Prey (Male!Naga x Male!Reader)

Chapter 22

Everything that occurred next seemed to happen in slow motion. Y/n's heart beat once, very loudly in his ears, as he watched Dr. Nilsson press the key to the electronic lock. Y/n's heart beat again; his eyes moved to the tunnel's entrance behind her.

His heart stropped. Out of the dim, swirling dust came the naga's figure, scales gliding across the stone without making a single sound. As quiet and invisible as a phantom. Dr. Nilsson could not see the impending danger; her own doom; her back was to the tunnel. The cage's door was slow — too slow — to cooperate.

The first thing to pierce the veil of dust and sunlight clearly was the naga's brightly burning eyes: gold. Y/n recognized the color from when it had hunted the (h/c) man before. Then, came the dark scarlet that stained its alabaster skin. Blood — Raphael's blood if Y/n had to guess — had sprayed in droplets along its torso, beading up between the corded muscles of its abdominals. It also dripped from the naga's sharp talons, but that sound was drowned out by the roaring water.

Dr. Nilsson remained entirely unaware. Y/n didn't have time to warn her.

Yet, strangely enough it was not Dr. Nilsson the naga's eyes first targeted but Y/n himself. It paused for a split moment; hesitated, before its black tongue flicked in one rapid motion — and its eyes landed on Dr. Nilsson — and then what was happening between the two of them: the cage's door opening.

The naga's eyes burned then.

"Dr. Nilsson —" Y/n barely managed to get her name out before the naga was launching toward her.

Breath seizing in his lungs, Y/n pitched forward as well, desperately reaching for Dr. Nilsson and praying he got to her first. She was already moving forward, one foot inside the cage — Y/n's hand found her shirt. He pulled her forward so hard he might've accidentally torn some of the clothing's seams, but that didn't matter. It didn't matter.

All that mattered was Dr. Nilsson was tumbling on top of him, the door was snapping shut behind her, and the naga had once again been locked out; denied its precious prey. Its palms slammed loudly against the cage, metal screeching when the naga raked its claws furiously over the bars. It spitted out a string of angry, growled hisses.

The anticipatory gold color faded from its eyes. It could not last against the furious approach of a deep violet; dark and potent.

Dr. Nilsson seemed finally appraised of the situation, looking behind herself at the incensed naga with wide eyes. Her hands — that had caught themselves on Y/n's stomach — clenched into fists. Y/n could feel her draw in an unsteady breath, but he wasn't sure if she was suddenly afraid or in total awe of the "specimen" before her. Knowing her, it could be either.

The naga's dark eyes flicked between them. It was silent now, but Y/n's heart was still racing in his chest. Its anger was not yet done. The naga's eyes were darker than Y/n had ever seen them.

The tension reach an apex — and it was promptly expelled to reveal a new kind when the naga began moving. It circled the cage, reminding Y/n eerily of the first time he had properly met the naga face-to-face. It was thinking; adjusting to this change; this new and uninvited intruder. It was quiet save for the shaky breaths shared between Dr. Nilsson and Y/n and the soft drag of Enlil's dark scales against the rough stone.

Then the naga stopped. And Y/n's stomach dropped when he realize where precisely it had; Enlil had settled close to the opening in the bars. A perfect location to strike at them.

Y/n's breath stuttered.

In an instant, the naga forced its arm through the opening it had made, claws aiming to rake off Dr. Nilsson's very face — and Y/n did not hesitate to shield her with his own body. He was a lot of things, but stupid was not one of them. There was only one person capable of getting Y/n off this island alive and she was in this cage with him. He wouldn't let her face get ripped off now. Besides, he was already injured, it would better for him to take the hit than Dr. Nilsson. Yet, when Y/n braced himself for the naga's claws to tear through him —