LYCAN KING REBORN

Chapter 3: The Queen

The silver water was warm, but my body was hotter.

Lyra knelt in front of me in the lake, her hands on my chest. The silver marks on her skin glowed bright, and the silver marks on my chest glowed back, answering her. The royal blood essence we both carried was connecting.

"Close your eyes, little king," she whispered. "Your power is too wild. If you do not control it, it will burn your heart."

I closed my eyes. The pain in my chest from the earlier awakening was still there, but now it was changing into something else, something powerful and heavy, like a storm trapped inside my body.

Fenrir, my wolf, was no longer a small gray wolf. In my mind, I could see him now. He was huge, black fur with silver on his back, twice the size of an alpha wolf, with red gold eyes and a crown of bone on his head. He was pacing inside my soul, restless.

He is too strong, I told Lyra in my mind. I cannot control him.

"You are not supposed to control him," Lyra said, her voice inside my head now. She could speak through the bloodline link. "A Lycan King does not control his wolf. You become one with him. You are him, he is you. Let go."

I tried to let go. For ten years as an omega, I had been taught to suppress my wolf, to make him small, to hide him, to be quiet when alphas spoke. Now this queen was telling me to do the opposite.

"Let go, Kael," she said again, pressing her forehead against mine. Her skin was cool, and her coolness helped the burning in my body. "You are not an omega anymore. You are a king. Act like one."

I stopped fighting. I stopped trying to push Fenrir down.

The moment I let go, everything changed.

Fenrir roared inside me and then merged completely with me. I felt my spine extend, my teeth sharpen, my nails turn into black claws. I did not shift into a full wolf. Lycan Kings do not shift like normal werewolves. We become something in between, stronger than both forms.

My height grew another inch. My shoulders broadened. The faint silver fur on my arms became thicker. The black tattoos that covered my chest and back spread to my neck and face, ancient letters that told the story of the first Lycan King.

Lyra gasped softly as she felt the power spike through our connection.

"Good," she breathed. "Very good. Your bloodline is now at forty percent. You have passed the death point. You will live."

The silver lake around us began to drain, the royal essence all absorbed into my body. The glowing water became normal dark water, and the clearing became darker.

But I was glowing. My body gave off a faint silver red light.

"What happens now?" I asked, my voice deeper than before, with an echo.

"Now you learn what you are," Lyra said. She stood up out of the water and helped me stand. She picked up her shadow dress from the water and put it back on. It reformed around her body like smoke. My servant's rags were destroyed, so she waved her hand, and shadows gathered and formed into simple black pants and a black shirt for me. They were made of the same shadow material, light but strong.

"I have guarded this place for three hundred years," she said, walking out of the lake onto the grass. "The last Lycan Queen told me before she died that one day the last blood would return. She left you three gifts."

She pointed to three stones that had been hidden under the silver water, now visible as the water drained.

The first stone was red, pulsing like a heart.

"The Heart Stone. It will give you your first Lycan skill."

The second stone was black, with a small sword carved into it.

"The Weapon Stone. It will give you your king's weapon."

The third stone was white, with a map carved into it.

"The Memory Stone. It will show you where your parents really died, and where Alpha Magnus hid the truth."

I walked to the red stone first. The moment my foot touched it, it flew up and hit my chest, melting into my skin.

Pain shot through me again, but different pain, clean pain. Knowledge flooded my head.

[Lycan Skill Unlocked: King's Roar]

[Effect: All wolves ranked alpha and below will kneel for ten seconds. All enemies within fifty meters will have their wolf spirit suppressed by fifty percent.]

A roar skill. The skill of a king who commands.

I turned to Lyra. "Does it work on Jax?"

"Jax is only a low alpha," she said with a small smile. "It will make him kneel and vomit blood. Even Alpha Magnus will feel his knees shake."

Good.

I walked to the second stone, the black one. It also flew into my chest, but this time into my right hand. My hand burned, and then a black mist gathered and formed into a long sword. Not a normal sword. It was made of black bone and silver metal, with red runes glowing along its blade. It was as long as my body, but it felt light as a feather in my new hand.

"The Bone Sword of the first Lycan King," Lyra whispered, her eyes wide with respect. "It was thought to be lost forever. It can cut through alpha aura like paper. It can kill a werewolf so completely that even their wolf spirit cannot reincarnate."

I swung the sword once. The air itself made a sharp sound, and a black tree twenty meters away was cut in half, falling silently.

Power. Real power. Not the fake power Jax had from his father. Real king power that could destroy everything that had hurt me.

Finally, I walked to the third stone, the white one. This one did not fly into me. It floated up and projected light into the air, forming pictures.

I saw my mother. She was not an omega. She was tall, beautiful, wearing silver armor with a crown mark on her forehead, just like mine. She held a baby in her arms. Me.

I saw my father beside her, also in armor, fighting off ten werewolf alphas at once.

Then I saw Alpha Magnus. Younger, but still recognizable. He was standing behind my parents with a silver dagger. He stabbed my father in the back while my father was fighting the other alphas.

My mother screamed and turned, but another alpha grabbed the baby, me, and ran.

My mother was surrounded and killed. Her last words were, "Seal his blood. Hide him. He is the last king."

The vision ended.

My hands were shaking. Not from weakness now. From pure rage.

Fenrir was howling so loud inside me that the entire Forbidden Forest shook again.

Magnus killed my father. Magnus killed my mother. And then he raised me as a servant to make sure I never found out, to make sure I never awakened.

Ten years of eating trash, sleeping on the floor, being kicked, all while the man who murdered my parents called me an ungrateful servant.

I gripped the bone sword so hard the runes glowed brighter red.

"I will go back now," I said, my voice cold as ice. "I will kill Magnus tonight."

"No," Lyra said quickly, grabbing my arm. Her grip was strong, stronger than any alpha I had ever met. "You are only at forty percent bloodline. Magnus is a peak alpha with twenty years of battle experience and a full pack behind him. If you go now, you will die, and the Lycan bloodline will end forever. You must be patient, my king."

She stepped in front of me, looking up into my red gold eyes.

"You have been patient for ten years as an omega. Be patient for ten more days as a king. Let your bloodline reach sixty percent. Let me teach you how to use your roar, your sword, your new body. Then you will go back, and you will not just kill Magnus. You will take his pack, his title, and his life in front of everyone who laughed at you."

Her words made sense, but my rage wanted blood now.

Fenrir spoke in my head. She is right, Kael. We are strong, but not strong enough to kill a whole pack yet. Let us train. Ten days.

I took a deep breath and let the sword turn back into mist and disappear into my hand. I could call it anytime now.

"Ten days," I said to Lyra. "You have ten days to make me a real king."

Lyra smiled for the first time, a real smile that made her ancient golden eyes look young.

"Ten days is enough to make the werewolf world kneel," she said. "Come, my king. Your throne is deeper in the forest. Your army has been sleeping there for a thousand years, waiting for your roar."

She turned and walked deeper into the Forbidden Forest, and I followed her, my new bone sword calling to me from inside my hand, my new roar skill burning in my throat.

Behind me, the silver lake was now just a dark pond, its purpose finished.

In front of me, my revenge was just beginning.