Chapter Four

       Nora looked around the hazy vision of the village. From where she stood, people ran in terror, screaming, trying to escape the mass of lycans. Tears slid silently down her face as she watched them slaughter the village of men, women, and children. She couldn’t move in her dream, and this made the intensity of the pain they all felt all the stronger. She felt her heart pounding hard, and her stomach was rolling sharp pains up her abdomen into her chest as if directly attacking her heart. She jumped violently as she looked around, her eyes laying on the lycan that ripped open the pregnant woman’s stomach and bit down on her neck. She wanted to move, she tried to escape her dream, but the dream wouldn’t release her. It had something to tell her. At this moment, she cursed the ancestors for this power.

           “Kill them all!” A huge man roared. He had long, thick curly blonde hair pulled back in a bun with a beard just as long and thick to match his muscular body and towering height. It was apparent the lycans all obeyed him, and with the presence she felt from him, it wasn’t hard to understand why. 

           “I don’t kill children.” A man said, standing up to the tall beast of a man. 

           “You will do as I tell you.” 

           “I will not kill a child.” 

           “Then, you will die.”

           “You need me.” 

           “Marco!” The alpha called, bringing another large blood-soaked man forward. “One of your pack are refusing to join in our rebellion. You must make an example of him.”

           “Marco?” The other man asked, looking concerningly to his alpha. “You know this isn’t right… It isn’t right. You’re our alpha. Why are you listening to him? Why are any of the alphas listening to him?”

           “I am sorry, Carl.” Marco said coldly, “I follow him now, which means so do you.”

           “He is not my alpha…Perhaps I will find Kyle, and he will be the leader we need.” The man glanced from Marco to the other one who smiled viciously. 

           “Kyle will be no match for me.” The huge man stated before snatching Carl into his arms and ripping his head clean off his torso. The body dropped to the ground hard, and the man held up Carl’s head. “THIS IS WHAT BECOMES OF THOSE WHO CHALLENGE MY LEADERSHIP! TAKE STOCK AND CHOSE WISELY!” 

           The man then tossed the head toward Nora, and it rolled to her feet, the empty eyes staring into hers, and she was even more frozen with fear. As she looked back up, the man was standing inches from her. 

           “Hello, little girl.” His smile was filled with sharp fangs and his eyes becoming dog-like, “I’m coming for you all.” He then grabbed her throat and began to squeeze.

Jen, Peter, and Kohl burst into Nora’s room seconds behind each other when they heard her screaming bloody murder. She was sitting up on the bed, her back pressed against the wall holding her throat, continuing to scream. She was drenched in sweat, and tears poured from her face. Jen hurried herself to Nora, who initially slapped her away before wrapping her arms around Jen and sobbed. 

           “It’s true…” She sobbed intensely, “it’s true.”

           “What’s true?” Jen was confused, but Kohl knew precisely what she meant.

           “Kohl... Kohl was right. It’s lycans.” She was beginning to barely breathe between the ever-intensifying sobbing. “I watched them... Kill that woman that was pregnant. I couldn’t do anything, and he saw me! He saw me!”

           “Who saw you?” Peter’s entire body became rigid.

           “The alpha... There are dozens of them… Forty or more lycans, just slaughtering people.”

           “Forty?” Peter breathed out shakily. He and Kohl looked at each other sharing each other’s knowledgeable worry. 

           “What?” Jen then asked, confused-looking from Kohl to Peter.

           “Lycans don’t have packs that big. Eight to ten is generally the max…” Kohl answered. Jen looked at him as he spoke.

           “So, what does this mean?” Jen was still not understanding the scope of the situation.

           “This means it’s really bad if a lycan can control that many. Lycans are pack animals, and their social structure is very similar to that of an actual wolf pack. Too many and there is a constant fight over who should be alpha, so packs stay small to keep things in order. Never in my lifetime have I ever even heard of a lycan pack being bigger than twelve, and that is considered big. Forty… Forty is bad.” Peter explained, and Kohl nodded in agreement.

           “What else did you dream?” Kohl looked to Nora, who had finally begun to calm down. 

           “Um…” Her voice was still quivering from crying, “he killed a lycan for not killing children. He called over a man named Marco, who was like the alpha of one of the packs. The guy killed him.”

           “The main alpha killed the insubordinate?” Kohl asked, “and had another alpha watch?”

           “Yes.” She breathed out slowly.

           “What does this mean?” Jen had only ever had one encounter with a lycan, and it was stopped immediately by Peter before she even knew what it was.

           “It sounds like packs are joining together under control of one main alpha. If that’s the case, that’s catastrophic.” Kohl replied, rubbing his face with his hands and then through his thick brown hair.

           “It’s a million times worse than if it was just one large pack.” Peter continued, “that would mean there was one alpha that could control weaker lycans; in this case, it’s one alpha strong enough to control multiple other alphas, and I don’t know at all what we can do about that.”

           “We have to figure something out.” Nora wiped her face, and the tears had finally slowed. Through the crack in her curtains, the sun was beginning to shine.

           “Let’s go downstairs,” Kohl stated, leaving the room followed by everyone else. They had just entered the living room when Jen froze.

“Someone is coming,” Jen stated moments before someone knocked hard and loud on the door. Despite knowing it was coming the intensity of the pounding made Nora jump.

Peter and Kohl looked at each other on alert as both made their way to the wooden door. “I know you're there. I can smell you!” The unknown young man looked massive through the tiny peephole in the door. “It's important. It's about the village in the A****n. Trust me, you're going to wanna hear it!” Again, Peter and Kohl exchanged glances before opening the door. The guy made the immediate attempt to walk in but recoiled to catch his balance after hitting the invisible barrier surrounding the home. “What the?”

           “Barrier spell. I have hundreds of witches worth of protection spells on this house; you have to gain permission to come inside.” Kohl dryly explained, somewhat amused by the young man's facial expression. 

           “You...You're Peter Sinclair, aren't you?” The young man said, looking wide-eyed at Peter, who went on even higher alert. Eyes black and his teeth drawn his whole body was tense concerning Kohl.

           “You're a lycan,” Peter growled through his teeth. Kohl looked the young man up and down. “How do you know who I am? What do you possibly have to offer us?”

           “I want to help you stop the lycans... Particularly one. If you let me inside, I can explain. I can tell you have two vampires and a very powerful witch, but I can't tell what you are. You're an unfamiliar scent, I am very out powered, so I won't try anything... And you're famous among the lycans in all worlds Peter, you led the regime that made lycans extinct in this world. You're a significant enemy. I can explain further, so please, let me in and let me do so.” Peter didn't relax and wasn't too thrilled about Kohl escorting the man into the living room to join everyone. Jen rushed to Peter's side in hopes of calming him while the man took immediate notice to Nora, an interest she returned.

           “Speak,” Kohl instructed coolly, hoping his calm demeanor would influence Peter to also be relaxed.

           “Okay… So, my name is Kyle. I am a lycan. I came here for help.” He began not looking away from Nora, “my father is the alpha of my pack. A man that came out of nowhere has been able to gain a very powerful control over alphas of other packs, and they are combining them. He hasn’t given us much detail into his plans other than he wants to wipe out the vampires that killed off all the lycans in this world. I know there is more than that, but he isn’t very interested in sharing these things with me.  Or anyone for that matter. You see, most lycans can turn people with a bite, so one of them dies; they can replace them no problem, so they don’t value life like my pack does.”

           “What is so special about you and your pack?” Peter snarled, still not calmed at all.

           “If you’d chill, I’ll explain everything…” Kyle snapped, causing Peter to growl. Jen then grabbed ahold of Peter’s forearm and squeezed, trying to gain his attention, which she got for only a few moments before he returned his glare back on Kyle. Kyle brushed it off, sighed dramatically, and began to speak once more. “Anyway, my pack is from another world. Ours is unique in that we can’t bite someone, and they turn. It doesn’t work that way; we must breed to grow. We take life very seriously, especially that of children and infants. We believe our female lycans are the most important of us because they carry them, and believe me, they go through hell you wouldn’t believe the agony a fetus causes on full moons. Once in the third trimester, they will turn on full moons. If it weren’t for our amazing ability to heal so quickly, most would probably die. We try to make it so they give birth on a full moon because it’s easier they are stronger; they’d heal quicker, and they’d give birth the way a wolf would. It doesn’t always happen that way, but anyway, back to the point. One of our people got beheaded at the village for disobeying the orders given by Kingston; he’s the man that took control over the alphas. The man was one of my pack, Carl and he was a good man. Kingston now has a desire to kill me because when my father, our pack’s alpha stood by Kingston Carl, suggested I come forward. This now makes me look like a threat or whatever I don’t know what goes through that maniac’s head. My mother has Kingston’s eye, and I don’t quite get why my father allows him to brutalize her. My baby sister is stuck there with these monsters. She is only ten. I need your help to stop him and save my mother and sister. Many of the lycans do not like what is happening, especially my pack, but they are too scared to stand up to him because they know it will be the end of their life.”

           “What makes this lycan so powerful that he can control so many alphas to take over their packs?” Kohl questioned; Peter wasn’t thrilled to see that his best friend believed the man. He could feel he trusted him and what he was claiming.

           “I don’t know. He wasn’t always a lycan, he was turned through very powerful magic, and I believe that the magic also made him…Powerful. I don’t quite understand magic, so I can’t really answer that very well. I do know beyond a doubt that he wants me dead, but he really, really wants you dead.” Kyle nodded to Peter, so he knew he was referring to him. “You led the other vampires that killed off the lycans in this world; he knows this beyond the shadow of a doubt because it’s in the supernatural history books that our supers have access to.” Jen squeezed Peter’s arm again, but this time in fear and somewhat sadness. Peter released some of his tension, looked at her then kissed her forehead.

           “I will be fine,” Peter reassured. She wasn’t convinced.

           “If you trust me and we work together. I have a basic idea of where his new camp is because I remember a few landmarks; otherwise, I don’t have specifics. I know that witches can locate people?” He looked at Nora.

           “Nora, how much of what he said about the village attack is true?” Peter wanted so badly to have a reason to kill Kyle.

           “In my dream, the man Kyle calls Kingston ripped off the head of a man he called Carl. Carl argued about killing children and refused to back down in his belief it’s wrong. He also called over a pack alpha he called Marco. Marco, I guess what the direct alpha for the pack Carl belonged to. Carl, called out the name Kyle to replace Marco’s leadership.” Nora reiterated the story Kyle had produced.

           “Marco is my father,” Kyle said with sadness in his voice. “He used to be such a strong, good man and now…I don’t know what he is, but sure as fuck isn’t the father that raised me.”

“Nora, take Kyle here to the study and start trying to locate Kingston.” Kohl instructed, “I would put money on Luka being the reason Kingston is so powerful. We need to stop him, and after Kingston is dead, we will then continue our hunt for Luka. Kingston seems to be the more immediate threat and a large one at that.”

           “You’re going to leave him alone with Nora!” Peter exclaimed in a burst of anger, “he could kill her!”

           “He won’t.” Kohl stated dryly, “he is obviously smart and knows he is severely out powered, besides… I believe him.”

           “So, do I,” Nora added, only increasing Peter’s frustration leading him to storm out in a flash. Jen whirled out of the room to follow him.

           “What is Peter’s deal?” Nora looked to Kohl.

*Author's note:This book contains violence, sexual scenes and talks about rape. Reader discretion is warned. I appreciate all of the support my reader's provide for me and my kids.  Please don't forget to give gems and votes and reviews please.  Every little bit helps!