Claimed by the Mad Lycan King

Sixty-nine days...

One hundred and ninety-two days...

Four hundred and eighty-eight days...

One thousand and thirty-four days...

And Seara lost count.

She stopped counting since she didn’t think her count was accurate anymore. There was a time when she thought she slept for two days straight.

Furthermore, there was a time when it was raining, and she couldn’t see the light. She was not sure whether it was morning or night, as her cell was flooded with water, and she couldn’t even lie down to sleep.

And now, everything was meaningless for Seara.

The small cell at the outskirts of the pack territory was the only world that she had ever known since they threw her inside.

The cell only had a single bed and a small room with running water. At least she wouldn’t die from dehydration.

And when Seara couldn’t count how many days had passed because the weather was terrible, she would count them by how many times food was delivered to her cell.

They would feed her once a day, giving her enough to survive. They called it kindness because they didn’t want to be called murderers...

The day Seara lost track of how many days she had been here was also the day her memories began to distort.

At some times, she forgot why she was there; other times, she felt so angry that she pulled her hair and screamed for hours. But there was also a time when she didn’t even remember her name, since no one called her anymore.

It was quiet. The small window was out of her reach; she couldn’t see the world outside, and now, this cell was her world.

Seara lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling as the sound of the rain and thunder echoed outside. The harsh wind rattled the trees, and the floor of her cell started flooding again.

But this time, Seara didn’t move from where she was lying down; she let her hair and body get wet. She felt nothing. She was only a hollow version of herself.

”Get up; you will get wet if you are lying down there,” Sybill said. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at her with a pitiful look in her hazel eyes. Her long, curly, auburn hair was tied on top of her head.

However, Seara ignored her. She kept staring into the distance.

Sybill was trapped here too. Seara started seeing her on the two hundred sixty-second day she was here. She was the only person Seara talked to, the only resemblance of a friend that she had.

Or she could only be in her mind...

”You will get soaking wet if you stay on the floor. Get up. You don’t have enough clothes.” Sybill looked at Seara with a frown.

Seara didn’t own anything here. The only clothes she had were three dresses that someone gave to her before she was locked away in the cell. She couldn’t even remember who that person was.

”Hey!”

Seara finally moved her body and lay down on the bed in wet clothes. She hoped the storm would come and wash her away.

***

Zade shifted once he was out of human settlements. As a Lycan, his beast was massive, but he moved through the dark of the night and trees with ease.

He felt something. A strong pull that he couldn’t describe.

This feeling was not something new; he had felt it for almost three years now, and he couldn’t put into words what was going on with him.

Something stirred his mind and emotions, and it made him grow even colder to the people around him.

Currently, he was on a business trip to a small nearby town with his beta and gamma. He didn’t need to come personally, but for some inexplicable reason, he had the urge to leave.

And now, this strong urge compelled him to jump out of his car in the middle of the rain to enter the forest that he had never set foot in, and he rushed in without any direction.

It was not him at all. He had never made a move without a plan or out of impulse. As the Lycan king, he couldn’t decide based on an impulsive moment.

Yet, here he was...

His beast halted for a while when he felt he was going to enter werewolf territory. It would be a breach of peace between the Lycan and the werewolf if he forced his way in.

However, he couldn’t stop.

There was something in this territory that he wanted. There was something in this territory that could answer the weird yearning that he had had for the last three years.

It didn’t make sense.

He had never felt this way before.

[Zade, stop! You are going to enter the Blackthorne Pack territory!] Ace warned him as he managed to track him down in the forest, in the rain, which was an amazing feat.

But then, he was the royal Lycan beta for a reason.

[Zade, you can’t enter the werewolf territory without permission.] The warning was clear; Ace couldn’t understand why Zade acted so strangely.

The massive beast of the Lycan king stopped for a second before rushing into the werewolf territory, alerting the warriors at the border.

And soon enough, there were four warriors following him, trying to take him down.

Meanwhile, Ace, who was in his beast form as well, tried to run faster. This could be a disaster if he let Zade be.

Unfortunately, the beta was late. When he arrived at the scene, he saw four dead bodies lying on the ground, and they were bleeding profusely, yet Zade was nowhere to be found.

Oh, shit.

The dead warriors would alert the pack alpha. Ace tried to remember who the Alpha was of the Blackthorne Pack, since this pack was rather small, and they had never had any business relations.

But first things first, he needed to find Zade without delay.