Traded To The Lycan King

My face buries into his neck, my arms clutching to him like velcro on a toddler's shoe. It feels hopeless as he groans, our bodies crushing impossibly closer as I realize he has slammed into something hard. The last time I was this useless was when Tyler died. My muscles clench and my heart aches unbearably as I force my head up. "What is the plan?" I ask him, steadying my shaky voice with fake confidence. I am not helpless, I am not useless, and I do not need to be saved. Not anymore, not after the last time someone died for me. I have spent far too long training to clam up now. "I am thinking." Hayes growls out over the sound of rocks crashing onto rocks and water surging.

"I'll think while you work." I say, twisting around in his arms, searching the river banks only to realize that what I thought was a river, angry and full of debris, is not that, not totally anyway.

"Any chance you could think a little faster than?" He groan's his face scrunching in pain.

"I'm working on it!" I say, growing more frantic by the second. We need to get away from the center where the current runs strong and deep. But how?

Then I spot it, a low hanging tree with a long solid branch as if our names were etched into it, waiting to catch us.

"Get us to the side." I say, tapping on his shoulder. My eyes narrow and set on our target. "Hurry!"

"I'm fucking trying," He hisses.

"Try harder, Hayes." I holler at him, panic rising in my throat as we grow closer by the second, yet we don't seem to move enough to the side and our only opportunity is about to be missed. "How about you carry us over there? Would that be better for you?" He grunts.

His wide arms sweep out behind me, our bodies all too slowly moving in the right direction. I lick my lips, leaning back slightly as I try to see if we will line up enough.

"Just a little more." I mutter more to myself as he groans with effort. His muscles grow taut and his shirt breaks free from him, his lycan taking over as its tufts of hair protrude from his skin. I grip onto the good side of his neck and look up, the branch dangerously close. Then I bite my lips, processing what needs to happen.

Not only are we not close enough, but the branch is much higher than I had expected. Even in his lycan form, Hayes isn't tall enough and with no real footing on the ground beneath us, there is no way for him to jump.

But I could jump off his back. The only problem is that if it's too deep when I jump, I risk shoving him under the water and into the current deeper below that will grip him and never let him go.

clenching my fists as I try to focus.

Hayes, his lycan letting out a disapproving growl as he fights the current harder, trying to make it to the side. He stops moving his massive paws, finding my waist as he lifts me, and I fly up, my chest crashing into the tree branch

scream out, my voice shrill and

take over as she sinks her claws into the top

my arm. Instead, he just groans and hangs helplessly, my nails making blood drip down his arms and over his chest. I want to scream at him. Tell him to move his ass, but in

want this,"

fought to live so far and follow the alpha's orders. But this move right now from him isn't one of death, not immediately anyway. He found a loophole, a way out, and he plans to use me as

as he reaches up with his other

whispers, his fingers digging into mine as he slowly draws one claw

try to reach out and catch

determination tears through me, one bigger than my anger and hurt. I scurry across the branch, leaping down from the tree as I break into the fastest sprint I have managed in my life. Dirt falls out

all he wants but the thought of a world without him? One where he makes me

eyes scan the muddy water, infested with trees and branches, searching for anything from him. He may have found a loophole, but he will still have to make an effort to live, right? He can't just give up. The

up my foot

of my head. There is only one thing I can worry about right now and that is - I see him! Relief and

and faster away from me. By some stroke of luck, the log gets caught up on a massive boulder, teetering more toward my side. Each

branch poking out from the log that

water as I hope

When I look at it, I see Hayes' face down but close enough to touch. I cut his

sounds, but the mate bond lingers ever so lightly. He has to still be alive if I feel it still. I rise up, crossing my hands over each other as I begin compressing his chest,

scream, tears falling from my face. "You need to wake the heck