36. The Lost Battle

"I happened."

Marley and Theo whipped their heads in the direction of the voice and found a tall, lean man crushing the neck of a knight, who only a moment ago was charging toward Marley. A second later the body of the dead knight was dangling from the man's hold, who without a second glance threw it away.

"Your hunches are always to the point Iosif," the man said looking past the humans.

"Living for a century makes you quite wise," a new thick voice followed, making the humans turn their heads again.

Another man, having small-trimmed unusual white hair, was leaning over Jared. He was crouching over the unconscious lycan and analyzing him with calculating eyes.

"Not dead yet." Iosif announced and without wasting a second he started displacing (or replacing) Jared's bone.

The loud snapping sounds echoed mixed with small whimperings of passed out Jared. "He'll be fine. Fortunately, this one didn't lose much blood," Iosif said, standing up after fixing the lycan.

Both the knights blatantly ignored humans, who were watching them in fear and shock.

"Isn't that Jared? Did he kill all these knights alone?" Questioned Kyle, looking around with disgust and confusion. It was then that Marley and Theo became aware of all the other dead bodies sprawled around them on the muddy ground, which they had failed to notice earlier.

The dead knights were covered in red liquid seeping out of their bodies. Their bones, limbs, and heads twisted at odd angles. The whole sight in front of them was horrific. Marley was sure that she'd be getting terrible nightmares of this whole massacre for the nights to come.

"It seems highly unlikely. He-" Iosif stopped midway when his eyes fell on Marley. A momentary confusion flashed through his eyes and before anyone could register he crossed the distance between himself and her, making Marley gasp at his unnatural speed.

Kyle's vision followed his mate and a small curse left his mouth. "Selene," he whispered, gaping at Marley unbelievingly.

Iosif's sharp eyes scrutinized Marley as he hovered above her. "No, alpha's human mate." He corrected Kyle and stepped away, giving Marley the much-needed space.

"She looks exactly like Selene."

Iosif nodded.

"Eden should've at least given us his mate's photo." Kyle huffed, still looking at her. "Could've saved us some surprise." He continued with a tone only audible to the other knight.

*Eden!* Marley's mind jerked on hearing Eden's name.

Iosif's lip twitched upward slightly. Now he understood Odis's motive behind abducting her. Odis wasn't a fool after all. That resilient lycan knew what he was doing.

"Who are you?" Finally Marley decided to break her silence. "How do you know Eden? Did he send you?" She asked with a glimmer of hope in her voice.

"Yes, he did."

"Marley!" Theo shouted, grasping everyone's attention. "They're fucking bloodsuckers. Do not trust them." He glared at Iosif.

Kyle in an instant reached beside Theo, making the latter stumble few steps back in shock. "Now, we don't have to get feisty. Do we?" He chuckled, placing his arm on Theo's shoulder. "We just saved your life. A little gratitude would be nice."

"Get away from me." Theo hissed, glaring at Kyle but the knight sensed the human's heightened nerves. Kyle knew Theo was shivering from fear on the inside, so he obliged and pulled his hand away.

Kyle wasn't interested in scaring feeble humans. Seeing their horror-struck faces, he made a guess that they had already been through enough for the night.

Marley tentatively paced few steps back from Iosif. Her mind was jumbled with thoughts about who to listen and trust.

A small groan from Jared broke the tension and everyone's attention was back on him. Theo, on hearing his friend's cry, immediately ran to him and crouched down beside the injured lycan.

"W-what are you doing here?" Jared murmured, looking at Theo in bafflement. He blinked his eyes few times to get rid of hazy vision. The lycan was slowly shifting into his human form.

Theo shook his head vehemently. "What are you doing here?!" He asked back, leaving Jared's question unanswered. He covered Jared's private part with his jacket. "You were supposed to fight with others. Were you planning to kill all these vampires alone?!"

"Don't yell." Jared moaned, wincing at Theo's loud tone and slowly started to pull himself up into the sitting position. "And I wasn't alone, Odis was with-" *Odis!* The flashbacks of their combat came rushing back to Jared, leaving him with horrible realization.

"Where's Odis?!" Jared looked around hysterically, finding only mutilated dead bodies of knights. "Find him." He commanded Iosif, who with a curt nod disappeared into the deeper part of woods.

Jared was well acquainted with Iosif and Kyle. After all, it was them who had warned Odis about Dimitri. But after months of working together, the knights and the lycans had parted their ways, not agreeing with each other's way of functioning.

Jared was undoubtedly shocked to see the mated knights almost after a year but he didn't dwell too much into it as his mind was more preoccupied with the whereabouts of Odis.

"Aren't you going to help your mate?" Jared asked Kyle, who was standing their aimlessly.

"I'm sure Iosif can manage it himself. I rather stay with my two new human besties and a disabled half shifter, in case any unwanted guest decides to show up." Kyle flashed his sharp, pearly white teeth.

"Can't say that I missed you." Jared groaned, already finding Kyle's sarcastic jovial attitude irritating.

"Aww... now you're just breaking my heart."

Marley and Theo studied the strange exchange between the lycan and the knight in complete silence, slightly reveling in the fact that at least for now they weren't about to die.

*******

A strong stench of blood hit Iosif's nose, making him increase his pace. The scent led him to another horrendous sight for the second time this night.

It was about half a mile away from where they had found Jared, Marley and Theo.

On the green shrubs of forest laid decapitated body of Odis, his head lying a foot apart from his neck. He was smeared with blood and obscene claw marks. The blood was still spurting out of his headless body. And around him laid several dead knights... maybe 20 or more.

Iosif stood there frozen not believing his eyes. Odis was dead. His brother had succeeded.

******

Marley, sitting on a large boulder, stared blankly at the sky. The day was dawning bright and sunny contrary to the gloomy atmosphere that was surrounding the mansion behind her. The lycans were inside, mourning the death of their leader.

On the other side of the house, the dark clouds were puffing out, where the bodies of the dead knights were being burned. Theo and Jared were inside with others, grieving for their martyred head lycan.

Lycans might have killed all knights, but their enemies had quashed them by robbing them of their last pureblood, Odis. They had lost this battle, very badly.

Marley didn't know what to make of Odis's death. Neither was she rejoicing in it nor grieving it. She felt nothing.

She was exhausted and just wanted to go home.

"I heard that werewolves are really good in bed. Is it true?" Kyle asked, stepping beside Marley. He hadn't left her side ever since they met in the forest.

"I don't know," She replied monotonously.

"What do you mean 'you don't know'? Don't tell me you haven't had sex with Eden yet." Kyle raised his brows in amusement when no reply came from Marley. "Woah! You two deserve some major applause for having such self-control. When I first met Iosif, fucking him was all that ever went on my mind."

"Kyle, you don't have to look after me. I really don't have the energy to try to escape again." Marley said, not bothering to reply to Kyle's monologue. "You should join others. Odis was your friend, you should go and pay your respects." She had noted that how Kyle seemed to be swarming around her and his intentions for doing that weren't so difficult to guess.

Kyle smiled, perhaps genuinely for the first time since he got here. "I know you're not going to run away. I'm just looking out for you. A human girl among lycans, who were once rogues, is not safe. Odis isn't here anymore to keep these dogs on leash. I don't want to face your angry alpha, if something happened to his beloved mate. Besides, I'm not missing out on anything. Odis and I weren't that close, he was more of a Iosif's friend. I never even liked the guy, too proud for his own good." He shook his head.

"Did Eden really send you?" Marley asked. She looked into his hazel eyes, hoping to find an honest answer.

"Yes... but he also sent two wolves to tail us. However, we managed to flee from them." He saw Marley frowning. "Don't give me that look. You too wouldn't want your unprepared friends to follow us into the fight that was going on here." He smirked. "I bet your mate must be getting grouchy."

Marley sighed and turned her head back to the orange-yellow sky. Kyle too decided to not say anything more, choosing to silently watch the sunrise beside her. Few minutes passed just like that, them listening to the morning chirping of birds.

"Is her name Selene?" Marley spoke again. "Dimitri's mate, the girl who I look alike?"

Kyle nodded. "That bitch is better dead."

"Funny, Odis said the same thing. Was she that bad?"

"You have no idea." Once again the silence fell between them.

Their moment of serenity was shattered when a loud howl reverberated from the long, lush woods in front of them, sending a wave of shiver through Marley.

She needed no time to recognize that sound.

More alike howls followed in unison, raising her heartbeat in anticipation.

Kyle turned to Marley with a small smirk. "Looks like your mate just decided to join us."

******