When Worlds Collide

Fourteen

That morning, I was woken rather abruptly by Brietta shaking my shoulders roughly. Stirring, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and opened them to find her staring at me, worry etched onto her features.

Sitting up, I yawned and faced her, "What's wrong?" I asked, still not quite with it yet. It often took me quite some time to come around and face the day, despite working most mornings, I most definitely was not a morning person.

"I think the King has realised you're not in your tent. He's currently frantically searching the camp in a frenzy and I think you've got about two seconds before he realises you're in here and drags you out by your ankles."

My eyes widened, I had slept in well past when I was supposed to wake up and return back to my own tent. I must've needed the sleep, but now I had to deal with an angry Lycan who possibly thought I left him. If he was like this when he wasn't sure I was still here or not, how would he react to know I really had ran away?

"Shit," I muttered, "I cannot have him see me in my underthings!" I quickly threw on my dressing gown and fingered the two braids at the side of my head. I had tried to keep them dry in the lake, but the splashing from Brietta and Fleur now meant that there were baby hairs flying everywhere. I sighed; I would have to deal with it later.

"You're going to have to go out there and calm him down before he shifts," Brietta urged.

"Shifts?" I half-shrieked, "Oh absolutely not. I am not dealing with some over-sized wolf that may or may not try to eat me."

Brietta pushed me towards the entrance of the tent, zipping open the flaps, "Go you ninny, he won't hurt you once he knows you're safe!"

"Oh bloody hell," I groaned, crawling on my hands and knees out of the tent and standing up to survey my surroundings. Half the camp was in chaos, men running left, right and centre following the command of Lex who was busy shouting orders. He was also nervously watching his King who had taken to interrogating innocent men. I watched as he lifted one particularly shaky soldier by his collar and asked for my whereabouts through gritted teeth.

Standing by the tent, refusing to walk another step further in case I needed to dive back inside for cover, I weakly called his name, "Callan?"

He immediately froze, his whole body tensing as he dropped the man he was holding, who crumpled to the ground in shock, before turning to face my direction, his eyes searching wildly before landing on my own. He stalked forwards, crossing the camp in mere seconds before taking me in his arms and crushing me to his chest.

Engulfed in warmth, I could only focus on the muscular arms that were currently squeezing me like a python would coil around its prey. I was pressed against his solid chest and could hear his heart beating a mile a minute as he attempted to calm himself down. He leaned down and pressed his face into my neck, inhaling deeply and letting out a long sigh. There was a strange feeling that was new to me, my body seemed to like his hold and I felt a tingling sensation start from the tips of my toes and radiate upwards until it reached my face, turning my cheeks a rosy pink.

Just as the tingling sensation started to reach my brain, I reached in and pulled on the logical side of me that was yelling at me for this stop. Suddenly, I couldn't help but start to feel a little claustrophobic and started to struggle to get out of his hold.

"Callan?" I grunted, wiggling my body to no avail. "Callan!" I called louder.

Calling his name seemed to bring him back as he slowly let me go, instead taking a hold of my chin and darting his eyes across my face and down my body.

"Are you hurt? Where were you?" He rushed.

I pulled my face from his grip and took a step back, watching through his eyes how he tried to wrestle with the wolf inside him. His eyes flicked from an obsidian black, to their usual golden brown colour, then back to a demonic black again. It was frightening, but I couldn't help to be curious either.