Filed To Story: Traded To The Lycan King Novel (Colette & Merikh) by MG Wattsons
Well, at least Giselle is afraid of me. That has to be a good start, or at least a start in general. We will take her down, and hopefully Teiran will be able to talk sense into his father after she is gone. A war means death and hatred. What I want is a life of laughter and smile? That won’t happen if this war. that has barely started continues on.
But in order to get to Giselle, I need to eliminate her girl group of power hungry dickless assholes. Which means I will do what Merikh couldn’t. Not that he is incapable, but nothing pisses a mate off more than holding their bleeding love.
“Get him to Calvin now.” I tell my mom and Caspian, then I look at Zale, who has remained speechless through all of this. “You wanted to see what I was capable of? Allow me to show you.”
I stalk toward Lauren as she paces in anticipation. Death is in her eyes, not only hers but what she hopes to give to me, but I don’t find it intimidating. My hands fall to my side, my palms facing toward Lauren as I rise out of the water with each step until only my feet remain. Lauren doesn’t take any chances as she jumps at me with a loud growl.
I growl as I shift into my wolf, keeping my feet grounded in the water. My body grows cool, my blood replaced with the salty water of the ocean. A garbled roar of tears from my water made wolf’s jaw and she flies through me.
Lauren splashes into the water, jumping up as she can with a hiss and shaking her body out as if her lycan is trying to clean itself of the moisture.
“Oh, not fair.” She scoffs, her head tilting to the side before she shifts as well. Her lycan only partially shows up and in a distorted way.
I look into her eyes, noticing the way the color is off. Neither are they black like a true lycan or red like a hungry vampire. They are a mixture of shades of green, like a gross mold growing on cheese that’s set on the counter for days in humid weather.
Lauren may think she is an invincible hybrid, but she is rotting from the inside out. She was not created naturally and there for her, her blood isn’t pure, not like mine.
She tries again to reach out and get ahold of me but I float to the side in my water form. Lauren growls in annoyance, unsure of how to fight me, “Play fair!” She roars, throwing a fit like a toddler, and I grin at her.
How amusing she thinks this isn’t fair, yet she thought it would be fair to attack Merikh, knowing her strength is more than is? I don’t give a fuck about fair anymore. This isn’t a fight for fun in some league. This is life or death, and this will be her second time dying.
I notice movement behind her, and I see Calvin hobbling closer. She turns her head to look and see what my attention is on, so I rush to the side, stirring up the sand into the water I am made of, and I block her view. She hisses at me, reaching out and slashing through me, cutting the sand away.
My body drains, the use of this kind of ability weighing heavy on my sources and strength. I shift back into my human form, dropping to my knees with a gasp.
Heat shoots over my head, taking me by surprise as I look around and see Calvin, his big belly. glowing with heat as he forces a flame through his lips, blue and incredibly hot. Lauren shrieks and falls to her knees.
He stops, tossing me a vial and pointing to Lauren with a quivering hand like he can’t believe what he has done.
“Pour it d–down her throat,” he insists.
I don’t waste a second, standing and running to the charred face of Lauren who breathes heavily, her skin falling off as it’s replaced with new unmarked flesh. My hands swirl with water as I touch her chin, yanking it down, the mere heat of her bones trying to sear my hand through the water that cools it.
I pull the vial open with my mouth, spitting the cork out, then I lift it to her mouth and pour it down her throat. She convulses and sputters, trying to spit it out as she cries in agony. I stumble back in shock, landing on my ass in the water. The salinity helps to revitalize me at a much faster rate.
“What the fuck was that?” I ask Calvin as he rushes toward Merikh, motioning for Caspian to drag him over.
“Wolfsbane.” He says.
I wince, knowing all too well how much that shit hurts a wolf and lycan. My brows knit together, confused as I try to understand why, of all things, this seems to have the most effect. I know she is a hybrid, but I would have thought she was more of one than the other.
“Why?” I ask.
“Kill her lycan, and she is no longer a hybrid, just a regular vampire who serves no purpose to anyone.”
I bite my lip, hoping this works, begging to the heavens that this hybrid bitch was much easier to eliminate than we could have ever hoped for. She cries, hugging her body and whimpering just as the smoke rises. Her skin burns, turning ashy in the sun as she crawls to a small shadow, hoping to find whatever shade she can.
“HELP ME!” she cries out in desperation. Digging into the sand and under a large boulder. She burrows in, but the sun will eventually hit the spot by sunset.
“You should have stayed dead.” I hiss, sauntering toward her.
Lauren’s eyes pour bloody tears as she searches the tree line too far for her. I don’t have time to question who she is looking for as I leave her and sprint to Merikh, helping him to the sand. It’s not until I hear Lauren whimpering a name that I realize I need to listen. I move closer, remaining in a relatively close area to Merikh, who is groaning in pain.
“Please….please help me. Giselle, Lily…. anyone! Ezrah, please…I know you are here, you brought me…”
I freeze, my body going slack as I search the edge of the trees further up the beach. Perhaps Ezrah is playing for both teams or maybe he is truly bad guy. All I know is I need to order some mail and get some fucking information from this guy everyone swor Ezrah brought her here? I wonder as I whirl around, searching the trees and shoreline for the messenger who is always everywhere, always in everyone’s business.
Caspian stands with Zale, the two of them carrying my enormous lycan mate up onto a less sandy part of the beach. Ezrah will have to wait. Right now, I need to be sure Merikh will be okay.
I rush toward them, sliding a glance back at Lauren as she tries to creep out, only to hiss and cry harder. Serves the evil vampire right for everything she has done and continues to do.
Strange how easy it was to defeat her when everything is all said and done, though. I sort of expected more, certainly something more than the sobbing mess cowering under a rock.
“How is he?” I call out, Calvin humming as he moves efficiently from wound to wound, seemingly more interested in one from the next.
My nails find themselves trapped between the nervous pressure of my teeth as I nibble on them, my anxious nerves only growing bigger with every passing bout of silence.
“Calvin,” I growl out. He snaps his surprised eyes up to me, blinking as if he hadn’t even noticed I arrived.
“I am assessing him,” He says back, but his eyes are telling me more than his lips.
Vampire bites are meant to kill. That’s the whole point of them. To feed or to create a new vampire toy. But what happens to a lycan king who is bitten? Not fed upon and not intended to create? Does he live? Does he suffer?
These are the questions plaguing my mind that no one seems able to answer right now, right when I need them. My mom moves close to me, entwining my hand in hers as she tugs me close, and I rest my head on her shoulder. It is incredibly strange how quickly the mother-daughter bond came back.
Though I sort of attribute that to the fact that all this time in the water has helped me remember a lot from my past. Not everything, but enough of my life with her and even Caspian before I was hunted.
Also, trauma bonding is a real thing, and that definitely happened with mom on more than one occasion, so there is that.
“He will be okay,” she assures me with a gentle smile.
“We do not know that,” Zale says bluntly and I glare at him as he frowns and shrugs.
“I am only speaking the truth.”
“Yeah well maybe don’t?” My mom snaps at him.
Caspian comes up to my other side, sighing heavily as he avoids looking at my mother.
“He should have known better than to attempt to fight her.” Caspian murmurs and my mom scoffs, shaking her head.
“Dad has a point,” I tell her.
She chooses not to respond, only maintaining a forward-looking gaze as if she is biting her tongue. It is clear that she has much to say, but either refuses to in front of dad or she doesn’t want me to know. Either are not acceptable reasons.
“I want you to explain everything all over again.” I say, turning to face her.
“Lauren showed up.” She sighs. “She said she was sent for—”
“Gah!” Merikh screams and shoves Calvin away.
Calvin grunts as he tumbles backward onto his ass. He scrambles to stand, reaching out to grab Merikh who tries to stand, only to sway on his feet. I am next to him in a second, my hands gripping his fevered body as I look at Calvin expectantly.
“Lauren…” Merikh slurs the word, his eyes unfocused as he tries to scan the area, pulling me as close as he can to his body.
“We know,” I whisper, reaching up to hold his face still so he can focus on me. “I know, it’s okay.”
The look on his face breaks me as his frantic fear drips away to a look of sheer pain. I see the flecks of green in his iris’ not his normal shade of emerald but the same distorted rotten green that lived in Lauren’s eyes. The rot, the kind that will eat away at him, making him someone unrecognizable.
“Calvin,” I whisper, my voice breaking as I say his name and he bumbles over to me. “What do you need to do to save him?”
“Nothing to do but wait and see who wins this,” He says, sounding forlorn.
“I refuse to wait and see.” I growl at him, unable to control the rage brewing in my chest. “What can I do?” I hiss.
“I-i-l don’t know.” He says, looking distraught. “I am sorry Luna, but I just…this is out of my realm of healing.”
I fight back the tears, giving Merikh a fake smile as look up into his eyes. It is like he is drunk, unable to focus and remain steady as he grins a brilliantly handsome smile. The fool thinks he is going to flirt with me. In this state?