Filed To Story: Traded To The Lycan King Novel (Colette & Merikh) by MG Wattsons
“Trust her,” Merikh whispers from next to me and I shoot daggers at him with my eyes.
“Trust isn’t the issue here. What if she needs me? How am I supposed to save her from all the way over here?” I hiss at him. “She is unprotected while we hide behind this wall of water.”
Merikh frowns at me, looking back at Colette before he shakes his head.
“Do you want to attack, then?” He asks. “I am ready to fight when you are brother, but form your hand and how you weren’t in your lycan form, we assumed you needed time to recuperate.”
“I am fine,” I tell him, eye forward as I crouch, preparing to launch into my lycan and take chunks out of this asshole.
“Do you know how to kill a dragon king?” Merikh asks me and I furrow my brows, confused by the question. Is he insinuating there is some other way to kill a king other than the usual way a being dies?
“Removing one’s heart usually does the trick, I would think.” I grit out and he exhales, crouching next to me.
“Then I suppose I will distract him and expose his underside for you?” He asks and I nod. “Colette, regain your strength and be ready to extinguish what you can.”
“Yes, Alpha.” She responds, but I can hear the emotion in her voice that is telling him to be safe, even if it’s useless to speak the words.
Merikh leaps through the wall of water first, his body transforming mid air as he reaches out and tries to catch him in the eye. The dragon drops his massive head, barely avoiding the razor sharp nails before he jolts his neck upward, his strong snout colliding with Merikh’s massive chest, throwing him high into the air.
The dragon stands on his hind legs, mouth opening as if he will try to catch Merikh with his teeth and I lunge forward. My claws glance off his old, thick scales, but I continue to swipe across them, feeling the skin slowly giving way. In desperation, I roar in anger, grabbing his attention as I sink my teeth into the one large scale and yank away as if I were a rabid dog fighting over a scrap of meat.
He slams his front feet back down, jolting me as kpull away, scale stuck in my mouth as I shake my head, trying to back away. But before I have the chance to get very far, he drops his weight down, catching my hind leg with his hard scaled body. A whimper of pain tears through me as I feel my bones protesting, the heavy creaking more painful with every passing second as I try to wiggle free.
There is a large splashing sound and I hear Colette calling out to Merikh, but I can no longer see her, or Kyra. I growl out as I throw all my strength into wiggling, the damn scale stil stuck in my fucking teeth as I try to free myself. To my dismay, the bastard rolls toward me, a sharp thud shaking my leg as I feel my blood drain from my face and I swallow deeply.
The pain is slow to come as he stands again, the blood coursing to the area that had been cut off bringing with it a pain so deep it leaves me unable to make a sound as I lay there. My leg is broken, not just my leg but my femur, snapped in two and my knee shattered.
Merikh comes into view, dragging me away with a grunt as my lycan retreats and tries to heal me the best it can. Merikh jumps back at the dragon and I notice Kyra helping him as I lay useless as I was when Leandra died.
Anger rises in my chest, bringing with it the sour taste of bile as I try to convince myself to move. I rise on one leg, huffing as I work myself to breathe through the pain that makes my vision hazy.
“Hayes, look out!” Colette Screeches at me, her hand outstretched as if she can touch me as a massive tail slams into my chest launching me across the splintered trees and into a pile of leaves.
“Fucking hell,” I cough, ignoring the blood that comes with each stabbing pain to my side. It would seem Kyra is right. In all my time trying to die, I have developed an affinity for finding myself in the wrong spot at the wrong time.
So Instead of standing again, I watch Merikh as he stealthily lands strikes at the opening I provided with the scale I dislodged. Blood pours out of his one spot, a deep gash there, but it’s nowhere near deep enough to get to his heart.
And that’s when I find myself distracted, my head tilting as if I am seeing things, but then I realize I know what Kyra thought she saw earlier. A little toddler boy rushing toward his momma.
He has grown since I saw him last, a whole hour ago, but there is no denying it is Tiago. Kyra spots him and her lycan stutters in its step. Shit, she is distracted now, which means she is in danger.
My head says to stand and rush to her, save her from the hit that is coming her way, but as the tail swings in her direction the dragon king takes a step backward, not looking and his massive foot moves directly for the little child with outstretched arms with a happy grin on his face.
I force myself to stand, pulling up with me a thick stick, gripping it with as much strength as I can and I sprint toward them, each stride is one of pain as I use the stick in place of my leg that drags along behind me.
My heart pounds in my ears as I look up at Kyra and she sees me, her eyes growing wide with hope as I pass her by and tackle her son out of the way.
*Kyra*
My heart stutters in my chest as Hayes dives out of sight behind the tail that swings toward me. I try to twist, protecting myself from the hit as the heated scales crash into my side. A grunt of pain huff out of my mouth, my lungs expelling every ounce of air in them as my bones creak against the hit.
The pain blossoms up my ribcage as I brace for the hit on the ground, but it never comes. Arms wrap around me, a heavy groan in my ear as I wheeze and look up. Teiran frowns down at me before he releases me, taking a step back as if my lycan form disgusts him. Then he spins on his heels and walks toward his father’s massive snout and lifts his hands.
“Enough,” He calls out, but even I can see how his father disagrees with his statement. “Father, this war is over, the hoard has been conferred and I have been elevated to the new king. Surely you felt the shift already?”
The dragon rears up on his hind legs, massive wings opening wide as he roars, a blue flame barreling down on Teiran as he stands there expectantly. I try to limp away, getting further away from the heat as I trip over the wrecked trees and my lycan retreats.
All I think about is getting to Hayes and Tiago and how, at that moment, the one where Hayes had to choose between me and Tiago, he chose me through Tiago. He trusted my abilities and saved the one who needed saving. How hard of a choice had that been for him? For someone who felt for so long that he wasn’t enough, that he had failed so save another?
“Hayes?” I cough out, my lungs burning and side aching as I search for him.
He doesn’t respond, his presence in my mind quiet and it sends a shiver through my body. There is no way he and Tiago didn’t make it. Hayes is injured, but he had to have saved him…there is no way he didn’t.
Unless…unless he sheltered Tiago, but it wasn’t rough to save them both. A sob breaks through my determination. My lips dry and cracked as the wind whips around me, hot and filled with ash and embers.
“HAYES!” I scream out, frantically searching around me.
Merikh looks in my direction, his eyes wide with worry, but he is drawn away by a roar and strange cracking of bones. My eyes remain focused on where I knew Hayes and Tiago had been moments before.
Would I feel the moment I lost Hayes like I felt it with Tyler? We aren’t fully mated, but it feels like my chest is unable to function every second I don’t see him, making it impossible to not assume the worst.
“Kyra…” his voice mutters, my name weak and to my right as I stumble to stand and rush toward it, holding my arm to my side. I fall to my knees as I see his head pop up from rubble, a little child tucked tight to his chest as he sits before. A small sob breaks from my lips, the relief flooding me so quickly it feels as if I might vomit..
“Oh,” I blubber out, fighting the bitter bile in my throat as I suck in a hiss of air. Ignoring the pain in my side, I crawl to them. “You scared the shit out of me.”
Hayes grins, ash and splinters peppering his hair as Tiago turns to look at me, a smile on his chubby cheeks. How he grows will never not startle me, and truthfully, it makes my heart ache to miss so much time with him. But at least he is safe now and there is still more time to be had. All because of Hayes.
“Look who I found,” Hayes says, peeking down at Tiago who doesn’t even reach for me. Instead, he surprises me by placing his head back down on Haye’s bare chest, tracing the burns as if he is painting on a canvas. “Hey buddy, it’s mama. You want to go see mama?”
“No,” he mumbles, his eyes looking heavy before they grow wide and he stares behind me, fear taking over his face as Hayes looks up. “What the fuck…” Hayes mutters.
I snap my head around, looking up in the sky as wetness drips on my face. For a moment I think it is Colette, protecting us from the flames, but upon further inspection I realize it’s not water.
Teiran and his father tear at each other above us. The sick sound of pained groans and tearing flesh as blood rains down from the deep gashes they land on each other. Teiran’s dragon roars out, forcing me to cover my ears as they ring painfully.
Then he latches onto his father’s wing from behind, tearing it off completely as it tumbles down toward us. I launch myself over Hayes and Tiago, protecting them with my body as the massive body part propels toward us, only for a quiet thud to land off in the distance.
The once formidable and feared dragon king follows his arm to the ground, landing in his human form with a grunt of pain, dirt billowing around him as Merikh and Colette move over to us. Teiran’s wings flap, blowing splinters of wood and leaves around toward us before he touches down gently.
He shifts, mid walk before he looms over his prey, his eyes glowing gold, his face set in murderous rage. Then he reaches down, lifting his father by the throat as he moans in pain.
“You should have known it was time for you to step down long before you took that lying bitch as a mate.” Teiran seethes the words in his father’s face.
“Do you think you can actually kill me?” His father spits at him.
“It seems like I have the upper hand, considering I am giving you the room to breathe such silly words.” Teiran looks unphased other than a twitch in his lip.