Filed To Story: Traded To The Lycan King Novel (Colette & Merikh) by MG Wattsons
“We have an audience.” I whisper to her, only for there to be a chuckle that echoes through the trees.
“It’s not Ezrah.” She tells me, her head tilting to the side.
“No, it’s not.” I agree.
“You look scared.” A feminine voice calls out.
That draws a cocky smile from me as I chuckle low in my chest.
“You misinterpret my wariness for fear. I don’t often get scared, and most certainly not when it is someone of your kind.” I tell her, which makes Kyra look up at me curiously.
“Was that you who killed the deer?” I ask, though have the feeling this will offend the wood fae. She steps forward, her blond hair reflecting the sun with flowers strung throughout it. Her cheeks are red with fury as she clenches her fist.
“I would never do such a thing.” She hisses. “That bastard did it, so I scared him off.”
“What bastard?” Kyra asks, taking a step closer. “Can you tell me which way he went?”
“Do you know him?” The blonde elf narrows her eyes, her teeth grinding together. I can see the trees as they move, almost quivering with her in her growing anger.
“We are hunting him.” I say, placing my hands up. “He is our enemy and the reason the war has not ended.”
“The war?” She blinks. “What war?”
“The one with the dragons and the lycans…” Kyra says, confused, as she slides a weird look at me.
Her forehead wrinkles and her nose crinkles. “Is that why there are so many of them around? Of those big men?”
“You have seen a lot around?” I ask her. Shit, if she has seen a lot, then there is a chance we will find ourselves fighting more of them. Which will slow us down and likely mean injuries in some way for all of us.
“Well, in the past year, I have. And just in the last three days I saw a huge group and then a little bit ago-“
“Where did the man who killed the deer go?” Kyra asks, moving back to the original subject.
“You mean the messenger fae?” She el asks, crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t understand why he had to kill an innocent animal. He has the speed to get to any realm he needs for food. Stupid, selfish messengers.”
“Which way did he go?” She nearly shouts, making the girl jolt and blink.
“I apologize for her tone,” I say sweetly, flashing her a bright smile. “We have been tracking him for some time.”
I shoot Kyra a warning look as she rolls her eyes, clearly unrelenting in her hunt for Ezrah.
“He went that way. She says pointing over her shoulder, but then he cut to the west, I lost him there.”
“Shit.” Kyra mutters, looking back. “We should go get Teiran quickly and head that way. I don’t want to lose him anymore than we have.”
“Who is Teiran?” The girl asks, suddenly looking a little nervous.
“Why?” I ask her, sensing something is wrong in the change in her demeanor.
“Is he the one with my friend? Cutting away at her dead carcass?” She asks sweetly and I watch Kyra’s face grow white.
“What the hell did you do to him?” She hisses, turning and sprinting back toward where we left him.
“Shit,” I mutter, turning and following along behind her.
“Teiran!” she screams, breaking through branches that claw and yank at her loose hair. “TEIRAN!”
No one answers as we grow closer. Kyra doesn’t spare me a glance as she comes back to where the deer had been. The meat that Teiran had cut off lay on the ground next to his bag as I spin in a circle looking for him.
“I punished him.” The wood fae says from behind us, coming to a halt.
“Where is he?” I ask her, anger rising. She cowers under my rage and points up to the top of a tree where an unconscious Teiran hangs with a branch through his shoulder, blood dripping down his hanging body.
The image hits me in the gut, a sick reminder of what happened to Leandra, the way she was tortured, images of trees erupting through her chest as she was skewered onto the branches.
I fall to my knees, bile rising as I find myself stuck in the memory, unable to separate reality from this nightmare. It feels like the world is caving in, my lungs burning and my heart about to explode as Kyra argues with the woman and slip further into the darkness *Kyra*
“Oh fuck. No, no, no!” Hayes mutters behind me as I rush toward Teiran. My legs feel weak and my arms shaky as I try to climb the tree to get him down.
“Leave him!” The wood fae screams, but I ignore her. What she doesn’t know is that once I am done getting Terian freed, I am going to tear her throat out. “I said to leave him!”
“You can go get fucked, you tree humper!” I growl at her. She scoffs and then chuckles, breaking into a manic laugh.
The branches start to bend and twist under me, my feet losing their footing as I fall, crashing into the ground with bruising force. Pain radiates up my thigh as I shove off the ground, sprinting toward Teiran, reaching up and swinging off the lowest branches, launching myself up as I grip the next one. Teiran groans, turning his head to look at me as he tries to breathe. He is in rough shape, and if I don’t get him down soon, he won’t heal the right way. Shit. I grit my teeth, jumping onto a branch that sways out, my fingers gripping the moving bark. As I try to use it to move myself closer.
Instead, it consumes my hand, growing around it and gripping me tight as my fingers crunch.
“Agh!” I grit out, as something wraps around my ankle and pulls on me. Twisting me upside down as I try to fight against the restraints.
“Hayes!” I cry out, looking for him to see if he, too, is trapped. Instead, I am shocked to see him on his hands and knees, struggling to breathe. The wood Fae must have hurt him somehow and my heart aches knowing he is in pain. “If you hurt him, I swear I will “
“Why would I hurt him?” She asks innocently, tilting her head as she looks at him. “I don’t want to hurt you, but you insist on fighting me for that man’s punishment.”
My brows furrows in confusion, my eyes stuck on Hayes as he seems to have some sort of meltdown. He groans, holding his head as he grimaces, His eyes unfocused as if he is lost. My eyes slide to Teiran, who continues to bleed from the branch through his shoulder.
“What the fuck do you want?” I grit out. She frowns, shaking her head as if she is a parent disappointed in her child.
“Did we not already discuss this?” She asks, titling her head.
“Yes! We told you we didn’t fucking do it!” I screech.
“But you planned to eat her.” She says low, her eyes growing dark and her lip sneering. “Leaving nothing left for me to return to the earth.”
“I wished only to honor her death by making use of her instead of letting her go to waste.” Teiran says, barely audible.
“That doesn’t make sense.” She scoffs, throwing her hands up. “Both your kinds just kill, and maim and devour. All you do is fight, mate, and kill.”