Blood Awakening: The Strongest Hybrid and His Vampire Bride

'From being young, I noticed that despite being poor Nikolai's table manners and skills were far beyond a commoner or normal human. His knowledge of things that were part of the succession courses that I took part in from being a young wolf. He completed thinking it was just normal homework from his dad.'

Nikita always followed the young Nikolai and wondered why he felt so strange, even when she noticed he seemed to have forgotten their first meeting and the memories they shared with his mother.

'I wanted to be worthy of him! That's why I worked harder to become stronger and smarter and take all the power of my family, so I could give everything to Nikolai, who had nothing.'

She realised at first it was because of his strange aura. It made her want to succumb and surrender to him. Nikita hated him at first. She didn't love or like Nikolai—in fact, they would constantly clash because she felt this feeling of wanting to submit despite being stronger and richer.

'If not for meeting his mother and learning the truth... Would I have never changed?'

Elizabeth was a gentle yet cruel woman1 in the eyes of Nikita. A girl who knew everything about their race and heritage.

She played the perfect mother and hid the times she became wicked and cruel to Nikolai. At least, it might have seemed that way to outsiders due to not knowing the full story.

To others who knew of her race, death was unthinkable.

After she died, Nikolai changed and forgot many of his memories for two to three years before she passed on, and his atmosphere and spark of life almost vanished overnight—in Nikita's eyes, it felt like his mother died for the sole purpose of making Nikolai into a monster.

'I hated his mother when I learned the truth, wishing it failed that it would never come true. I made sure to check Nikolai every night from the moment he started puberty. By this time, had I already started falling for him? That stupid, weak, but kind boy who made sure to give me his favourite dessert just because I was kind to him?'

No, Nikita knew it was because she convinced herself that he was hers from the moment his mother died. She didn't want anyone else to take him away from her again. After losing three years of memories together with Nikolai, her childish mind became distorted.

***

The heat from the blast began to fade as Nikita felt herself coming out of the memories of the past; she felt many presences and voices from the same floor and screaming and despair from below her. However, because of the smoke, her nose hurt, like small needles were pricking the inside.

"Nikolai?"

"Where are you?!" Her voice was low as if to avoid disturbing those around her. Nikita could hear people, but not clearly after the explosion. Her ears were ringing after she came back to reality.

'I have to find him... Nikolai.... don't leave me again!'

Memories that Elizabeth sealed in the past... Nikita's eyes looked swollen from her tears and the smoke after hitting her head. Before waking up, she saw 'that night' once again, and her biggest fear reawakened as her arms became white, with beautiful fur like snow.

Her thighs enlarged, growing more muscular as her legs transformed and became perfected for hunting, with her pupil becoming a thin slit while shining with a vibrant gold shine. Nikita's claws weren't like Nikolai's thick, long blades but were short, sharp and deadly as if to be used to kill and not fight.

This transformation and ability was something Nikolai didn't know. Nikita may not have inherited her mother's illusion powers, but there were many things she did.

'Assassin'

That's why the black clan of Okami specialised in their short, sharp claws, easily tearing the flesh of humans and monsters alike.

Fast, hidden and deadly experts performed many of the monster world's most high-profile assassinations. The former number one assassin was born in the Okami clan and married to the Fenrir clan Nagisa, the illusory death.

A beautiful woman who killed more than any other in the history of the Okami clan's assassins and the reason the Hati clan seeks Nikita. It was because she inherited both the assassination skills of her mother and the robust, powerful body of her father.

"Nikolai... I am coming to find you... wait for me..." A low, feminine voice with a fierce tone transformed Nikita, something she hid from Nikolai.

"I've found h--" A head shot into the sky, blood swirling in a disgusting arc, as a flash of gold appeared to shoot past the man's side.

Nikita was squatting down, her mouth exhaling a thick breath as her muscles trembled. Despite this, her hands and fur were clean, yet blood pooled and covered the corpse behind her.

'Ah... this feeling makes me want more... I must not fall into another frenzy... Nikolai would hate seeing me like this....'

"More..." Her mind and body were in a conflicted state—however, she couldn't stop.

Because...

"We've found the male. He's two floors down! Hurry, kill him, then capture that bitch for the young master!"

'Kill Nikolai? Are you fools.... I'll kill you, tear you apart, crush your throat... Ah... why do you all try to take him from me?'

The dull light shining from her eyes and her twisted face and distorted smile caused the surrounding aura to become eerie.

"I'm coming, Nikolai~ don't cry. This time, I'll save you; no one else can save you but me!"

***

Meanwhile, the once loud floor covered in flames and voices was silent.

A black shadow stood watching the moon from the broken window, his calm blue pupils like the surface of the ocean, yet his body was different, bloody, filled with the stench of death. His muscles and body were tall, close to seven feet tall, his transformation becoming stable, stronger and more complete.

'I can feel something coming towards me. It's strong... I want it to be mine.'

His instincts wanted to kill, to feast, to become stronger, and it was not just because of his current situation.

'It seems someone else is having fun... I won't wait for you here... I will find you and make you submit to me.'

Nikolai was looking out the window, and he could sense an unidentifiable feeling as he stared at the full moon before his right claw glowed with a black light, the same Moonlight Rend he used in his white form, but this... was no moonlight.

An aura of darkness surrounded his arm as it tore through the stone above him. The metal joists and connections between the stone tore into pieces before Nikolai jumped to the next floor, his sudden appearance causing the men to shout and pull their weapons on him.

"It's this bastard, kill him quickly!"

"Hurry, Shoot!"

"Attack!"

Nikolai looked up and could feel a strange aura that was so bright and free as it darted around the floors above. He felt a sense of jealousy because he couldn't become the same.

'She's strong but doesn't have the same feeling... I need to become stronger... more powerful! Stronger than that little star that shines above me, I must become the best.'

"You bastards think you can take what's mine? Try it, and you'll only get a painful death!"

His calm, cold voice echoed in the minds of those before him. A calm that made them hesitate as they watched the black, vicious aura become more prominent. It was like the night sky as it engulfed and absorbed all light, even hiding the moon and the stars, causing a dreadful feeling to appear in the hearts of all the Hati clan.

"W-What...."

"H-how is this happening? We're supposed to be members of the Hati clan! Why... why am I so terrified?"

"H-help me! HELP ME!"

He carried the power of a true monster—even Nikita above could feel the same.

From a young age, she could feel this terror; as if her instinct developed to protect her, she quickly submitted to him. However, after the ceremony, this monster vanished; for over ten years, it seemed to have died.

The real reason Nikita loved Nikolai was not just his personality. It was the gentle, warm feeling his existence gave her and the feeling that made her feel safe. Whereas his previous personality was like a tyrant that terrified and left her in awe, unable to break free of his hold.

"Hurry... shoot the bastard!"

Nikolai's black eyes narrowed into thin slits, his leg muscles condensing to a fraction of their size while his paws pressed down, letting the pressure and power grow as Obsidian Tide surged in his thighs and calves.

BANG!

A single sound that caused all those watching to freeze.

Nikolai's black eyes were like a sharp sword that tore through the space before him. A trail of blood sprayed into the air, followed by the sound of something dropping behind him.

The man in front of Nikolai was frozen.

He couldn't move... because there was an arm penetrating his chest... his heart beating in the monster's palm gazing at him, before a loud squelch, blood spraying like autumn rain.

In the blink of an eye, with brute force, three werewolves were killed, two torn apart, the other his heart ripped out as their blood crystals became his fodder.

Nikolai's face distorted with a smile as he looked to the floor above, a silver wolf in the moonlight looking down at him with feral eyes, golden, dull and filled with killing intent towards him.

The two wolves gazed at each other in sync, their beastly desires revealed as the snow-white wolf faced the obsidian-black monster.

In the moonlight, they both declared.

""You are mine.""