Julian's POV
The long trip clearly exhausted her. During the car ride, she had learned her experience with dealing with transportations and drifted herself to sleep, making her vulnerable around me.
I placed her head on my lap—an affection foreign to me as I stared at her face. Looking closely, her skin was pale like the rest of the Slumber Hound humans. The lack of sunlight made her look paler than most humans I had encountered before the new era.
My hand touched her cheek—unconsciously—then my fingers trailed the softness of her skin.
Warmth.
That means she's still alive.
Her blood flowed within this body. During the Red Moon festival, I smelled her once—a pure and unadulterated scent that made my cock harden.
I wanted to know what she tasted like once I pierced my fangs on her neck.
But alas, I had been patient with her—answering her questions without scaring her off. Or at least I'd tried to.
Jakub, the one driving, stared at the rearview mirror and broke the silence quite reluctantly, "You seem soft on her, master."
"Am I?"
Another pause. "You don't need grand gestures like this. Getting on the public train, going to the stairs at her pace and riding a car—we don't do that at all, sir. And yet…why couldn't we just fly her directly to the mansion?"
"She's a human who has never seen the sun, Jakub." Staring at her once more as I smirked. "I am a curious being, after all. What would a human's reaction be like when they see something foreign to her? Yet we see this on a daily basis?"
"She is just like us when we used to blend with their race," Jakub said. "Like a naive fool."
"But her expression seems riveting. I wouldn't expect her to cry over the new experience. In the past, humans often took things for granted. At that time, it was the rise of technology that aimed to surpass what's natural. Such natural inventors, I must say."
"Is t-that the reason why you vetoed the extermination of humans?"
I watched him in silence.
"S-sir?" Jakub seemed to regret overstepping his bounds.
Shaking my head, I dismissed his doubts, waving my hand lazily. "The fact that my hatred towards the humans from Slumber Hound City remains the same. Even if Lyra Ellison is from there doesn't change the fact that she's my fated mate. You have witnessed it yourself."
"R-Right. F-Forgive me for placing my doubt, sir."
"All is forgiven," I said, shruggingly. "I don't want this to dampen my mood. After all, I found my fated mate."
And that was what mattered to me, nothing else.
"Now, a change of subject is necessary—any news about Lyra's previous bounty?"
"Word says that the wolves in charge there placed her bounty by none other than Nolan Bates."
"Nolan Bates?"
"The…err…the current Alpha in charge of the Slumber Hound City." He paused.
"Apparently Lyra Ellison's late mother was involved with him. He knocked her up then she bore him a hybrid."
I chuckled a bit. "Such an abomination for their kind." I was fully aware that werewolves are a prideful pack. They refused to have their blood mixed.
"Then what happened to the mutated creature?"
"The child is now with Nolan Bates. He clearly wanted to kill off Lyra to hide his child's identity."
So, it was just a mere coincidence why he put her up for a bounty—to capture or kill her.
I leaned against the seat cushion as I said, "If Nolan Bates persists, he would make an enemy of me."
"Yes, sir."
"Now, let's go on with—"
Something caught my eye. It passed by in a quick second.
Yet, my sight exceeds more than any creature.
I barked a command. "Speed up, Jakub!"
Without a question, Jakub stomped on the pedal and drove more than the speed limit with the intention of driving away what was tailing us from the start.
"What are those chasing us, sir?"
"Lightreavers," I said, my eyes scanning at the sight of them—one, two…no, hundreds of them.
Annoying little things—basically bullets with wings that wouldn't miss.
They fly faster than you can blink, punch through holes through anything that breathes. As long as it is their assigned targets, they are relentless hitmen.
Yet, they normally refused to accept bounties targeting higher creatures.
I glanced at Lyra on my lap then back to Jakub.
Unless their target was a defenseless human like Lyra Ellison then there was no other reason to have their lives at risk for targeting me.
Huh, word spread fast yet Jakub is the only one I had conspired with.
"Interesting," I smirked.
"S-Sir?"
"I'll handle them. Make sure Lyra arrives at my mansion safely." I gently placed her head on the car seat cushion, oblivious of the situation we were in.
"W-wait, let me handle it, sir! I can't let you—"
"Do you doubt that I lose over those pathetic simpletons?" I scoffed. "Just drive and keep her safe, Jakub!"
"Y-Yes, sir!"
I opened the door, wind gushed through my face as I jumped out from a moving car. The vehicle headed far from the distance while I was at mid-air, spreading my dark bat-like wings and diving to their group.
At their speed, I reached and grabbed the first lightreaver before it made its way to the car.
I lifted my hand, showing their frantic companion and crushed it before their eyes—its body ruptured with a wet pop, spewing its filthy purplish ooze to my skin.
The lightreavers showed a glimpse of hesitation. They exchanged nervous glances before they went charging towards me all around every direction.
If they believed they had cornered me with their known ability, they wouldn't have thought it through. I casted a spell of inferno and burned half of their colony the moment they reached my target range.
Seeing them showing fear, it brought me joy to see them crumble.
One of them, clearly its leader, spoke in its gibberish language of retreat as they turned south.
And here I thought these creatures could entertain me. The lightreavers betrayed their natural instinct and chose the cowardly path.
"I don't need a hundred of you for interrogation," I said to myself as they all rushed to escape.
Then I smirked. "I just need its leader alive for the interrogation. And as for the rest," I made a dramatic pause as I looked around before I made the final decision.
"They have to be 'fast' enough to escape from me."