The Silver Crescent Prince

'Are you in there?' asked Quetz. 

'Yes!' 

Not able to contain his fury, for the second time Quetz crashed into the building. A large dent formed as the steel sunk in. 'Dawn,' he shouted through their mental bond. 

'Don't slam again. It feels like an earthquake when you do that,' she called him back. 

Suddenly, she heard sharp claws grazing round the corner. The sound was warbled but she could easily make out what that was. 'Is Daryn there too?' 

'Yes!' came Daryn's voice through the mind link. 'And I am about to barge in!' 

Daryn circled the whole construction while he grazed his claws in a line just enough for the outer line to be gouged. He didn't know how to open the place because everything appeared to be a smooth dome. There was no entry, no door, not even a window through which he could infiltrate the place. 

Quetz stopped banging the place when Dawn chided him. He looked at Daryn who was figuring out where the door was. When he came back looking lost, Quetz swum lower. There had to be a place from there they could enter, and he was right. Just below the structure, on the mount's side there was a small opening that was filled with water but he could see lights coming from the inside. He swam back up to where Daryn was and nudged him to the entry point. Daryn nodded and crawled into that space while he stayed on the outside. As soon as Daryn had disappeared inside, Quetz went above the construction and began circling it. He wouldn't let the kidnapper go away. He was planning to burn him, murder him – only if he escaped Daryn's wrath. 

Daryn – the king of Lykae. The strongest, the rarest form of Lykae he had ever seen or heard of. No one came close to him in terms of power, not even his own tribe. 

The light was coming from a glass door that was vacuum sealed. A grid was present on the outside on which the code had to be punched to get in. It wasn't difficult to understand the code. D. A. W. N. 

The door sprung open slowly without making noise and the water started to fill inside. Daryn immediately entered inside and closed the door. He waited for a few minutes as the water around him receded. On top of his head was a sealed red lid. He rotated the lever in the side and the lid opened up. Daryn wriggled out of the hole into complete darkness of a small four by four square feet room. Soft as a cat, he tread close to an open door.

'Where are you Dawn?' he connected with his wife. 'I am inside this facility.' 

'I don't know!' she said in an irritated voice. 'But I am glad that you found me.' Her voice was laced with pride but he knew that she quivered. 

'I thought it was Quetz who led you here," she confronted. 

Daryn chuckled again. 'I could have found you even without him.' 

She shook her head at the arrogant man. 

'Keep that bastard busy talking to you. I will slash his throat the moment I see him.' 

Dawn looked at the camera again, visibly relaxed. "Why is this place shaking so much?" she asked. 

"It must have been a minor earthquake Dawn. Please don't worry," said Azura, as once again he straightened his chair after grabbing the mic to answer her query. "Don't be nervous, okay." He looked at the food that was lying untouched. He wanted her to eat so that her strength didn't flail, but she was too stubborn. She looked so pale on the screen that he was worried on the inside. 

"How long are you going to keep me a prisoner here, Azura?" 

"Only for two more days. After that we are going to go someplace where no one can trace us. We are going to be liberated from this world. I don't want to remain as the leader of the neotides. I am going to go away with you so far that people will think that I am dead, that you are dead." He told her plan to her. He had long lusted for this girl, so long that he didn't know when it began. She was not even a neotide then. 

"Where will you take me?" she asked to buy as much time as possible. 

He laughed. "It's a paradise. You will love it!"

"What will happen to you if my husband finds you?" 

Azura was surprised that she was suddenly asking so many questions. "He can't find us. Your smell is well sealed inside this structure. We have ensured that he can't locate us. Why do you think that for an abduction of Dawn, the queen of the Lykae, we could take so many precautions and go to such lengths?" 

Dawn raised her eyebrow. "We?" she asked. "Who is 'We'?" 

Daryn was about to burst inside but he stopped in order to listen to who was behind all this. Apparently Azura wasn't this well equipped or had the intelligence. 

Azura stopped speaking. A grin formed on his face. "I won't tell you who was behind this but let me assure you one thing—there are people who hate you, who hate your marriage with Daryn and who hate the fact that you are carrying his baby."

"Why?" asked Dawn. No one knew that she was pregnant, so that came as a sheer surprise. Her body trembled. 

"There are some very dark powers behind all this Dawn." He laughed. "I didn't know that you held so much importance that there are people who want to make sure that you are terminated." He rubbed his fingers on his chin. "I guess you are very important." 

"Are you talking about Lily Wyatt?" she goaded him to spill out the information.

"Lily Wyatt?" Azura scorned. "She is just a gnat in this giant plan. She would be crushed easily. There are bigger powers."

Dawn shuddered. Words left her. "Who?" she breathed out. 

He shook his head. "I won't tell you that Dawn. I have vowed to that person. If I break my promise, I will be shredded into pieces." 

"Then you die!" 

Azura spun his body to see who spoke those words from behind. His eyes went wide when he saw Daryn. His ivory claws extended to the longest he had ever seen and his black eyes seemed to flicker with the yellow slits. 

So this was why Dawn appeared composed. 

Daryn didn't give him a chance to think and charged at him. He leapt at him and Azura dodged by jumping on the side. Daryn's claws plunged into the screen and he tore it down in an instant. He turned around sharply and found Azura waiting for him with his claws jutted out. But Daryn stood tall. He was massive, towering over Azura as he let his beast take control of his body.