The Lycan King’s Warrior Mate

4: Second in command

Damon.

I stared at my new roommate that looks so f*****g feminine and familiar at the same time. But I had lived a long time to forget faces. Centuries blurred the last with something like flashes of moments, ghosts of people who had once mattered at some point. Living a hundred years does that to someone.

I barely gave him a second thought though. He was small and lean but wiry with the kind of build that is more of speed than brute strength required for this academy. His dark hair was tousled from training with strands curling at his forehead. His jaw was sharp and his skin sun kissed with those raging blue eyes the color of storm across the sky.

Something about him itched at the back of my mind like a memory or maybe a shadow or the scent. I lived a hundred years and met thousand faces at the same time watched hundreds die at my feet. Anyone could look familiar at one point in life so I brushed it off.

The first night I had to force him on his knees because of his insolence. The command had slipped from my tongue and his body hit the ground before he could resist. That moment should have satisfied me, should have been enough to remind every warrior in this cursed academy as to who I was and what I am capable of.

But as he knelt before me with fists clenched and spine rigid with refinance, I felt something shift and awaken inside of me after years. Curiosity.

It was an unfamiliar thing for me to feel because I hadn’t experienced anything remotely close to that in decades. I had no interest in people and had to rule because the Moon Goddess would have my head if I don’t. My world was one of war and blood merged with death, loyalty that is earned through fear.

And yet this boy -this warrior- was the only thing I could think about as I lay in my bed that night staring at the old ceiling while listening to his steady rhythm of his breath. His scent lingered in the air like a magnet which wasn’t quite right. It smells like someone that wasn’t him.

There was something beneath the sweat and the dirt from the training but it is elusive at the same time. Even my powerful sense of smell couldn’t get to the depth of the scent and it gnawed at me. I don’t like the feeling of being left in the dark. I’ll find out.

The morning air was thick with the scent of earth, rain and sweat of the warriors as they assembled in the training yard early in the morning. The academy was extremely silent and I know it’s their fear of me pressing into the space like a second skin. And I did nothing to ease the feeling. I had not come here to be their friend but to make them warriors worthy of survival.

My gaze scanned the yard searching for one person and I found him. My strange little rommate with wiry lean form. He was stretching near the back moving like a predator while wanting to be prey. The sun glinted off the sheen of sweat at his temple and those blue eyes were unreadable albeit very vivid.

“You!” I said as I stepped forward, my voice cutting through the morning and he stiffened as if knowing I was talking to him.

He slowly turned around with his expression carefully blank while the rest of the yard stayed quiet. A flicker of uncertainty crossed his face before he quickly masks it and stands at attention. I almost smirked at the move, it was smooth but not THAT smooth.

“Me Your Majesty?” He asked with his back ramrod straight and confidence I’m sure he doesn’t feel.

I liked the way he said that with just enough obedience to be proper but laced with something else. What an insolent fellow but also the most interesting I’ve seen so far.

“You’ll fight me.” I announced coolly and a ripple of shock spread through the gathered warriors that I could taste it in my tongue.

The ones who had been here long enough to know what it meant took careful steps back and distanced themselves from the bloodshed to come. The rumors about the gruesome event with my family have made an impact for decades and I like it that way. It makes me formidable since I could do that to a family.

But what surprised me a bit was that my opponent didn’t even flinch.

“I- -“ his throat bobbed as he stared around the instructors as if asking for silent help then he forced out an answer when the help didn’t come. “Of course Your Majesty.”

He hesitated for a fraction of a second before finally stepping forward with no protest or excuse. Just pure acceptance which I find more interesting. Maybe the academy won’t be as bad as I thought it would be.

I let him make the first move because I wanted to see what he would do and how he would react. He didn’t rush in blindly or let pride push him into doing something stupid like many others would have done. He circled me instead with those sharp blue eyes scanning my stance and form looking for weakness. A smart move.

But what he should have known is that I don’t have weaknesses. I decide when or how to give it.

He struck fast in a blur, foot sweeping towards my ribs but I dodged easily shifting just out of reach to test him. He twisted midair moving with an agility that was nearly unnatural then struck again. I blocked the hit at the last second with my fingers closing around his ankle yanking him off balance.

He hit the ground hard but he rolled, recovering faster that I expected from that impact. There was no hesitation in his movement. And I realize he was extremely skilled. More than that, he was also very instinctive which is saying something from someone that’s fought for decades.

I could smell the adrenaline rolling off of him but it wasn’t from fear. It was mainly his focus and determination. Something coiled inside of me again. It was feral and so darn hungry for something I don’t even know. As far as I know I’m not into men in that way.

I pressed forward, increasing my speed and forcing him back. He gritted his teeth while adjusting and adapting to match me strike for strike. He should have lost already or at the very least be struggling. But he wasn’t. He was keeping his stance in an applaudable way.

The watching warriors and instructors were dead silent watching with wide eyes in disbelief. Because he wasn’t just surviving, he was fighting with him all and holding his own against a lycan. I could have ended it in an instant and slammed him into dirt to remind him who I was exactly but I didn’t.

Because for the first time in decades, I was enjoying myself and so I let him last. I let him taste the thrill of defiance then finally when I had tested him enough, I ended it.

I stepped inside his guard too fast for him to react and knocked him off his feet while pinning him down in the dirt. My palm was pressed against his throat not enough to choke but enough to remind him of the difference between us.

He stilled beneath me, wide blue eyes staring at me with so many emotions I can’t tell and his breath coming out in puffs. I stared at his parted parched red lips that were full and too sensuous to be on a warrior’s face. He was breathing hard, his heart hammering.

For a second, my eyes locked with his and I felt it again. It was that curiosity I felt yesterday when I saw him. The strange twisting pulled deep in my guts. I released him and stood up watching as he pushed himself up, shoulders rising and falling with each breath.

His gaze met mine with those stubborn and unreadable emotions and I bit back another smirk. I turned to the gathered warriors and did what I never planned on doing when I decided to come here and something I haven’t done in decades in this same institute. It was a shock for all of them.

“This one is mine!” I announced in a dispassionate voice and was met with silence then followed by murmurs of disbelief.

“He is my shadow and second in command.” I finished.

More shock murmurs rippled from the crowd because it was unheard of. The warriors who had spent years in this academy clinging through ranks, earning their place looked at him with barely mask rage and jealousy. Because he had just been here for two years and I had made him my second. It is a position many would have killed to have.

He was still kneeling in the dirt, his eyes wide with an emotion I couldn’t name. This is just the beginning boy.