bone. My hands clamped down onto his forearms around my stomach in fear of falling from such a hefty height. I was sure to break a few bones if I were to be thrown from this beast.

As if hearing my thoughts the King's mouth found its' way to my ear whispering intimately, "relax. I won't let you go."

The hairs at the back of my neck stood sensing the last half of his words spoken referred to more than just this moment. Like a warning- a promise of the future.