Millennia by Raven Slake (free books to read .txt) 📕

to trick him into doing something, and he was always right. Never have I been able to con him in any type of situation.

“If I am going to fight alongside you, I am going to need your name,” I told the woman. Knowing that I could dig through her mind, I still asked her. It seemed more polite even though we were about to fight a whole pack of rogue monsters in about five minutes and thirty-four seconds. Doesn’t hurt to be nice.

“Portia Lenei, and trust me when I say I knew they were coming for me. This pack has been targeting the original doctors that created the virus and the cure,” she reported. Cure? If there was a cure, maybe then I could those who did not want the virus inside of them or in their family. It would save a lot of people from becoming rogue monsters like I did on the occasion. 

“There’s a cure?” I asked. Portia nodded in somber agreement. “What would happen if I became cured?”

“You would return to your human state but there are remnants of the virus. Although they will decline, you instincts, senses, and movement will still be enhanced. That should be a no-brainer. Why’d you ask?” I looked Portia directly in the eye. If only she knew about me.

“My situation is a little tricky,” I responded gravely. “I will explain if and when we get out of here. First, there is someone I want to kill.” She nodded and the three of us faced the door, waiting for the pack to burst through. They never did. My instincts were going acting up at a peculiar level. Hamilton’s pack was trying a tactic that I have seen and used before. Commonly it worked on those who do not suspect an attacker to come from behind them, but I knew where Hamilton was located.

Rotating at a one hundred and eighty degree angle, Hamilton crashed into me. A few bones snapped under his weight but they healed almost instantaneously. So there was a good characteristic about the mutagen. He had made the mistake of turning me into a freak, and that was going to obliterate everything that he has ever known, including his pathetic life.

Another lycan leaped out of the corner, lunging after Portia, who had shifted spontaneously. That left Kaire as the only non-fighting creature in the room, and the design flaw of this tactic was that only two of your own were used to take down your enemy. Making this very risky for both sides of the battle. Winning was the only option, losing meant death. If I did not defeat Hamilton while he was using a very perilous method of fighting, then there would a slight problem. My friends would turn around and attempt to wipe out his pack. Win or lose, there would be multiple casualties on both teams, no matter what happened. Humans were fragile and mortal, just like wolves. Majority of the deaths would be on my side, my wolf friends and my human allies. Infection was probable for the humans, but I would lose the wolves too easily. 

Bone met bone as I elbowed Hamilton in the lower jaw, snapping it clean in half. It was immediately followed by a back kick into his lower abdomen. For him, it would take a minute to heal. That gave me time to help Portia get the monster off her. Once more, I bought some time by breaking bones. This time, I kicked the lycan in the ribs with my knee, cracking several of said bones, which was followed by a swift uppercut to the throat. Now, that would take quite some time to get over.

Yelping echoed off the walls as Kaire was taken down. Somehow, Hamilton had managed to heal more rapidly than I had expected, faster than I had even hoped for. Danger was upon us as I went after the fiend that was assaulting my brother. If he harmed Kaire more than I desired, then Hamilton was in for a whole new world of pain and suffering. Nobody gets to hurt Kaire except for me, his sister.

Springing in Hamilton’s general direction, I felt blood seep into my jaws as I latched onto him. I had shifted into my wolf form now, and I was even more lethal than I had been before. Kaire’s injuries were unknown and that alone was driving me to insanity. Lunacy has been known in human history to have gotten hundreds of regular, average human beings murdered within days at a time. Looking at me situation, I knew this was not going to end well. Allies always died, and there was a chance that it was going to be Kaire or me. Nevertheless, there was a second lycan to deal with. With any luck, Portia will have wiped it out by the time I will be finished with Hamilton. That was being optimistic. She was inexperienced but there was a decent probability that Portia can handle a situation such as this one. Only fate will decide the events that will occur.

Back into our human forms, the two of us circled for a solid minute before either said a word.

“We can still do this Millennia. Nobody needs to get hurt, just come with me.” Sullivan was one hundred percent correct when she said Hamilton had a crush on me. The tone of his voice was mentally disturbing.

“Take a hint, I really did not want this. I was forced to leave my friends and put my only family member in danger because you decided that no wolf was allowed to know your first name. As if we know how to speak to humans, and they do not even understand a word we say. Me, knowing your name would not have hurt anyone. Problems like there would never have happened if you didn’t have to so discreet,” I snapped. Out of breath, I waited for a reply. Hamilton appeared hurt, but not quite over me.

“Only one thing stands in the way of you and me. I really wish I did not have to do this, but you leave me no choice,” he muttered. Even Portia paused what she was doing to attempt to stop Hamilton. I saw it coming, why didn’t I avoid the situation by doing the right thing?

I saw it before my mind actually processed it. Pure white teeth sinking into the soft flesh with crimson red blood trickling out of the fresh wound. The grey white color of a young wolf’s fur became stained with the scarlet fluid that pumped out of his own heart. No matter how hard he fought, there was no way out. The damage was done, and his attacker had a iron grip on his shoulder, so close to his beating heart. There was only a string to hang onto as he fought for his life. Moments flashed by, and still he never gave into the attacking monster. The toxin from the virus was the only thing slowing him down from escaping. It was so slow that he could feel it burn with each beat of his weakening heart.

Hamilton was killing Kaire leisurely.

My vision quickly turned red as blood as I gazed at my brother weaken from blood loss. Racing towards Hamilton, I knocked him over by tackling him with all my force. The strength of the collision took us both to the ground. Stone flooring cracked and broke as our weight hit ground level simultaneously. Hamilton was still and flummoxed, his entire body quivering. Part of his shoulder had dislocated and must have shifted his spine, a shot that had the potential of killing him. Normally, I would have allowed for Hamilton to regain his surroundings and it would a fair fight. On the other hand, he just tried to murder Kaire. Getting off the hook was impossible in these circumstances, even if my brother survived. No defrayal or anything that allowed for Hamilton to stay alive for another minute.

“Get up!” I ordered although I knew that he was just a little too dazed to understand my command. It has never stopped me before.

Spiraling around, I fan kicked him in the gut and then delivered a blow to the chest. Repeatedly, I spun and kicked him, but each time I did, I went for fatal shots. Every kick pushed him backwards, farther and farther, until he finally reached the wall. There was one last concluding shot to the neck, hard enough to irrevocably crush several vertebrae along his spine. Sever the spinal column, you kill the beast. Game over, the war is won. If only life worked like that.

A small whimper bounced inside my head as I rotated to see Kaire on his feet. He took two shaky steps and then collapsed onto the stone surface of the floor. I scooped him onto my lap and looked down at him, his golden yellow eyes still holding onto a glimmer of life. With each passing second, I could see his beautiful irises transition into a hollow dead white color. Momentarily, I thought that time would stop and rewind back to when we were still puppies, playing with one another and pouncing on friends. We were happy back then, and alive. Nothing to worry about except for our next location. Hunters and diseases never traveled through our hyper minds. Even as I held my own brother I never thought that I would watch him die. He had always been there for me when I needed him. About a year ago, I tried to climb a tree and succeeded all the way up to a branch. When it snapped, Kaire caught me and he fractured part of his leg by doing so. After Trigger’s death, I needed someone to talk to while the new alpha was chosen. Guilt and grief were consuming then, because I had caused our alpha’s death and everyday Kaire reminded me that things happened for a specific reason. Sometimes, we needed to buck up and deal with it. Breathe deeply and be thankful for what you have. Never regret a single thing in your life because that alone will waste more than half of it. As people leave, you do not need to say goodbye to them. All you have to say in place of a farewell are three simple words, I love you.

“I love you, Kaire,” I whispered, praying that he would not die and that he would hold on until the very last second.

“I love you too, Millennia.” After he said those words back to me, he reached his furry head up and licked my cheek. In my old world, when I was a wolf, that meant he was kissing me. It was how wolves greet one another. My pack has also used it to say goodbye to those who are about to be lost.

Kaire’s eyes were a dark grey now, fading as he slipped away from me. Shortly later, his eyes began to flutter and droop until they closed. His large wolf head fell limply onto my left forearm.

“No, Kaire. Wake up. Please, wake up. You can’t be dead, Kaire. Why aren’t you waking up? Kaire?” I soon realized what had happened. Years of fighting and he finally succumbs to a plague that I survived not that long ago. The toughest creature that I knew had died in my arms. My own brother. I was the only one left of our family.

Not wanting to let go, I hugged his limp corpse one final time. Tears flooded my eyes as I wept for the loss of my brother. I continued to cry until my puffy red face could not cry anymore. My face had slid across his wound, thus covering my cheek in blood. The now drying blood felt coagulated, ensuring that Kaire was actually dead. At least he did not die alone like most of our friends had.

Portia’s hand fell onto my shoulder and I looked up, gazing at her. She barely knew him and