Traded To The Lycan King by MG Wattsons

It's incredibly difficult to rest on the back of someone you aren't sure you can trust. Every muscle in my body feels tense, my neck aching from keeping it pressing into his back too hard. I am used to being carried around; it seems lately it's been happening more frequently. But this tis different. It feels forced.

Ezrah feels...fake. Or rather, I am seeing the real him for the first time. Each the looks over his shoulder to check on me, I see something in his eyes. If I were more optimistic about him, I would think it was a concern, but it feels deeper. Almost as if he is concerned, but not for me. More my presence.

Percy remains near, his eyes constantly cutting in my direction like a worried watch dog looking for orders. He can feel it too, which only makesmore unnerved. What happens when we arrive? Is Ezrah really a bad guy, and if he is, why not kill us after what he saw I could do? Clearly, he isn't under smagic spell like the many others out here fighting.

"We should go separate ways here." Percy says, sniffing the air.

It smells of heated metal, the trees brown and shriveling while the branches further north of us begins to smoke. Not only are we close, but it would seem that Lily's death has been felt already. We are running out of time.

"I think I should take you all the way. It seems like we are almost there now." Ezrah says, a frown on his face as I squirm off of his back and take a step over to Percy.

"There is a plan in place for a reason," Percy says, his words clipped and pointed.

"Sometimes plans change for the better." Ezrah shrugs. I say nothing as he stares at me, neither of us breaking. Then he rolls his eyes and lets out an enormous sigh. "Well, con then. I might as well walk you the rest of the way." "We need to stick to the plan." I reiterate, and he scoffs.

"Your plan was ruined the second you trusted Elm." "It's not Elm who is the issue," Percy says, his voice defensive as he inches in front of me, ready to fight Ezrah if he has to. I reach out to touch his upper arm, reassuring him.

"Percy, Merikh vouched for Ezrah." I remind him, but we both know that trust is gone. We can feel it, sense the shift in him. The end of his charade is so close, and he has let his guard down. "Let's just move, quickly. We are close. I can feel it." Ezrah walks first, trying to show that by turning his back, he trusts us. But it's easy to trust the people you think are beneath you. How often do they ever actually stand up and retaliate? What he doesn't realize is that we are a step ahead of him this time.

It doesn't take us long to see her pacing figure. The air around her shimmers like she is a blue flame, my view of her distorted by the warbling of the heat encircling her. I pause, moving behind a tree trunk, Percy taking a similar stance to the right ofas Ezrah continues to walk.

"Ah," she says in a sigh of relief, a small shake of Ezrah's head has her tipping her chin to the right before her eyes widen and she turns away from us. "What do you have for me, messenger boy?" "What makes you think I have anything for you?" He asks, standing in the open, his cheeks turning pink as he shifts to the side. The heat is almost too much for him as he licks his lips and glances at me. "You always cwith letters of the law, meetings or stupid meaningless things. The council is gone. I have nothing to say to anyone and there is no tfor stupid, meaningless things." "Alpha Merikh would like a truce." Ezrah Announces to her.

"Too late." She shrugs. I watch as it looks like her body seems to glimmer in flames that cover her almost naked body. Her skin is skewed by the extrheat and the more intimate areas seem to be covered in sstrange sheen of fire.

"I brought Luna Colette as his offering." He says, motioning in my direction.

Her eyes snap up and her lips twitch. Then she smiles at him sweetly.

"So the charade is up, then? I no longer have to pretend that it is justdoing all of this?" She asks.

"Alpha Merikh will be here soon to explain everything to her." He whispers, looking away from me.

I was suspicious before, but I know without a doubt at this moment that Ezrah has been the enemy all along. Pulling strings, and playing us all with the trust he spent years establishing. This fool things he is still fooling me, and with this crazy accusation against my mate? It's impossible to hide the bubble of laughter that erupts from my lips. Quiet little giggles erupt into a full stomach laugh, my arms covering my abdomen as I stumble closer.

"Ah, Colette." She says, not even trying to feign the surprise. She knew I was there the moment Ezrah walked up. Why? Because Ezrah was always meant to bringto her. He is the delivery boy, after all. "I am telling the truth-" Ezrah says deadpan.

"Merikh could be the one holding the knife and you still wouldn't convinceit was him trying to kill me. I trust him explicitly. Always." I say with a headshake.

"Speople cannot see what is in front of them." Giselle shrugs.

"And others are unable to understand love. We all have our failings. Swith far less than others." I snap back at her.

I can sense Percy close by, and it givesa little more gumption. The ability to push her, goad her like Merikh planned to do all along. What I need to do first is find what hurts her the most. That weak spot in her fake armor. And then I need to lean into it until she explodes, Not a problem at all, super easy job.

Giselle chuckles, waving her fluttering fiery hand away as if my words are an annoying mosquito she can't quite catch. A smirk curls at the corner of my lip. And just like that, I know I have found the weak spot. It should have been easier to spot. But the way my words clearly annoy her and the way she tries to pretend they don't.

Giselle is lonely. A bitch, but a lonely one.

"Love is fleeting." She says in a carefree voice.

have "No, fake love is fleeting. Which I am sure you have known many times over. I mean, you had to pretend to be a species you aren't in order to make a dragon 'love' you." I scoff. "My mate wantedfrom the second he saw me, and we have fought for each other since." "Your mate will stab you in the back, like he has done over and over again." She seethes. The surrounding air grows hotter, the moisture in the air leeching away as I take a few steps back, needing to breathe. "Giselle, you are feeding into their plan." Ezrah grits out, holding a hand up as he tries to look at her.

"Oh, shut up you stupid Elf!" she roars, her hair going from red to flicking blue flames. "You served your purpose." "Careful how you speak to me. I am your fa-courier." He says, and it dawns on me. He is going to deliver her. Once she is ash and gone, he will take her and bring her somewhere, store her.

"Luna," I hear Percy whisper from the trees, his eyes flickering to Giselle, an encouraging head nod.

"What was the point of all of this?" I ask, breaking up their heated argument.

"Point of what?" Giselle blinks, looking at me.

"The war, needing me, being a 'dragon'?" I scoff. "It was all pointless. This whole 'creature of chaos' bullshit." "Pointless?" she asks, offended. "Pointless? It worked. It all fucking worked. You showedit could be done, and now, now it is happening. Only thing left to do is kill you so you aren't a threat to it." My brows furrow together and then I watch as her hand glides over her ember like belly. Shit, she is pregnant? "You are figuring it out, aren't you?" She giggles. "Surprise! I'm having the dragon heir!" "They have one." I remind her and she rolls her eyes.

"He has already been stripped of his title. This little thing will rule over dragons and with it, the ultimate chaos will reign. Not for a short term, but for a hundred years. A phoenix is around for thirty years, at most before regeneration starts again. But Dragons?" "Assuming they will want it." I scoff. "As the only hybrid, I can assure you, there are many who will try to kill it, especially if it is part of you." She takes a step toward me, her heat preceding her with every inch she moves closer.

"She is protected. A child in the care of a courier Fae is protected by them at all costs. Aren't they Papa Ezrah? My sweet adoptive daddy who found my egg in a tree." She says, looking at Ezrah, who looks almost sad.

"Here is the plan. I am going to kill you, no matter what." I shrug.

"And what of my child? Does it not matter to you?" "If you were an egg and dragons are born of eggs, I can only asswhen you die, the egg will be left behind." I grin, a plan forming in my head. "But I promise to raise your child with nothing but love and a respect for all species."

Her eyes blaze and she sneers at me, the area around us growing lighter as T she beams, her light flashing like a trobe in aclub. Well, I guess that is her weak spot; I suck in a deep breath, my hand sweating as I hold them at my side, preparing to summon all the water I can. "It can callMommy, and Merikh will be such a wonderful Daddy. I mean, it makes sense. Any fire it lights, I can just put out. Who better to be its parents than us?"

And just like that, she lets out an excruciating cry of agony, a beam of light shooting straight up into the sky as she falls on her back. A wave of heat throwsinto a tree as I heave, searching for air. Percy grabs me, pullingaway, behind a rock for shelter. "It's now or never Luna." He says hoarsely, his cheeks burned and his lips chapped. "Tto show everyone what you are made of." X