Luna of the Beastly Lycan King

Chapter 9. Saved you!?

DANIKA

I jolted awake and immediately, I swore to the goddess that should I ever find myself in such a near-death situation, she should accept me into her embrace. All the times from when I had been a slave, with Eirin and I had thought that I was at the end of my tether, there was always a respite. Even when Eirin had lost her life for my sake.

There had always been respite. But in this present moment, nothing could have gone through my mind at all, nothing but the searing pain that wracked my body as I attempted to sit up. I considered for a moment, allowing myself to slide back under the covers of unconsciousness.

I could not lift my hands myself and my back was sore and raw. I tried to call out for aid, but my tongue would not work. New pain alerted me to the knowledge of the fact that my lips were torn.

My vision had not improved. I strained with all the strength in me to rest my head back against the cold slab I was lain upon. The veins in my neck tore at my will and I gritted my teeth when my head finally fell back.

“You’re awake.” A cold nasal voice slithered into my ears. “And I was beginning to think the Goddess had good sense.”

My throat could not form words, so I just strained my eyes and tried to make out the person speaking.

He was tall and looked like the Goddess had given him extra blessings, for in him, I found no blemish. Save for the fact that he talked like I was insignificant.

“S-so-so…” the slithering noises in my throat drew at my vocal cords. The man frowned at me.

“She’ll live, thank Goddess. You, on the other hand, we pray not. Now rest.”

He slammed a towel onto my forehead, covering my eyes. That was the only excuse my eyes needed to close.

The next time these eyes saw light, I had no words, for I had never seen such light.

It floated in front of me, one million and one colors swirling in perfect peace. Some were colors that I knew. Others were colors that I could not have hoped to fathom. It was beautiful, even though the light hurt to look at.

There was a woman before me, and her hands were raised and outstretched before the light, as though she were trying to cradle it. I felt heat wash over me as the light exploded. I tried to tell the woman to be careful, but my lips would not work. I wondered about the oddity of this circumstance.

Slowly, I felt my lips. They were whole again without blemish. I thought—

“Wake up, you!”

With a rude jolt did I came to. My body still felt the heat from the burst of light, and my mind whirred when I thought about how bright everything seemed to be now. My clammy skin quickly cooled and the throbbing in my head receded.

I looked up, breath still stilling. The man who had been with me in the ward earlier was back again. On his face was an ever-present scowl which I thought rather at odds with the fact that he was taking care of people for a living and should not have such a sour demeanour.

Beside him was a maiden whose name I did not know, nor did I recall her face. But then there was someone else, next to the doctor and his assistant —

“Sonia!” I yelped.

“Shut up.” She countered. “I’m the one that got gored by the stag and you… you sleep for three days?”

“I was asleep?”

I heard Sonia mutter under her breath, and the man finally did something other than frown with his face.

“Let’s go,” she wheeled away. I had noticed that she was sitting on a chair with wheels. One of the things I still found difficult getting used to was just how different Cynthros was from the other places.

Our pack knew nothing of these kinds of advancements. Even simple trebuchets were not in our possession, and though Wulpen had a slight advantage over us, their heavy and savage craft was nothing to be compared to the artistic expressions of Cynthros.

When Finarfen had first taken me in, I was completely in awe of everything in Cynthros. I still am, most times, like how they have doctors here instead of apothecaries and masters. Oh, Finarfen—

“Where’s Finar…”

“The Alpha has been waiting for you to wake up since we returned, you ungrateful cur,” Sonia hissed without stopping. “And the next time you decide to be a hero, do it on your own. You’re lucky I was there, but no life is worth risking mine for.”

She stopped her wheeling and turned to me. I saw now, just the extent of damage done to her. Her face was still beautiful save for little scratches, and her shoulders looked bruised, but her abdomen was a bandaged mess.

I considered apologizing. Everyone that seemed to want to save me seemed to end up getting hurt themselves. Eirin, Ulric, Tahlia, Finarfen…

“Sonia, I’m—“

Her death scare shut me up. I looked away from her in the hope that she would eventually look away from me. And look away did she. She turned to the front again, but her head hung low.

“That was the only single time I have ever remembered feeling shame. Not because of the stag—I fought a good fight. It was because our Alpha had to step in to rescue us.”

Her voice trembled as she spoke. I felt the shame that she spoke of. My weakness caused this. My stupidity brought this on me, but now, on her too. I wondered if she was going to be able to walk after everything.

The doctors of Cynthros were wonderful, working miracles that would not normally have been possible. I had seen some of these miracles. But they were still only…

Well, Goddess aid them.

I wanted nothing more than for Sonia to be able to walk on her own again, fire as many arrows, and fight as she wanted. It was a dishonorable thing, stealing the fight in a person. I would know. It’s what drove me headlong into this reckless predicament. If only I was stronger…

The thought trailed off in my head as I tried to recall the memory of that day.

My words were careful.

“You said the Alpha rescued us.”

Sonia fixed me a look. “Yes. You were there, were you not?”

“Not really. I was knocked out bad.”

Sonia looked like she wished she could get out of her chair and knock me out again. I only hoped my apology was evident enough in the demureness of my face. Sonia snarled.

“It was not the fact that he rescued us, it was more how he did it.”

The Crimson-horned Stag was revered through Cynthronian culture. It was a beast that was not to be killed, but captured as proof that the chosen leader was strong enough to lead the country. It required immense strength, courage, and tactics. I knew through the histories that Finarfen educated me on that there were previous Alphas who—even after gaining victory at the Battle of Rites, and had had the Selu’myr Enthroned ritual performed on them—had been killed anyway, and that was aside their hunting company.

Encounters with the Crimson-horned Stag lasted hours, days… sometimes weeks. Until the stag was defeated and captured.

My curiosity ignited, but I willed my voice to remain calm.

“How long did it take Finarfen?”

Sonia fixed me another pointed look. Then she exhaled gravely. “An instant. I was on death’s door, bleeding out on that floor and you were nowhere to be found. I had turned myself to watch this beast snuff out my life. I was ready to be with the Goddess, as long as I went a warrior. And then I caught his eyes. And it was only a second my eyes closed for, but my ears heard it—the sound of a blow. And the forest was quiet again. When I came to, I was in a carriage headed here.”

“H-has anyone ever done that before?”

“What? Wake up here because some stupid cur almost got them killed?”

“Defeat the stag! Has anyone ever defeated the Crimson-horned stag that quickly?”

Sonia regarded me thoughtfully. Her blue eyes were striking, and the soft whisper of wind in the hallway made her blonde hair sway. She looked at the ceiling, then back to me. She lowered her head and her voice was reverent.

“No. And certainly not unarmed. Now push my chair. It’s the least you can do.”

My heart was lurching and my mind was fast at work. Finarfen had a bad heart. Everybody knew. During the Battle of Rites, he had almost died from Fergal’s punch. I had heard his heartbeat fade away—it had disappeared completely. But then he had come back again. Like a prayer. Like a miracle. And I was glad that he was back. Glad that he was alive. I had panicked then, and I was sure that I had lost him. But then he had returned. He had come back to me.

But ever since that battle, he’s not been the same. At least, not in the way that I know him to be. Finarfen is Alpha now, and after his coronation, he will be king. He has new duties, greater responsibilities, no time at all for friends. Which are all things I recognize and accept. But he doesn’t feel like Finarfen to me at all.

Is that what happens when power grows in-between two friends? Is this what happens when a separation is sown between them?

I could not let it go. I needed to know the answers; for some reason, I felt like they lay just within my grasp. Like a babe sleeping on his mother’s breast, hungry, but too weak, too feeble. Unable to do anything but wail until his mouth is stuffed.

I need answers.

“So, you’ve finally decided to wake.” Finarfen boomed from afar. I had only opened the door (Sonia had intended to kick it open) when he addressed us so. As though he had truly been waiting for our entry.

“Indeed, my Alpha,” Sonia began, again with that reverence in her voice. “And it is marvelous to hear—”

“I didn’t think you would make it,” Finarfen said to my face. We were not alone in the hall. Andras was here, and so was Fergal and several others whom I did not know personally, in the midst of discussion. Sonia had been talking, and he had breezed past everyone to stand right in front of me. He radiated power and his voice was strong. But he did not appear to be in the least excited to see me.

“I was going to be glad if the Goddess decided that you were of better use in her service.”

My fingers gripped Sonia’s chair until I feared that my bones would break all over again. I struggled to lift my head. I struggled to look into his eyes, behold his face… he was not yet king, but his aura already made me want to submit.

I adjusted my spine so it would support me standing straight and our eyes finally met. There was nothing in those eyes. Only a calm detachment. Finarfen was bored.

“If you truly wanted the Goddess to keep me, you should not have saved me.”

“Saved you!?” He barked. “What would that serve me? I would have been rid of one more weak werewolf. You had the audacity to believe that you possessed the mettle to go hunting for the Crimson-horned Stag. You believed that you could possibly be of any use at all to me, you red-haired brain. Are you always this delusional? You could not even manage a single shot on target!”

My legs quaked under the assault of his words and I gripped Sonia’s chair tighter for support. But Finarfen did not care.

“Perhaps it is your red hair.” He scoffed. “To think that because I got bored and ended that foolishness… you believed it to be my mercy? I did not save you. I came there to capture the Crimson-horned Stag and if you had gotten in my way, you would have only yourself to blame.”

Then his gaze flitted downward, as if he only just realized that Sonia was with me. His lips twisted now into a look of pure scorn. “And I thought you would have the common sense to not die—at least not for someone this weak, and pathetic.”

We locked eyes again. He said aloud to the room.

“Where is your courage, Cynthros? Where is your strength? Your honor? Your resolve as Lycans? In the Battle of Rites, I realized something. I have been at unease not because I have a country to rule, but because I have cowards to rule.”

He turned to me again, and this time there was fire in his eyes.

“If you have time to die, then you are weak, and truly deserving of death. I have no use for those without strength, and when I create this new world that we are quickly marching to, it will be my pleasure to stamp out every trace of weakness in this land, until all that reigns supreme is our strength and indomitable will.

Several legs shuffled, heads were scratched and people moved nervously, looking everywhere but at Finarfen. Fergal’s gaze, before I lowered my head shaking, was strong. He alone refused to look away from Finarfen, even as he seemed to expand in my vision, and I, diminished.

“The strong will rule. And the weak…”

He stomped out. Fergal and Andras followed after him. Slowly, everyone began to disperse. Sonia wheeled herself out, fury etched into the lines of her beautiful face and not more than a few people looked at me with newfound distaste.

I stared hard at the ground, forcing the tears back into my head. I needed to find answers.

Just what had happened to Finarfen?