Unleashed

Chapter Nineteen: First Contact

Mila

The sun was rising and left an orange light in the room. With my uncle's pendant clamped into the palm of my hand, I sat against the corner walls of my bedroom, my legs pulled up to my chest and my arms curled around them.

Connor had brought me here after he had killed—

My throat tightened again. Oh God, I didn't want to think about it anymore, but my mind kept replaying the same scenes over and over again! The red blood, the screams, the cries. The tearing of flesh and breaking bones. I could ever recall the iron scent of blood. And then came the silence.

No cries were reaching my ears anymore: just my heartbeat, which sounded like a drum in my ears.

"Oh, God."

I started to cry again, surprised I could still produce tears as my nightgown was all wet from all the crying I'd done already. There was a constant lump in my throat, my head hurt, and my jaws hurt from the cramping. I felt sick thinking about my uncle and Rebecca.

They were really dead. I still couldn't believe it.

And what about Lir? What will happen when he returns today? I was worried about my friend to bits. I couldn't afford to lose him too.

After Connor had carried me away on his shoulder, he dumped me on my bed and left. I didn't know what to do or where to go, so I locked the door and crawled into the corner where I still sat. I laid my forehead on top of my knees.

All this time, I'd refused to believe Darius when he warned me about Lycans. He said that they would turn into wild beasts whenever they had the chance of escaping human mastery. That we all couldn't go back to the old days where we lived in harmony. Had he been right all along? The Lycans had killed everyone that crossed their paths tonight: men and women; the old and young. They didn't care. Yet, I was left to live. I wished they would have just killed me too. I didn't know why they hadn't, but I was more afraid of their plans with me than about death itself. If they'd planned to kill me in the end, I could only hope they would do it quickly.

The sound of the doorknob twisting made me blink up. I brushed my tears away so I was able to see again. Someone pushed at the locked door and all I could do was anxiously wait until the Lycan entered. When it didn't open, the visitor rammed the door out of the wall at full blast and walked inside.

"S-stay away from m-me!" I shouted, not convincingly at all, while I jumped to my feet, standing up straight.

The color of his eyes gave away that the Lycan was Connor, who growled in reply before he threw the door away. He smacked it against the wall with a loud bang, making the wooden piece split in half. He then slowly walked towards me, and his angry facial expression unexpectedly changed. His mouth closed, sharp fangs no longer visible, and his bushy eyebrows slowly wrinkled into a frown.

I pressed myself against the wall, telling him to stay away from me once more, but he didn't stop until he was close enough to bend down and bury his muzzle into the crook of my neck. I heard his heavy breaths rumbling into my ear until he let out a low, deep kind of whine and pressed his body against me. He sniffed his way to the other side of my neck, his furry face soft against my cheek. I could only stand there, pressed between wall and wolf, completely paralyzed.

It was so strange. A part of me was frightened to death of the eight-foot-tall wolf, yet another part of me was content at our touch. A part of me hated him to the core for his actions, while another part understood why he had done what he'd done.

My legs shook, almost not able to keep me standing while the wolf was exploring me, his drool leaking warm drops against my neck and collarbones. I felt it all.

He sniffed a path downwards until he reached the pendant and stood up straight, looking at me with a whole new set of facial expressions again. He probably thought the flowers smelled bad too.

I debated if I should slam the point of the upside-down teardrop pendant into one of his eyes as a surprise attack, but before I decided if I would have the guts to do so, he walked away from me, disappearing behind the folding screen.

Should I make a run for it? No, it wouldn't be of use, anyway. It would probably only make him angrier. While thinking about my options, I couldn't help but hear the cracking sounds that came from behind the wooden screen. I had heard them once before, the very first time I stood close to him during this summer. Connor was shifting.

It only took a few seconds before he appeared again, not being an enormous beast this time, but a man. The man that had been dominating all my dreams and fantasies, the one that had been on my mind constantly, the beast that had murdered the man I saw as a father. He walked towards me with his scratched, battered, and bruised body, completely naked and intimidating.

I was once more frozen to the spot, eyes unabashedly drinking in the view of the other. I felt disgusted with myself for it! What kind of whore would grow breathless, looking at the man that had just slaughtered her family?

Connor halted his steps, only an arm's length away from where I stood. This was the first time he stood this close. His black, damp hair hung like a dark river, cascading over his broad, muscular chest. His green eyes had changed into black ones, which were looking at me from beneath long black lashes. The pointy muzzle had turned into a square jaw, adorned with black sprinkles of hair.

He clenched his jaw muscles a few times but said nothing.

"What are you g-going to do with me?" I dared to ask.

"We're leaving later today. Be ready," he answered in that deep voice that had been haunting my daydreams. But that voice didn't sound the same anymore.

"You killed my uncle," I whispered, trying not to break into tears again yet failing to do so.

"Darius had it coming," he softly replied.

I didn't know what to answer back to that. I probably didn't know half of how Darius had treated his Lycans. Lord only knows what they might have been through. I had been blind before and now my tears were blinding me.

"But the other people have done nothing wrong, and you k-killed them too, even the children!" I shrieked, my breath hitching in my throat.

"We have killed no one that didn't deserve to die, only the ones that mistreated us. They have done nothing wrong, you say? You don't know anything!" he hissed, making me feel shivers down my spine. "Most of the human slaves and children are still alive, even though we know very well they despise us too." He took a step closer until I felt his breath fanning against my face. "But the ones that were killed deserved it. Your uncle actually deserved a much slower and more painful death, but for your sake, I showed him mercy and ended him quickly and without pain. Because you were the one to save my brother that day."

He only let me live because I saved his brother?

"It sickens me how you stood in front of the window every evening, looking at me while your mind was busy thinking about killing the people I loved, while my mind was confused about wanting you!" I sniffed and looked at the ground again, wishing I could turn back time. "You truly are a heartless beast."

"Just because he loved you didn't make him a good man. He made us addicts, needy for something so we would do anything he wanted. And I have seen other Lycans treated like this by the other lanistas. That's how humans are. Greedy for power, selfish, evil. They are the ones that are heartless." His sharp words cut me. "But no more. I'll destroy that drug myself, killing everyone that is in the way. Because it's time we are free again."

"Then you're just as bad as he was. Fighting evil with evil." He inhaled sharply through his nose and balled his large hands into fists, knuckles turning white. He didn't respond to my insult with words, but instead unexpectedly turned around and headed towards the hole that used to hold a door. "If you have the slightest grain of compassion left..." I continued, making him stand still before he disappeared on me. "My friend will arrive soon. Please let him live! If you do, I promise I'll tell you where the seeds of the drugs are planted. There is a vineyard. Darius told me that the drugs were made from the grapes that grow there."

Connor didn't turn around when he answered. "I'll let the others know not to touch him. We'll leave when the sun sets again. You better be right about your promise."