The Lycan King and His Dark Temptation

---- 266. ALOYAL LACKEY MARIUS "Well, well... So your neurons work for more than just stealing and betraying." She suddenly looked up, and I could see that all- too-familiar shade of red. "Ho... how is that possible?" A tree behind me stopped my retreat. "Did you really think I'd give you a weapon without a safety? A power developed by my father over millennia, only to be used by a traitor like you." She gripped the dagger tightly in her closed fist.

Only a few meters separated us, and I feared the worst. I admit fear took over my soul, knowing that Victoria was controlling her. "You talk about deceit, but you were the first to lie to me, to give me hope only to roll around with that beast. You deceived me until the very last moment!" I roared back, outrage and a storm of emotions raging in my chest. "Oh, drop the heartbroken man act, please. I'm controlling the woman you murdered with your own hands!

You sacrificed your own mate, and the Goddess does not forgive that!" ---- She shouted at me with a blend of several voices, and now I could see more of Sophie in her. Without waiting for my death, when she lunged at me, I turned and began to run. I couldn't fight something that was already dead, much less under Victoria's control. I had been a fool to think she'd hand over this power to me; she was always one step ahead.

I dove into the forest at full speed, and without the magical restraints, with some of the power I'd been given, I managed to put some distance between us. But not enough. A roar behind me and the chill of death breathing down my neck made me turn and defend myself. I hissed in pain when the blade slashed my hand. Even so, I grabbed Sophie's arms. She looked like a deranged, broken doll, screaming deafeningly and disorienting me.

The gruesome scene, the macabre stage for my death: She had a strength she'd never possessed before, speed and skill in combat. Sophie had never been a warrior, had never trained; all of this was driven by Victoria's control. Every time I tried to get away, she was on me, my body riddled with stab wounds. I was losing blood and speed, panting heavily, my mind fighting to find a way out. I refused to die like this. ---- I fell to the ground and crawled backward, watching her in slow motion.noveldrama

That lunatic leapt with the knife raised high. Moonlight glinted off the blade... It was my end. "SOPHIE, IT'S ME, STOP!" I shouted one last time, but it only made her insult me with more hatred. Just inches from my throat and about to kill me, the attack shifted, and the knife sank into my shoulder. Someone roared and had thrown a massive rock from the side, knocking her into a thorn bush.