Wolf Omega: The Lykanos Chronicles 2

Chapter Twenty-Five

Gabriella!

Pompeia's telepathic voice called to me through the black night of the new moon. I stopped running through the forest, distracted from the sights and sounds I followed.

Unfocused and no longer hunting for other prey to slaughter, my body returned to its lycan form in seconds, and I stood naked and confused among the trees.

"Pompeia!" I called out, at once startled by it all.

In minutes, she closed on my position in the forest and approached me. Even under the dim starlight, I saw her astonished horror at finding me naked and covered in blood. The sight of her unmasked emotions drew a self-conscious plea when I remembered all my actions, free of the wolf's singular focus.

It was all present in my mind, everything I'd done: my running from Pompeia's command; my destruction of the inn; my slaughter of that murderous rapist; the delicious taste of his blood.

"Help me," I whispered in the silence between us.

Pompeia unfastened her woolen cape and drew it to cover my body. She placed her arms around me as I shook, and the soothing sensation of being cared for in this simple manner became too much to resist. I wept in her arms until I could breathe again.

She guided me back to the country road where Maximo waited outside the carriage with the driver.

"Take us home," Pompeia commanded as she whisked me inside the carriage.

Maximo stared silently in the darkness as we rode, no doubt wanting to know what had set me off to such destruction, but Pompeia offered him nothing. Not another word was spoken, not even when we arrived back at the castle.

She led me silently to my room and drew a warm bath for me. Pompeia gently wiped the blood from me like my mother might clean my body of soil after a romp in the mud. Even as she dressed me, I remained quietly exhausted, still absorbed by the violence I'd committed.

When I was presentable, Pompeia brought me to Duccio's office.

We found Maximo departing—Duccio and Ambrosius having finished their debrief of him. I waited outside the doors as Pompeia entered to speak with them first.

"Are you all right?" Maximo asked me when the door shut.

I didn't answer, the unexpected warmth in his eyes cutting me. Sensing my distress, he drew his arms around me and kissed my cheek. Again, I wept like a child and took to the tender comfort of his kindness. He held me silently for much longer than he should have, and I did nothing to resist his console.

"It will be all right," he whispered, breaking away only when Pompeia re-emerged from Duccio's office.

"They will see you now," she said, leaving only when I'd turned to pass through the doors.

Duccio sat at his desk. Ambrosius stood by a bookshelf in the corner of the lavish study.

"I'm uncertain of how to proceed with you," Duccio admitted, his deep voice colored by indecision. "Do you want to explain your actions?"

I felt unable to answer his question and only stared back in silence.

"Why did you leave Pompeia's side?" Ambrosius asked with impatience.

"I heard someone in pain," I answered feebly.

"Who?" Duccio asked.

"I don't know—a woman. I heard her suffering, and I left Pompeia to find her. She was upstairs."

"On the third floor of the inn?" Duccio asked.

I nodded.

"You heard her?" Ambrosius scowled. "You heard her screaming from the top floor of the inn?"