His Beauty, My Beast

The Black Lycan

Nia woke up in the palace’s hospital with her mind in a foggy state. It felt as if her mind was cloudy at first. She saw Khalil, and she smiled at him. He was sitting in the corner, staring at her intensely, with a vial of blue liquid in his hand. He came over to her and held it to her.

"Drink," he said. “I know your head is foggy right now.” She downed the blue liquid, noting that it had a slight berry taste to it, but it was not horrible. The fog from her mind had now cleared away. She was grateful.

“What was it?’, she asked.

“A recipe for the effects of spell casting," he said, and she frowned. Spell casting? He saw her mind filled with questions.

“Relax. It’s ok. About an hour before you woke up, someone tried to cast a spell on us. The idiocy of it really, but it is old knowledge that a lycan cannot be spelled. I left your side momentarily after Jewel came to me and told me the culprits behind it. I brought that potion for you because you are not a lycan, so the spell that was cast could possibly affect you," he explained, and I nodded, still slightly confused.

'Was it the sage I spared from the Lightwood pack?’ Nia asked. She had spared that sage to give as a gift to Khalil, whom she knew had a deep hatred for them and could possibly get information from her for anything he may need.

“No. She is in the dungeon, trapped under a barrier of our family's magic. She isn’t getting out any time soon,” he said. “Why did you spare her?” he asked.

“For you," Nia replied. “I heard you call out for me when I was taken. I could feel your presence close, and I had a feeling you would want to punish the ones responsible for it. I killed her accomplice, though. He was just a mere wolf.”

“Gift-giving when you haven’t even accepted your role as princess yet is a bold move," he joked. Nia’s eyes widened. It was the first time she had ever heard him tell a joke, and she smiled.

“Well, I’m still debating about that," she joked back, knowing fully well in her heart that she had already accepted him. He may have jailed her when they first met, but he risked his life to save hers and even came for her when she was kidnapped. Things he didn’t have to do but did anyway. It was more than anyone had ever done for her in her entire life.

"No, you’re not," he said, looking at her with another intense gaze. He was feeling her emotions. She could feel his emotions too, even if he did not say them out loud. It was the first time she could really feel what he was feeling, given that she could now reciprocate the mate bond.

"Maybe," she said, smiling. “So have you caught whoever tried to put a spell on us?”

“I have. I was actually on my way there now," he said to her. He could feel that she wanted to come, but this was something he needed to take care of on his own. There was a lot about to take place, and he did not want her anywhere around him when things took off. He told Jewel earlier to come and sit with Nia to keep an eye on her. Lucky for him, she had just shown up.

“How are you feeling, though? You used up a lot of power at once. And exterminated the entire Lightwood pack," he said. Nia was silent. In truth, she did not know how she felt. She never killed anything more than a bug in her entire life, and here she was with faerie powers and wiped out an entire pack of werewolves. In a way, she felt free. They could no longer harm her. However, something else told her it was far from over. She gave a small smile.

“I’m fine for now. I am just glad it’s over," Nia simply said, but Khalil knew it was a lie. He could still feel her emotions, her confusion, her guilt, but also the relief. He simply nodded, wanting to give her the space she needed without being overbearing. There was still the matter of figuring out how to fix her.

“Hey there. I’m going to keep you company for a while if you don’t mind it.” His sister said, and Nia smiled. While she was grateful that Jewel wanted to spend time together, she knew there was something Khalil was not telling her. He never did say who it was that tried to cast a spell on them. He gave a small smile.

“I'll be back soon. Try to rest," he said, and she nodded before lying back down on the hospital bed. Once Khalil was gone, she slammed Jewel with questions in which Jewel laughed, knowing they were coming, and explained what she overheard and the culprits behind the spell.

The doctor came in to check on her later, and Nia’s heart dropped when she was given the news of what was happening to her.

Khalil turned off his end of the mate bond connection temporarily. What he was about to feel was nothing he wanted Nia to feel. There is hate, and then there is Lycan's hate. Much stronger. Much deeper. Much more deadly, and he felt that for the entire kingdom of Levone. The kingdom in which his enemies resided. Where King Metro, Amber, and Mecca were from. The kingdom his family has been at war with for a very long time.

He knew it would not be long before they made their move. All he needed was evidence. He sensed he was being listened to years ago and knew someone had implanted a listening device in his office. His father trained him very early to always be aware of his surroundings. He was certain agents of King Metro had entered his castle, but he had not yet discovered them.

Khalil always made sure to only say specific things, and he hated using his mate as leverage, but he knew it would be all he needed to draw King Metro out into the open. His father had given him full authority to act as he saw fit once evidence was gathered. His father was getting old, and Khalil knew he trusted him to make the best decisions, especially since Khalil was going to be king soon.

Khalil was smart. A feat he always gave himself credit for. He knew how to always spot inconsistencies in someone’s story, and the timing of King Metro sending Amber to his palace just as he said he found his mate was all too convenient. He knew the sage sent for Nia was from Metro’s kingdom. He could smell it on her. Jewel overhearing Mecca’s and Amber’s conversation and then reporting it back to him was all the evidence he needed, but he had another ace up his sleeve.

He sat in his throne room, listening to his palace door being pounded on. He knew it was by King Metro, and most likely an army was with him. He had a message delivered to Metro’s kingdom guaranteeing the death penalty for Amber and Mecca if he did not come and surrender his kingdom. Khalil listened, his senses heightened. He could hear thousands of wolves outside. He had already commanded his forces to retreat inside the palace, and they stood in hiding, waiting for his order. He smiled.

It had been years since he tasted war, and a part of him hungered for it. His beastly part. It yearned to be let out, especially in these times, as when Khalil was in lycan form, he was considered the most deadly. Unlike werewolves, who, when shifted, landed on all four feet, lycans were different. When shifted, they only needed to walk on two feet. Their arms lengthened, and claws formed from their long nails. Their bodies were covered in white fur, and their heads turned into those of wolves with long snouts and razor-sharp teeth. They could stand at least eight feet tall.

Khalil’s lycan form was different. While the rest of his Lycan family all had white fur, his fur was all black. None of his family knew why he was gifted with this fur, only that the last known relative to have black fur was the very first Lycan himself. Maybe that is why he was feared, even among some members of his own family. He had not shown his form to anyone outside his family and palace soldiers, and those that saw it during the war that was an enemy didn’t live long enough to tell the tale.

Now here was King Metro, banging on his door like a mad king, with an army of wolves behind him, ready to fight to retrieve his children. He was about to get the shock of his life.