Traded To The Lycan King

“It won’t work.” A tired voice says from beyond the bars next to me. I stop, holding my dirty shirt close, my excitement waning and taking with it the endorphins blocking my pain.

“Why won’t it work?” I ask, half heartedly believing it now.

They take everything. They do a sweep each day, and they take anything that is not clothing on us.” She whispers. “And they know what you are now, so they may not even bring you water to drink.”

“Shit.” I mutter, pressing my back against the rocky wall and sliding down, hugging my shirt like it is my favorite childhood stuffed animal. This is not how I go out without a stand and as weak as I was when Merikh found me. I have finally found my strength, a life I want to fight for so damn it, I will figure out a way out. I have to.

“It would be a lie to say things will be alright,” Elle says, moving closer to the bar. I slide my eyes to look at her, my heart breaking at her appearance. This isn’t how I wanted to find my mother. I wanted to blaze in and save her. Drag her from this hellhole and nurture her back to health.

“They can’t be all that bad if I’ve finally found you.” I whisper, and she furrows her brows in doubt.

“I’m not who you think I am,” she whispers.

“So you aren’t Caspian’s mate? The king of the sirens?” I ask her, and she blinks at me before looking around. She moves closer, her hands resting on the silver bars but having no reaction to the metal that should burn her.

Are you one of them?” She whispers.

“One of who?” I ask, confused.

“The fae that they used in the past to trick me.” She pushes off the bar, using her arms to drag herself away from me. Her legs are limp as she puts distance between us from the bars. “You aren’t the first attempt to make me think you are my daughter. But I know she is dead, so I won’t fall for your tricks.”

“You left me in a bog and told me someone would be there for me soon.” I tell her. “For years I thought you were dead, and I had no idea who I was, what I was. A slave in my alpha’s house where his daughter made my every day a living hell.”

She covers her ears as she whimpers.

“No, no, no!” she hisses. “My brother would never do that…he…”

She pauses, looking at me with a spark in her eyes.

“What is my niece’s name?” She asks like she is testing me, and I snort.

“Leslie.” I say with ease, “And your brother’s name is Alpha Bentley. Though I didn’t know I was related to them until after The Lycan King took me as his mate.”

you?”

he traded

trade?” She asks, sitting up and looking like she

he could

the words like she

the corners

love him…” Melody

from my aching muscles, and I remember just how much

silence, and I hear the soft sound of sobbing. Melody covers her face, her body rocking with heaving sobs before she looks up and drags her broken body back toward me. Her eyes are red and puffy, and her silt covered face clean where the tears have tracked through the

look at you?” She whispers, a fleeting shimmer of hope in

I whisper, and she slaps a

She says in a shaky voice before she crumples and

do as I reach through the bars, my bare

it. My fingers finger her hand and I pull

small and filled with

How can I when I’m finally laying eyes on my

“I am.”

and my mom snaps away from me. Everyone goes dead silent. I wince as I slowly extract my arm from the bars and inch myself back to the wall, being careful not to bump my aching legs and

door opens to Melody’s little slice of hell and a little old man pushes a cart inside before closing the door behind him. He hums a little tune, his voice

is yes, but I can’t bear to

myself at the bars,

adrenaline pumping through me as I do my damndest to reach the stubbly old man. He turns slowly, his eyes scanning me with curiosity before he rolls his eyes and begins his happy little hum before selecting something in a small

says in song form, in tune with

to heal me,” Melody says with

churns, and I look at Trina and Lenard, who cast their sad gazes away. They look far better off than my mother. Hell, they

to you next,” Trina

not.”

have a choice. His job is to heal you so you can handle more punishment later.” Lenard explains, sorrow on his face. The way these two have gone somber makes me unsettled and I furrow my brows, watching them. Lenard seems to pick up