This couldn’t be happening. The noises of the battle happening several feet away reached his ears, but he couldn’t look that way. His eyes were on Cole, who jumped on him and pinned him to the ground. Eli held the book close to his chest and turned his head away from the maddened eyes staring at him. Despite the darkness, he could see everything in sharp detail: the burning eyes, the glint of the moonlight bouncing off the fangs slowly reaching for him. Saliva poured out of Cole’s mouth, dripping on Eli’s cheek, filling him with a sensation of dread and disgust.
“Rhett,” Eli cried out, struggling to get from under Cole, but it was so easy for that beast to put a hand against his chest – was it a hand or a paw? – and keep him down like he was a tiny mouse caught by a feral cat.
“Your precious Rhett is being torn to shreds as we speak,” Cole growled at him.
Despite his beast appearance, Cole still had to be human deep inside. As long as he talked and didn’t reduce his speech to a series of grunts and unintelligible sounds, he was still to be reasoned with. Right?
“Cole, you don’t understand,” Eli said quickly, still avoiding the maw getting close to his face, “you are nothing but a pawn in this. If Rhett loses this fight, you are all doomed! We are all doomed!”
“You smell so nice, bitch,” Cole said, sniffing at Eli’s neck in a surprisingly delicate manner. “I will put my knot inside you so deep that you’ll forget about all the other cocks you’ve had before.”
“I belong to Rhett,” Eli said stubbornly.
“You do? How come he doesn’t come running, then, when you call for him so sweetly? Ah, I guess,” Cole said, turning his head lightly, “he’s a bit busy getting his ass kicked. You’re a bitch, Eli. You don’t decide who gets to knot you. And if I decide to give you to my pals so they can knot your bitch ass, I’ll do it. So do the thing you’re made for: spread your legs and let me stuff you with my cock and knot.”
“Never,” Eli grunted and moved his left arm quickly, catching Cole in the jaw with his elbow.
His attack couldn’t have been too effective, but the surprise element was there, and that was all Eli needed. He rolled to one side, as Cole’s paw shot to his jaw, and began crawling toward the place where Rhett was fighting several students turned into beasts.
Rhett was truly magnificent in how he fought the others. They tried to come at him as a pack of wolves, but Rhett grabbed two of them and bashed their heads together. There was a certain fluidity in how he changed from one shape to another. He controlled his lycan nature, Eli realized. When needed, he let his fangs and claws out and tore through his enemies like they weren’t flesh and blood, although the latter spurted freely out of their fresh wounds.
They were beasts, however. And one thing Eli had noticed was that they healed fast. Rhett would eventually tire if they kept it like that. And there were many, while Rhett was just one.
No, he wasn’t alone. Although Cole’s howl from behind told him that he was a split of a second away from getting impaled by that asshole’s huge cock, Eli jumped to his feet. The book was still in his arms, secured for now. If the answers were there, shouldn’t they have thought of examining it at length instead of fucking like rabbits?
There was nothing rabbit-like in how Rhett fucked, Eli thought, and he wobbled on his feet for a moment. His bitch nature was to blame, too.
“Rhett,” he cried out, “let’s go, let’s run!”
They needed to get somewhere safe. There was no point in fighting like this endlessly and with just one outcome in sight.
Cole jumped on his back and pushed him to the ground just as he finished shouting.
Rhett stopped and looked in his direction. Eli’s eyes filled with tears when he understood his mistake. The others pounced on Rhett in an instant, dragging him down and piling on top of him.
“Look, bitch, look,” Cole panted in his ear. “He’s getting torn apart, and you’ll look while I fuck you until I get my fill of you.”
Eli barely managed a pained ‘no’ as Cole ripped his jeans and pushed himself inside Eli’s ass to the hilt.
This couldn’t be it, Eli revolted, despite his body’s reaction. He held the book to his chest, while tears poured down his cheeks. Cole grunted behind him, bent on pummeling his ass as punishment for running before.
“Rhett, Rhett,” Eli called hopelessly, trying to drag himself away from Cole.
He decided, in that moment, that he would resist even his nature that dictated that he opened his ass to let himself fucked by whoever wanted to fuck him. With his jaw locked, holding the book with one arm, he brought back the other to hit Cole.
Anger seemed to do him good. Cole grunted as Eli hit him blindly. His cock didn’t seem to have got even halfway in, which meant that Eli was winning.
“I’m not your bitch,” Eli grunted and swung his arm wildly. “I belong to Rhett, and he marked me!”
That seemed to have a strange effect on Cole. At first, Eli thought his random kicks were somehow effective, but it wasn’t that.
Cole whimpered like a puppy and began pulling away from Eli. When Eli turned to see what was happening, he was shocked to see the mighty beast on the ground, howling and holding his hands between his legs. His beast appearance seemed to have faded, too.
He had no time to understand what was happening. Holding the book like a weapon, he rushed to the group assaulting Rhett and began hitting them with it over their disgusting maws and snarling faces.
“You don’t get to hurt my lycan prince,” he shouted as he smacked them left and right.
A sort of madness must have taken over him, because he really thought himself invincible. With renewed strength, he pushed the beasts off Rhett one by one.
But it looked like whatever shock the beasts had suffered at Eli’s surprise attacked, it was fading out fast. They regrouped and started snapping their maws at him. Rhett was on the ground, his body marked by bites everywhere, and Eli felt the ground disappearing from beneath his feet.
“We must destroyed them both,” Cole howled from behind. “The bitch is no good, either! You burned my fucking cock, you bitch!”
Was it because Rhett had marked him? Eli wondered. That meant the others wouldn’t be able to put their knots inside him, but was that enough for their survival? Rhett just lay there, unresponsive, and it was all his fault because he had hurried to distract him instead of finding a way to help him.
He was thrown on the ground, while two of the beasts grabbed Rhett and threw him by Eli’s side.
“A lycan prince? Is that what you said, bitch?” Cole’s scorn was vicious as he spat the words at him. “Then I must be the fucking king, because I brought him down!”
“You didn’t, you fucking asshole,” Eli shouted at him.
Cole laughed and snapped one arm to the side. Eli watched in horror as claws grew out of Cole’s hand. That was it. They had only fought this far, and that vampire had to be having a laugh right now. Although… would he be happy if Rhett was killed by the others?
He didn’t have time to finish that thought, because Cole’s pals, grinning and snarling behind him, began falling like pieces on a board, as a dark formation tore into them.
Eli pushed himself up on his elbows, with the last of his strength. Was it the vampire, arriving to claim his victim?
But no, his eyes saw… things. He made the shape of two beasts, fighting the others and putting them to the ground. Cole turned slowly, most likely failing to understand what was going on.
Eli grabbed Rhett’s arm. “Rhett, wake up, please, let’s go!”
The beasts were now fighting for dominance between themselves. That didn’t mean that he and Rhett were safe. Everyone on campus – everyone with claws and fangs – would go after Rhett to take his crown or whatever they thought they were doing.
He yelped with two other shapes rushed to him. His surprise was even bigger when he understood that he was looking at two students who hadn’t turned.
“Hi, my guy,” one of them said cheerfully.
“M-Micah?” Eli asked, confusion taking over. He had last seen Micah in the yard the morning before, getting his mouth stuffed with cock by another student.
“You know me,” the student exclaimed. “Good. We don’t have time for introductions. Except this is Noel, he’s Professor Hayes’s bitch, while I’m with that doofus over there, fighting those assholes.”
Eli was speechless. His eyes moved from Micah and Noel, and then to the fight. It looked like the two newcomers were getting the upper hand, transforming Cole’s gang into a pile of bodies, as unresponsive as Rhett’s.
“Don’t worry,” Noel said, “Logan intends to incapacitate them only. We will carry them all to the infirmary and lock them in there.”
Eli reached for Rhett’s arm, eager for a sign of life from his lycan prince.
“That’s Rhett, right?” Noel asked. “He’s the guy the vampire wants.”
“You guys know?” Eli mumbled.
“Yeah. Veyr’s a fucking creep,” Micah said. “Are you hurt? Can you walk? Help us get Rhett on his feet, too.”
Eli was still holding the book, after all that had happened.
“What’s that?” Noel asked.
“It’s something Rhett needs to win against Veyr. I don’t know how, but he does,” Eli explained, unconsciously gripping the tome.
Noel gave him a sympathetic look. Eli looked over his shoulder. It really looked like Professor Hayes and Micah’s beast were managing to put those feral dogs to sleep.
“Rhett,” he called out gently, “there are people here to help us. Don’t just sleep now.” He really hoped his anxious tone wasn’t doing the contrary to what he was hoping for.
“Did you guys do the bond thing? The bite?” Micah asked.
“Yes,” Eli whispered.
“Good. It looks like my doofus is the only guy who missed the memo. Get closer to Rhett. Let him smell you, sniff you, whatever. It might help. These guys may be tough and have claws and fangs, but they are still vulnerable in some ways.”
Eli didn’t have to be told twice. He cuddled close to Rhett and began caressing his cheek slowly, while whispering words of encouragement. “I promise I will continue to be your bitch even after this is over,” he said. “But don’t make me cry right now by not waking up, okay? I won’t ever forgive you if you do that.”
“Ah, it looks like our guys beat their guys,” Micah commented. “Noel, stay with Eli and Rhett. I will help the others carry those assholes and lock them up.”
“Okay. Don’t give Jack a hard time, though, about the bite. He doesn’t seem to be a bad guy.”
Eli only half-listened to the guys. His entire attention was focused on Rhett and his steady breathing. He wasn’t gone, but he wasn’t waking up, either.
“Did you read that book?” Noel asked, while Micah was joining the others in hauling the now unconscious beasts out of sight.
“No, I didn’t have time to do that,” Eli replied. “We were too busy doing… you know what.”
“Don’t worry, Eli. I don’t think either of us still understands the concept of shame after what happened here. If the book is important, maybe we should search for answers in it. Do you think we should take a look inside?”
Eli wasn’t sure, but Noel made sense. He reluctantly pulled himself slightly away from Rhett to hand Eli the book.
“The Howling Gene: A Natural History of Lycanthropy. Hmm, catchy title,” Noel commented. “What should we look for?”
“Rhett’s skin is cold, but his heart beats steadily,” Noel reported. “I guess anything related to bringing him back to life, I guess?”
Noel muttered under his breath as he checked the table of contents.
“Ah, here, I guess this might be helpful,” he said. “It says this: ‘The howling gene can be reactivated through resonance. The mate’s voice is required--’”
“That’s my voice, right? But I keep calling for him, and it doesn’t seem to work,” Eli complained.
“Wait,” Noel advised. “There’s more. ‘Speak his name with breath and heartbeat at once. The gene will stir once more.’”
“With breath and heartbeat?” Eli drew one deep breath. He had no idea what the arcane text wanted to say. “What else does it say?”
Noel recited further. “It’s a whole thing, it seems. It continues like this: ‘Under the moonlight, all wolves are born anew. Whisper his name that bounds him to this world, followed by his real name.’”
“Wait,” Eli said. “The only name I know is Rhett Donovan. Does he have another name?”
Noel squinted as he continued to explore the arcane writing. “He must have. ‘Call the prince, and then the wolf that shares his skin. Be warned. The beast will wake up first, with howl, and claw, and fang.’ Okay, not gonna lie, but that sounds ominous as hell. Do you know the name of Rhett’s wolf, Eli?”
“I have no idea. He’s never said it to me. I wonder if he knows it. Noel, we need more information.”
“On it,” Noel replied as he thumbed through the pages, stopping from time to time. “Hey, is there such a thing as a tattoo on Rhett’s chest?”
Eli didn’t recall anything of the sort. But he searched Rhett’s chest, brushing his hand over it. He let out a small yelp when something glinted in the dark curly hair covering Rhett’s body. “Are you sure it’s a tattoo, Noel?”
“They call it a sigil, actually,” Noel explained. “I just thought it might look like a tattoo.”
“I think this must be it,” Eli whispered, while the moon above made the sigil appear on Rhett’s chest in its finest detail.
“Wow,” Noel said. “That’s pretty awesome. Can you read it, Eli?”
It was a symbol, but if he turned his head just a smidge…
“I think it says… Ravenor,” Eli said slowly.
Rhett’s chest filled with a heave, making both Eli and Noel drew back.
And then a howl followed, loud enough to make all hearts freeze on a five-mile radius.
tbc
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