LYCAN KING REBORN

Chapter 2: The Forest

The Forbidden Forest was not dark. It was dead.

No birds. No insects. No wind through the leaves. Even the moonlight that shone brightly over Silver Moon pack could not enter here. The trees were black, twisted, their bark cracked like burned skin. The ground was soft with centuries of rotted leaves that had never been touched by any living wolf.

I walked deeper, my bare feet leaving bloody footprints. My servant shoes had been torn off when they dragged me. My body was still burning from the awakening inside me.

My bloodline was changing.

Inside my head, the ancient voice was still speaking, but now it was clearer, calmer, like a king waking up after a thousand years of sleep.

Lycan King bloodline at two percent. Host body too weak. Need more royal blood essence. Need to find the throne.

I did not understand, but my wolf Fenrir understood. Fenrir was no longer the weak omega wolf who whimpered when Jax kicked me. He was standing tall now, his fur turning from gray to black with silver tips, his eyes the same red gold as mine.

Where are we going, I asked him in my mind.

To where we belong, Fenrir answered. His voice was deeper now, stronger. This forest is not cursed. It is waiting. It has been waiting for the last Lycan King descendant for a thousand years. Our parents did not die in a rogue war, Kael. That was a lie Alpha Magnus told you.

What?

I stopped walking. The air was freezing, but I did not feel cold anymore.

What do you mean our parents did not die in a rogue war?

I remember now, Fenrir said. The bloodline awakening is bringing back memories that were sealed. Your mother was not an omega. She was a royal guard of the Lycan King. Your father was his beta. When the Lycan King fell, the werewolf alphas hunted all loyal families. They killed them and said rogues did it. Alpha Magnus knew who you were. That is why he kept you as a servant, not as a son. He was afraid if your blood awakened, you would take back what is yours.

Anger, hotter than the burning in my bones, exploded in my chest.

Ten years. Ten years I lived like a dog in his house, thanking him for leftover food, while he knew my parents were murdered by his own people. Ten years I believed I was a worthless omega.

I clenched my fists, and the black tattoos on my arms glowed faintly red.

I will kill them, I whispered. I will kill Jax, I will kill Magnus, and I will make Selene watch.

Good, the ancient king voice said in my head. That is how a Lycan King should think. But first, you must survive tonight. Look ahead.

I looked ahead. In the middle of the dead forest, there was a clearing. And in that clearing, there was a small lake. The water was not black. It was silver, glowing silver, like liquid moonlight. And on a rock in the middle of the lake sat a woman.

No, not a woman. A wolf in human form.

Her hair was long, white as snow, reaching down to her waist. Her skin was pale. She wore a simple black dress made of shadows. But her eyes, when she opened them and looked at me, were golden, ancient, and filled with power that made even my newly awakened bloodline tremble.

She had been waiting.

"You are late, little king," she said. Her voice was soft, but it carried across the entire clearing without effort. "I have been guarding this throne for three hundred years, waiting for the last blood."

"Who are you?" I asked. My voice was still hoarse from the rejection pain.

She stood up and walked on the water toward me. She did not sink. The silver water rippled under her bare feet.

"I am Lyra, the last Lycan Queen's shadow guard. And this," she pointed to the silver lake, "is not a lake. It is the Lycan King's heart blood. The last pool of royal essence left in this world. Every other pool has been destroyed by the werewolf alphas."

As she got closer, I could see she was beautiful in a way that Selene could never be. Selene was pretty, like a flower. This woman was beautiful like a winter storm, dangerous and eternal. She looked to be about twenty five, but her eyes told me she was much, much older.

She stopped one step in front of me and lifted her hand. Her fingers, cold as ice, touched my chest where my heart was beating wildly. The moment she touched me, the black tattoos on my body reacted, glowing bright red and spreading faster.

"So weak," she whispered, but not with disgust like Selene. With sadness. "A Lycan King with only two percent bloodline. No wonder you were mistaken for an omega. Your power was sealed by your own mother to protect you when you were a baby."

"Can you break the seal?" I asked.

"I can," she said. "But it will be painful. And it will require a price."

"What price?"

She looked at my face, at my eyes that were still filled with tears of humiliation from the rejection.

"A Lycan King cannot have a fated mate who rejected him. The bond must be burned completely. You must let me burn Selene out of your soul forever. You will never be able to love her again, even if she begs you later. Are you willing to pay that?"

I thought of Selene. Her smile when I was thirteen. Her disgust today. Her kiss with Jax while I bled.

"Burn it," I said without hesitation. "Burn her out. I do not want any part of her left in me."

Lyra nodded and placed both hands on my chest now.

"Then kneel, little king."

I knelt in the silver water at the edge of the lake. The water was cold, so cold it burned, but I did not move.

Lyra placed her forehead against mine. Her white hair fell around us like a curtain, blocking the dead forest from view. All I could see was her golden eyes.

"This will hurt," she whispered.

Then fire exploded in my chest.

Not real fire. Soul fire.

I saw the golden mate bond thread that had connected me to Selene for seven years. It was already broken, but a small piece still clung to my heart, like a parasite, still trying to pull me back to her, still making me feel her faint disgust and pity.

Lyra's power, silver and ancient, grabbed that thread and set it on fire.

I screamed. It was the first time I had screamed since the rejection. The pain was worse than the rejection itself. It felt like someone was ripping out my heart with a hot claw.

Fenrir howled, but this time not from sadness. From release.

The golden thread burned, turned black, then turned to ash and disappeared from my soul completely.

For the first time in seven years, I could not feel Selene at all. No love, no hate, no pain from her. Just nothing. Freedom.

The moment the bond burned away, the silver lake reacted. The water rose up like a living thing and rushed into my mouth, my nose, my chest. Royal blood essence, pure and powerful, flooding into my weak omega body.

Lycan King bloodline at ten percent... twenty percent... thirty percent...

The ancient voice in my head was now shouting with joy.

My bones broke and reformed again, but this time not with pain, with power. My height increased by two inches. My shoulders became wider. My weak omega muscles tore and rebuilt into hard, lean muscle covered in faint silver fur.

I threw my head back and roared.

It was not a wolf howl. It was a Lycan roar. The entire Forbidden Forest shook. Black trees that had been dead for a thousand years suddenly grew green leaves for one second before returning to black, bowing to their king.

When I opened my eyes, they were no longer just red gold. They had a silver ring around them, the mark of a true Lycan King.

Lyra was still kneeling in front of me, but now her head was bowed.

"Welcome back, my king," she said softly.

I stood up. The silver water fell off my body, but my clothes were gone, burned away by the transformation. Lyra did not look away. She stood up too and took off her shadow dress, letting it fall into the water.

"What are you doing?" I asked, shocked.

"A Lycan King needs his queen to stabilize his first awakening," she said calmly, stepping closer. Her body was perfect, silver marks glowing on her skin similar to mine. "I have waited three hundred years for you. I am not an omega like Selene. I am a Lycan Queen guard. I can handle your new power. If you do not stabilize, you will explode and die within one hour."

She placed her hands on my shoulders and pushed me gently down into the silver water.

The water was warm now.

I looked up at her golden eyes, and for th

e first time since my rejection, I did not feel like a worthless omega servant.

I felt like a king who had finally come home.