Heart Of A Lycan King
Chapter 37

NATASHA.

Fear gripped tightly at my throat, wrapping its vicious claws around me so tightly that I could barely breathe. My heart was racing, my breaths coming in short bursts as I watched Aiden laying on the bed and flinching every now and again in pain.

“What is wrong with him?” I asked Mama, who stood by the bed and simply stared at him, her expression unreadable. She was trembling slightly, although I could tell that she was trying to stay strong. I bit my nails in agitation, waiting for her or the doctor Kane had arrived with to tell me anything. But neither of them looked ready to say anything. They all looked just as confused as I was, and I wanted to scream at someone for not telling me anything. I just wasn’t sure which one of them I was supposed to scream at.

“This isn’t something any of us can help with. Only he and Leo can get through this. No one can help,” Mama said quietly.

“So we’re going to leave him like that?” I asked in shock, the tears I had been holding back since yesterday threatening to spill in full force. I didn’t want to cry, because that was basically what I had been doing my whole life. I wanted to be strong, and I wanted to help in any way I possibly could. I just wanted him to wake up and tell me that everything was going to be fine, because right now it seemed like nothing was going to be fine.

“There’s nothing you, the doctor, or I here can do for him, Natasha. I am sorry,” Mama murmured, taking my hands in hers and lightly squeezing. “And I’m certain this might sound selfish, but I can’t stay here and watch him in pain. I never had the guts to do that over the years and I certainly lack the guts today as well.”

“This…this isn’t the first time?” I stuttered.

Mama slowly shakes her head with a sad and pained expression.

“But there has to be something we can do…”

“There’s nothing we can do,” she said again. “It is a burden he must carry alone, unfortunately. I wish I could bear this burden for him, but nothing we’ve tried ever worked. And now, we just have to let him be.”

“Why must he carry it alone?” I asked. “We should help in any way we can. This isn’t right…”

“Natasha, do you think a mother would want to see her son in pain?” Mama asked, pain dripping from her quiet voice. “You think it doesn’t kill me to see him like this every time? I’ve tried every single thing you can possibly think of, but none of them have worked.”

Before I could say something else, a loud, painful growl escaped his parted lips. I rushed back to his side, where I had been since he arrived home late yesterday night. This was the third time he was growling like this, and I didn’t like it one bit. His entire body went rigid as he growled, and he grabbed a fistful of the sheets as he gritted his teeth, a painful expression crossing his face.

I placed my hand on his arm before quickly pulling it away. It burned, as if his body was an open flame and I had placed my hand over it. How could anyone’s body be that hot?

I squeezed the cloth from the cold water set aside and placed it on his neck. He was still laying on his stomach, with his back turned up so the scar was visible for all to see. I stared at the burn. The place looked bright red, swollen overnight and looking even worse than it used to. I had never seen anything look this bad. It was red, dry, and pulled tight, like bacon which was beginning to char. Some parts bleed a bit from time to time.

“I…I can’t stay, Natasha,” Mama said as her hand flew to her mouth. But before she could turn away, I saw the tears. I was then left with only the doctor, who said he would be leaving as well, and Kane, who stood on the far side of the room and simply stared.

“You can go too. I’ll stay with him,” Kane said as he walked up to where I sat on the chair beside the bed and continued to press the cold cloth against his skin. “I have always been the one to stay with him until he finally wakes up,” he added.

“You want me to leave my mate in this condition and go?” I snapped, the uncertainty of what might happen to Aiden slowly eating at me. “Are you being serious right now?” I added.

“I was only trying to help. I have always been the one who stays with him when he’s this way. Neither the Grand King nor the Grand Queen can, so it’s always me, and sometimes, Lacie too. Nothing you do will help him, Your Majesty. It’s been this way for years. He’ll wake up in a day or two…”

“How can you all be so nonchalant about this?” I mumbled quietly, as the burn continued to bleed. The scar looked so fresh that one could easily have believed that he got it less than an hour ago, with the way it looked so raw and open.

“I’ll be outside if you need me then,” he bowed before he left the room as well. I was grateful for that, because I needed some time alone to process all of this.

It made no sense. How could they all say that nothing helped? Did that mean I would have to watch him in pain for days? That was certainly not something I could endure.

It was already the morning after, afternoon precisely since he had gotten home. I recalled how I had called Mama panicking, because I had no idea what was wrong with him. Kane was the first one I called before Mama, yet, despite their arrivals, now almost 16 hours later, he was still unconscious. Still in pain.

Erin stirred suddenly. I could sense a growing agitation in her, and a pain which hadn’t been there before.

‘Nat, my fur burns!’ she howled. ‘It’s like I’m feeling a part of his pain,’ she added.

I furrowed my brows in confusion. We weren’t marked yet, so it was impossible to feel his emotions. But why was Erin feeling it alone and not me?

‘How bad is it?’

‘Very bad,’ she howled again. ‘I’m shutting off the connection so you don’t feel it. Just take care of him.’ And then, she was gone.

I placed my face in my hands and let the tears fall. I shouldn’t be crying. I should be taking care of him. But what could I do when they all said nothing would help? His loud m***s filled my ears, and from time to time, I felt the bed shift as he battled against whatever demons were consuming his mind right now.

Miraculously though, the burn wasn’t bleeding anymore and was clean. How?

Then, the idea clicked. I could k**s his burn like he kissed mine a few weeks back.

I pulled my hands away, took his arm that was on my side and squeezed lightly, before I let my other hand wander into his hair. Then, ever so slowly, I brought his knuckles to my lips and kissed each one of them. His brows pulled in, and I watched the way his lips parted as a hiss escaped. He shivered from my touch, but the lines on his face became somewhat relaxed.

I may not be a lycan with a healing ability like him, but it didn’t mean that I couldn’t offer him the same relief the same way his touches did to me every time.

So, I climbed onto the bed, tucked my legs underneath as I sat on them before I stared at the burn for a moment. Then I bent down and placed a feather-like k**s on his shoulders.

He sighed, the sound sending all sorts of jolts through me. It broke my heart to see him like this, and I desperately wanted to help. If this was the only way I could, then so be it.

I sat back, looked at the burn once more and the way it covered his back completely right from his shoulders and down to the small of his back. Every inch of his skin was covered with the burn, and I was going to make it go away.

I bent again, and placed my lips over the burn.

AIDEN

Light drifted into darkness, and I could feel both of them in equal parts. I drifted in and out of consciousness, the contrast keeping my mind awake and distracted from the pain.

At some point, I lost it all and simply welcomed the endless expanse of darkness engulfing me. Other times, I heard faint voices calling to me, but I couldn’t make out who it was or what was being said. Sometimes, I felt something cool being pressed at the back of my neck. Other times, heat would flare up on my back and I would be crippled by the pain before it slowly drifted away as a cooling sensation spread all over my body.

Then again, I felt the cool thing pressed against my back again before it vanished as soon as I felt it. Before it returned. Every time it touched me, I m****d, embracing the peace it brought me and how much I craved for more of it.

Whatever that cool thing was, I wished they’d keep putting it there.

And then, I stopped hearing it all. Stopped feeling anything. It was as if the entire world had gone dark, and silence spread all around me.

I saw it start all over again. The scene unfolded like it did every time even if I had no explanation for why I always had dreams like this whenever my burn acted up. Although I wasn’t conscious, I could still differentiate a dream from my reality.

As always, it began in the cave. The cave was dimly lit from the light penetrating through the cracks on the cave’s wall. There were bones scattered around, and the cave carried the stench of b***d, so much so that it was choking me with every breath I took. The putrid odor was one thing, but the small insects scattered all through the cave were something else entirely.

But today, unlike most times where I could see a man holding a torch over my back and branding my skin with it, his face concealed so I couldn’t see it, I saw the Shadows instead. They danced to a tune that I had never heard before, swaying and slithering in the deep darkness. The tune seemed to wrap around my entire body, causing me to tremble slightly.

I gasped, then fell to my knees. I could feel the sheets of my skin sloughing off the body, the blackened chunks of flesh hitting the ground and continuing to smolder, b***d bubbling and steaming as it spilled out from my back. The smell of burning flesh filled my nose, and the crackling sound of my skin sizzling and b***d spilling filled my ears.

That, and the loud sound of the drum still beating.

Then I saw it. A grey wolf standing on its feet, fur charred and dry, and his golden eyes a combination of red and golden. He bowed his head, then pawed at the ground nervously before turning around. I recognised him immediately.

That was Leo.

I tried to go after him, but before I could even reach him, he melted into the shadows and vanished completely.

One after the other, the shadows began to disappear. I was utterly confused by what was going on. The Shadows never appeared when I was in pain. But here they were today, and I had no idea what they were doing except for the increasing pain on my back. At first, I had even assumed they were the shadows Nala and I had been seeing recently. But these were the regular shadows in the dark. But my dreams were always blank with the moon shining and no shadows whatsoever.

The scene vanished with the shadows, and I found myself standing before a large tree with an opening. It was a massive tree, the top of it stretching high up and disappearing in a fog which surrounded the scene. A strange, ethereal light seemed to dance around the tree, and a steady beating which seemed to call to me. There was something moving inside the tree, and a quiet voice which was trying to communicate with me in an ancient tongue which I had never known. The beating seemed to be coming from the earth itself, rising in a slow frenzy and stretching towards me.

“We should go inside,” Mav said.

Mav? How…?

“No, we won’t,” I heard myself say as I turned to face him.

“Fine. You’ve always been the scared one. Stay here while I go check what’s inside,” he said, pulling his hand from mine.

I was looking at the younger version of ourselves, and none of it made sense. I always had the same type of dream when the burn acted up. But this was weird, and it made no sense whatsoever.

“Don’t go…” I called as he reached the small tree opening.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back,” he replied.

But he never did. Mav never returned.

I opened my eyes only to shut it back due to the light directly threatening to blind me. Someone held my hand, and the pain on my back had vanished completely.

I let my eyes wander toward where I felt the warmth coming. Nala’s hair was the first I saw. I tried to move, but I didn’t want to wake her up. She seemed to be sleeping. My whole body was hurting and was stiff. I wanted nothing more but to move and lay on my back.

I knew the burning pain was gone, and it’ll take some months before it returns once again.

I didn’t like it. I never liked how vulnerable it made me feel every time I was in pain. Something changed this time around though, from the dream, to the person with me.

Kane had always been the one, but today, it was Nala.

‘Feels good to be back. This time around though, everything was strange,’ Leo said.

‘I saw you in the dream. I’ve never seen you in my dreams before,’ I told him.

‘I saw you too. Like I said, there were so many strange things this time,’ Leo replied.

I shifted a bit, and squeezed the hand she held mine with. Perhaps, it was the movement I made, or something else entirely, but she abruptly sat up, stared at me wide eyed before she smiled.

“You’re awake,” she simply said, looking at me as though she’d never seen me before.

I nodded, finally able to move. I sat up, stretched my hands and flexed them so the tension in my shoulders would lessen.

“Does it hurt?” she asked softly.

“Not anymore, Nala,” I replied, sitting in the middle of the bed.

“Oh, thank Goddess!” she cried, as she flung herself into my arms and wrapped hers tightly around me. “I was so scared,” she hiccuped.

Warm trails of tears hit my back, and now that the pain was gone, it felt too sensitive. But the most surprising part was having Nala willingly hug me. The downside of it all? She was crying.

“I was so scared I was going to lose you,” she gasped, sniffed, then tightened her arms around me more. “Thank you for coming back to me.”

This. Was. Real.

I brought my arms and wrapped them around her, pulling her tightly into my embrace as she nuzzled her face in the crook of my neck. I didn’t mind the tears, or the loud sniffs, or the fact that she was only wearing her sleeveless long silk nightgown. Her scent was maddening, and my body welcomed the feel of her in my arms. Her warmth was the only thing I needed right now, and I held her like my life depended on it. I pulled her towards me, making sure there wasn’t any space between us. Every part of my body craved her, and her presence was the one thing which kept the darkness at bay. I didn’t even want to think of the darkness, or the pain I had to endure.

All that mattered was she was in my arms.

All that mattered was that she cared.