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.

as I try to focus. "Give in,

legs from around 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 as I scramble up and

my voice shrill and

of pain in my skin. I let my lycan take over as she sinks her claws into the top of his

grab 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 lycan form, the best I can do is grunt at him and how he

want this," he

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 a way to get there.

his head, giving me nothing but dead weight as he reaches up with his other hand and rests it on my

Ky." He whispers, his fingers digging into mine as he slowly draws one claw out at a time from his

too late; the blood making his arm slick as I try to reach out and catch him with both hands. He yanks his hands down as he disappears into the

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 beneath my feet as I sprint as close to the water as I can, barely staying ahead of

to lose him. Hayes could kick me out of his life all he wants but the thought

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 alpha's order is too specific. At

trips up my foot and

pushed to the back of my head. There is only one thing I can worry about right now and that

in branches as it drags him further and faster away from me. By some stroke of luck, the log gets caught up on a massive boulder, teetering more toward my side.

that might just be close enough for

water as I

When I look at it, I see Hayes' face down but close

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, counting and

on, Hayes!" I scream, tears falling from my face. "You need to wake the