SAMANTHA
It wasn't a movement I could see at first. It was a feeling—a deep, grinding vibration that traveled up from the ground, through my feet, and into my bones. The rough texture under my lips shifted, softened, and grew warm.
I jerked back, my eyes flying open.
The grey, mossy surface was melting away, revealing patterns that were not patterns at all, but scales. Dark, emerald-green scales, shimmering with an inner light like wet stone. The shape that I had thought was a trick of the light was now unfolding, rising, becoming shoulders, a powerful back, a long tail coiled on the stones.
The rock was alive.
A head turned. Not a human head. A reptilian one, elongated and powerful, with a crest of darker spines.
It had the eyes the color of molten gold snapped open, their pupils vertical black slits. They fixed on me with an ancient, terrifying intelligence.
A hand—a clawed, three-fingered hand—shot out and clamped around my wrist. The grip was like iron, impossibly strong and searingly hot.
I tried to scream, but the sound was trapped in my throat, a choked gasp.
The golden eyes bored into mine. A low, rumbling sound, like boulders grinding deep in the earth, echoed from its chest. It was the sound of waking.
"Amanda!" I finally shrieked, trying to pull away. The creature's grip didn't budge an inch.
I turned my head, searching for my friend in the water.
Amanda was already several yards away, swimming backwards towards the mouth of the cove. There was no fear on her face. Only a cold, sharp triumph.
"RUN!" she screamed, but not to me. Her voice tore through the cove, aimed back at our friends. "EVERYONE, RUN! IT'S WOKEN! THE GUARDIAN IS ANGRY! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"
"AMANDA!" I screamed, pure betrayal ripping through the terror. "HELP ME!"
She didn't even look at me. She turned and swam with frantic, powerful strokes.
From the sunny end of the cove, I heard distant, panicked shrieks. Splashing. Confused cries of "Sam?"
"What's happening?" quickly drowned out by Amanda's commanding shouts. "Don't look back! Just run! It has her! It's too late!"
The ground began to shake in earnest. Small rocks and clumps of earth tumbled from the cliffs around us, plopping into the water. The very air seemed to shudder.
I was yanked forward, off my feet. I stumbled against the creature's chest, which was hard and hot as sun-baked stone. I looked up into that fierce, alien face. It wasn't angry. It was… focused. Intent. Its gaze held me, and in it, I saw not the monster from a story, but a king from a nightmare, and I was the prize he had just been given.
I looked over its scaled shoulder and what I saw was the empty, rippling water of the cove. My friends' laughter was gone. The sunlight was gone. There was only the shadow of the cliffs, the roar of falling rock, the heat of the grip on my wrist, and the blinding, golden eyes of the lizard king who held me.
I was still unconscious but I managed to hear, "Little puny human. What makes you think you can hop on my penis without my permission?"
I stuttered. "I…I'm sorry please. It was a dare. My friend dared me and I just wanted to have some fun. Please. My wedding is coming up soon and my groom is waiting for me. Please don't take me away. Give me the chance to.." I managed to speak up while fear gripped my throat.
I noticed that what I said came out like air. It made no sense and the lizard man wasn't even listening to me.
He was concentrating on something. I tried to wiggle, but he just held me tighter. Fuck!! I'm cooked!!
"Korvus," the Lizard Alpha said as he finally spoke up. "Have your men succeeded in finding any she-wolves? The full moon is almost upon us and we need to keep trying our luck."
It seemed Korvus had responded negatively and the Lizard Alpha was not happy about it because he has begun to yell. "Great! You guys are a four-man group and you get to work together and for weeks, you've been unable to find anything for me. But the day your Alpha decides to go on a hunt for himself, he's able to get something. Just today. The first day!!"
"I have to do everything myself or nothing gets done at all. I don't know why I keep working with idiots. I would be better off if I worked alone. I guess you don't work with agility because it's not you who badly needs to cure. You think I enjoy being stuck in this lizard body? I'm literally a monster and I don't get the liberty to turn as I wish."
"Anyways," he paused. "Gather five men and come over to the river's cove. I've caught a treasure and we're going to have a feast tonight!!"
Feast?! Who?! Who was he talking to?! Was he mindlinking members of his pack?
Electric sparks went over my body. We're they going to eat me? And then the world went dark as the cove collapsed around us.
*******
Consciousness returned to me and I woke up from my slumber with a hammering and crashing headache.
My skull felt like it was being compressed together and my eyelids continued to stay glued. My mouth tasted of copper, chemicals and bitter medicine.
The world swayed beneath me and I felt the cold scaly hands of the lizard shifters holding me tight.
I tried to move my arms and legs, and met with nothing but empty air and the rough scrape of what felt like woven reeds against my back.
I was being carried like a slain deer bound for a butcher's table.
Fear immediately gripped me and goosebumps swallowed all over my body. Where were they taking me? Were they taking me to sacrifice me or something?
My eyes suddenly flew open after thinking of the possibility of being a potential sacrifice.