Yavanna walked between the two scary men, her body had broken into a cold sweat and her heart beat so quickly from fear that she grew faint. She had never once felt so afraid. Velio was terrible, but—there was something so off-putting and disturbing about these men.
The leader was taller than the king and thinner. His dark eyes glanced at hers while she observed his stature and she looked to her boots. An unwanted shiver crawled up her spine. His dark hair was trimmed roughly and not neatly at all. He looked like a woodsman, especially with the shadow of hair growing along his jaw.
They were out of the woods now and walking around a lake rimmed with the dark snow covered trees. Still, no mist crept from unseen sources and only the snow falling provided the atmosphere. She could ask them where they were taking her. She'd thought about miming that she needed to write, but decided it might be best that she didn't.
Where had the general gone? She sighed and bowed her head. Her head still throbbed dully from when she'd hit it on the tree. They turned around a wall of trees and her brow furrowed when she saw cabins pouring over the snowy hillside. A tall line of mountains stood behind the hill, the incline too steep for trees and snow to rest on.
The two men led her through the silent place, a few of the windows were glowing with candlelight, but whoever was dwelling inside them didn't show their faces. She saw quickly where they were leading her; a larger cabin with light emanating from inside.
When they reached the steps Alpha stopped and made a gesture to the shorter man and then walked up the steps and inside. Yavanna hugged herself and shivered. Her teeth were beginning to chatter from the snow that had seeped into her clothes.
The man next to her said nothing as they both waited. She looked up at the cabin when she heard raised voices. She couldn't discern what they were saying, but from how the man yelled she could tell he was angry. She shrank back.
"She's going to freeze out there, Rune! You can't just—" The door swung open and Yavanna came face-to-face with her sister. Mirella.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Amory shifted in his seat for the tenth time in that half hour. Taking his wife to the Outborn Pack felt risky. Clark thought it best, thought it wise that the sisters be reunited. But Amory didn't like it.
Velio was doing well on the front lines, he had made no suspicious movements as of yet. Amory just couldn't handle all of the tension. He needed blood, he needed sex. It had been too long since he'd quenched that hunger. Mirella… he was so furious yet so helpless. Glass shattering reached his ringing ears and he looked to his left and saw that the decanters along the wall had all burst.
He unclenched his fists and stretched his fingers with an evil intent. He knew Clark was already gone, already heading towards that pack of dogs. He stood and vanished to his secluded place. His hot spring, where he'd gone after learning of Mirella's betrayal. Of the fact her betrayal had been voluntary. The woman he had loved had left him so quickly and eagerly and had run into the arms of Rune.
Rune. Amory chuckled darkly. That bastard had been there, in his throne room, the day he'd returned to Nothad. He'd known exactly what had happened, he had known that Amory would catch his former beloved's scent and be suspicious. His jaw clenched and his teeth ground together.
How had he been so foolish? So blind? How had Mirella met this man? This dog? He looked at the steaming water, his anger boiling to a dangerous point. He needed to vent it, to release it before he lost control. He'd rarely lost control of himself, but when he had, his brothers had had to pin him down until it subsided.
He couldn't think of anything that could satiate his rage though. Nothing, nothing could calm him. He vanished again and appeared at the chalet near the coronation hall. The mists were heavy but he did his best to pinpoint where the mysterious stone circle had been. Finally, he found his feet were before it, the mists parting for him.
He breathed deeply, not understanding why he'd brought himself there. There was nothing but magical runes and old stone. Magic. His jaw ticked as he focused on that word and what it meant. Yavanna was a witch—the maiden of the prophecy—and it was his duty to fulfill it. His purpose as the hundredth king was to use her as a means to an end. The end of the curse.
He huffed an angry breath when he realized how pointless it all had been. Fate had brought Yavanna to him as his wife. Fate has made sure that he would find her in his grasp so that the prophecy would be fulfilled.
"What do you want…?" Clark's words echoed in his mind. What did he want? He didn't want the power Velio wanted. All he'd ever known was a hunger for blood. He wondered what it would be like to be free of such dependency. He staggered at the sudden pang of longing he felt. That was what he wanted; he didn't want to be cursed any longer. The strength, the teleportation, the telekinetic abilities, he was curious to see what it would be like to be human. To actually live instead of walking around as a husk, as a corpse of what life could really be.
If presented with the option, he would do his duty and fulfill the prophecy.
He disappeared again and almost smiled thinking that that ability would soon be gone.