+CHAPTER 5+ The Lost Souls

After centuries the two lycan brothers were doing something together. Both of them felt like idiots for entering the wastelands. It was said that the snow on this land hides more secrets than it reveals. 

Long forgotten mystical creatures that are just a myth in the present time, reside on this land. 

The moment they entered this land the brothers' inner Lycans were on high alert as if sensing an unseen threat. 

If Lucia had entered this land then she must have gotten some clue on the lost mates but as the stubborn princess that she was, she decided to investigate this lead herself instead of asking her brothers for help.

And now she has her ass handed to herself by someone who was a fool or strong enough to reside here.

Moon help her when Darach got his hands on his brat of a sister!

Darach looked towards his brother only to find a look of pity plastered on his face. Darach despised that look, it was the same look he had given Connor when he lost his mate. It was the same look that every lycan in his kingdom had given his brother. 

He didn't want his pity.

He didn't want anyone's pity. . .

"Stop looking at me with pity Connor before I make you stop!" Darach said through gritted teeth. 

"How could you not tell me or Lucia that you lost her Darach. How could you keep everything inside? How could you bear the pain alone? We always had each other's back. I don't know where we fell apart. . ." Connor said not looking at him, mourning over his brother's loss.

"That was before you lost your mate, Connor. What would I have told you? That 'Hey brother you got to pity me too because I lost my mate too' or should I have thrown a celebration in our dead mate's memory. You have seen your mate, have her memories but I don't even know how mine looked like. I don't have a single memory of her. . . She was killed! MURDERED!! Snatched from my life by her own kin. . . And do you know the worst part..? They are alive while my mate is dead. And I can do nothing about it. . ." 

The look Connor saw on his brother's face was enough for him to know that his brother was as lost as him. Connor unconsciously took a few steps back, surprised by Darach's outburst. Darach was the one who never showed an emotion not even while slaying someone and to see him like this... Pained and broken... Connor's heart ached for his brother. . .

Connor can feel his brother's loss because he was enduring it too but Darach and Connor were not on the same page. 

Darach lost his mate before he ever met her but Connor had lost his mate because of what he had done to her. 

Her pleas for him to stop still ring in his head. 

Her tear-filled eyes. . . 

The trembling of her lips . . .

Her sobs. . .

He was a monster for what he had done to her.

The look in her eyes when she took her own life gave him nightmares every fucking night. He was too blind to see what the Moon had blessed him with. He had realized the Moon's blessing's worth when Moon had taken her away from him.

He can still feel the blade that she used to slit her own neck. Crimson blood was everywhere on the snow. . . Warm crimson blood, pooling out of her neck like water from a fountain.

It will haunt him till death. . .

He had pushed his mate too far. . .

He deserved all the pain. He didn't want it to end like this. He didn't want her to kill herself. 

Connor was a coward because he can't even admit his crime in front of everyone. They think that it was an accident but the truth was that he had forced his own mate into killing herself. He had destroyed his chance of a happily ever after by his own hands.

Connor's uncle used to say that there was not always a happy ending for every story. Today when he looked at his brother and himself, he can't agree more with his uncle. 

Their uncle was right. . . 

Their whole royal line was cursed~

"What the hell are you thinking now." Darach asked shaking Connor. 

Darach didn't want to show any emotion to his brother but his pitiful looks were burning his skin.

And now he looked pale, shaken and on the verge of attempting suicide. Ever since his mate died, talking to him was like walking on eggshells. Anything can trigger him.

It was not a new thing for Connor to attempt suicide but every time he went for his suicide mission, the regeneration power of his Lycan bought him back to life.

It was almost comical in Connor's case because usually when a lycan sense his mate he instantly makes a bond with his blessed mate and if under any condition a Lycan's mate dies, the Lycan follows. But in Connor's case, the human side of him wanted to die after his mate's death while his inner Lycan wanted to live.

Connor had once admitted that his lycan was punishing him for losing his mate by forcing him to live this miserable life.

Sometimes Darach had even thought to kill him to release him from his miserable life but he can't because no matter what, Connor was family and wolfs can fight with their own blood but they can't kill their own blood, they protect them.

"I'm thinking about when I'll be released from her clutches Darach but every day her memories bring me to my knees. Tell me how you feel about your mate's death. Tell me how it feels to lose a part of your soul." Connor pleaded with teary eyes.

Darach looked away. . .

They had entered the wastelands and it might be their last journey together because already Darach had seen the creatures from the dark, for example, the Bearded Vulture with a unique diet of eating a wolf's bones, who's currently following them like a shadow, waiting for their demise. So why not reveal the pain that he was carrying in his heart. Why not share his pain. . .

"It feels like someone had clawed my beating heart out of my body, plugged a knife in it and now he's twisting the knife repeatedly." Darach said with a straight face, looked Connor's eyes.

"I feel a hundred times worse than that. I have her memories to torture me and I can't even take my own life because my instinct won't let me do it, no matter how much I crave to die and be done with this miserable life my bastard of a beast won't even let me die in peace." Connor whispered the last sentence as it was an unfulfilled wish that he yearned for.  

Darach looked away again. . .

Darach knew that he's miserable but it wasn't his fault. His mate ran away and she lost her life in that. It was an accident. 

It wasn't Connor's fault. . .

"Do you think we will make it alive out of here?" Connor asked as he started walking in the forest or more like old trees, covered in snow without a single green leaf on them. It was Darach's cue to leave the topic.

"I hope we don't." Darach replied sincerely. 

Darach was only doing it for Connor. Other than that he had no interest in finding anyone. It wasn't his duty to rescue Lucia. It was her mate's duty but the fucker will be long dead in these wastelands. 

Bloody useless dog! 

He didn't deserve his sister...!!

"Sometimes I think that uncle was right. We all are bloody cursed." Connor whispered.

Yeah, their Mighty Uncle~

He was the strongest Lycan ever to live. He was the first one from their family who lost his mate or more like abandoned her for another. 

That was from where the curse started...

His mate was a Fey and note my words that if you want to survive in this world, you don't mess with their kind. 

Fey didn't believe in fated mates but she fell in love with him. Only for him to break her heart. She was a powerful being who knew how to survive from a heartbreak.

She left and never looked behind. There were rumors that their mighty uncle was still in search of her. For her to forgive him but it was like she had vanished from the face of the earth. It's been centuries since Darach had last seen his uncle. 

He was the rightful king of the Lycans but he had forsaken his crown in hopes of a second chance with his mate. 

It was the point when the downfall of their people started.

All because of their mighty uncle. . .

Darach was pulled from his thoughts when a small girl appeared in front of them. She had wild locks of red hairs and her eyes were black just like the Oracle's.

Her skin was translucent and she was wearing just a small thin sleeveless dress that reached just above her knees. Her legs and feet were bare as if the cold didn't bother her.

She was hauntingly beautiful~

Darach Looked towards Connor only to find him already staring at him. 

This was messed up.

The small girl looked towards them and whispered a single word that raised the hairs on the back of their necks.

'Follow~'

And that's how both of them walked into a snowstorm. Their mind screamed for them to stop but their legs walked on their own. The snow was making them blind. Any amount of skin that was exposed to the snow was now cracked open as if sliced with a sharp blade. 

After almost what felt like years of walking through the snow both brothers were thrown on a land lush with green grass. The air was no longer chilly, snow no longer bites their skin off. The sun was shining but they didn't have the power to explore their surroundings.

Darach looked toward his brother only to find a piece of wood stabbed in his spinal cord, a fatal injury. Connor was unconscious and covered in his own blood. 

Darach tried to move to help him but his body was numb. He looked around for the little girl who had taken them here but found nothing. It was like she disappeared in the thin air.

His inner Lycan was restless, pacing in the cage of his mind, desperate to be set free. 

But now it was too dangerous to set him free because on this new place he needed to explore his surroundings and if he lost the hold on his Lycan, he will see any newcomer as a threat and will kill him before the newcomer would have a chance of introducing himself. 

For the first time in his life Darach was on others' mercy. He didn't know how long he laid there helpless until a demon appeared in front of him. 

From the black horns and flame-like eyes, he was definitely a Rage Demon. They are known for the most violent and least peaceful type of demons.

Only Darach's intro of being the Lycan King had him fleeing. Darach was left alone again. His vision was turning blurry from keeping a hold on his Lycan form. His instinct was yelling at him to set it free. 

It was the second time that Darach was losing control over his inner beast. The beast hasn't reacted like this since he knew of his mate's death. Hell! Darach didn't even remember when was the last time he had so much difficulty in controlling the beast. 

Suddenly the breeze carried a different scent. 

The scent of A Female Lycan. . .

It was faint but it was still there as if covered or masked by other scents. It was difficult to pinpoint that from where it was coming but it was there.....

When Darach inhaled deeply his inner beast felt at peace or as if he had inhaled a drug. The scent was faint but it had the effect on his beast as if he had inhaled tons of drugs. . .

Darach's lycan never felt this much peace and control in his long existence. 

The scent was the last thing that he remembered before the darkness embraced him. . .