Lycan Warrior (3 page)

The man in him, however, was frustrated.

In two hundred years, he’d discreetly bedded hundreds upon hundreds of wenches, but he’d never felt this uncontrollable hunger coursing through his veins for any one of them.

The splashing stopped and Malek tensed. He couldn’t hear her. Moving his head to the direction of the lake bed, he gritted his teeth and tried listening for any signs of movement from her. Then, he heard a sharp yelp.

Growling, he ran toward the lake, snapping branches and breaking twigs as he charged through the thick shrub, his heart pounding with fear. Privacy be damned! He should not have left her alone!

The woods thinned and he vaulted through the air into the clearing, nearly falling over Katya. Shocked, Malek reached out his hands and stopped her from stumbling back. Instantly, his shock evaporated as he felt her soft skin beneath his hands, her curved hip, her small waist. Dazed by the sudden heat assaulting his senses, Malek stared at her breasts, full and supple, their rosy nubs his control completely crashing down.

His inner wolf howled with primal need and he grimaced as fire coursed through his veins. He looked down at her face. She looked terrified. Without warning, she clawed at his face and screamed, her eyes turning amber.

Damnation, Katya was shifting!

“Be still,” Malek roared as he gripped her shoulders. “It is I, Malek. I heard you scream.”

She ignored him as she kept clawing and growling, pounded on his chest. Grimacing, he watched her face shift, brows meeting at the bridge of her nose, jowls appearing, ferocious fangs snapping in rage. Slowly, she grew in height, towering over him. If he didn’t shift, her Lycan form would rip him to shreds.

Without another thought, Malek called on his inner beast and shifted in his eight-foot Lycan form, his clothes ripping and shredding from his body as he expanded. She had already shifted in her seven feet tall She-Lycan and wrestled him to the ground.

“Katya! Stop,” he growled in his eerie voice, rolling over, imprisoning her body beneath his.

Malek grabbed her hands and gripped them tightly over her head as he gazed down at her face. He tried to ignore the treacherous wave of desire making his heart pound where their naked loins met. She was breathing hard, squirming under his weight, and he sucked in a harsh breath. Even in her Lycan form, he found her desirable.

Her stare connected with his and he caught a flash of recognition in them, then fear, and finally shame. “Oh no,” Katya whispered. “I’m…I’m sorry. You can release me.”

“Not until you shift back to your human.” He sensed her powerful strength beneath him and didn’t want to take any chances. Not that Katya could overpower him in battle. It was his own beast, his own strength Malek didn’t trust, and he didn’t want to accidentally hurt her.

He saw her begin her shift back to her human, and he followed suit. He gritted his teeth, trying to ignore the powerful wave of lust heating his loins. She was soft and curvy beneath him, her nipples grazing his chest, his rigid penis against the supple curve of her thigh. Malek could take her in one swift move and relieve his burning, sexual frustration, but he gritted his teeth against that option. That would be rape and he’d never forced himself on any woman, human or otherwise, in his life.

“Are you calm enough now before I release your hands?” Malek asked. Her seductive curves beneath his body made his throat go dry. He swallowed convulsively as stabs of pleasure and pain pulsed through his erection.

She nodded slowly.

He then released her hands and rose, willing his rigid penis to go limp as he watched her reach for her clothes on the ground next to her. “Leave me. Please,” Katya said thickly, tugging on her trousers.

Malek frowned. “You were trying to protect yourself. You didn’t know it was me.” He watched Katya slip into her white top, shoving it with hard jabs over her breasts.

“Go away,” she said stiffly.

His desire for her still throbbed in his blood and before he did something he would regret, he turned and strode naked back to the camp, ignoring the guards staring at him curiously as he reached for his bag. He pulled out another set of warrior garb.

For the first time, he wondered of the horrors she must have endured in Balkathan’s lair. He’d heard the females imprisoned were raped to become with child so Balkathan could grow his army.

The thought of another man, Lycan or human, laying his hands on Katya consumed Malek with uncontrollable fury, nearly blinding him into a murderous rage. His Lycan beast wanted to be released, but Malek’s human fought, denying it freedom.

Dressed, he threw back his head and released a long, gut wrenching howl as his men rose abruptly to their feet.

“What is it?” Ortega asked gruffly once he reached him.

Malek took a moment to calm down before he gave his friend a dark look.

“The wench,” he replied hoarsely. “She is driving me mad.”

Ortega’s expression slowly relaxed. “Aye, Malek. I understand. It happened with Prince Vasilis when he met Alexandra and then with King Drago when he met Eve.”

Malek growled. “Are you talking of that damned Lycan Legend? Do not annoy me with that now. I have bigger things to worry about.” His gaze caught Katya returning and his gut clenched. “Make sure Nolan secures the damn corral,” he snapped. “I don’t want another horse veering off camp.”

“Aye,” Ortega said, his face breaking into a hint of a smile.

“What the devil do you find so amusing?”

“Nothing,” Ortega said, his smile disappearing.

* * * *

Katya pulled down the covers of her cot. She was mentally and emotionally exhausted and in desperate need of a good night’s sleep.

She couldn’t stop thinking about Malek and what had just transpired by the lake. If he hadn’t shifted, she could have seriously harmed him, or worse. Her mind raced to her dark past, when most of her nights were filled with her fighting off Balkathan’s wolves.

Now she wasn’t so eager to sleep.

She dreaded the nightmare she knew would reappear.

Under her covers, she closed her eyes, willing her thoughts away from her imprisonment in Balkathan’s lair.

She failed miserably as once again her dream sequence began.

Katya tensed at the jarring sound of the gate opening. They were back.

She sat up, looked around the dark, filthy cell, and noticed the other women stirring from their sleep, staring at the two Lycan entering in their human form. Some women began to sob while others scrambled back against the cold cement walls.

Katya knew why they were here. They were going to rape one of them.

She growled, her hand going to the neck brace that had silver spikes ready to kill her if she shifted.

One of the Lycan guards leered at Katya and she grimaced. The bastard was going to pick her.

“You’ll never make me pregnant, demon,” she spat.

She couldn’t count how many times she’d been raped by different guards and still remained childless. It was so many times, she’d learned to numb herself from the horror. The guard shifted in his Lycan form.

“To be sure I do, tonight, I take you as my beast,” he snapped back.

Katya froze as she stared up at his towering form. He was eight feet tall, naked since his shift had shredded his clothes, and his erection was enormously thick and long.

“You’ll kill her!” one of the women screamed.

Katya wasn’t sure who because she was numb with paralyzing fear.

“Touch me and I’ll shift,” she growled once again. “I would rather die by silver to my throat than be taken by you in your beast form.”

He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her to the middle of the cell. Katya kicked and screamed, clawing at his taloned hand, her actions useless.

“No, leave her alone,” Elizabeth cried.

Katya shot her an anguished look, and swallowed hard. “Close your eyes! Don’t watch.”

In the two years Katya had been imprisoned, she’d grown to love Elizabeth like a little sister, protecting her to the point of suffering rapes only to save her from being chosen. Now, Katya felt helpless, unable to save her young friend from witnessing what was sure to be a horrifying and violent scene.

Katya growled as the Lycan beast grabbed her filthy shift and drew it up sharply over her thighs, exposing her naked limbs. The other guard, still in his human form, laughed cruelly.

“This will be fun to watch. We’ll find out if a human female can take a Lycan beast,” he snarled.

She knew fighting would be useless, so she closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. She tried blocking the sounds of the women crying around her, Elizabeth sobbing uncontrollably, and rumbled.

“Get it over with, swine,” she hissed.

Curiously, she felt the Lycan beast’s talons withdraw and heard the women gasp in surprise.

“Shift back to your human, imbecile!”

She stiffened at the deep, imperious voice of Balkathan and opened her eyes. He stood by the entrance, a tall, dark form, with his personal guard at his side. “I want to impregnate them, not kill them, fool!”

With trembling hands, Katya pushed her shift over her legs and sat up, her eyes flashing murderous rage at her captor.

“You bastard! I promise you, one day I’ll kill you,” she spat.

“Silence!” Balkathan roared, his eerily translucent skin glowing in the dark cell. He turned to his personal guard. “Gar, take her to isolation. In fifteen months no one has made her with child and I grow tired of her.” He gave her a cold look. “You are barren.”

* * * *

It was well past midnight and the campground was still. Malek heard the imperceptible sound of a gasp in Katya’s tent and he rose from the ground, his body tensing. He trained his ears on the sounds inside the tent and heard Katya moaning, her breathing laboured. Concerned, he flung the flap back and entered the tent.

The candles were out, but there was enough light from the moon’s glow coming in from the open entrance to make him see she was distressed. He rushed to her side.

“Katya, wake up,” he said thickly, lowering himself on the edge of her cot. She whimpered and his heart thudded at the look of anguish on her face. Her pretty features were drawn tight and the edge of her closed eyes glistened. She was crying in her sleep.

Malek was unmanned. Grim-faced he placed a gentle hand on her cheek and leaned closer to her. “Katya, wake up,” he repeated, his tone gentler this time.

She did and looked at him with confusion on her face.

“You were having a terrible nightmare,” he said.

“I left all those women behind,” she whispered. “My God, Elizabeth is still there.” Her face crumbled and she began to sob.

Without saying a word, he slid his hands beneath her and lifted her off the cot, gathering her in his arms. He held her tight against his chest, wondering whose heart was beating that fast, his or hers?

“You can’t imagine what it was like having silver pressed on your neck,” she continued, her voice muffled against his chest, “being ravaged by two or three wolves at a time.”

He felt the blood drain from his face and a white hot rage welled in his chest. “You escaped and that’s the important thing. How?” he asked running a tender hand down her hair. He felt a tremor run through her.

“One of Balkathan’s guards helped me. Balkathan called him Gar. He was his chief guard.”

He heard her broken sigh and his Lycan heart stirred with an inexplicable need to soothe her pain.

“I went mad in isolation, and I don’t remember much, but I do remember one night when I was sobbing in my cell and Gar entered. I grabbed his hand and cried for him to help me. I remember him staring at me coldly, but something in his dark eyes gripped me. It was a hint of warmth, of compassion, and…and fear. I had glimpsed a part of his humanity Balkathan didn’t control. He tried pulling away from me, but I refused to let go of his hand. Then, I remember sobbing and talking about my mother…how I missed her, and wanted to see her. I told him how she was the only family I had left and that I wanted to be with her one more time. My talk of family was what completely transformed his features and he pulled out his key from his pocket and unlocked my neck brace. He dragged me to the exit, all the while his expression a curious mixture of pain, fear, and grief. I…I think he was fighting Balkathan’s power and was trying hard to help me escape before he lost control of his mind. Malek, we cannot allow the other prisoners the same fate as Gar, forever trapped in Balkathan’s nightmare.”

“The king will organise his attack upon our return. We go to war in one month.”

He couldn’t imagine the horrors she must have endured. One thing he knew, she was terrified of men. The only thing she knew of a man’s touch was rape and brutality, he thought grimly as he recalled her violent reaction to him when he had tried to help her out of her trousers and then later when he had stumbled upon her when she’d bathed.