Mated to My Ex's Lycan King Dad Chapter 107

Charles

The early morning sun was breaking through the trees as Quillan, the driver, sent us flying down a steep incline. The jeep landed hard, jostling everyone onboard, but I barely paid any heed to it.

"I can't believe this shit," Mercy hissed, gripping the edges of the van.

"A fucking police officer?" Quillan hissed through gritted teeth. "With a fucking van?"

"I'll deal with it," I said, bracing myself in the back seat of the jeep. "How far away are we now, Blake?"

She grunted. "We should be able to see them soon."

I stood, bracing myself in the backseat as I held on to the handholds on the rough and peered through the forest. I could see the van's headlights bumping and bumbling through the forest, but with the terrain and the distance, there was no way I could take the shot now.

What the fuck was Grace thinking? I appreciated and loved her compassion, but she could not honestly think that the Mooncrest Police were equipped to deal with terrorists or completely to be trusted. If I hadn't been assured that Eason knew his sister well, I was damn sure assured now because what the hell else could this be called by acting out.

I should have known from her tone that there was something else going on in her head when she said I'll take it and hung up in my face. This had to be the acting out, so what were the defend, divert, deny, and disengage tactics?

My head hurt just thinking about it, but that could be the lack of sleep. When this was all over, I was going to take Grace over my knee and spank the shit out of her for acting like a fucking child.

"How much further until we reach the highway?" I asked as we went over a hard dip.

"Not far enough," Blake said. "If he gets there, all bets are off. It's a straight, short stretch right into Mooncrest."

"What's near there?"

"Residences, it's one of their residential communities."

Shit. I got on the comms.

"ETA to the entrance to Mooncrest from Highway Donovan?"

"Twenty minutes, Your Majesty."

Fuck. They were too far.

"We're going to have to stop him in the forest. Can you go any faster?"

"I'm already flooring it. He had a hell of a headstart!"

I clenched my jaw as we bumped along. The tail lights of the van winked in and out of sight. The ploy had been brilliant like the officer had known that Grace would try to undermine my call on the situation. Maybe they had known. Eason knew her from growing up with her, but the rest of Mooncrest had to have seen the glaring bits of the worst parts of her personality.

Pride before the fucking fall.

Racing along the rough forested terrain, my pulse hammering in my chest.

We were running out of time. I pulled out my javelin, narrowing my senses and waiting for a clear shot at the tires.

The ground turned flatter and soon enough I could see the van more clearly. Just when I thought I might have a shot, we went over another rough patch, Quillan swerved sharply around a large stone outcropping. The tires of the jeep screeched and kicked up dirt and leaves.

I leaned back, slowing my breathing to stead my aim at the rear tires.

"Get ready. I'm taking the shot."

The forest started to smooth and just as we hit the smoothest patch, I launched the javelin, hitting the left rear tire. The van swerved with a screech. The Enforcer driving slowed the jeep down as the van slammed into a nearby tree. The rest of the unit, and I leaped out, heading toward the car quickly. I heard movement inside the vehicle, but no words. There was no intel about what kind of bomb it was, but it wouldn't matter once the stasis barrier was up.

"Activate the--"

I felt the heat before I felt or heard the explosion. The force of the blast engulfed us, lifting and flinging us away as if the ground and the air had switched places. I flew backward spinning through the air like a ragdoll before I landed hard and rolled under the bank of flame that filled my vision.

I lay there for a moment, disoriented and struggling to regain my senses. My ears rang, and the acrid scent of burning fuel filled the air. Pain throbbed in my body, but all I could feel was the bite of claws across my chest and the heat of the fire around me. The ground was practically burning beneath me, cauterizing a wound that had long since healed. Suddenly, I wasn’t in the forest any longer, but lying on the hot stone floor of the palace that night of the attempted coup.

Eighteen again. Frightened and on edge, losing my grip on my control again as my whole world shifted forever.

I heard screaming, a voice I hadn't heard since the night of the coup's attack on the palace. I could smell the burning flesh and silk, the scent of hot stone and spilled blood. I could see my father's hazy gaze. The blood slid out of his mouth as he collapsed against the wall, shuddering from the shift.

"Charles... the passage..."

I hadn't ran the way he suggested. It hadn't been in me to run as I directed the servants towards the secret passage. I couldn't run and leave my father here to defend the way alone.

"Charles, go!"

My mind tumbled through time to that night of chaos, and I felt my power surge in distress and defensiveness through me. My skin melted away to fur. I grew bigger, nearly as tall as the jeep. I could barely see the forest through the fire and memories of burning stone. With each shift of muscle and bone, feral instincts took hold, my senses sharpened. The magic that was in my blood simmered and sparked through me. It was a surge of untamed power, one that I couldn't control or suppress.

Too familiar and haunting--I was losing it.

Fuck, I couldn't afford to lose control. Not now.

Defend.

Kill.

Defend.

Fight.

"Shit," someone cursed nearby. I turned my head, focusing on the sound of her voice, the quick thrumming of her heart pounding in her chest. She aimed her tranquilizer gun at me. The fire continued to rage behind her.

"What do we do?"

"Your Majesty, are you with us?"

I growled, turning to look at them, trying to focus on them in the present--the shine of their armor, their young faces, the feeling of the earth beneath my paws--anything but the fire that continued to pull me back into that night.

Fight.

I had fought and killed, tearing through attacker after attacker to secure our castle even as they attacked me. When my father had breathed his last breath, I lost sense of anything else but the fight. Lightning and fire cut through the halls. I shifted from lycan to fire-wielding man to something in between through the flashes of darkness and blood.

I could feel the urging of my magic, the call of my mother's line pulsing through me. I pushed hard against the memories, the urge to give in to that power. The sleeplessness of the night was making it harder to harden my mind against the rising tide. If I could just calm down enough to shift back. If I could just get to my javelin again, I could make it through this with my control intact.

But it was too far, so I closed my eyes and blocked out the scents around me, retreating into my mind for a bit of stability.

Beyond the screaming and the roaring fires, beyond the blood, I heard Cecil's laughter. I smelled Richard fresh from a bath. I felt Grace's body pressed up against mine as we lay tangled in bed together.

Slowly, the call for war and the surge of magic receded. The past retreated into the back of my mind, even as I couldn't manage to shift back. My mind cleared.

"Shit. Shit. Shit."

"Your Majesty," she spoke again, firmer. "Are you with us?"

I staggered, swaying, casting my gaze wound until my gaze fell on the wreckage of the van, now a smoldering ruin with flames licking at the mangled metal. There was no sign of survivors. There might not even be a hint of what kind of explosives they'd used in the van. It was a grim scene, but something was keeping me on edge. I lifted my nose, turning my head left and then right. There was something else in the wind.

"Your Majesty, are you with me?"

Then, there was something moving in the nearby underbrush. I could hear the faintest sound of air moving around a body but not footsteps.

I smelled the sharp scent of temporary spells.

Cloaking spell.

"Ambush!" I roared, turning and leaping toward the sound just as a group of bodies started to come down on us.

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