LycanPrince (8 page)

Alex heard the sound of the wolves behind her getting closer, but she couldn't move. She stared at Vasilis, her mouth agape. His body appeared to be growing right before her eyes and as it grew, his clothes ripped from his expanding flesh, leaving only a black short covering over his loins.

His gaze snapped to hers and she jumped back in fright. He was a Lycan! Hiroshi was right. They did exist!

She then screamed as she watched in horrified fascination as all the guards around her shifted into their Lycan or wolf forms. Vasilis vaulted through the air and landed in front of her. Stunned, she craned her neck way up to look at his face. His nine-foot frame towered over her, his amber coloured eyes staring down at her. She couldn't move as she stared at his jowls, his brows meeting at the bridge of his nose, his long menacing incisors that looked like they could slice a boulder.
His body!
My God, his body had expanded by a foot all around in pure muscle. She was terrified.

He reached down and took her by the shoulders, his touch surprisingly gentle considering the ferocity of his appearance.

"Hide in your tent," he growled in an inhuman voice.

"You're…you're a…" She couldn't breathe.

"Go, dammit. They're almost here." He shook her gently. "They smell the little one!"

Alex gasped. Ariel! Without another thought, she ran back to her tent, glancing back to see the guards, a mixture of Lycans and massive wolves, lining themselves along the camp's perimeter. They were in direct line of the pack of wolves speeding toward them. Vasilis sprung in the air, over their heads and landed at the front of his Lycan guards who carried their swords and bows.

This wasn't happening, she thought wildly as she reached her tent and threw back the flap. She fell inside, gasping as she saw Hesta towering over Ariel who was still sleeping. The healer was also in her Lycan form.

She raised a sharp hand. "Child!" Hesta growled. "Please do not fear me. I would never hurt you or your sister."

Alex felt faint as she gaped at Hesta's frightening appearance. "I know," she said, willing her heart to stop racing.

The healer growled her satisfaction before she turned to Ariel lying on the cot. "Thank the stars the sedative I gave her is still in her system," she growled. "I wouldn't want the child to witness this blood-filled night."

Alex choked back on a strangled sob. She had to do something. She couldn't just stand there and wait. "Hesta, where are my weapons?" She couldn't protect Ariel from the werewolves with her bare hands. She needed her silver.

"They're in the black crate next to the horses, but you cannot leave this tent, child."

Her heart raced as she heard terrible noises coming from outside. She heard growls and sharp yelps, howling and thrashing. Her mind went to Vasilis and for a split second, she feared for his life. Panicked, she turned to the tent's entrance.

"I have to get my weapons!"

"Stop!" Hesta growled. She threw her bow and arrow across the tent. Alex caught it. "Use my silver. I have my dagger."

Alex nodded and crouched by the entrance, opening the flap enough for her to see what was happening outside. "Sweet Mother of God," she whispered hoarsely, seeing the guards battle the wolves. Limbs were gashed, blood covered the site, arrows pierced fur. She felt sick watching a wolf gnash a chunk of flesh from another wolf. She prayed it was one of the guards who was the attacker and not the other way around.

She stiffened violently as she saw a wolf running toward her tent. With instinctive reflex, she drew back her bow and shot an arrow straight through its heart. Almost immediately, the wolf transformed into the figure of a naked man, the arrow trailing a string of blood on his bare chest.

Alex screamed and snapped her gaze back to Hesta. "It changed to a man!"

"Aye. We all do in death," Hesta growled. "They're an evil bunch, child. They hide in the mountains and attack on full moons to turn humans to their dark side."

Alex looked back at the war going on outside, her bow readied for attack. "But it's not a full moon tonight."

"Tonight they want to feast on the little one."

"They will have to die trying," she said grimly as she kept her hand steady on her bow, ready to kill anything that approached her.

She caught her breath as she saw two grey wolves racing toward the tent. She drew back her bow, ready to release it, when she saw Vasilis in his Lycan form spring between them and grab their heads with his massive taloned hands. Alex froze as she watched the wolves twist and writhe from his grasp, biting into his flesh. He grabbed one by the neck and threw it in the air as a brown wolf approached menacingly from the left. Alex sucked in a harsh breath. She had to help him. She drew her bow back and aimed for one of the wolves, when Vasilis shifted into his wolf form. All she could see was a mass of fur and fangs, gnashing and ripping and she panicked. Vasilis was the massive black wolf, but they were all moving so fast she was afraid she was going to hit him by mistake.

She got a clear shot of one of the grey wolves and released her arrow. It struck him in the chest and the wolf immediately transformed into the body of a man as it fell dead to the ground.

The battle around the camp was dying down and she prayed none of the guards were hurt, but she couldn't pay much attention to that because she still had her gaze pinned on Vasilis.

She watched him rise on his haunches, growling ferociously at the brown wolf. Slowly, he circled it, ready to pounce. Alex threw back the flap and stood outside of her tent. She drew back her bow and released another arrow to the grey wolf that was ready to attack Vasilis from behind.

Vasilis shifted into his Lycan form and snapped his amber gaze to her face. "Get back inside! Now!"

"You're bleeding!" she yelled, feeling sick with fear at the bloody gashes on his chest.

With lightning speed, he vaulted to her and grabbed the arrow from her hand. Sprinting in the air, he landed on top of the brown wolf, digging the arrow deep into its chest.

Alex dropped her bow and stared numbly at the bloody scene all around her. Bodies upon bodies of naked men lay on the ground with either arrows through their hearts or deep gashes on their chests made from silver daggers. She saw the guards shift into their human forms, naked, as they collapsed on the ground in exhaustion. She inhaled sharply as their cuts and gashes and sliced flesh slowly disappeared.

She looked back at Vasilis and watched him shift into his human form. He was naked, but she didn't have time to pay attention to that startling fact because she was gaping at his torn flesh slowly healing and returning to normal.

He was breathing hard, his fists clenched, his face grim, as he slowly walked toward her. She parted her lips and released a tremulous breath as she ran her gaze over his muscular physique. A tremor shot through her body and the ground wavered beneath her feet. She whimpered, reaching out blindly to him as darkness surrounded her. She heard him swear roughly under his breath as his arms went around her. She was drifting away and couldn't do anything about it.

He lifted her in his arms as she began to lose consciousness.

"My darling," she thought she heard him say hoarsely as blackness overcame her.

Chapter Seven

She opened her eyes slowly and realised she wasn't in her tent. She turned her head and saw Vasilis sitting next to her, staring at her with a curious mixture of regret, concern and something else she couldn't define. Malek stood behind him while Hesta hovered over her like a mother hen.

"Oh, my poor child! What you had to witness," the healer said.

"Leave us," Vasilis said.

Malek immediately took his leave as Hesta fixed the blanket around Alex.

"I said leave us," Vasilis said harshly. "That means, you, too."

Hesta stopped what she was doing and gave him a small nod before hurrying away.

"Your sister is fine. She knows nothing of what transpired. All the bodies have been moved and buried," he began in a grim tone.

Relief cascaded over her body. "And your guards? Are they…did anyone…"

"We lost no one, but our youngest, Roarke, is without his left leg below the knee."

She gasped.

"We heal automatically," he continued, "but if you lose a limb, you have lost it forever."

She raised a shaky hand to her mouth. "Oh my God. Poor Roarke," she whispered.

He leaned forward and braced his hands on each side of her body, his face close to hers. "I told you to stay in the tent. You could have been killed," he said.

She stared at his mouth, all thoughts disappearing from her mind. She should have been frightened of him, but she wasn't.

"I can protect myself," she said in a small voice. She couldn't believe that from everything that happened, she had one thing on her mind. She wanted him to kiss her again.

"Yes, you can, but not from my evil kind." He paused, his mouth tense as his gaze flickered to her mouth. "What if I wasn't there to stop the two grey wolves? One could have easily jumped on you and ripped your throat. You die if you're bitten by a werewolf on any night other than a full moon."

"Yes, but you were there. You saved me," she whispered as she looked into his dark, mesmerizing eyes. Their gazes locked and she held her breath as his expression darkened with desire.

"Dammit," he said roughly, lowering his head. "I want you."

Then his mouth crashed on hers. She moaned against his warm, firm, sensual mouth and drew her arms around his shoulders, kissing him back with a passion that startled her. His hands slid beneath her torso and he lifted her body against his. His chest crushed her breasts and she dug her nails into his shoulders. She felt a shudder go through him as he lowered her back on the bed, his mouth moving furiously over hers. Alex couldn't get enough of him. She ran her hands over his back and quivered beneath the heat flaring in her limbs.

She heard him growl deep from within his throat as he slid one hand between them and found her breast. He kneaded and moulded it, her nipple hardening with pleasure and she groaned in his mouth as his tongue continued to pillage and plunder her.

An ache grew where her limbs met and she whimpered for a release she didn't know how to get. He shuddered and dragged his mouth from hers with a ragged breath. He stared down at her, his face taut with desire and he shoved aside her shirt, nearly ripping the thin fabric as he lowered a hungry mouth over a breast.

She arched her head back and gasped with wild abandon at the pleasure he was inciting in her limbs. Her ache grew and she thought she would die if she didn't get her release.

He continued to suck and lathe her breast and she thought her body would splinter in a thousand pieces at the exquisite pain growing in the lower regions of her body. Then he moved to her other breast and ravished it with the same intensity and passion as he did with the first one. Alex gasped. She couldn't take it anymore. She grabbed his hair and pulled down, hard. She heard him growl and slowly he lifted his head, his eyes boring down on hers.

He was breathing hard, his eyes hooded, his face a dark shade of red.

"This is madness," she whispered hoarsely.

He ran his gaze over her exposed breasts and rested it on her face. He was clenching and unclenching his jaw so tightly, she stared at the muscle throbbing along his cheek. He looked like he was in pain.

"I can't believe I…this was not…" he began hoarsely, unable to finish.

Slowly she drew her shirt over her breasts and stared at his face. He looked tortured, pained. "What is it?" she asked, her tone husky. Had he regretted what they'd done?

"I hunger for you like no other," he said almost as though he was speaking to himself. He drew back slowly, rubbing a shaky hand at the back of his neck and gave her a look that melted her limbs.

"I…I wasn't exactly stopping you either."

"Why are you not afraid of me?" he asked abruptly. "You haven't said a single word to me about what I am."

She rose slowly from the bed, straightening her clothes as he drew his towering height next to her. "The man who taught me the art of combat knew of your kind."

"And the Royal Contest? You are not afraid of being wed to a beast?"

She looked up at him and caught a flash of uncharacteristic vulnerability pass over his face. It was very brief, but she caught it. He called himself a beast. Her heart warmed with unbidden compassion as she thought of how gentle and caring he'd been with Ariel from the first moment he met her, not to mention how he'd risked his own life jumping between the two wolves to save her.

"You're not a beast, Vasilis," she said softly. She saw him swallow hard.

"A few weeks after the night my castle turned two hundred years ago, my mother killed herself because she couldn't live with a husband and son who were monsters. She was turned, too and had to take a silver dagger to her heart."

Alex gasped and raised a sharp hand to her mouth. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"It's not your fault. She didn't see us as human anymore and preferred death to living."

Gently she placed her hand on his arm. "I'm sorry, Vasilis," she repeated.

He gazed intently at her. "I am still a man," he said quietly.

"I know," she whispered.

He took her by the shoulders and dragged her up against his body as his mouth descended on hers. He kissed her hard and her knees went weak with desire. He released her before she could catch her breath.

"Go to your sister. We leave shortly. When we arrive at my home, you and I will talk."

* * * *

By mid-afternoon, the caravan entered the royal grounds and Alex couldn't help but stare in awe at the castle atop the mountain. It was a magnificent structure with majestic towers, immense walls and turrets.

The wagon slowed as the caravan went through the village nestled below the mountainside. The villagers greeted Vasilis and his guards with smiles and cheers. Alex could see Vasilis up ahead, nodding and waving to the people on the side of the road and she couldn't help but admire the love his people had for him.