Read Evil Abounds: An Alpha Guardians Prequel for Free Online

blood was also the only thing that was keeping him from shifting and truly taking off, outrunning and outgunning the humans a thousand fold.
    He checked the constellations, and knew that he was close to a series of deep cave tunnels that he’d taken shelter in many times before. This area was far north of his home, but within the boundaries of what he considered his territory, so he visited this cave several times per year as he traveled and patrolled.
    He heard a faint rustle behind him, maybe a quarter of a mile back, and used the last reserves of his energy to push himself into a trot. Soon the familiar formation of rocks appeared, looking like nothing so much as a scattering of boulders. Aeric had originally found the caves by complete accident, literally falling into one as he explored the boulders.
    He almost recreated the scene when he stumbled over the cave’s entrance, which was camouflaged by a thin covering of leaves and debris. He carefully toed away enough of the covering to make room for his bulky form, then bit his lip and maneuvered himself down and into the shaft that led into the caves. Not a moment too soon, either, because the second he finished covering the entrance and retreating down a few meters, he heard the humans approaching, smelled the smoke from their torches.
    “—don’t see his trail. It ends here, Lars,” came a man’s voice.
    Aeric grit his teeth, wishing to Valhalla that he was well enough to emerge from his hiding place and annihilate Lars Dorssen. No one attacked one as old and powerful as Aeric without retribution, but at the present moment Aeric was too busy holding his own guts in to move, much less mete out what Dorssen deserved.
    “Keep looking. We cannot let the monster roam free, attacking women.”
    Aeric repressed a snarl at the last. This whole situation could have been prevented if he’d only let Dorssen’s very beautiful young sister Ana be harmed. Aeric was merely passing through their small village, a regular stop on the circuit he took to surveil his domain. He left the tavern he favored, intent on finding a warm bed for the night, preferably with a lovely and willing maiden in it; instead he’d found Ana, roughly pinned to the wall by a malicious townsman while three others watched her assault.
    Aeric was many things, some of them dark and ugly, but rape was not allowable in his world. In a flash of foolishness, he’d shifted into his bear form and driven the men off. He’d thought himself safe since only Ana saw him shift, saw his human form and face, but alas. She’d run straight to her idiot brother Lars, telling stories not of her near-rape, but instead of monstrous bear-men who’d tried to rip out her tender throat.
    He wouldn’t wish that kind of assault on any woman, but knowing what he did now, he should have left her to her own devices. Peeling his sticky fingers away, Aeric checked out his wound once more. To be fair, pretty blonde Ana couldn’t have known that her beastly brother possessed a very special dagger, spelled with a particularly nasty curse that kept the wounds inflicted from healing. Any other knife wound would have long since healed, leaving Aeric to his vengeance.
    The voices overhead moved away, and Aeric scrambled down into the tunnel, paying mind to take the right turns. His efforts were repaid when he came into a large, flat cavern with several small chests on the far side. He dragged himself over to the trunks and knelt to open two of them, producing several flasks of water, some preserved meat and bread, and a soft feather pallet. Sadly, he had nothing to counteract the cursed wound, but at least he could be comfortable while he bled to death rather than being chased down like a rabid dog.
    He stretched out on the pallet and drank some of the water, trying to stay awake. His attempts must have failed, because he started from a light doze at a peculiar sound. Footsteps?
    Prying his eyes open, he stared up at a figure that seemed