Filed To Story: Traded To The Lycan King Novel (Colette & Merikh) by MG Wattsons
If she sees me, she doesn’t show it. She is too wrapped up in what she is doing to care about the world outside of her scope of things. Her arms hardly outstretched before her as she continues to call to the water from every source she can muster up.
Then, as if she has hit her limit, she stops. The water rises no more and a dense fog grows between her and Giselle. The heat rapidly turning the water closest to it into nothing but a steam that rolls up to the sky and over the wall as it seems to cascade down toward us. An ominous and unfortunate foretelling of what is coming.
“Merikh…” Colette whispers, her face appearing from the water, her frame immersed and her eyes swirling a vibrant blue as she reaches for me. My lycan touches her and her exhaustion nearly knocks me flat on my ass. “Help…”
The desperation in her breaks my heart as my lycan recedes to save energy and I step into the water, grabbing hold of her, pulling her close to my chest. The cool temperature of it wraps around me, like a current, protecting the two of us as she focuses solely on keeping the wall up long enough to withstand the still growing heat of Giselle who screams relentlessly.
“What do you need?” I ask Colette, my lips brushing her flushed cheek.
I stroke the wet locks from her pale face, giving her every ounce of strength and healing I can manage through our mate bond.
“Just you,” she whispers, her body shaking as she tries to give me a weak smile.
“You have all of me,” I remind her, and press a kiss to her temple.
“How long do you think she will burn like that?” Percy asks, running over out of breath. He looks like he has seen better days, but he remains standing and ready to protect us until the end, if needed.
“Hopefully not much longer,” I murmur, squinting through the swirling waves at Giselle, who still burns in a white heat.
“I will make sure no one comes from our backs,” He says, giving a nod to me and Colette. “If I don’t make it, it was an honor to protect you, Luna.”
There is a clamoring behind us and a wolf flies from a tree, crashing hard into the ground, before clamoring to its feet and racing toward us. Percy intercepts it, but the wolf lowers its head in submission and then shifts เอนได
ov revealing a tired-looking Melody.
Caspian crashes through the trees just after her, scratches and blood on his face as his eyes grow wide in wonder. He steps up next to Melody, taking her hand in his as the two make their way toward us.
“You have done so well, my child. Now I will take over.” He says, the water responding to his presence, as if it were a living being.
“No, I can do this,” Colette demands in a quiet, trembling voice. “Please, let me do this.”
She is drawing too much energy, not only from herself but from me as well as the damn bird, just burns and burns in a never-ending cycle. I know looking down at her, she will give everything for this. Colette with die here if it means protecting what she took on as her own.
Every ounce of me wants to yank her away, shake her back to sense, but as long as I go with her, I will allow her to choose her own fate. The water grows warm, my skin heating as I squeeze her closer to me.
Her strength no longer pulls from the source of cold water from below our feet. It’s when bubbles rise and the wall slowly shrinks that I realize no amount of determination from my little luna can stop what is coming.
My skin begins to burn and Colette whimpers uncomfortably as the water rises in temperature. If it continues to heat at this rate, we will either boil to death or the water will evaporate and we will burn to death.
The rational part of me wants to drag her off and save us both. But even being rational at this point means certain death. There is only one way out of here for us now, and we all know it.
I look at Caspian and see that he has made up his mind. He cups Melody’s cheek, putting her in for a grand kiss, before he presses his forehead to hers and whispers something to her. Then he steps away and walks over to us.
“It’s okay sweetheart, let me give you a little break.” He says with a soft, adoring smile. “Just for a short moment, okay?”
“Just for a little bit,” she relents, but she misses the look in Caspian’s eyes when he watches her for a moment, then he lifts his hands and the water shifts to him.
*Colette*
Caspian steps into the wave, his form shifting as his scaly figure emerges, and the water seems to move with him as he makes his way toward Giselle as she grows brighter, hotter. The wave I had conjured up pales in comparison to the one he seems to lift from the earth.
The air around us cools with the shield from the heat and I try to speak, to tell him to come back. Why does he feel he must go so far from us? I can help him, give him what strength I have left if he needs it.
Merikh clings to me as water rises around us as if we are treading deeper into the vast ocean he creates around us. Without the water and Merikh’s arms I would be a pile of jelly, my muscles screaming as every fiber tries to recover from what I was doing. The bright burning light that is Giselle only grows brighter. A sun here on earth as the water steams around us, and my lip quivers.
“He isn’t strong enough on his own,” I rasp out, looking up at Merikh, begging for him to understand. His bright green eyes flash with alarm and he shakes his head, a panic rising in him that even he can’t find.
“No,” He insists, his head shaking as he turns me to face him, gripping my shoulders.
“You know that he needs my help.” I say, easing out of his hold.
My knees buckle and I drop into the water, bobbing back up to look at the agony in his eyes. In all my life, I have only ever seen this look of terror when someone was about to die. Which means he knows what it likely to happen, and why I have to help my dad.
“He needs his mate.” My mother whispers.
I whip my head in her direction as she clutches her hands at her chest, her eyes filled with tears, watching my father roar with power as he does everything in his ability to shield everyone as high and as long as he can.
“Mom…” I swallow the word, hating how it catches in my throat as she rushes toward him.
I lurch forward to follow, but I find myself swept up into Merikh arms. He looks down at me, my heart shattering at the thought of leaving when I know I can do more. I have more in me if only he would trust me enough to use it. But without so much as a peep, he rushes toward the massive wall, making his way closer.
It feels like time slows down as I witness my mom step into the watery wall and wrap her arms around my dad from behind. At the slightest touch from her, his wall rises fifteen feet taller, and she moves around to be in front of him. I struggle to understand how she can breathe or even speak, but I see her lips moving as she locks her eyes on mine.
“Forgive me,” Merikh says softly and I look up at his stoney face.
“What?” I gasp and he speeds up. “What is it? What is wrong?”
“It’s what your mom said-” The words are taken from his mouth as water slams into us, knocking the air from my lungs as I whip through the current, Merikh clinging to my body for dear life holding me to his chest as we swirl and spin. Then I hear it on the waves as if it were a breeze in a meadow.
“To have you was a dream, to lose you killed us, to love you all over again was an honor. Thank you for bringing us back to life, back together, our sweet Colette.” Caspian’s voice surrounds me and my insides twist painfully at what is happening. “I can only hope all of us is enough to protect you this time.”
And just like that the water turns angry, currents crossing, my hair whipping around my body and my arms thrashing as I try to hold on to Merikh. He is torn from me.
My eyes close, my siren screeching in my head as if in mourning as a bright light explodes over my head and every bit of water dissipates, turning to steamy fog, dropping me on my back into the soggy ground.
“Colette!” Merikh screams, but I can’t answer.
Words fail me, my legs fail me, just as I failed them. Bile burns its way up my throat as I turn over to my hands and retch the hot liquid to the ground. And then and only then do my sobs find their freedom. It tears through me with such painful force that it feels like my voice will never recover.
“No.” I whimper, crawling to find what is left of them even though I know. I can feel it. There is nothing left. No bodies to bury, no ashes to scatter. They are gone, lost to me forever like they had been before, only this time…this time it’s final.
“NO!” I roar, finding the anger in my heart as I pound at the ground. “No! No, no!”
I feel Merikh as his body collides into mine, his legs sliding into the mud as he takes me in his arms dragging me into a hug. His relief infuriates me all the while his touch soothes the aching pain in my heart. How can you despise a touch whilst still needing it?
“I am here,” he whispers, his words soft as his lips touch my ear and I reach up, shoving his face away and forcing myself to stand.
“So am I!” I roar, a sob terrorizing my chest as it breaks through my words. “So am I, and I don’t want to be.”
I slump to my knees, my eyes finding his as they go from hurt to a soft, non judgemental understanding. He doesn’t move closer. Instead, he sits back on his ass, his face turning up to the dense fog around us. And then he lets out a roar that makes the earth shake.
The tears fall from my cheeks and then he crawls to me, reaching out and inviting me into his embrace. He doesn’t pressure me, or say a word, he only waits until I reach out. Then he tucks me away into his lap and lets the part of me that is hurting die with my tears.
There is only the sound of my tears, and the soft comforting hums from Merikh in the air, mingling with the fog that feels like it mocks me with its cover.
“M-maybe they are okay, right?” I hiccup as I wipe my tears and glance up at Merikh. He says nothing, but his face says it all. “We need to look-” His thumb strokes my cheek before he gives me a barely noticeable nod.
“Sure, we can look.” He agrees, but I know he sees what I am unwilling to admit. There is no way that they were that close to her final blast and survived it. It’s entirely unreasonable and improbable that they were disintegrated.
My siren felt it, the shift in the water, the way my king and father disappeared entirely. But yet, Merikh helps me up, taking my hand as we walk around, our eyes on the ground as we move slowly so we can see.
My body is exhausted, my werewolf and siren both drained as my feet throb and my heart falls further into my stomach with every passing minute. It’s not until the sun rises that I finally see through the white wall of fog, a swirling of movement as someone stoops down and plucks something from the ground.
“Mom?” I croak, rushing forward, stumbling over my feet. “Mo-“
I freeze, my ear pounding with my rapid heartbeat as I watch the fog clear and Ezrah is revealed. His body is soaked, and he holds a rock looking item in his arms before he looks away and then glances back over my shoulder.
“I never wanted it to go this way, my friend.” He whispers, “I will leave you her ashes. I suggest you do with them what you had proposed. But this… this one will remain with me.”