Page 14 of The Wolf Moon

“The building you are looking for is there,” She informed me, turning around completely to face the lycan village. She used her free hand to point at a taller building, well into the village, but still easy to see. She looked at me once again, “And the room you are looking for will be on the second floor, the last door on the right.”

Cynthia stepped to me, lifting her hand to touch my face softly.

“No matter where you go. No matter what path you choose, the moon will always be with you,” She told me, her voice hushed and kind. She moved her hand from my face and turned away. I watched as she reentered the hidden path into the temple, gaining a last glance of her hair shining in the darkness before she closed the door above her. The door was nearly invisible among the forest floor. I could understand why it was missed.

I glanced into the forest once more, wanting more than anything to run for it. And then I turned away to begin my hunt for the King Alpha. I hid between buildings, moving as silently as possible. When having to run into the open, I kept low and watched for signs of life warily. As I moved closer to the building Cynthia pointed me to, I spotted a lycan walking out of a separate building. I quickly ducked down, my hand on the hilt of my blade carefully.

When the lycan walked past without glancing in my direction, I waited until they were out of sight before proceeding. It took some time to get to the building I wanted and when I did, I spent a considerable more amount of time staring at it determinedly. It appeared either unoccupied or the occupant was sound asleep. The former would have been preferred.

I looked around once more and when satisfied that the area was vacant, I crept towards the building easily. The front door was too in the open and it was likely it would be locked. I stayed against the wall of the building, hidden from view, and reached above me to try a window. The first one wouldn’t budge. I tried two more before finding one that opened under my touch.

My heart was pulsing loudly in my throat as adrenaline began to pump determinedly throughout me. I lifted the window further and then twisted around, sheathing my blade before gripping the window ledge firmly. I looked into the building carefully, not spotting any signs of movement. And then I lifted myself up and through the window, feeling like a bandit; a mad, insane bandit. I planted a foot on the floor of the house carefully, my bare feet silent in the air.

When I was fully inside the building, I shut the window to prevent wandering eyes from wondering if someone might be in their fearless leader’s house. I snuck through the building slowly, avoiding any and all furniture. I found the stairs and followed them to the second floor. I looked left briefly, my eyes taking in the hallway with a few doors. Then I turned right, walking purposely.

The last door was already partially opened, which felt like a bad omen to me. That or the Goddesses had used some voodoo to open it for me. Here, they might be whispering, he’s in here. Sic him.

I opened the door further, slipping into the room despite the fact that my heart was panicking. My sight was greeted by a sleeping form atop of a large bed. The King Alpha was lying on top of the sheets, positively spread out and resting with ease. It was as if he hadn’t just sentenced some innocent girl to die a horrible death of starvation in an abandoned temple.

I got mad just looking at him, his scarred yet handsome face sleeping peacefully.

I crouched slightly, removing the blade from its sheath quietly. Then I began to move towards the King Alpha slowly. He was shirtless, revealing even more battle scars across his chest under the moonlight. If I had to guess, I wasn’t the first person to attempt to assassinate him. It made me nervous.

He was centered squarely on the bed, far from the edges as if to purposely make it harder to carry out the deed. I hesitated when I reached the bed, looking from the edge to him with unease. I was fit enough to have more strength in my blows than most girls in my village, but I would still need two hands if I wanted to drive my blade into his heart as intended. At the same time, I couldn’t touch the lycan or else he would definitely wake up.

I crawled onto the edge of the bed carefully, holding my breath as it sank under my weight. When the King Alpha didn’t move, I moved closer to him, blade still in hand. I expected him to wake any second and thought perhaps I should come up with a backup story, but nothing came to mind so I only proceeded.

When I was close enough, I hesitated a moment longer. I could try stabbing him from the side, but I had approached him from his right side, my left. It meant I would have to reach further over him to hit his heart. I would probably miss or not be able to put all my strength into it. I closed my eyes for a moment, tightening my hands into fists stubbornly. And then I began to move even closer to him.

I lifted my body lithely over him until I was straddling his form, keeping myself raised enough not to touch him completely. Now satisfied by my position, I gripped the blade with both of my hands, holding it above his chest for a moment. I aimed for his heart, hesitated, and began to shift the blade in a way that would avoid the scars already on his chest. I wasn’t sure why I didn’t want to disturb them and the thought was enough to frustrate me.

Abandoning my attempt to be nice, I lifted the blade above my head. I stayed in this position, poised for my attack, for a moment longer than necessary. It was like when I had an arrow trained on his eye. Do it, I demanded of myself, but again my body refused to listen.

I tightened my grip over the blade over and over again, my body tightening under it as well. I must’ve moved above him, enough to move against him. Suddenly, his eyes flew open; those steel blues reflecting the moonlight as they found me above him.

I struck, aiming for his heart blindly. He immediately reached for my wrists, snatching them in his grip dangerously before rolling over me roughly. I lifted my knee, slamming it repeatedly into his abdomen as best as I could and tilted my wrists under his grip to prevent the blade from piercing me instead. His tightening grip demanded I drop it, but I firmly refused.

I wanted to scream, finding myself in a brawl, but my mouth remained closed with focus as I fought his powerful form. I felt the edge of the bed below us and I thrust my entire body into throwing us off entirely. I heard the satisfying collision of his head against the bedside table as he released me with a grunt.

The blade fell across the floor unhelpfully and I immediately crawled hastily for it. Just as I nearly reached it, hands gripped the back of my legs and pulled me out of reach. I was suddenly pinned under him, his hips holding mine down and his legs tight around mine to prevent me from movement. I immediately tried to knee him between his legs, but he easily saw it coming and shifted to avoid it. He moved to prevent me from attempting further attacks on his lower regions.

I used one hand to grab his ear viciously and the other to slam into his nose as hard as I could manage, but my target was offset by the struggle and it wasn’t as hard as I would have liked. Still, he growled at the resulting pain, blood already leaking from his head from my previous attack.

He pinned my dominant hand on the floor above me while I continued my attack on his ear. When he targeted that hand, I immediately began to claw at his face, which drew frustrated snarls from his throat as he bared dangerous fangs at me. He ripped my hand from his face and pinned that with the other, roughly pulling them both under my head until I had to lift my chin to avoid the discomfort of the position.

We were suddenly left silent and panting on the floor of his room, my body officially incapacitated under his dominating grip. I wanted to kick myself. I should have ran back to my village after all. I wasn’t a secret assassinator of lycan kings. It was stupid of me to think I could even manage it.

“You’re supposed to be locked up in the temple,” Alpha Roman abruptly growled, frustration painting his features. But at the same time, there was something of a delight in his expression as though he were pleased to see me here. At first, I thought it mad, but then when evaluating my own emotions I felt a form of excitement in having him close to me as well. Perhaps it was this strange insanity that had prevented me from performing killing blows when available.

“I got out,” I stated the obvious, narrowing my eyes at him firmly.

“You got out and you didn’t run home. Instead, you thought you would come kill me in my sleep?” He turned his gaze from me to the blade just out of my reach. He lifted his free hand and grabbed it, causing my heart rate to increase exponentially. “How’d you know where I slept?”

“I’m a hunter, remember?” I responded sharply, squirming under him when he lifted the blade over me. He didn’t appear to believe my excuse and began to run the blade over my side slowly.

“Who told you where I sleep?” Alpha Roman asked me dangerously, following the blade with his eyes pointedly. I began to panic, trying to think of anything that wouldn’t get Cynthia in trouble with him.

“I’m… I’m…,” I faltered momentarily and then winced when he pulled my wrists further under me roughly. “I had a vision from the… from the Crone!” He paused then, looking up from the blade and instead peering at my face.

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