Traded To The Lycan King by MG Wattsons

*Hayes*

I squat down next to the ash where a fire had been, placing my hand above it to feel for heat. With my good arm, I reach out, my fingers digging into the cold ash as I lift it and let it fall. I frown at the soot, my eyes scanning the rest of the area, what glimmer of excitement ! "Do you think it was him?" Dean asks, coming up behind me, watching my every move as if he will be clued into what might be going through my head.

had leaches from me. Could it be him? Was the bastard this fucking close, and we missed him?

How the fuck should I know if it was truly Ezrah? Other than the weird ass little nest next to a body sized patch of pressed leaves, I can't definitively say that it was or wasn't him or not. Now, do I believe it was him? Yes. But again, that pesky little thing called proof seems to elude me more often than not.

"Hard to say." I mutter, exhaling my disappointment, only to breathe in curiosity when I see Kyra tilting her head in total silence and surveying the area.

"Shouldn't she be the one sticking her hands in the dirt and shit? Trying to smell it or something?" Nisha asks. I shift my eyes toward her, watching her glare at Kyra, who does nothing but look like she is staring off into space.

"I don't need to stick my hand in dirt to know it's been four days since they were here." Kyra looks at us, her face unreadable as she saunters to the center of the small camp, her body coming within inches of mine before she turns and points at the grass.

"The leaves, though slightly pressed, are rising off the ground. New life is growing beneath them, meaning there has not been pressure on it in days. The ash isn't loose or easily disturbed, meaning it got wet. Not just a drizzling of a canteen on it, but a day or two worth of rain and then a day or two of solid dry weather." She pauses.

"There were storms ahead of our departure," Marcos says with a sly grin as he watches Kyra with ogling eyes I want to gouge out.

"What? Worried you can't track him with that much time between now and then?" Nisha goads.

Kyra remains calm, stepping up to the little nest before she kneels down and reaches in it, her hand touching everything and her fingers gently caressing the little bed. Then she lifts three different leaves to her nose, before she places two back.

After a second she turns to her left, searching the bedding for others, and repeats the process only to frown and sniff the one in her hand again. She sneezes and then her body shakes as she stands abruptly and takes three steps back. Kyra's eyes water, tears streaming down her cheeks as she groans and rubs her face with her hands, leaf still in her grip.

"I need water." She hisses, her arm extending out in search of help. "Now!"

me down as Marcos gently steps in with his water, open and ready to help her. "Lean your head back," he says, cupping the

as his water jug falls to his waist on its string. His uniformed, unburned and unmangled thumbs brush her eyes gently, tenderly rubbing along her freckles and cheeks. I swallow the rise of annoyance and anger in my throat, looking away, placing my hands on my hips. It is impossible to watch him treat her so gingerly when I can't. Not that I want to, but still. His overbearing attachment to her grates on my nerves. "Can you open

from Kyra's, as he tries to glimpse her face up close. He purses his lips, gently blowing on her eyelids. "What does blowing on her eyelids

sprinkled the area with something to mask his scent."

and I finally look at the jealous werewolf, tired of her constant shitty

fuck up." I

legs, she hurries to his side,

to do before

"Nothing." She shrugs.

doubt and I can sense I am

me for asking this but, don't you need to look around more?" Marcos asks, out

her eyes red and puffy and yet...yet I can't seem to bring myself to look away

is covering his tracks well. Which means any other clues are gone. The fact that he has something and lays

"But what good

his offensive words with a soft hum

would be useless." She

says with a wink, and

your average tracker." She says, looking around. "Tyler was the best tracker, not because of

asks, his lips tilted down, and

and

what I see but what I DON'T see