The shadow of the ferocious beast that flickered over Azura made him flinch. The king was like a monster from the legend.

Daryn let out a guttural roar and leapt at him with dizzying speed. Azura couldn't dodge this time. Daryn snapped his jaws and then slashed across his chest. Bones cracked and veins ruptured as he ripped his flesh. Azura's shrieks filled the chamber. It was a gruesome display of gore.

​​

On the inside, Dawn heard the two beasts fighting as things got slammed or thrown around, equipment breaking, electricity zapping. She waited with a baited breath and a clenched jaw. "Give him what he deserves, Daryn," she whispered. She was sure that Azura was no match to her mate. She had desperately looked forward to him coming and saving her. Had she not been pregnant, she would have taken the chance to kill Azura.

'Yes, my dear,' Daryn replied softly and went on to fling the remains of the computer on the neotide who had converted his life into a pandemonium.

As Dawn stood there, she heard Quetz. 'What is happening inside?' he asked with rage, ready to breathe fire. He was so furious that it was difficult to control his temper. 'Tell me you are fine, or else I am going to wreck this place.'

'Wait Quetz,' she ordered him. 'Wait till I signal you.'

She heard him thrashing his tail violently in water around him as his massive body turned around the corner.

Dawn never expected that Quetz would also come. In fact she was surprised as to how did Quetz even come out of the enchanted realms? He could never leave that domain unless he had only Lore creatures around him or he was in a magical realm. How did he manage to come out of that and into the sea?

Another blood-curdling scream filled the room outside, diverting her attention.

It was over within seconds. Azura's body lay on the crimson floor. Not wasting a minute, Daryn charged at the steel door and punctured it with his claws. 'Move out of way, Dawn. I will break this door!"

Dawn moved away to the side. The door was torn apart and flung on the opposite wall where it crashed and fell over the bed, which bent under its weight. Daryn entered, his clothes covered with blood—with Azura's blood, and his face resembling the beast within him. His fangs had grown with blood dripping from them and his eyes were burning yellow.

She looked at him with longing and his beast returned the favor. He walked up to her and pressed her to chest and tenderly skimmed her cheeks with the back of his claws.

"I am sorry that you are seeing me in this state," he said. It was the first time he hadn't completely converted into a werewolf, but only let the beast out of its cage.

She didn't resist him at all. Her eyes watered. Placing her fingers on his cheeks, she said, "You are even more beautiful." Her knees gave out.

"I am so sorry, Dawn. I know how much it must have hurt you," he said as he caught her and pulled her closer to his chest.

Her tears fell unbridled. "It does hurt. I felt I was falling into an abyss when I couldn't smell you."

"Don't cry, my love," he said, as he tried to cage his beast back inside him. He pressed a kiss against her hair feeling utterly relieved. "You have my baby in there. You can't be sad." He pressed his hand against her tummy, careful that his claws didn't affect her.

'You need to get out, now!' Quetz' voice boomed in her head. 'The structure will fall anytime!'

Dawn's eyes became wide with fear. "We need to leave now!"

"Okay!" said Daryn, and pulled her out of the room. Once he was in that chamber with Dawn and locked the lid above him, he said, "I will take that underwater taxi. You have to communicate it to Quetz. He might be expecting his rider to go with him, but I can't take any more risks with you."

"That's fine. He wouldn't mind," replied Dawn with a dimpled smile. This man had come to care for Quetz in his own arrogant way.

"Will you be able to take the pressure of the water that will surround us?" he asked with a frown. His fangs and claws had retracted. Inside, his worry was manifold. The sudden pressure of water might crush her body. She was only a neotide – a human who was a turned wolf. If the water crushed her hard from all sides, there was a chance that it might injure her organs and then the baby— He let out a shaky breath and stopped himself from thinking further.

"I guess we have to take the chance," she said. The insecurity overwhelmed her.

Daryn took a deep breath and unscrewed the faucet of the water pipe. He let the water fill very slowly.

Suddenly they heard a low rumble and then a creaking sound.

'Come out now!' Quetz called. 'This construction is about to fall. Why don't you understand?'

'We are in the last chamber and water is filling around.'

Another creaking sound emanated from the inside.

The water had come to their neck level. She was getting a tingling feeling on her body.

"Dawn be prepared," Daryn warned.

She nodded and the water filled the entire chamber with a gush. They were now submerged completely.

Daryn looked at her and gestured that he was about to open the door. He was scared that the place would fall any minute. She nodded.

As he slowly unscrewed the handle of the door, he expected the building to creak further, but strangely nothing happened. The door opened and they swam out. He let Dawn go out first under his watchful eyes. As soon as they reached the place where the underwater taxi was parked, he pulled it inside the crevice where the door latched itself. It opened slowly, allowing them to sit inside one by one. The moment they sat, Daryn pressed a green button and the doors closed, squeezing the water out of it. He started it and accelerated it as far away as possible from the construction.

When they reached several meters above, they saw that Quetz was curled around the top of the dome and had clutched it tightly, preventing it from crashing. That is why they didn't hear it creaking. Daryn couldn't help but feel mesmerized about the dragon. And he felt so proud that his wife was a dragon rider. His chest swelled with pride.

'We are out safely,' Dawn conveyed it to him.

Quetz uncoiled himself and with a large stroke of his wings, swam away from it, hitting his tail against it one last time. The entire structure cracked and fell down. There was a rumble in the sea floor as the mount on which it was standing split open. The steel dome rolled down the slope and disappeared into the unknown.

They reached the water surface half-an-hour later.

'Where are you?' Dawn reached her dragon.

'You wouldn't want to know,' he chuckled. She could hear him munching an apple.

Her gaze turned to her mate. "Your wound… How's it?" A fresh wave of panic hit her. He had come to save her despite the bullet injury.