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Chapter 2

Ren

My beast roamed within me, a terrifying creature that could claw a vehicle in half, take down any living thing that stood in its way, and gave me immense power.

I was a Lycan, one of the many supernatural creatures that inhabited the earth, my very existence known only to some. It was better—easier—to stay hidden, to not let humans know what I was. The weaker species feared too much, discriminated all, and were dangerous not only to themselves, but to anything they didn't understand.

I stalked the thick Carpathian Montane Conifer Forest, the wilderness my home more than the castle in which I resided in my human form.

I built the castle centuries ago when I branched off from my family, started my own life, and started the lifelong search for my mate when I hit my adult years. To humans, I was nothing but a mere man—wealthy, isolated, reclusive... dangerous. That's what villagers would say when they heard my name.

Ren Lupineov.

It was safer to let them think I was dangerous, that my arrogance afforded me an air of authority and aristocracy. Let them believe my wealth was passed down from ancestors. For if they ever found out I was a three-hundred-year-old Lycan shifter—able to shift into a horse-sized wolf—they'd hunt me down with torches and axes.

They wouldn't succeed, of course. I could level anyone and anything that threatened me or mine.

Mine.

That lone word meant more than anything else... and not something I had for myself. And for the last three centuries, I'd been searching for my mate, hoping against all odds that my Lycan instincts would lead my Linked Mate—the one female who was born to be mine—to me.

I didn't know her name. Didn't know what she looked like, sounded like, or if she was even on this continent. But I searched these woods every night, went from village to village, town to city, hoping my Lycan Instinct would somehow scent my mate, that I'd smell her and feel that Link between a Lycan and his mate, that supernatural connection that only a shifter had with his female, tying us together forever.

I didn't know if she was human, Lycan, vampire, or some other supernatural creature. I didn't even know if she was born yet, or had passed.

I stilled and brought a hand to my beating heart, rubbing my chest as a sudden onset of pain slammed into me at the thought I'd lost her before I even found her.

No, I didn't let those thoughts consume me. I wouldn't. I'd forever search for her. I'd forever stay positive that she was out there and I'd find her.

I stayed in my human form as I stalked the forest, my inner Lycan moving within me. The wolf tattoo that covered my entire back shifted along my skin, moved as the beast paced underneath. I didn't shift very often anymore, didn't allow the feral creature I housed to run wild. He was hard enough to control within me while I was a human, let alone when he had free reign of his surroundings.

And because he was snapping and snarling for our mate, it made him even more dangerous, destroying anything in his path. He was known to take our hundred-year-old oaks that stood in his way.

I curled my claws inward, the sharp points stabbing into my palms, drawing blood. Even though I was in my human form, I was still fearsome at a towering six-foot eight height, and three hundred pounds of solid muscle. But in my shifted Lycan form?

Nothing could match my strength and brutality.

My animal was front and center, moving right under the surface and showing itself. I knew my amber-colored eyes while I was a human changed to a glowing blue as he made himself known, trying to dominate.

Not today, you impatient bastard.

But still, the motherfucker pushed forward.

Fingernails as claws.

My body starting to become even taller, muscles becoming more pronounced with the need to shift.

Night vision perfect.

Canines unsheathing and descending.

Hearing and smelling even more accurate than any night predator.

I was the predator to predators.

I made my way closer to the village, finding myself drawn to the little Romanian town tonight for some reason.

The trees started to thin the closer I got, before opening up and showing Dobravina. I stood there and watched the villagers converse, shop, none of them having this eternal hole in their very being because they were missing the most important thing in the world to them.

Their other half. Their mate. The one person born to be theirs and theirs alone.

It made me jealous and angry, bitter and resentful. Humans may be one of the weakest species in the grand scheme of things, and I may be superior in strength, intelligence, and being a cunning hunter, but they had the only thing I wanted—love.

I wanted the love of my Linked Mate.

I tipped my head back and looked through the break in the trees at the sky. The full moon was coming, and it was coming fast. And when it did, I'd have no control over myself. Only my mate could ever calm me, could ever control the beast within me. It was her and her alone that held that power.

And for every full moon, the creature inside of me ripped and snarled, clawed its way out. And once it passed, once I was back in my human form and saw the destruction my Lycan wrought, that hole in my soul magnified all over again, and I yearned for my female even more.

I glanced at the village again, narrowing my eyes and getting even more pissed.

My Lycan snapped and growled, causing my human jealousy to grow tenfold as his rose as well. The tattoo on my back shifted and moved across the flesh, rising up slightly. I knew to the naked eye it would seem three dimensional. But my Lycan was pissed, as if he was telling me this was bullshit.

It was. It so fucking is.

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