It was a lycan. A cursed shifter, who had performed dark magic.
“Impossible…” Iris stared at the description of it, but she couldn’t find many things there, aside from a lycan was a shifter, who had broken the rule of nature and tried to use magic, which was a power that didn’t belong to them in the first place.
Therefore, as punishment, they would turn into a lycan, the cursed shifter, every new moon.
Iris lifted her head and tried to think what night that day and she gasped in shock. It was indeed a new moon.
“Your curiosity knows no bounds.”
The book and two magic stones dropped to the floor at the sound of Cane’s voice that rang inside this quiet library. Iris didn’t know that she was not alone until he came into her peripheral vision. She blanched at the sight of him.
Meanwhile, one of the magic stones rolled on the floor and stopped right under Cane’s shoes. He bent down to take it and inspected the magic stone.
“You sneaked this out again.” Cane’s dark eyes fell on Iris, as she took a step back, to put a distance between them. It was her instinct to be away from the alpha, because he emanated danger for her.
“I found four today and I gave two to the slave trainer.”
“And you think it is justified for you to keep the other two?”
Iris couldn’t answer that, but she couldn’t not look at him, just in case he was saying something and she missed it. She didn’t want to upset him after what happened.
And before she answered the question, Cane picked the book from the ground and started to look through it. From the title alone, he knew what kind of book Iris was reading.
“A lycan.” Cane picked the second magic stone and then put the book on the table, as he was only a step away from Iris. She couldn’t take another step back because her back was already pressing against the bookshelf. “What have you learned?”
Iris cleared her throat and answered his question honestly based on what she had read earlier.
“It was a lycan. The monster that I saw was a lycan. Did you perform dark magic?” she asked gingerly. This time, she looked him in the eyes, so she would be able to see his reaction, but his expression remained unreadable.
Cane closed the distance between them again, until he was only a hair’s breadth away from her, as he stared down at her neck, which was covered by her curly hair. She had let loose her hair in order to cover her neck, since none of the dresses she owned had a high collar.
He brushed away her hair to see his mark on her and she flinched when the tips of his fingers grazed her skin. He could also see the bruises on her neck from when he tried to strangle her.
The mark was so glaring now that the skin had healed from the biting. He glared at it with so much hostility, but then when he blinked his eyes, it disappeared, his expression returned to being stoic.
“Have you told anyone about this?”
Iris immediately shook her head. “Not even Hanna saw the mark.”
Cane said nothing, he dropped the two magic stones into her hand and then walked away from her, leaving her inside the library alone.
Iris was not sure whether she had to follow him or not, but seeing the magic stones in her hand that he handed over again to her, she took it as him not minding her keeping them. After all, he took her magic stone last time.
And so, Iris spent many hours inside the library, perusing the books with no one bothering her. She ended up learning a few interesting things about magic stones and was fascinated by it.
But then, the most interesting part was when she found a book about the lycans and everything that entailed the curse. How to deal with the curse and how to help a shifter when the new moon came.
She was not sure whether Cane knew about this or not, but she wanted to let him know if she had a chance.
Especially the part where the curse for the lycan could be lifted by a Serafim. It was the title for a woman, who held a great divine power, but such a person lived on a different continent.
“Did the alpha know about this? The curse can be cured…”
“Did the alpha know about this? The curse can be cured…” Iris muttered to herself, as she held the book close to her chest, thinking of how to tell him about this.
Serafim came to this continent fifteen years ago, for the royal wedding of the king and the queen. At that time, King Aeon and Queen Della were only the crown prince and the crown princess.
Their succession to the throne had left bad blood within the royal family, but fortunately, Cane’s mother was left out of it, because she stayed away from the capital and followed her mate back to the Howling Wolf pack.
She didn’t give any indication that she wanted to be crowned as the heir. That was why she was the only half sibling that survived, but it was no longer the case now, since Alpha Gerald killed her along with her husband.
Iris learned about all of this from her teacher when she was ten years old and she remembered how proud he was when he explained to a ten years old little girl the gory scene that was the death of Cane’s parents. He told her in detail, despite Iris having tears in her eyes, not wanting to know about that. He made sure she read his lips and knew what he was talking about.
Iris wanted to read more, but then she would have spent a lot of time in this library and she needed to get some sleep before she went to work in the mines the next day.
But then, she realized that she was attracting unwanted attention by finding these magic stones easily, so she wouldn’t find any stones tomorrow, which meant, there would be no warm meal for her.
She was not sure whether she had to hide this fact or not.
************************
“The queen said that the king is planning to put one of his people in charge of the Blue Moon pack and he has gotten the five alphas to approve the same,” Aderan reported this information to his alpha.
Today would be the last day of their meeting and the king would announce his decision about the fate of the Blue Moon pack, as he was against the idea of merging the two packs together, since it would make Cane the alpha of two packs. The other five alphas supported the king’s decision.
“What should we do?” Aderan asked in a concerned voice. They would be damned to let those wicked people from the Blue Moon pack that had been involved in torturing them to be free and taste their freedom again.
Most of the people in the Howling Wolf pack demanded Cane to kill them all if things had come to that. Why would the king meddle in their business when he turned a blind eye while they were enslaved for a decade?
The king didn’t have any right to get involved.
Cane shared the same sentiment. His uncle shouldn’t have bothered to come all the way to the Blue Moon pack, he should have sat quietly on his throne.
“What about the messengers?” Cane turned his head to talk to Will, who was walking on his left side.
“They were supposed to arrive this noon, five of them had returned, but two messengers were still on their way here,” Will reported the situation and Cane only nodded.
More Kickass Werewolf Reads
Dive into our collection of free werewolf romance novels—where fierce Alphas, daring heroines, and heart-stopping twists await. Every story burns with forbidden desire, loyalty, and destiny. Don’t wait—here’s a world where love bites hard and nothing is stronger than the call of the mate.
Leave a Reply