The Lycan King’s Warrior Mate

3: Family slayer

Willow.

“Got you covered!” I said to James as he walked out of the training yard limping.

I smirked to myself knowing I’m now untouchable in the institute. Two years at Nightshade War Institute had carved me into something more sinister and sharper and deadlier. I had fought my way to the top and silenced every doubt they had about my small syature. I was one of the best warriors in the academy despite the whispers that followed.

The recruits all respected me and the instructors usually nod in approval which makes my position secured. I’m now a warrior through and through. All that turned upside down when the rumors about the Lycan King coming to the institute.

The air in the academy turned to ice the moment the Lycan King stepped through the gates.

His name is Damon Draevan and his name is soaked in blood. The mere sound of it sends grown powerful warriors to their knees. It carried the weight of a monstrous reputation because he killed his entire family to take the throne and left him the last Lycan alive.

They call him the Family Slayer behind his back.

There are more rumors about the gruesome details of how he killed rhem. No one would dare to say his name or look him in the eye and now he was here in the academy. No one knew why only that he had come up here to personally oversee the training of the top recruits.

That mere statement made warriors who had never cowered from death suddenly held their heads lower. Even the instructors -agile and powerful wolves- that are hardened by decades of battle started walking more carefully this morning. We haven’t even met him yet.

Why would it bother me though? I’m literally a ghost in this place, just another recruit and another fighter he wouldn’t notice amongst thousand others. I’m sure he won’t notice me and I’ll be sure not to do anything special to attract attention.

I walked down the hallway looking around to make sure I won’t bump into him as I made my way to my dorm. When I successfully got to the front of it, I pushed open fast and entered. I barely registered the flickering candlelight before my instincts flared screaming dangerrrrr.

There was a presence in the room that was dark and heavy and so wrong. I froze as my entire body locked up realizing that someone was in my room. But then I realize it was not any regular warrior because he has a different scent clinging to him than the one I’m used to.

It was the Lycan King.

He stood near the single narrow window in the room with his arms crossed over his chest and towering over the dim light. I couldn’t see his face clearly but I felt his stare and the sheer force of his presence inside the room pressing against the small room like a tsunami.

Every inch of me went rigid and my heart slammed into my ribs. I let out a strangled scream before I could stop myself and it sounded sharp and high pitched. It is the kind of sound no man -especially a warrior of Nightshade War Institute- would do.

His dark chuckle filled the room in a familiar deep and rich voice. Why would a Lycan king laugh and why does he sound awfully familiar?

“Sounded a little too high for a warrior. Are you hiding something boy?” He mused from the dark and my chest lurched recognizing the voice.

“Who the hell are you?” I asked as I forced my breath to steady and forced it to be neutral. I have a feeling but I cannot be too sure. I don’t want it to be true.

He started moving then in a deliberately slow steps and emerged from the shows to the din candlelight that finally revealed him. The black hair that was tousled but still managed to look sharp. The face carved from stone all cold and merciless and impossibly perfect. And his eyes? They were ancient and unreadable that felt like nothing human.

My knees nearly buckled under the force of his presence. Power and danger rolled off him in waves. The kind that only one kind of being would ever possess in the werewolf wolf. A true lycan.

I had met alphas before that were brutal and dominant but this was something entirely different. It is something no one could resist.

“Bow.” He ordered in a voice edged with authority I had never heard before.

My body hit the floor before my mind could even fight the force of the command. I gasped with my fists clenching against the floor as my knees crashed down. My muscles seized and trembled under the invisible weight. I hadn’t chosen to kneel on my own!

It was the command that slithered through my veins and wrapped itself around my bones then forced the obedience from me before I could even think. Only a Lycan king could command someone like this. And only someone far above my rank and beyond my power could make me submit with a single word.

I grit my teeth in fury as something far more dangerous curled inside of me. My head stayed bowed as a frown pulled between my brows. What the hell is he doing in my room???

“Your Royal majesty.” I said and allowed my lips to curl into a smirk despite the fear crippling me on the floor.

“So you do have some manners after all.” He murmured in an emotionless voice and I swallowed hard, my pulse thundering in my ears.

This was so bad. No! This was worse than bad because I had spent two years surviving here and blending in while making sure I was never too noticeable despite my reputation. And now in a single moment, I had drawn the attention of the one person I couldn’t afford to. Damon Draevan. The last Lycan king and the man I had spent years trying to forget.

Now I’m going to share a room with him…