Traded To The Lycan King by MG Wattsons

"He is baiting us." Teiran gruffs, looking around for something more than the few droplets that linger on the

ground.

"Or it's someone else." | mutter, focused on the way the blood seems different. Pinker, almost like paint from the

store in shades lighter than blood red.

"Both of you are wrong," Kyra murmurs in thought, scooping up a leaf with sof it on it as she brings it closer

to her nose and sniffs.

"And what makes you think that?" Teiran asks, walking over to her.

"There is fur in it," she explains, but he huffs in disagreement.

"The fur could have happened before or after the blood was here." He parries.

Kyra shrugs, her smooth locks falling over her shoulder and swinging toward her face as she looks carefully at

what's in her hand.

"I suppose that could be true, too. But this blood smells like a deer.

"Then why is it pink?" He frowns and I grin. It feels nice to know a little more about this than others.

"It's from the lungs. It's more oxygenated and therefore looks more pink than red. Do you not hunt deer very

often?"

Teiran looks atwith a blank stare, "We don't hunt our deer the sway you do."

"Right," | mumble, remembering he is a big ass dragon under that human skin. He probably doesn't have to

chase and tackle, but does more swooping and swallowing.

"Are you sure it is a deer?" He asks, as Kyra stands and walks further from us.

We follow her, watching as she processes everything in her head, her eyes focused and her mind unable to hear

anything we are saying now. Until she stops and places her hands on her hips.

"lI am positive." She says, looking back at us and then nodding forward to where a dead deer hangs, partially

butchered.

"Ezrah?" | ask, moving closer, looking at the jagged cuts closer.

"Most likely," Kyra says.

"Well, at least we can salvage what he left." Teiran says, moving closer and proceeding to process the rest of the

deer.

| can see Kyra already moving forward in her head, her eyes scanning the different ways Ezrah could have

potentially gone. She moves forward, passing the deer and stepping into a tiny clearing where she places her

hands on her hips and sucks in her bottom lip, chewing on it intensely.

| want to follow her, like a shadow forever attached to her but always beneath her, but it feels somehow invasive

to see her like this, in a way | have never known her to be.

This is the version Tyler knew, the version he helped to shape, and that she loves so much. It feels wrong to

admire her for it and yet...her focus is adorable and her commitment admirable.

"You follow her and see what else you two may find, then cback for me." Teiran says from behind me.

"There is enough meat here that we can turn it into jerky and have supplies for stime."

"Are you sure?" | ask him and he snorts a laugh.

"I have been out here on my own for a long time." He responds and | smirk.

"I mean, are you sure you know what you are doing? Because it looks tolike you are cutting that deer like a

novice." | wince as he just takes chunks out of the veal.

"Meat is meat, no matter how it is cut." He says, looking mildly confused. "Now go before she leaves you."

His eyes look at where Kyra was moments before, but now there is nothing but a hint of her scent left behind. |

follow it, weaving through trees until | see her. Her fingers touch various trees before she swoops down, touching

the mossy ground. Then she drops to her knees and listens to the ground, popping up with a disappointed frown.

| see it before she does, the quick movement under the trees on the opposite side. My eyes stuck on the thing as

it darts around, before stopping and standing at the edge of the light that shines through the trees.

| stride to Kyra, coming up next to her, my hand sliding up her lower back to alert her to my presence. She

shakes her head out of a daze, then blinks at me, a curious shimmer in her eyes.

"We have an audience." | 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." | agree.

""You look scared." A feminine voice calls out.

That draws a cocky smile fromas | chuckle low in my chest.

"You misinterpret my wariness for fear. | don't often get scared, and most certainly not when it is someone of

your kind." I tell her, which makes Kyra look up atcuriously.

"Was that you who killed the deer?" | 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 | scared him off."

"What bastard?" Kyra asks, taking a step closer. "Can you tellwhich way he went?"

"Do you know him?" The blonde elf narrows her eyes, her teeth grinding together. | can see the trees as they

move, almost quivering with her in her growing anger.

"We are hunting him." | 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?" | 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 sway for all of us. "Well, in the

past year, | have. And just in the last three days | 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 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," | say sweetly, flashing her a bright smile. "We have been tracking him for stime."

| 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, | lost him there."

"Shit." Kyra mutters, looking back. "We should go get Teiran quickly and head that way. | don't want to lose him

anymore than we have."

"Who is Teiran?" The girl asks, suddenly looking a little nervous.

"Why?" | 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 | 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," | 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 sparea 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 | spin in a circle looking for him. "I

punished him." The wood fae says from behind us, coming to a halt.

"Where is he?" | 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 hitsin 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.

| fall to my knees, bile rising as | 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