Ponds that filled and became over doused, drowned entire havoc entangled between chaos, which stirred to the rim within Vera's ears. Her throat felt to be stuffed with glass and the rime of many watermelons and to feel the strangeness of grain that sliced down the tunnels of her esophagus, made her realize she weren't even breathing.
Until she was,
Deepening sighs echoed in the darkened void, and it was overcame by water that pooled down her chin as she laid face down into what she could assume was a river.
She wanted to scream loud, so loud she wouldn't be able to hear her own voice any longer until all was left but a ringing. Her hands felt to be clammy and dried out, similar to how it would be when she got out of a shower after a very long time.
She didn't know all the references to a home was so relatable until she couldn't help the overwhelming familiarity of being homesick that crawled up her spine.
She reconstructed her jaw with a grunt and tried to stand but her legs wouldn't bother to function. She was tied down. No matter how many times she applied friction to her knees to raise herself upward, the objective seemed to grow tighter. She tugged her wrist back that also seemed moderated by the same conjunction. Maybe it was a rope, but whatever it was— it were leafy.
It was confined similar to a grape vine but more strong and thick like branches and it reeks of poison ivy.
"Help!" Vera goes to scream but she heard the voice released as a whine in her own and she couldn't understand why. Why exactly is she sobered down with her legs buckled and spread apart. Why could she hear the water tide overlapping and hitting the rocks along the shore.
If she stayed here any longer her hands would be stained viridescent as the greenery beneath them and her knees purple from the contraption keeping them buried into hard soil and stones. It was something that trickled down her thigh that was cold and red, Vera was almost positive it was blood.
But whose blood could it be?
She reared her head over in attempt to steal a glance from above her, only seeing what was on her side and the sun was setting. The rays danced and became more invisible but prominent as the sun hid behind pronouncing clouds.
"Someone! Help!" Vera manages to say all but hollering. "Come quick!" She says again as her tears mix with the dirt she pressed her nose against.
"I'm stranded," She cries, "Abandoned." The suppressing weight of the contraptions that wield her milked her of energy, captivated her endlessly for the torment, that's when she realized the blood that leaked from her knees only to spill on dirtied leaves was her own.
She cries more to herself as she slumps face down but her backside is hoisted upward spreading apart even more. By this moment she is exposed with only a long shirt covering her bare body from the outside world, she weren't ashamed seeing as she were the only one around.
Her neck burned and sizzled that she thumped more and faster than her heartbeat but she didn't know why.
Suddenly Vera yips once a hand clasps around her ankles and pulls her legs farther apart, in attempt of what she thought was help, Vera releases a desperate sigh in what she thought was contempt. She thanks the person over and over again. Offering things she didn't own in the highest of honor.
Only the person seems to tighten the ropes and slides underneath her only to smash her waist line into his own. To where her rear sat on his chest and Vera could see only the boots that he sported on his feet.
"What are you doing!" Vera growls as hot tears collected at the bottom of her swampy green eyes. She couldn't see the person who dared to impose but he grunted like a man and smelled of masculinity. "Oh please won't you let me go," She decided to bargained, "I'll give you anything." She rested upon her elbows more stunned as she took lazily breaths in, when the man only chuckles.
"Anything?" He tears the bottom halve of the long shirt to the belly and pulls the rest from over Vera's head, all this being done whilst something hard and big, poked at her stomach from within the black pants he sported— meanwhile her breast poked harshly against them. Her back naturally arches more as he lightly places his hand above her lower back to nudge her farther down.
His dark greedy irises milk the sight of the flustered Vera who couldn't help but to close her eyes and wince when she felt something cold lick the valley between her arse. Instantly she shudders to punch the guy's leg which he responded to with a deep wistful chuckle. "Yes...I will give you anything...just remove my restraints." Vera begs and pleads further but the tedious male wasn't having any of it, he wouldn't budge.
In the spur of a moment did his canines begin to extend from underneath his plush lips while the hollowness in his being dulled with eerie and ill filled suggestion, "I don't believe you'll do it," he scoffs.
Vera's eyes widened and looked to be burning from within their sockets, more disbelief washed across her face even as her muscles whined and begged for submission. "God, I'll do anything. I am begging!" She pleaded even more and searched in this man's eyes for mercy.
In his vacant irises riveted everything but.
"You'll give me you."
.•*•.
As if she had awoken into a new pair of eyes, rays of beaming light leaked from the blinds. Black satin sheets covered her sweaty body in reminisce to the heated slumber that followed a dream.
Shaking it off, Vera sees a figure in the corner of the room but didn't mind it. She couldn't tell who it was until brown optics focused onto the silhouette, once she began to rub them with the pad of her thumb; repeating the cycle until everything could be seen clearly.
Who it is stuns her but instead of overreacting she feels a rage of something burning on the side of her neck, wincing aloud she presses down onto it with the tip of her fingers —before pulling back to see the bleeding. So much blood covered her hands and all she did was brush over it.
"It'll do that a lot." The girl says running her hands threw her hair. With her wavy blonde locks it reveals how old she truly was and yet she could've been easily mistaken for an older lady to Vera. "It'll bleed a lot but the wound would close a lot faster if you accepted it."
Vera takes a deep breath inward despite her throat begging for water. It could've been drier than sand, and suddenly Vera wasn't fighting the growl that escaped her tight lips anymore. How could she put on a facade when everything around her made zero sense.
"What are you doing here Ms. Hart?" The question coming out so lethal. "You're the last person I expected to see when I'd wake." Vera admits nonchalantly but Ms. Hart only smiles and chuckles more to herself.
A strange critical thing Mrs Hart was, inside Vera's heart she was more pissed than shocked.
Vera openly glared at her with how she looked so young, as for the teacher glowed brighter than Vera ever noticed with red stained cheeks. Slightly Vera felt guilty for thinking she couldn't have been no older than thirty with the time she'd spent teaching her. "Let me guess you weren't just my normal school teacher." Ms. Hart simply nods. She could see the disappointment colored all over Vera's face. She hadn't known why.
"In summary. I have business here." Is all she says and Vera notices how everything she has said in the past came out like riddles with doubled meanings that failed to serve her educationally wise. "Might I ask what is that business?" At this point Vera wanted to skip the small talk. She couldn't surpass the feeling of something being poised and dejected.
Craning her head awkwardly she feels the sting come from the puncture wound in her neck but pretends she hadn't felt a thing. A poking thought of a certain Prince invaded her head but she pushed it back frustratedly. "Let's just say a little birdy sent me here to do his little bidding and leave it at that...shall we?" Vera rolls her eyes.
Here Ms. Hart was, the day hadn't even begun and she's spewing ultimatums. That and the way she stares so emptily at Vera with those sharp hawk like eyes.
Ms. Hart sat so earnestly. She had an answer for everything but what Vera says next takes her by surprise. "Where is the prince?" She asks with the attitude more evident accompanied by a scowl, "Stop the act. He's the one who sent you here so where the hell is he?" Ms. Hart fights back the smirk that wanted to spread around her mouth but gathers what she'd say next.
Like before she raked her fingers threw her blonde hair with a twisted grin, "Woah there! tsk tsk you're moving rather fast for someone whose been asleep for a couple of days." Vera raises her eyebrow at the woman in front of her out of anticipation. Wait what?! She'd been asleep for a couple of days?
"Well I'll get to that later but tell me how are things between you two? Still in the honeymoon phase are we?" Ms. Hart continues. If she hadn't known any before, by the passing minute she only pissed Vera off even more. Why couldn't she mind her own damn business? Vera thought.
Vera's temper suddenly skyrockets and this was the unlikeness of her hence the inferior calmness she kept was always steady. So instead of snarling at her former school teacher she suffices with the clearing of her throat.
It hadn't crossed her mind that Mrs Hart had willing left her at the castle so easily. She wanted to ask her about her sister, her classmates but debated against it. Something else had easily came to light and Vera was eager to know.
Confusion washed over her face that flashed back to it's neutrality. "You knew," Vera announces as she winces when immediately Ms Hart corresponds with the rocking back and forth on her feet before standing to hunch over the distraught Vera.
"You knew this entire time. How- You knew we were mates didn't you." Vera's question is vague but she only wanted someone to admit it and be honest with her for once.
Ms. Hart stares openly into Vera's hazel green orbs as if searching for something. She was really good at reading people, "Of course I did." She confirms. "Can't tell you how. You just had something about you. I knew you were Alex's mate since the first day you walked into my class."
Vera shakes her head in denial. There's no way she knew all along and she didn't even know herself. This was all suppose to be a weird obsession. Vera never intended for it to escalate like it did.
"Thats not possible. Why are you here?" Vera tries again. She couldn't be fooled, there had to be more to the reason that Mrs. Hart was desperate to avoid.
Ms. Hart looks taken aback pressing her hand against her chest though she internally debated whether to confess, "Does there have to be any reasoning behind why I decide to come back to my own home Vera? Honestly what has gotten into you." Vera sighs leaning back defeated. She couldn't wrap her head around this whole ordeal and she felt like Mrs. Hart was trying to tell her something.
"Ms. Hart for one second can you be bloody truthful. Gosh why everything has to be so cryptic,Fuck! Even as a school teacher you never failed getting on my nerves," Vera barks out.
"Oh for crying out loud and here I thought you were smart," Ms. Hart releases a frustrated low groan. "For one my name isn't Ms. Hart. I am apart of the royal family, blink twice if you understand." In between sentences Vera rolls her eyes.
Vera sat confused for a moment before she caught on and fully picked up on what the middle aged woman was laying down. "I knew that, I just wanted you to admit it." Vera says tossing back the hair that was beginning to cover her face while poking out her tongue. "Yeah right, Of course you did." It was Ms. Hart's turn to roll her eyes.
Now that Vera knew some part of the truth she began to rise from her bed side and tightened the gown she wore by the strings. She hears Ms Hart mumble a 'careful' as she rocked back and forth on her own feet. "Where do you think you're going?"
"I'm going to go see my Mate. Ms- Whatever your name is. He owes me some answers." Vera replies in the middle of turning sharply out of the vacated room, into the hallway where she saw no one in sight.
She only felt the slightly taller woman shuffling behind her.
Ms. Hart goes to stand by Vera's side when something clicks," I never knew you were royalty," Vera shies. "I think it's safe to admit I did a lot of research on Alexander before...You never came up. Why is that?" The question comes out sounding reprimanded but Ms. Hart didn't mind it — she only smiles looking into Vera's eyes waiting for her to collect herself.
Ms. Hart sends her a toothy grin before opening the door to exit the infirmary, "You've met Clarity the youngest and there's only one other sister to the next iron heir and you still haven't figured it out yet." Vera shakes her head clueless as she internally debated.
"Sister, Vera. I am Heidi the eldest daughter to King Augustus. Now please would you stop calling me Ms. Hart. To be frank, I'm not actually that old." Heidi admitted sheepishly.
Vera smiles in realization. She shares Alexander's grey eyes, that he never really showed often and their hair was similar with its natural waves but that was it.
Then she had that towering height to be only an adult she-wolf. "Wait I have one more last question." Finally her and Heidi came to the main castle and from off the ground she swears she could see her room.
Playing with her fingers she looks back up to see Heidi opening the door to the castle,"Why now do you come back, why now do you tell me your name." Vera asks but inside she already knew the answer.
"Vera my only place in BeckonStone was to watch over you as you were a potential mate to my brother and the only.Now that we've found you. I'm much needed here, with you." A small blush coats Vera's face as she tries to push it back but fails. She looks up one last time before a wave of nervousness washes over once she instantly catches the scent of her mate.
The burning on her neck doesn't ceases as it only grows to spread over her whole body — slightly warmer in a certain area. "Now. We have to find your mate,"