The Lycan King and his Dark Temptation novel Chapter 342

NARRATOR

Falling from above and wrapped in strong masculine arms, the sturdy lycan shifted into a curvy, beautiful woman, much smaller now.

Her mate curled around her like a protective mantle.

The ground was racing up to meet them, so both lycans primed their bodies and every instinct of superior beasts.

BAAAM!

The powerful muscles in their hind legs detonated as they landed on their feet, throwing dirt and debris everywhere.

Even so, they tumbled with the momentum, scraping their coats and hearing bones creak.

Beof had it worse because his priority was shielding his companion, but Theron steadied quickly.

When he got upright and moved toward the corner where he saw his brother-in-law’s shadow, a warning boomed in his mind.

“Wait, she’s naked,” he heard Beof say, shifting to block Mara.

Theron almost growled in irritation.

He still didn’t get that obsessive streak of possessiveness.

Amara was his sister; he’d seen her naked countless times before she mated with Beof.

His father acted the same way with Katherine once they were grown, though obviously Theron had been his pup.

Maybe Theron simply didn’t understand that absurd instinct of lycan males because he hadn’t found his destined mate yet.

It wasn’t something he felt any rush about…

“Amara, are you okay? What happened?” he finally asked, stepping back to give them privacy.

At the same time, he scanned the pitch-dark cavern where they’d landed.

“Yes, brother, just… it was too weird. The ground split open all at once, like something exploded from inside, and it swallowed me. Roots wrapped around my ankles and wouldn’t let go.”

She answered while checking the pouch Beof always wore at his hips when they shifted and went running at night.

“You shouldn’t have gone hunting in that area. We still don’t know much about how those portals formed that swallowed the others,” Theron scolded them.

He knew full well his sister would let that go in one ear and out the other.

And Beof… that rough giant did whatever the troublemaker Amara wanted.

“Well, not all of us are as proper as the next Regent.” Mara huffed.

Theron could practically see her tongue out and eyes rolled.

He huffed back, listening as she spoke to Beof while he checked her anxiously for injuries.

“I’m going to scout ahead a bit. I won’t go far, stay sharp.”

But what seized Theron’s attention wasn’t the old tree. It was the animal collapsed in front of the trunk.

Golden fur was matted with red from its wounds; it looked like it had fallen by accident through the wide hole letting in the light.

Theron didn’t know if it was alive or dead.

He rushed over, setting caution aside; something in his soul urged him on.

He crouched to check if it was still breathing, heart pounding in his chest.

A soft, barely there breeze brushed his fingertip when he held it under the muzzle.

The faint rise and fall of the animal’s chest eased him.

A female… she was a female…

“A… a lioness?” Theron frowned, and in that instant she opened her eyes.

Animal pupils, intense and feral, locked on him for a couple of seconds before she passed out again.

That was enough for Theron; he had to save this magnificent lioness, no matter what it took.

Why? He couldn’t say for sure, but his wolf told him she mattered.

And his instincts… they never failed him.