My Most Precious Human

The world around me was spinning, and I could hardly walk by myself. I might have been more exhausted mentally than physically. The pain in my chest was dredged up by the guilt of my first kill. I knew I could rationalize what I did, and I knew that Derek deserved to die, but that didn't change how I felt about it deep in my heart. I kept staring at my hands, dirty with blood, and at the knife, which I held tightly. lan wrapped my arm around his shoulder and walked with me, supporting me at each step. I noticed that the majority of my wounds had mostly regenerated already, but the deep cuts on lan's neck and chest were still far from healed.

"Are you ok?" I asked softly.

"I've been through worse." He gave me a wry grin. "It's you that I'm worried about. You look like a bloody mess. You won't die on me, will you?"

"It's not my blood, mostly," I sighed, then my lips curved into a faint grimace. "My body is going to be fine. It is my mind that is missing a piece..."

"You'd better fix that quickly. Our groups might have taken control of the area, but that doesn't mean we are safe," he advised, scanning my face.

"I'll get there," I promised, forcing myself to smile. "Speaking of getting there... Where are we going?" I looked around and saw that we were past the audience hall, heading to the stairs.

"The duel is going to take place outside on the grounds behind the mansion," he explained.

"That went fast..." I muttered under my breath.

I started wondering how long I had been occupied with Derek, for everyone else to secure the place, and move from the audience hall outside. My guilt began to shift towards not helping my group in the fight and taking care of my private clash instead. I hadn't been exactly given a choice, but still...

"I should have been there with the rest of the group..." I said with a heavy sigh. "I should have-"

"Bull shit, Lilith!" lan snapped. "I met this red-haired fucker before you fought. First of all, you did the world a favor by killing him. Second, I'm not sure if anyone from our group could have taken him down the way you did. Believe me, the rest had it easier without him joining the fight."

I smiled feebly, thankful for what he said. I felt better thinking that maybe I had contributed to taking over the place after all. With the new wave of air in my lungs, I began to recover emotionally and realized how weak and naïve I had been choosing to participate in this war. My idealistic thinking produced a perfect image where no one dies, and defeated ones could get up the next day and choose to live differently. Oh, my dearest stupidity... The freezing cold shower I had just received, put a new filter on the world I lived in; a dirty-grey one.

As soon as lan and I reached the stairs leading towards the main exit of the mansion, I saw many of our warriors nodding and smiling at me, as if I had achieved something big. I didn't think that I had done anything to be especially proud of. I quickly found out that news about me killing Derek had traveled across our groups at the speed of light.

"Well done, Lilith!" One of the warriors chuckled, "We haven't even attacked the Southern Woods yet, but you have already killed one of their best fighters!"

I held an awkward smile on my face, nonetheless, coping with the killing part slightly better. As we got out of the building, I saw close to a hundred Scarlet Valley warriors tied up and guarded by the Moon Hill Pack members. All six groups had completed their missions and were gathering at the grounds to witness the last resort the Scarlet Valley Pack had: the alphas duel.

It was an old werewolf's law. An alpha could always protect the pack by fighting against another pack's leader. A pack with a strong leader could always be safe, but without a powerful alpha, the pack could only count on its own strength. Once the alpha lost, the pack was entirely defeated, and at that moment, all the Scarlet Valley Pack's hope was in Alpha Marcus, a vicious, bloodthirsty tyrant.

When we walked outside the mansion, I let go of lan's support. My feet became more stable, and my wounds disappeared underneath the ripped black once-fitted T-shirt and pants leg. Still, I was sticky from the blood, Derek's and mine, and couldn't wait to get it off of me. Not only did it smell awful, but it made me look like I got lost at the back of the butcher shop.

As we entered the grounds at the back of the mansion, I saw a huge crowd standing in a circle, creating an arena for the alphas fight. I thought of standing somewhere at the back, mostly because others didn't seem to have a single strand of their hair dirty while I personalized Bloody Mary, a literal version of her. However, lan had another plan, and, before I knew it, he was holding my hand and squeezing us through the crowd. Surprisingly, people started making way for us to get to the front. As we walked to the inner rim of the arena, Draven was there to block my way, gently grabbing me by the shoulders.

"Lilith..." he breathed anxiously, his gaze examining every inch of my body.

"I'm fine." I managed a faint smile.

"She killed Derek," Ian explained, standing next to Draven.

I was surprised that he knew that name. Was Derek that "famous" among the wolves? Draven's eyes darkened.

"I should have killed him, back in the Palace," he hissed. "I guess he didn't understand the warning I gave him."

"It doesn't matter now. He is gone, and I am all right." It was an obvious lie, but I didn't want to give Draven my burden to carry, not when he had a crucial fight coming up.

Draven stared at me worryingly. His fingers roamed down from my shoulders, gently stroking my freshly healed arm, my shoulder, my stomach.

"Seriously, Draven. I'm fi-"

He hugged me tightly, pressing me against his chest, then he placed a kiss on top of my head.

"Stay here and watch me win." His soft but commanding voice sent a pleasant chill across my body.

A shy smile popped on my face as he let me go and stepped to the center of the grounds without taking his eyes off of me. I observed his domineering posture while he took a stroll around the created arena, eyeing the opposite side of the circle where the Scarlet Valley's representatives stood. Soon, Alpha Marcus appeared, surrounded by his pack's loud fighting chants.

The Alpha of the Scarlet Valley Pack was a tall, bulky, dark-brown-haired man with blue eyes, which shimmered coldly against his tanned complexion. I scanned his shape, evaluating his strength, and quickly registered that his broader than Draven's shoulders and overgrown muscles could make him a dangerous opponent. When I saw someone from Marcus's pack waving his hand to start the fight, I took a deep breath.

Draven turned into his black wolf in less than two seconds. Surprisingly, Marcus's grey-brown beast didn't seem half as frightening as Draven's. Both wolves roared, making the ground beneath everyone's feet shake. I gasped, stumbling on my feet. I didn't fall only thanks to lan, who grabbed my hand.

"Be careful," he snorted, "and relax... It won't take long."

I glanced at lan suspiciously. I wished I could be as calm and confident as he was, but I guessed he knew his Alpha and his abilities way better than I did. I exhaled, trying to slow down my insane heart rate, but I couldn't help that I had already overdosed on adrenaline while fighting Derek; watching Draven and being nervous for him, was a little too much to take in one day.

Draven lurched forward, throwing his front legs and cutting Marcus's neck with his insanely sharp claws. The brown-grey beast howled while heavily bleeding. The brown wolf's jaws were desperately snapping the air, trying to sink its teeth into Draven's wolf's flesh, but the black beast was faster, stronger, and more agile. After a minute of swinging its black claws around, Marcus's brown-grey fur became the reddest of red. With severe blood loss, Marcus's rage increased, but his beast's attacks were far less than precise. The black wolf played with him, prolonging the torment while his pack became silent. Finally, Draven's wolf pushed up onto its back legs and sank his teeth into the nape of the brown-grey wolf's neck. Marcus's wolf let out a painful, horrifying moan, a sign of his surrender.

The black wolf pulled out his teeth and stepped back from the weakly breathing Marcus's wolf. Draven won, and killing Marcus wasn't necessary. Life-long imprisonment could serve as a good punishment for him as well. Someone ran to Draven's wolf and threw a piece of cloth for Draven to cover, but he just shifted back into his human form in front of everyone. Well, I guess being an exhibitionist was deep in his nature, although I doubt that any of the female observers around him minded. Fortunately, it didn't take long before he decided to hide his impressive nudity, which pretty much allowed me to breathe again. All the warriors from the Moon Hill Pack chanted and screamed in pride of Alpha Draven. I could see more than clearly that he deserved to become king. The way he walked made everyone bow, even though he was shirtless and barefoot. The drops of sweat delightfully wandered down his chest and perfect abdominals, making every she-wolf ready to spread their legs at quarter to three. He surely was a specimen worth admiring.

I clapped my hands, grinning, relieved that it was all over when Draven's eyes found mine. His intense stare made my mouth dry in an instant. With a wicked smirk on his face, he sped up his steps towards me. I swallowed, then opened my mouth to say something, to congratulate him, but he didn't let me... He blocked my lips with a madly passionate kiss.