The Beast Awakens

KRAVOS POV

The sickening crack of Valerie’s bone and her desperate, pathetic whimper snap something deep and primal inside of me. It is an instantaneous fracture of my human restraint. A rage so consuming and absolute burns through my veins, instantly boiling the blood in my system. My lycan surges to the surface without me even needing to call upon him, tearing his way out of my human flesh with an earth-shaking roar that rattles the jagged wreckage around us. My muscles rapidly expand, violently shredding the fabric of my clothes as thick, dark fur sprouts across my massive frame. I am completely blinded by a hunger for slaughter.

I barrel straight into the hooded asshole who has his filthy hands on my mate. My sheer momentum hits him like a freight train, lifting his feet off the ground before I ruthlessly crush him down into the rough asphalt. The sickening crunch of his ribs shattering echoes loudly over the hissing smoke of the destroyed vehicles. I don't give him a single second to breathe. I straddle his broken chest and rain down my massive, razor-sharp claws in a relentless frenzy. I tear violently into his flesh, shredding the meat of his chest and throat over and over until the hot, thick spray of his arterial blood completely coats my snarling snout.

Instead of screaming in agony like any normal man being ripped to shreds, the man laughs. It is a sick, wet, gurgling sound that bubbles up through the thick pool of blood rapidly filling his torn throat. I pause, my heavy claws suspended in the air as my lycan instincts flare violently. I stare down at his face, noticing his eyes for the first time. They are completely devoid of life, a listless, glowing, unnatural red that stares right through my massive beast as if looking into an empty void.

I bring my claws down one last time, my final blow tearing through the remainder of his chest cavity and ending his life instantly. The very second his heart stops beating, the eerie red color rapidly drains away from his irises. It washes out like dirty water, revealing normal, human-like blue eyes. The terrifying, empty malice vanishes, suddenly flooded with a horrific, confused pain, as if the man had just woken up entirely unaware of the absolute butchery happening to his own body, before he goes completely still.

What the hell was that? It wasn't natural.

Before I can even process the horrifying implications of those rapidly changing eyes, Vance screams my name over the chaotic cacophony of the wreck.

"Alpha!"

I spin around on my heavy, clawed feet, my lycan reflexes taking over instantly. A massive werewolf is already lunging through the smoke, aiming straight for my exposed throat. I catch him mid-air, my thick fingers digging brutally into the fur and flesh of his chest. With a brutal, unnatural twist of my heavily muscled arms, I throw his body violently backward. I send him crashing directly into the jagged, smoking metal of the wrecked truck. The sharp, twisted steel pierces straight through his back and out of his chest, pinning his twitching body to the metal.

Seeing the sheer numbers of our attackers swarming the wreckage, Vance roars, shifting seamlessly into his own massive lycan form. He steps fiercely and protectively over Valerie’s unmoving, broken body, wildly swinging his heavy claws to fight off two heavily armed men rushing his position.

Just as I turn my massive frame to assist him, a fast, incredibly agile female wolf blindsides me from the thickest part of the smoke. She slams into my side and sinks her sharp teeth deep into the raw meat of my thigh. The searing pain rips through my leg, but before I can grab her by the scruff, she bounds backward almost instantly. She stops a few yards away, lowering her head and taunting me with a low, rumbling growl. Her lips curl back to reveal blood-stained teeth, clearly trying to draw me into a chase.

I take a half-step toward her, ready to rip her jaw from her skull, but the distinct, sharp crunch of broken glass over by the dark tree line draws my immediate attention. My advanced lycan hearing hones in on the sound of dead weight dragging across the debris. She isn't trying to fight me; she is just a calculated distraction.

My heart completely stops in my massive chest. Another lifeless, red-eyed man has somehow slipped past the chaos of the brawl and is dragging Valerie’s limp, bleeding body away toward the dark woods by her arms.

I entirely ignore the searing pain as the female wolf suddenly leaps through the air, violently latching onto my bleeding back. Her teeth tear into my muscles, her sharp claws digging into my shoulders, but I don't care. I sprint with explosive, earth-shattering speed after the man dragging my mate. Reaching him in three massive, ground-eating strides, I refuse to even give him the dignity of a fight. I reach out and hoist him entirely off the ground by his neck, lifting his kicking body high into the air. With one effortless, brutal squeeze of my massive hand, I completely crush his windpipe. The sickening pop of cartilage rings in the air, and I carelessly drop his suffocating body to the pavement.

Frustrated and utterly enraged by the female wolf who is still tearing relentlessly at the flesh on my back, I decide to use my own massive anatomy against her. I throw my gigantic frame forcefully backward. I use my sheer, crushing mass to slam her directly against the hard, unforgiving asphalt. The brutal impact forces the air from her lungs in a sharp wheeze, and I instantly feel the cage of her ribs give way, snapping like dry twigs beneath my crushing weight until her body goes entirely limp beneath me.

Panting heavily, hot breath pluming in the cool night air, I scramble off her broken body and rush back to Valerie. My massive lycan form hovers over her cautiously. As an eight-foot-tall beast covered in thick muscle and razor-sharp claws, I am terrified of causing her any more harm. My heart twists violently in my chest at the horrific sight of her. She is losing blood incredibly fast, a dark, terrifying pool expanding beneath her leg from the jagged, stark white bone protruding from her thigh. Emitting a low, distressed whine from deep within my throat, I lower my massive head, gently nuzzling my cool, wet snout against her pale, freckled cheek. The metallic scent of her blood is overwhelming, but a wave of profound, absolute relief washes over my beast when my heightened hearing picks up the steady, albeit incredibly faint, rhythm of her heartbeat. She is alive.

Nearby, the sickening sounds of flesh tearing and furious snarling draw my gaze away from her battered face. Vance drops heavily to his knees, utterly overwhelmed and pinned down to the asphalt by three more aggressively snarling, red-eyed wolves.

I cannot leave him to die, but I absolutely refuse to leave Valerie unprotected again. Clinging my bleeding Luna tightly to my heaving, fur-covered chest with one thick arm, I ensure my claws are carefully tucked away from her fragile skin. I sprint toward the chaotic fray to Vance's aid. I launch myself into the center of the attacking wolves. Opening my massive jaws, I sink my powerful teeth incredibly deep into the sweaty nape of the wolf directly attacking Vance. With a brutal, vicious shake of my heavy head, I violently snap his neck, tossing his limp corpse aside like a discarded ragdoll.

Vance instantly recovers the moment the pressure is off him. He lunges upward, his claws slicing lethally deep into the thigh and abdomen of the second attacker. Just as the third wolf turns to face me, baring his bloody teeth with those hollow, glowing red eyes, Reid, my Beta, suddenly erupts from the darkness of the tree line. Reid hits the man with the force of a battering ram, tackling him directly to the hard ground.

"Want him alive?" Reid asks casually, a stark contrast to the absolute brutality he is inflicting, as he mercilessly hammers his heavy, bone-crushing fists directly into the man's bloody face.

Seeing the arrival of my backup, the aggressive, overwhelming dominance of my inner lycan finally begins to retreat. He knows our pack is here; he knows our mate is now heavily guarded. The visceral urge to slaughter recedes, allowing my human consciousness to violently claw its way back and regain control. My bones pop and realign as I shift back to my human form, my arms clutching Valerie incredibly carefully against my now bare, blood-slicked chest.

"He will be of no use. Look at his eyes. I don’t think they will remember anything even if they wake up," I murmur, my voice hoarse from the roaring. I step closer, studying the empty, listless red gaze of the man beneath Reid. It is exactly like the first one. Puppets. Fucking mind-controlled puppets.

"Interesting," Reid replies dryly. Without a single ounce of hesitation, he swiftly grabs the sides of the man's head, violently twisting and breaking his neck with a sharp, echoing crack.

Vance, having also shifted back to his human form, hisses angrily at Reid, wiping a streak of thick blood from his mouth. "You are late. You were supposed to meet us at the border."

Reid simply ignores Vance's outburst. He signals to the tree line, and a few of our pack warriors step out from the shadows. Casually, Reid grabs a duffel bag from one of the warriors and tosses us some spare clothes. Vance catches a pair of shorts, glaring daggers at our Beta.

I refuse to release Valerie, clutching her cold, limp body tighter against me as I bark a harsh demand. "I need a healer immediately. And I need a soft place to lay her down."

Reid doesn't even look up as he casually gestures his hand toward the uneven, blood-stained grass near the edge of the woods. "There's grass right there."

An uncontrollable, deeply primal Alpha growl violently rips from my throat, vibrating the very air between us. The sheer disrespect makes the lycan beneath my skin instantly claw at the surface again.

Reid drops the empty duffel bag and steps aggressively close to me, entirely unbothered by my warning. His own eyes flash with a dangerous, challenging light. "I am your beta, but I am also your brother, Kravos. If you don’t like an option given, use your big boy words, not your big boy voice," he challenges, staring me dead in the eye without an ounce of submission.

"She is your Luna, Reid," I grit out, my jaw clenched so tight it genuinely aches all the way up to my temples. "Do you think the blood-stained grass is where she belongs?"

"Alpha, I will take her," our arriving warrior medic suddenly interrupts, rushing to my side with his hands outstretched, his eyes wide at the gruesome state of Valerie's broken leg.

Reluctantly, seeing the terrifyingly pale, translucent quality of her skin and the amount of blood still soaking her jeans, I know I have to let the professional work. I carefully, agonizingly hand her over to the medic's waiting arms, but only after gripping his shoulder tightly and making him swear on his actual life to be gentle with her shattered bones.

As the medic rushes her a few yards away to begin applying tourniquets and numbing herbs, Reid crosses his arms over his chest. He aggressively tilts his head, his sharp eyes critically analyzing Valerie's fragile, battered, unconscious form as they lay her down.

"So that’s our Luna, huh?" Reid remarks, his voice dripping with unmistakable judgment. "Doesn’t look like much."

A hot, blinding fury races straight through my veins, instantly replacing the adrenaline from the fight. My hands ball into tight fists at my sides, my lycan demanding I rip out his throat for the insult.

"Watch how you talk about her," Vance warns aggressively, immediately stepping forward to defend her honor.

But I cut them both off with a lethal, deeply terrifying glare that instantly freezes the air around us. "Enough," I growl, stepping directly into Reid's personal space, towering over him with absolute authority. "I will not have you talking poorly of what is mine. Ever."

Reid's eyebrows shoot up toward his hairline in genuine, unguarded surprise. He looks back at Valerie, then back to me. "Yours? And here I thought your entire plan wasn’t even to follow through with the political union..." he trails off, his mind clearly racing to connect the dots of my highly uncharacteristic behavior.

"Things changed," I mutter dismissively, aggressively turning my body away from him to watch where the medic is carefully cleaning the horrific wound on Valerie's thigh.

Reid scoffs loudly, the sound grating directly against my frayed nerves. "Things changed? Like what? What could possibly change so fast?" He pauses, a sudden, heavy silence falling between us as the realization hits him like a physical blow. "You better not tell me she is your second chance mate."

I squeeze my eyes shut for a fraction of a second, the heavy weight of the secret pressing down on my chest. I exhale a heavy, ragged breath, slowly turning my head back to look him dead in the eye. I don't say a single word, but the profound, protective intensity in my stare is all the confirmation he needs.

Reid violently runs a hand through his hair in absolute shock, his mouth falling open as his tongue rubs aggressively over his teeth. The reality of the political and personal nightmare we are now in completely hits him.

"Holy shit! She is, isn't she?"