CYRUS
There was a certain strength that came with knowing that your mate was in danger, or so the other lykae had said. And that strength filled me now.
It had always fascinated me how merciless they became when they were protecting their mates, how ruthlessly that fought. I had always wondered what it felt like, but I wouldn’t have to wonder anymore because I was experiencing it right now.
It was indescribable.
A red haze covered my vision at the sight of the blood rolling down her neck, and that was the last thing I remember. The leader restraining her, with the knife at her neck.
The beast took control of me for the next ten minutes. Biting and slashing through bodies, anything to make sure that nothing happened to her. My mate.
When the beast took control like that, there was usually mass destruction and there was no stopping it until it achieved its mission. A score of dead bodies.
My chest was rising up and down, struggling to accommodate my breaths. The floor was littered with dead bodies and blood. There was so much blood everywhere that I thought that it was all I could see.
Until I looked up and found Avery standing at that same spot she had been in all this while, rendered immovable with shock.
Avery. Fuck.
In the haze, I had completely forgotten about her. That she was there. That she was witnessing everything.
In one day, she had found out that I wasn’t human and most importantly that I was a werewolf in a way that she would never forget. And as if that wasn’t enough, she had almost been killed because of me. Again.
Yet again, another person that I cared about had been targeted because of me.
-She fears you. Be careful with her.-
I swallowed, my heart beating a million miles a second. Fuck. I had never been so scared to talk to a person.
“Avery…”
As if hearing me utter her name had snapped her out of her trance, she jumped and then when she saw me, took an involuntary step back. It didn’t look like she had done it on purpose.
“Avery, I-”
She shook her head hard, taking another step away from me. Backing out of my reach mentally, as she did physically. My stomach dropped and my hands began to shake. Fuck. I was losing her.
Without giving much thought to what I was doing, I took several steps towards her and with every one that I took, she took two more backwards. I could deal with anything else. I could deal with anger, surprise, shock. I could deal with all those things, but I could g deal with the betrayal and dissapointment I was seeing in her eyes.
And to make it all the more worse, she was scared of me. I heard her heart racing as she continued walking backwards. She was going to walk into a couch and fall, and I stretched my hand to warn her but she mistook my outstretched hand for me wanting to touch because she flinched hard and stumbled which caused her to trip over the couch and fall anyway.
To know that she couldn’t bear my touch anymore…
Pain lanced through my heart, so strong and sharp that I almost doubled over from the sheer force of it.
Of all the ways I had imagined I would meet my mate, of all the ways I had imagined it would go, of all the scenarios I had thought about, I had never imagined one where she would be human and would be so opposed to what I was. Never had I imagined that she would be running away from me.
I saw the fear and the hurt in her eyes, along with the permanent disbelief that came with knowing what I was. And knowing that I had elicited these emotions in her, was killing me even more than the emotions themselves.
“Stay away from me.” Her voice wavered on the words. Then she repeated them, firmly this time. “Stay away from me.”
“Avery, I can explain.” I tried again, hoping that she would at least give me just a few minutes to explain to her.
What I wanted to explain, I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that I had to talk to her because, fuck, I was losing her and I couldn’t be losing her. Not now. Not with all that I felt for her, and not with me now finding out that she was my mate.
Hell, I was still finding it hard to wrap my head around that. It still didn’t make sense, but I couldn’t dwell on that right now. I had to focus on Avery not running away from me right now and maybe later, try to make sense of this new discovery.
“Explain what?” Her voice broke on the last word and the sound of it almost shattered my heart. “You’re…” She flicked her wrist at my appearance, “God. You’re not human.”
The beast, realising that it was upsetting her, was starting to retreat into its cage. My appearance was starting to change and my normal form was starting to surface, but I doubted that she would see that right now. She was too caught up in what she had seen, too focused on the beast she had seen, to accept that it was me standing before her now.
I felt the final changes as the claws and fangs retreated and it was just me standing before her now. I willed her to see that. Willed her to see that the beast was just a part of who I was and that it actually didn’t define me. I was still the Cyrus she knew. Nothing had changed.
But would she see that? Would she accept that?
Her eyes filled with tears and she dabbed at them with the back of her hands. “What are you?”
She was going to let me talk. At least that was a good thing, right?
“A lykae.” I sighed, feeling weak all of a sudden.
“What is that exactly?” Sge asked. “What is a lykae?”
“We’re… Immortals. The natural born lykae are immortals born with a beast inside them. A beast that can be summoned when we feel emotions such as fear or anger and when we’re being attacked.”
She wrapped her arms around her middle, her shoulders slumping and caving into her small form, making her long extra fragile and vulnerable. She was still wearing my clothes-the top and briefs-and it was probably stupid, but I felt a little hope over the fact that she still had something that was mine on her skin.
“How…” She shook her head, “It doesn’t make sense. How’s that even possible?”
“It is.”
“You can’t tell me that. Humans aren’t-people aren’t born like that. With beasts inside them. It’s not possible.”
She was finding it hard to believe, I understood that. She was just finding out today that werewolves exist, but she also had to know that I couldn’t be cooking the whole thing up. She had seen it with her own eyes for fucks sake.
“You saw it with your own eyes, Avery. That’s basically how all lykaes look when they change forms.” I attempted to explain it as best as I could, “I know in the movies depicting wolves, the human turns into the animal itself, changing forms entirely. But that’s not how it actually is-at least as far as I know.”
She shook her head again. To me, it looked like she knew that what she was was real, but she didn’t want to believe me and that made my heart hurt. She was trying so hard to convince herself that I wasn’t what she had seen that I actually was.
I hated being away from her. I hated the distance between us in the living room and I hated the invisible rift that had formed between us. I wanted to touch her, but I wasn’t sure that she would let me.
I took an involuntary step towards her and she jumped back immediately. With the way her eyes widened when she saw me, I knew that she was just now taking note of the fact that I had switched forms.
“You’re…” She pointed at my face. “You’re you again.”
I nodded, heart in my throat. I tried to swallow but my mouth dried up and my throat felt like it had ash in it.
“Cyrus, I…” She trailed off, and I held my breath because I knew that what she was about to say was final. And from the look on her face, I could tell that it was going to break me.
I stood with my legs a few feet apart from each other, braced for the words she was about to deliver.
“I need time to process all of this, because in case you don’t know, you sound crazy, okay? I know what I saw and I know that it wasn’t normal but every other thing you just said doesn’t make sense. An immortal born with a beast inside him?” She laughed bitterly, “My God, just listen to yourself. I have a question though.”
I nodded for her to proceed.
“That night when I was attacked.” Sweat broke out across my skin, “Was it me they were after exactly? Or was it you?”
Fuck. I couldn’t lie. “It was me. They tracked me to the bar and saw me talking to you. They automatically assumed we had ties and that’s how you became a target.”
She nodded, her face terrifyingly blank. “Right. I thought as much.” She took a step towards the stairs, “I need you to stay away from me, Cyrus. For my mental health and for my safety, please stay away from me.”
I couldn’t move. My legs couldn’t seem to find the strength nor the will to walk from that spot.
I watched her dissapear into the hallway as she went up the stairs. A few minutes later, she reappeared, now wearing the gown she had initially worn to the restaurant.
I had known that the words would do damage, but I hadn’t known that they would do that much damage.
Like a man watching the light at the end of the tunnel fading away, I watched her walk out of the house and out of my life.