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The usability of wireless sensor networks in modern applications requires the fulfillment of dynamic Quality of Service QoS requirements that can only be met in a reactive manner by the introduction of composite routing metrics, capturing several distinct network characteristics. However, combining routing metrics is neither a trivial nor an arbitrary task, given the routing protocol requirements and routing metrics properties. In this paper, the theoretical framework of routing algebra formalism is adopted and extended to incorporate single or composite routing metrics, because the satisfaction of routing algebra properties ensures convergence, optimality, and loop-freeness. Moreover, packet forwarding indication is defined as a new trust metric for systems a with or b without network retransmissions to avoid forwarding attacks, while a novel composite routing metric is presented, combining link reliability and trust-awareness in an additive manner, fulfilling the theoretical requirements. Finally, this composite metric is applied to the Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks via simulations, which verify its efficiency in several scenarios, including the comparison between lexical and additive metric composition approaches. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.