The Lycan Villainess

3. The Explanation - Part 1

'So I am having a fever dream then,' Celeste thought and sighed in relief, 'this isn’t real.'

'What? No? Of course it’s real. What a rude thing to say to me,' the voice growled. Artemis, Celeste presumed, was not too happy with her.

'Artemis, or whoever you are, I’m very sorry to say that you’re just a figment of my imagination. The last thing I remember is collapsing at work and I must’ve hit my head and gotten a concussion or gone into a coma or something. And that made me go crazy and have this strange dream. It’s no hard feelings, but your existence is a lie.' Celeste pulled the bedsheets up over her eyes. 'I’m going to go back to sleep and when I wake up I’ll be in a hospital. Let’s just hope the crazy wears off by then.'

'Wow,' huffed Artemis, 'I knew you’d be disoriented, but questioning my existence is really uncalled for, don’t you think?'

Rather than respond, Celeste opted to shut her eyes and start counting sheep.

'Are you ignoring me now? Celeste, this is real. Your soul transmigrated here and was gifted to me by the moon goddess. I understand it’s confusing but I’m here to help you acclimate.'

Moon goddess? Hearing the disembodied voice speak that word made everything up to that point click into place–Artemis calling herself her beast, the opulent room, the maid mentioning aconite, the mysterious brother who looked like Henry–she was having a fever dream that she was in My Lycan Mate. That must be it. Celeste pulled the sheets down to her nose and opened one eye. To her dismay, the room remained the same as when she’d first awoken.

'My imagination is really wild,' she thought, blinking both eyes open in defeat.

'This is not your imagination! How many times do I have to tell you?' Artemis’s voice was a low growl now, and Celeste felt bad for angering her, even if she wasn’t real.

'Fine, if this is real then prove it to me.' She could practically feel Artemis grin.

'Get up and go to the vanity mirror,' the beast commanded.

“Whatever you say,” Celeste mumbled aloud as she stumbled out of bed once more and made her way to the vanity. Her steps were slow and wobbly, her body really did still ache. When she finally made it there, she perched herself on the ornate stool stationed in front of the mirror and gazed into it.

And did not recognize who she saw.

The girl staring back at her was breathtakingly beautiful. Unlike Celeste who was average at best, this girl had clearly been blessed in the looks department. She appeared to be younger as well, perhaps in her early twenties. Her platinum blonde locks were mussed with sleep, but instead of making her look unkept it made her look wild. Sexy even. She had a heart-shaped face with full, pouty lips and an elegantly curved nose. But her most captivating feature was her eyes. In contrast to her platinum hair and pale complexion, her eyes were a deep onyx. The contrast was so stark that it lent her a sinister air, as if something was not quite right about her, which Celeste figured was true. She’d never known such a beautiful person to be characterized by kindness.

“Who?” she began to ask aloud, stopping when the girl in the mirror did the same. Celeste lifted a hand and the girl mirrored her action. At that moment, she noticed something off about her own hand. It was perfectly manicured. Celeste never got manicures.

'Wait, is that supposed to be me?!' Celeste thought frantically.

'You see now? Your soul was gifted to me by the moon goddess when the previous Celeste died. You’ve taken over her body in a manner of speaking.'

'Previous Celeste… you mean I’m dreaming that I’m the villainess character?' What a shame. If she was going to dream about the novel, she’d prefer not to be the one character related to the dreamy Gamma William.

'Villainess character? What are you talking about? I just told you you’re not dreaming. Please don’t tell me the moon goddess sent me another lunatic!' Artemis’s voice was tinged with panic. Celeste felt guilty for worrying the beast and, true to her nature, decided to begin placating.

'Well, I don’t see how my looking different is proof really, but suppose you are telling the truth and I am a character in My Lycan Mate. Does that mean you’re my wolf?' In the mirror her eyes flashed gold and her mouth pulled into an involuntary smile.

All traces of panic disappeared in Artemis’s voice, suddenly swapped for smugness. 'I’m your lycan, silly human, but I suppose you can call me your wolf if you really prefer.' The smile dropped from her face and her eyes returned to their previous dark color as Artemis’s voice continued, 'but what’s all this about characters and our mate?'

'Not our mate, My Lycan Mate. It’s the title of a book I was reading that had a character who matched your–I mean our description. And she had a brother named William too.'

At this point Celeste decided to just play along. She couldn’t seem to bring herself out of the dream naturally, so she’d just have to ride it out. Besides, wasn’t becoming a character in a fantasy novel a dream come true? She might as well enjoy it while it lasts and hope she could remember what happened when she finally awoke. If she finally awoke. Frowning, she remembered the incredible pain from that meeting. Truthfully, it was hard for her to imagine having survived that, but this situation really didn’t scream afterlife to her, so she just had to believe that she’d lived.

'A book? Who was Celeste in this book you speak of?'

'Well it was more of a w*******l really,' Celeste explained. 'She was the villainess character. She had a huge crush on the lycan king and pulled all kinds of shenanigans to try and get him to love her back. It didn’t work of course, and in the end she was executed.' As she continued to explain she could feel Artemis growing worried.

'What’s a w*******l? Is it a prophecy of some sort?'

'Don’t be ridiculous, it’s just a serialized novel written online one episode at a time,' Celeste paused when she realized those terms wouldn’t make sense to Artemis and restarted. 'Anyways, it doesn’t matter what a w*******l is. The point is that I read a book that had similar characters to the people I met just now, and so I thought I was dreaming I was in that book.' She didn’t add that she still thought she was dreaming. Why ruin the fantasy? And besides, since it was a dream, it wouldn’t play out like the novel. She probably wouldn’t be asleep long enough to reenact the entire plot anyway.

But Artemis wasn’t convinced.

'Celeste, listen to me. I’ll explain how you got here, but first I need you to tell me everything you remember about this book you’re talking about.' Her voice rang with urgency.

Celeste huffed. She’d decided to play along, but she hadn’t thought it’d be so tiresome. Why did her wolf have to be such a worrywart? Oh well, it couldn’t be helped. 'I don’t see why it’s important, but sure.'

And so Celeste recounted everything she remembered from My Lycan Mate.

The plot begins with Zarek, the lycan king, visiting some of his vassal packs to investigate a series of rogue attacks that have been happening. He, his beta Lucien, and his gamma William attend the local Alpha Ball to exchange information with the pack leaders, but surprise, surprise, King Zarek smells his mate at the ball and becomes sidetracked.

His mate is a young werewolf named Elaine who had been abused by the young alpha of her pack, Damien. King Zarek, being the possessive brute that he is, more or less kidnaps Elaine and brings her to the penthouse where he is staying. He is overly controlling and generally doesn’t treat her very well, which makes Elaine worry that he will turn out to be just like Damien. Subsequently, she rejects him as her mate.

One thing Celeste had thought was a bit confusing about My Lycan Mate was how the whole werewolf mating trope was written. Each novel she’d read had slightly different rules governing the paranormal, and so it was a struggle for her to remember the specifics.

To her knowledge, in My Lycan Mate lycans and werewolves lived about the same amount of time as humans, but were stronger and could heal easily. Lycans and werewolves were similar in appearance, except that lycans were larger and were generally twice as strong. They could also shift and heal more quickly. The only thing that could impede their healing was wolfsbane, also known as aconite. It wasn’t as dangerous to lycans, but high concentrations were still harmful.

In terms of mating, it worked the same for lycans and werewolves. Each person had a true mate that they could identify only after their eighteenth birthday. Finding one’s true mate wasn’t a guarantee though, and so there were some who marked chosen mates instead of waiting for their perfect match. True mate bonds were stronger however, and if one marked their true mate and their mate died, they were likely to die as well. Marking was done by biting into the mate’s neck while having s*x. Usually very steamy s*x, from Celeste’s memory.

The confusing part was mate rejection. Celeste remembered that it worked strangely in this particular novel because it had been central to the plot. Essentially, if one did not want to mark their mate, they could reject them by verbally telling them, “I, (insert jerk’s name here), reject you, (insert poor puppy’s name here), as my mate.” Pretty standard. The strange part was that the second party had to accept the rejection. If they didn’t, the mate bond wouldn’t be entirely broken. Its effects were diminished, but the true mates could restore the full bond if the original rejector changed their mind and recited an acceptance speech instead.

All this to say that King Zarek does not accept Elaine’s rejection and swears he’ll win her over.

After all the chaotic romance, the action takes over. The king and his posse get intel that the rogues will attack Elaine’s pack and go there to fight them off. Of course, the king doesn’t allow his mate to take part despite her protests, and so he is caught unawares when she sneaks to the battle anyway and is put in danger. In a dazzling display of valor, the hunky Gamma William sacrifices himself to save his would-be luna. This even despite the fact that his sister is still engaged to the king thanks to a political agreement procured by their parents. Despite William’s death, all is not lost. The leader of the rogues is caught and the whole party returns with their prisoner to the lycan castle in the north.

This is the point in the story when the villainess is introduced. Celeste had been in love with the king for ages and is heartbroken that he’s found his mate and wishes to cancel their engagement. That, coupled with blaming Elaine for her brother’s death, sets her on a mission for revenge. Celeste successfully gets the royal court to assign Elaine’s etiquette lessons to her. Unfortunately for Celeste, her efforts to drive the mates apart only bring them closer together. After bullying the poor girl for some time, the lycan villainess is caught and the king is finally able to call off their engagement and propose to Elaine instead.

In a fit of rage, Celeste enters into a deal with the rogue prisoner and helps him to escape prison. Leading to the c****x of the story, the evil pair coordinate an attack to take place at the new couple’s engagement party. Their plan goes perfectly until Celeste goes off-book, k********g Elaine and attempting to kill her. Her efforts are of course thwarted by Zarek and, in the end, Celeste and her parents are executed while the heroine and the king are happily married.

It was a typical, fun romance story, but it wasn’t without its flaws. The book’s action plot was really only used to create romantic events, and in the end the author never explained why the rogue attacks even happened. The leader was caught, but never interrogated or anything. Also, there were several interesting side characters introduced whose plotlines never went anywhere. The beta Lucien, for example, was barely mentioned after the party returned to the castle. Similarly, there was a second romantic rival named Levana who helped Elaine in order to thwart Celeste but only appeared in one or two scenes. Several maids were mentioned by name, but never heard from again. Even Celeste and William’s parents were barely mentioned. You’d think they’d have had something to say when they were so politically powerful and both of their children were put in harm’s way by the crown, but no. Regardless, Celeste had enjoyed My Lycan Mate for what it was–a quick read.

After explaining all this to Artemis, Celeste sighed. 'Like I told you, just a silly romance book. So now, didn’t you have something you wanted to tell me about?'