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“There isn’t much known about this pack,” he said.

“Don’t get too excited,” I told him. “Much of what’s in there is speculation. But what’s interesting is that there’s something that points to there being powers among the pack. I’m not sure how true that is … if lycans can have other powers or even immortality …”

“They can,” said Sylvan, his eyes still glued on the book. “Not quite immortality, but a very, very long life. Maybe even centuries if they avoid danger.”

“Hmm,” I said, not sure what to make of that. “And powers?”

His eyes flicked to me briefly. “It’s been known to happen. Spontaneously.”

“Like a mutation?” I ask.

Something shifted in his gaze, as if the gears were spinning too quickly for him to comprehend what his own mind was trying to reveal. “Maybe.” He shut the book and hugged it to his chest. “Can I borrow this?”

“Sure, but⁠—”

He was already rushing for the door. “Sylvan, what the hells, we haven’t even⁠—”

“I have to go,” he said. Then he was out of my office and out of sight before I could even get to the door.

20

A FRACTURED LYCAN

SYLVAN

Like a mutation.

The words buzzed around in my mind as I rushed from Aura’s office. I needed to get some distance from her for more reasons than I cared to admit. My body was batting a confusing mix of panic, intrigue, and the lingering need from the moment our lips touched. I had an inkling that the feel of Aura’s body beneath me would last some time, and part of me didn’t mind. Her aroma still clung to my senses, and gods, what I would give to have those sounds come out of her perfect mouth again.

The way she’d moaned my name … The thought alone made my cock twitch. I took a deep breath and tried to redirect the blood flow to my brain.

To the actual important things. Like the fact that she’d mentioned powers among lycans may have been like a mutation.

For so long, I’d wondered why some of us received powers while others didn’t. In the past, packs believed they were blessings from gods that at least our pack no longer actively worshipped. In fact, I didn’t even know of any of the gods. I never had.

We relied on each other. We didn’t believe in anything deeper beyond the bond of pack members. Occasionally, the different packs gathered for the sake of finding mates. It was said there was something that heavily fell into place. Like a key fitting into a lock. A lycan just knew. It was said to be intense, nearly debilitating, something that could drive a lycan crazy if they couldn’t be with the key to their lock.

I wasn’t sure how true this was, given many mating bonds were political—to unite packs or for the chance at powers. But even powered pairings didn’t necessarily spawn a pup with anything out of the ordinary.

Aura’s mutation statement made perfect sense.

I slipped back into my room at the inn and plopped down on the bed. I flipped through the pages of the book, reading about the history of the Lucerin pack. The pack had once been one of the largest packs on the continent. Many of the pack members took to remaining in wolf form most of the time, which is one theory as to why Lobofebris so frequently affected that particular pack.

As all lycans knew, to be in tune with your wolf meant to be able to control it. A lycan unable to control themselves was a fractured one. Unable to control shifting. Unable to be present in their own minds when the wolf took over. That took practice and acceptance.

A fractured lycan was probably as dangerous as one infected with Lobofebris.

My chest clenched, and I closed the book. As someone who had primarily lived as a vampire, Aura likely didn’t know much about her lycan side. When I ran my tongue over the gland in her neck, it wasn’t just arousal that sparked in her, it was surprise. Like she had no idea that spot existed. But of course, she was too stubborn to answer my questions about what she knew.

Her lack of knowledge in who she was would explain how she showed up in Sublune Creek naked. I shouldn’t have cared. I was using her to gain access to the library, to better understand my own kind.

So then why, when I held a book in my hand with pages upon pages of potential answers, couldn’t I stop thinking about the damn vampire? Why couldn’t I stop thinking about the breathy sounds she made or the irresistible scent of her?

That bite scar on her leg made me want to rip whoever had marred her to shreds. She might’ve been a vampire, and she might’ve been impossibly selfish and haughty, but no one deserved to face something as terrible as Lobofebris alone.

I flopped onto my back and flung my arm across my eyes.

I was pretty sure that not only was Aura a hybrid with a degenerative disease and a strong vampiric bloodline, but she was a fragmented lycan as well. Should she lose control, she would be the most dangerous being the continent had ever seen. And I wasn’t sure if she even realized it.