Lost in Worlds

Deeper Inside

Connor had prepared himself for the group's reaction but clearly not enough. It hurt. It really damn hurt that they had turned so quickly, as if it were never real in the first place. And Avery, goddamn Avery had been ignoring his stares for weeks on end, turned up her nose and titling her chin away from him. Angling her body somewhere else, arms crossed.

When standing outside Avery's door, he had tried to ignore Mila's comment about Avery being pregnant with his pups but his wolf's instincts had kicked in too hard. He had given a wolfish grin as his eyes turned black, his wolf taking over and with a last shred of self-control had fled the pack house for the night, terrified for what his wolf might had done if he hadn't reacted sooner.

Since then Avery hasn't left his mind and each time someone said anything along the lines of her name or 'pup' he would harden considerably. Down south a few kilometres his village had named a river, Avera, so it didn't help that every time he went outside someone would mention it and he'd have to flee to the safety of the pack house to calm his...feelings.

Since then he has also avoided Avery, one look of her face sent him on a world wind of emotions, one of them being something he knew Avery wasn't remotely ready for. So he spent most of his time in his office, filling in paperwork or staring out the window, trying to shift his thoughts elsewhere of the brown-haired, blue-eyed girl he wanted to call "mine".

But the pack did need more room, more houses, more resources, more everything really. The amount of...babies produced each year rising considerably as population and protection of their generation became increasingly important. Particularly considering they had a psychopath Queen coming after everyone dear to him.

Moreover, he was over all the bickering between the pups and their...

Shit.

Immediately his hands went clammy, his heart racing, sweat rolling down his face. And it would have been fine, his self-control over his wolf certainly could have kept him in his office, Avery a safe two floors away. He had done it thousands of times before.

But at that exact moment voices had sounded down the hall mentioning something along the lines of 'Did you hear about the newcomers? I heard their humans and one goes by the name of Aver-' They were cut short as Connor came bursting out the locked door, slamming it to the floor in the process. The voices now had faces, two maids, most likely doing a leisurely stroll of the pack house in their lunch break or delivering laundry to another's room.

Connor's wolf knew they were innocent, that didn't stop him from shoving them to either side of the wall and storming through the middle of them, breaking up their little talk. His feet picked up, his speed walking morphing quickly into a run. His wolf had taken over, claws close to extracting as well as his teeth elongating. In less than twenty seconds his wolf speed had sent him up two flights of stairs, down a long hallway and right outside someone's room.

He wasted no time in raising his fist and knocking politely on the door. Well, he tried to be polite but when he received no answer after a couple of seconds he nudged his shoulder into the door and forced it open. Entering the room his fangs were beared, primal animalistic features on show. Empty. The room was empty. He stormed over to someone's wardrobe and began thrashing around, clothes flying everywhere, searching for anything that may smell like her. Damn her, these were all too new, they weren't coated in her scent like he pleaded for.

The maids had supplied the group with a sufficient amount of clothes after spending months in the wilderness but Avery was too new. The clothes didn't smell like her enough-

He became desperate and frantically ran in circles, his wolf too close to shifting. Panic rose on his face, he couldn't give in. Anything. He would give anything-.

And then it hit him. He froze in his tracks, his head slowly moving towards the bed. It would have to do. He strolled over, slightly more relaxed now that he had found a solution. He jumped on the bed, his fangs and claws retracting. He stuffed his face into her pillow and took a deep breath. Instantly his muscles relaxed, giving a deep sigh he cuddled it further and pulled the duvet over his head.

Screw it if she came in the room. Screw it if she saw how needy he was. Maybe he wanted her to know.

---------

They were there. They were there and then they were gone in the blink of an eye. They had met in the middle of a vast-open space and then vanished.

The loyal guards to the Queen had sprinted to the barrier-type portal–which still remained a tall tree, and banged on it for a good five minutes. They soon gave up, knuckles red and sore, eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep and legs begging to collapse.

After accepting this small battle of defeat they had ran back to where their escapees had left a campsite filled with life essentials...and the guards' horses. Riding to the Queen's palace had taken no less than a couple of hours but soon after arriving two of the three guards were begging for mercy. Mercy being death.

For failing their simple task one of them had been chained to a wooden post and pulled at the arms to be stretched apart. The other had been poisoned and thrown in a cell. Not just any poison; blood-bane. A glimpse of what every back-stabber to the Queen received for dismissing their duties.

The second guard had lived a last few days of a torturous existence; profuse nausea and sweating, abdominal pain that lead to further diseases of sorts. The stench was horrid and every soul alive in the Queen's palace had evaded the floor for the day, including the servants who left the other prisoners down there to starve for a while. Only to find them dead the next day. And whether it was the smell of death or the spread of diseases that lead to their demise, remained a mystery. One that wouldn't want to be resolved.

The third guard hadn't taken on any punishment of any kind, for his was to watch his first friend be murdered and to hear the horrifying news and scent of the third guard.

The Queen then lowered his rank and shoved him in a dirty room fit for a pig. But the one thing the Queen continued to be unaware of is his ability to override her power of authority. Not just her stance or royal blood but also the way she possesses all the inhabitants of her palace. Very few of them had the power he did; even fewer could use it to overthrow the Queen's.

One day, a better world would come, and he didn't know whether he would begin that journey or whether Avery had already started it, but all he knew was all he had.

For they were there and then they were not. Buried in deep shit, he was.