"Ughhhhhhh hhhhh..." My pain-filled growl rends through the night as the beast's teeth violently clamp down on my bones, ripping the flesh off my arms.
While he's furiously chewing on my arm, I raise my right hand with the karambit still clutched in it and slice its throat in one swift motion, from the jugular to its left ear. For a moment the beast looks stunned as its neck starts sputtering warm blood all over my face. Its mouth opens wide enough to howl but only an ugly sputtering sound emits from it before it finally falls on me with blood still gushing from its gaping wound.
It shifts back into its human form then and I push him away from on top of me with a groan. My arm hurts like hell but I do my best to ignore the pain and quickly spring to my feet. It seems the wolf I just killed was the fastest in their camp since the rest are still some couple of feet away from us.
I removed the karambit from my finger with my injured hand and used the other hand to tear a strip of cloth from my shirt, using it to hastily bind my injured hand to prevent excess bleeding. I watch as the other rogues who just arrived screech to a stop some feet away from me when they see who is lying dead on the ground
He also must be someone important in their camp because, for some seconds, it appears as if time stops for them. Some of them howl to the sky in mourning and some shift back to their human form.
They appear frozen in place. As they looked in disbelief from the dead man on the ground to my face, I hurriedly finished tying the cloth around my injured hand before fixing the karambit back on my finger and gripping it tightly.
'Who is next to die?' I think as I adopt a fighting stance. While at the same time praying for backup to arrive quickly.
'Goddess! Just how many are there?' I wonder to myself as they keep coming out of the woods. One of the wolves that just came out immediately shifts. She screams at the top of her voice as she runs towards the dead wolf on the ground.
"Miles! Oh my god, Miles!"
She collapses, sobbing on the dead body before getting up almost immediately, rushing towards me, baring her claws and canine while shouting...
"I'm going to kill you, you son of a bitch! You're going to die!..."
I would have killed her immediately if she's still in her wolf form but she isn't. And even though I don't hit women, I'm not going to stand by and allow her to gauge my eyes out with her claws.
Seeing her rushing towards me, the rest follows, they look furious and vengeful but I stand my ground, ready to slash, maim and kill as many of them as I can when a voice from somewhere speaks authoritatively...
"Stop!"
On hearing the voice, they all instantly halt in their tracks.
'Who is this again? And I thought I just killed their Alpha'
I look around for the face of the person that just spoke but I can't match the cold voice to the enraged faces bearing down on me.
"Stop!?..." The furious she-wolf whirls around as she asks.
"He killed Miles! He killed my mate and you're stopping us from killing him?" She spat out.
"Oh, I'm not stopping you from killing him. I just want you to play with him for as long as you want until you're bored and finally decide to kill him yourself. Wouldn't you prefer that, Soph? I think lynching him right now will be showing mercy compared to what I have in mind to do to him." The owner of the voice says as he walks out from the cover of darkness where he is hiding.
He's talking to the she-wolf but his cold eyes are resting on me. I'm taken aback by the color of his eyes. He's a rogue but his eyes are red. Blood red. The eye color that could only belong to a pure-blooded Alpha.
'What is someone like him doing among the rogues?'
An idea occurs to me but before I can act on it, he speaks to the person standing beside him...
"Take Miles' body and leave. I'll be along with this one shortly." He says, all the while maintaining eye contact with me.
I can't help but laugh then because of what I just heard him say and the confidence with which he said it.
"You want to forcefully take me along with you?" I ask and chuckle again but he just shrugs nonchalantly.
"Would you consider coming with me if I ask you nicely?" He seriously asks with his head cock aside in a wondering manner.
"I like your sense of humor but the answer is, no! I'm not going anywhere with you" I reply without losing the smile on my face.
"Why don't you try forcing me then? Let's see what you got... Rogue King?"
'Jackpot!'
His eyes gleam like blood-red rubies in reaction to my words, confirming to me that my suspicions are right. He's indeed the infamous Rogue King. The despicable motherfucker that is highly despised by every shifter in North America. No one knows his name. No one knows the pack he was originally from and no one has ever seen his face before, he's only known as the Rogue King and by his reputation.
"Yay! Give yourself a gold medal..." He says sarcastically with a sinister smile. Then I watch with surprise as his fangs slowly extend and his iris turns dark
My eyes narrow in disbelief.
'It can't be! The Rogue King is also a vampire? An abomination!'
"You're a vampire!?" I growl at him.
Vampires and werewolves have been each other's greatest arch-enemies for god knows when. Mating between our two worlds was forbidden many decades ago because vampire-werewolf mating produces hybrids that are considered the most dangerous creatures that couldn't be allowed to live amongst humans.
After what I said, his eyes became icy and hard, glaring at me with hatred while his mouth curved into a cold chuckle. One moment he's right in front of me, and the next thing I know he's standing closely behind me with his fangs deep inside my neck.
The veins his fangs pierced slightly burn as his venom passes into me. Even though I'm immune to vampire venom, I can't help but worry if hybrids have the same venom as vampires. I don't think so since it suddenly feels as if my limbs are turning to rubber.
He extracts his fangs long enough to whisper...
"No, I'm not a vampire. I believe the word you're looking for is a hybrid?"
He chuckles
"Pity, I wanted Sophia to keep you as a pet and have fun with you but that won't be possible anymore. Now that you know my litt le secret, I'm afraid I can't keep you alive even for a minute to share your story."
He sinks his fang into the other side of my neck this time and I completely go limp in his arms.