TAKEN BY THE LYCAN BEAST

Chapte 6. The beast unleashed

The kingdom was in total chaos.

The sharp clang of the warning bell pierced through the night air, each toll ringing louder than the last. Guards scrambled through the palace corridors, yelling orders, drawing weapons. The bell was only ever used for one reason.

A prisoner had escaped. But not just any prisoner. The lycan was loose.

“Sound the alarms!” one of the guards shouted, his voice nearly drowned by the din. “He’s out!”

And far from the walls of his former prison, Draka ran—his massive frame a blur of supernatural speed. Dust and leaves rose in his wake as he tore through the forest, a predator unleashed.

Over his shoulder, he carried a squirming figure. Aria.

She screamed, fists pounding against his back, but her voice was lost in the chaos, buried beneath the panic of an entire kingdom spiraling into fear. People yelled in the distance, torches flaring to life in the towers. Chaos reigned behind them.

But Draka didn’t stop. Not even for a breath.

His muscles rippled under her as he ran, impossibly fast, like the wind itself bent to his will. Aria clutched the fabric of his shirt, panic giving way to shock. Her mind reeled. This wasn’t supposed to happen. She’d freed him, but she hadn’t expected this.

Not this kind of escape. Not this kind of power.

Back in the palace, Alpha Lucas shot upright in bed, the bell still ringing in his ears.

“What in the hell…” he muttered, his heart pounding in his chest.

A soldier burst into the room, breathless. “Alpha! He’s gone—Draka has escaped. He’s taken the human boy with him!”

Lucas paled. “What?!”

The words hit him like a punch to the gut. The lycan he had kept caged for years, controlled, suppressed, tortured into submission had broken free.

And taken someone with him.

Aria. The boy.

Or so they still believed.

Lucas didn’t waste time. He threw on his cloak and stormed toward the dungeon, guards flanking him on either side. As he entered the dark stone corridor, his boots echoed off the walls, the smell of blood and iron thick in the air.

When he reached the open cell, he froze.

The chains that had bound Draka were shattered, snapped like twigs. The heavy door had been unlocked, the keys still hanging in the lock.

Lucas’s jaw clenched.

Only one person could’ve done this. Only one had been allowed near the beast in recent days.

“The boy,” he snarled, fury igniting in his eyes. “The boy helped him.”

He turned, eyes blazing. “Send out the best soldiers. Track them down. I don’t care how far they’ve gone, bring them back. Dead or alive.”

The guards bowed and scattered, but Lucas stood still, rage simmering beneath his skin. He knew—deep in his bones—it would take far more than soldiers to capture Draka.

He wasn’t just a lycan. He was the lycan.

Unmatched. Untamable. Unforgiving.

Far from the palace, the wind tore through the trees as Draka finally came to a stop in a secluded clearing surrounded by thick forest. The moonlight shimmered off his black hair, his chest rising and falling with powerful breaths.

Aria’s body jolted as he dropped her roughly onto the grass.

She scrambled back instinctively, her limbs trembling, eyes wide with fear. Her heart pounded against her ribs, her throat dry.

The silence was suffocating. Her mind screamed at her to run—but her legs wouldn’t move.

She clutched her arms around herself. “P-Please… don’t kill me.”

Draka tilted his head slowly, that familiar smirk curling across his lips. He took a single step toward her, his eyes glowing faintly with something wild and unreadable.

“Kill you?” he echoed, voice low and rich like smoke. “Oh no, Aria.”

Her breath caught in her throat. He knelt before her, his towering frame still dominating the space between them. One of his hands came up to brush her hair from her face, and her whole body tensed under his touch. But it wasn’t cruel.

It was… deliberate.

“I’m not going to kill you,” he murmured.

His gaze dropped to her lips, lingering there. His thumb brushed across her chin, lifting her face.

“I’m going to do other things with you.”

Aria’s stomach flipped. His voice deepened, a dark promise threading through each word as he leaned in closer, his breath warm against her skin.

“You’re going to help me with my needs, Aria.”

Her breath hitched, the words slipping into her ears like magic laced with fire. A shiver rolled down her spine, her knees nearly giving out. There was no mistaking his meaning. Not from the heat in his gaze or the way his voice curled around her name like a possession.

Draka’s expression darkened, and his voice dropped lower. “You freed me. That makes you mine. And now... I take what’s mine.”

Aria opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She didn’t know what to feel—fear, anticipation, desire. It all mixed into one electric storm inside her.

He stood slowly, towering above her, his eyes never leaving hers.

“I could have torn you apart back there,” he said. “But I didn’t.”

Aria swallowed hard. “Why?”

His lips twisted into something close to a grin but far more dangerous.

“Because I don’t destroy what belongs to me.”