Lycan's Prey by Jessica Hall

Chapter 48

~Soren~

The grandeur of the castle feels more oppressive than usual today. I’ve done nothing but argue with council members when all I want to do is join Max and Bree for lunch. However, I have responsibilities to attend to. Responsibilities that weigh heavily on me, as does the guilt of leaving Max with his nanny all day long.

Not that Bree isn’t capable. She has shown she is more than qualified for the job. She’s the first nanny Max hasn’t tried to escape. Moving toward the window, the scent of freshly cut grass and blooming flowers wafts in through the open window. I peer down at the courtyard, Bree’s hair is tied back in a neat rainbow ponytail today, and she is wearing a sundress as she stands by the swings with Max. Max’s face splits into a wide grin each time he swings higher, his small frame nearly flying through the air while screaming for her to push him higher.

At this moment, the weight of fatherhood feels heavier than the castle’s stone walls. But as I gaze down at Bree and Max, their laughter and joy lift some of that weight, I suddenly miss my wife. She passed away during labor with our daughter, I lost both of them that day. It’s the only time Lycan women are

vulnerable.

Childbirth, their bodies unable to heal quickly, and

breastfeeding all take a toll on Lycan women too, she was only just getting back to herself after having Max when she fell pregnant again, Lycan women are vulnerable while

Chapter 48 pista

288 Vouchers

was in labor they planned an attack, I was hours away and didn’t get back in time, though I never did find out which pack tipped

to my wife, blood bonded. With her gone she will die, though that can take years, decades even, but no one blood bonded lives, they lose

with her when they attacked. We lost over a hundred people that day, they lost more by the time she was done slaughtering them, though Blair said she knew. She knew that Amelia had given up when she was shot in the stomach with a concoction of wolfsbane and liquid silver. She knew our

may have survived, but we would be without a daughter. But after having Max Amelia wanted to wait until our wedding day for me to mark her, I loved my wife but she was vain, she insisted on losing the baby weight from Max before marrying, she fell pregnant on our wedding night with our daughter, making marking her dangerous. Max I know still feels her loss even if he hardly remembers

27.56%

Chapter 48

282 Vouchers

once, a smile slips onto my face as I watch them. Bree would be a good mother. She is excellent with him, a natural. My eyes roam over her in her summer dress, hair pulled back in a ponytail high on her head. She is gorgeous, but that makes me

is in this form at least if need be. Lycans are the dominant species, werewolves the mutt version of us, not that Bree is a mutt. We are the wolf, born with our instincts, we learn to control them. Werewolves however, have an altered side of them, the wolf side of them has no control under a full moon. It’s believed to be a punishment from the moon goddess, that she cursed werewolves

a week after I brought her here, she insisted on going home to her grandfather’s cellar. I think she was home sick, I am fully equipped to have her handled here, yet I let her go, letting her that piece of privacy, though with the next full moon coming up in a couple weeks, I hope I can convince her to stay here. Max was distressed with her gone, worried another werewolf would get

on my office door I call out over my shoulder. “Come in,” I call out loudly, slightly annoyed at being interrupted. The door creaks open, but