CHAPTER 45: THE LYCANN FAMILY

The heavy wooden door creaked open to reveal a vast banquet hall. The first person to catch my attention was the man sitting at the head of the table. He looked about the same age as my father. He had long white hair that cascaded down his back and a handsome face.

He had hazel-colored eyes just like my mother. He wore a simple wool robe. But by far the most striking feature about him was his height. He stood at around seven feet tall, but he had no muscle mass to show for it. He was skinny in comparison to his height.

Beside him was a woman with beautiful auburn hair. She crossed her legs gracefully as she sipped from a silver chalice that smelled of ale. A hint of annoyance flashed across her face when she saw us at the entrance. Kaelen was sitting to the right of her. From the look on his face, I could tell he was in a sour mood. Beside her were two girls about my age; they looked like twins.

My cousins.

They all stared at us as we stood at the entrance. The first to speak was the tall man with long hair.

"Lisa, you finally came."

My mother’s face softened into a kind smile as she saw the man.

"Roran, my brother, it’s good to see you."

"Indeed, there are some things we need to talk about." His eyes had a sharpness to them as he spoke.

My mother’s smile slowly faded.

"I’m sure you’ve heard about the incident that occurred yesterday." she said.

"Yes, my son told me how your sons attacked him and injured his friends," Roran said coldly, before his eyes shifted to me. "Is it this one?"

"No!" Kaelen snickered. "That one watched like a coward while his sister fought his battle for him."

"You—"

Derrick was going to say something, but my mother silenced him with just a wave of her hand. Personally, I didn’t care for his insults.

"I heard a different story from my sons, but that’s not the matter at hand. What matters now is me rejoining the pack with my family." My mother sad.

"Not important, you say. I’m not sure if I’m willing to welcome your family. From what I just heard, one of your sons sounds like a coward while the other is no better than a savage. Tell me, why should we accept them?"

"Because you agreed to let them take part in the ritual. The ritual is what will prove their usefulness, not hearsay."

Roran stared at her coldly, his chin resting on his fist.

"Why should we let you back into our pack after the actions of your children?" The woman with auburn hair suddenly said with an irritated expression, but she was silenced just from Roran waving his hand.

"Eira, dear, let me handle this," Roran said before turning his attention back to my mother.

"Fine, I’ll allow them to take the ritual," he finally said, and the moment he said that, I saw my mother sigh in relief.

Roran then stared intensely at us who were going to take the ritual, whatever it was. "I’ll assume you’ll need me to explain it. The ritual is simple: the four of you will go on a hunt. You will go into the forest, and you will hunt a beast with a golden marking on its body. Doesn’t matter what kind of animal you find, as long as it has this golden marking."

"Golden marking?" Derrick muttered with raised eyebrows. "That’s all?"

"Yes, as long as you can successfully catch and kill one of these creatures, then you’ll be welcomed into our pack."

Derrick grinned confidently. Hunting a wild animal? It sounded easy, but something told me things were not as they seemed. What was so special about the animals with the golden marking on them?

With an explanation of the ritual we would be doing, Allison, Liora, Derrick, and I left the village in search of prey to hunt.

"Liam, we’re going to need your sense of smell if we’re going to track down prey," Derrick quickly said. He seemed excited by the idea of hunting.

"Let’s go, Liam." Before I could respond to Derrick, Allison locked arms with me. "You’ll protect your big sis while we’re in this big scary forest, right?" She stared up at me with round eyes while puffing out her cheeks.

I nodded along and focused on my sense of smell. Immediately, I picked up the scent of what smelled like a deer not too far from where we were. I led the others to it, and the moment we caught sight of it, Derrick prepared himself to attack. He approached the deer with stealth and precision while I was more focused on whether the deer had the golden marking or not.

As far as I could see, it didn’t, but before I could tell that to Derrick, he already had the deer in his grasp. He grabbed the deer and ripped out its throat in one thrust.

"Easy as that," he smirked.

"Idiot! It doesn’t have the marking on it," Liora shouted before I could say a word.

Derrick looked down at the deer, and his smile faded a bit.

"Instead of going around killing every life form in the forest, we should at least check to make sure that they are what we’re looking for," Liora scolded.

"Maybe we should split up," Isabella suddenly suggested. "I also have a good sense of smell, so it will be easy if we split up."

"I’ll go with Liam," Allison was the first to speak up. "Derrick, Liora, the two of you should go with Isabella."

No one seemed to have an objection to that plan, so we all agreed, and we split up. I couldn’t say I was happy with this arrangement, as Allison wouldn’t let go of my arm. The others left and I used my sense of smell to guide us to where I smelled prey.

"Tell me something, Liam. What were you and Mom and Dad arguing about last night?" she suddenly asked.

So this is the reason she wanted to be alone with me.

"Who said we were arguing?" I asked.

"You let some of your killing intent out last night when you came back to the room. I’m not blaming you. I know how hard it is for you to control."

"You don’t know anything."

"Was it about why you’re so different from other werewolves?"

"..."

"That must be it. That’s the only thing that can get you so riled up." Her expression suddenly got serious as she tightened her grip on my arm. "You’re not planning on doing anything stupid, are you?"

"..."

"I would never forgive you if..."

"If what?!"

I stared into Allison’s eyes, and I saw her lips slowly quivering. Her breathing increased too, and so did her heartbeat.

"Please. Whatever it is you want, I’ll help you."

"Help me how?"

"I-I"

ROOAAR!!!!

Just as Allison was about to answer, we were interrupted by a loud primal roar that shook the very foundation of the forest.