Filed To Story: Traded To The Lycan King Novel (Colette & Merikh) by MG Wattsons
“They will punish you until you give them what they want,” He says.
“And then once they get it, they will punish you for fun,” Trina adds.
The little old man stops his humming, and for the first time he looks up at me and I realize he is just as much a prisoner as any of us. He looks dead inside, like he is a shell of a being, just doing what he has to in order to go through the motions to trick people into thinking he is actually living.
“What happened to you?” I whisper, and he blinks at me.
“I betrayed the dragon queen.” He mumbles.
“And yet they are trusting you to heal us now?” I scoff and he turns back to my mother, his humming starting up again. “I will heal fine on my own.”
No one says anything. Instead, we all sit in the echo of the healer’s strange, humming voice before he hobbles his way out of my mother’s cage and moves to mine. I stare at him as he moves about his cage and then moves over to me. He places his hand out for me to show him my injuries, but I hug my legs to my body, gasping out as bile flies up my throat from the pain.
“Let me help you, child,” he whispers, his voice below a whisper “I am not a child.” I grit out. “As you said, I am a luna.”
“Forgive me, luna,” he whispers again. “It’s been many years since I have seen you.”
My eyes grow wide and my mouth falls open with so many questions, but I don’t get any out before the cage door clangs open and the same woman from before flounces in, leaning against the wall across from me with a smirk on her lips.
“You look like you didn’t get too much of a beating.” She muses. I will make sure the next one is a little more…intense.”
I growl low in my chest at her, and she chuckles.
“A wolf’s bite has nothing on a dragon’s breath. You are nothing but a thorn in my foot.” She says with the wave of her hand.
“I suppose you should really watch where you step,” I say, my eyes meeting hers. “It would suck if this thorn gave you a life- threatening infection.”
“Tell you what. From now on, we won’t just torture you to get what we want. We torture mommy dearest while you watch.”
I glance at my mom, who tries to give me an encouraging look, but the fear and years of pain are impossible to mask. At this point they want me to choose between my mom, who I just got back, and my mate and pack. The very existence of my kind. They very well could just send Merikh a note saying they have me and where I am.
But they want me to do it. They want the downfall of my kind and the death of my mate to be solely on my back. Just like Penny’s death. These assholes want to break me before they kill me.
But I am used to being underestimated, and that will be their downfall. Not mine.
“Merikh I stalk into the wet sand, my feet sinking with every heavy step as the rain pelts down on my back and shoulders. This beach would have been a wonderful place to take my hybrid queen. The perfect place where the forest meets the sea, the scent of pine and fresh salty air swirling together in a melody of our tale.
Except now it’s a place of ache and sorrow. There is a part of me that still expects to see her emerge from the water and walk up to me with a seductive smile. I focus on the waves, begging her to arise and tell me this has all been a terrible joke. A useless dream for a man who found his dead gamma, but a dream I can’t stop having,
I pause when I get to the tumultuous water, lapping angrily at the edge of the shore as the storm rages. A mirror image of the emotions tearing through me. A dangerous mix of guilt and anger growing out of control, taking out anything that dares enter its warring path.
“Merikh, you should be waiting in the car. It is safer.” Hayes says, rushing up behind me. But his concerns fall on deaf ears.
Speaking of safety, when my heart is out there exposed, being exploited. How can I possibly care about safety when hers is the only concern I have? If I had been more concerned about her, more receptive to her needs and desires, then maybe, just maybe, none of this would have happened. I held on to her too tight, and I lost her.
“We don’t have time to waste waiting for Caspian to make his way to us.” I remind my brother who sighs. “Every second she is gone, I come a second closer to losing my damn mind, Hayes Jdrag my hands through my hair, slicking it back with the wetness of the rain.
“We will find her, Merikh.” He says, his voice firm. No room for a lie. Hayes truly believes we will get our Luna back.
“That’s not what worries me, brother.” I sigh heavily, watching the waves crash into each other, growing taller as they white cap and swell, rushing toward the shore.
“Use me.” A voice says from behind us. Hayes‘ body goes stiff and we turn to see Landra standing there. The rain grows stronger, the downpour deafening in the ears with the rage of the sea, so she moves closer. Her eyes dart from Hayes to mine. “Use me to find her.”
“I don’t understand.” I furrow my brows, confused.
“You swore you don’t remember anything.” Hayes says, sounding frustrated and accusatory. She ignores his tone and looks directly at me.
“I don’t recall anything and I can’t shift, but what if you command me to shift? What if my lycan knows things?” She says, taking a step closer.
“You can’t question a lycan.” Hayes scoffs, a laugh rumbling through him as thunder cracks through the sky, lightning following it and crashing to the beach to our far right.
I don’t blink, instead; I get lost in thought.
“Why can’t I?” I ask no one in particular.
“What?” Hayes scoffs. “Because Lycan can’t form coherent sentences.”
“Can’t they?” I ask, arching a brow, and he throws his hands up in defeat, looking frustrated.
“Command me to question her. She is here, in my mind, but there’s a barrier, a lack of trust, but if she recognizes you as her alpha, as the king of the lycans…‘”
“Then maybe she will open up to you. Maybe she will allow you to share what she knows, what she can recall.” I finish for her in thought.
“One problem.” Hayes growls. “You aren’t a member of a pack, so he can’t command you. And since we aren’t in our pack. you can’t just join “Unless she swallows, her cheeks growing pink. “Unless we accept each other.”
Hayes freezes. Lightning strikes no less than three feet away from him and he doesn’t even flinch. His eyes bore into her and then I watch as his brows knit together and his face grows sad.