There was this pull.
Like it wouldn't let me remain where I am.
I don't know where I am though.
But it keeps manifesting into a stronger anchor, willing me to follow its lead and climb back up. Something tells me I have to be somewhere else. That's what this pull is, this call is.
But there's another part of me which isn't settling well with the thought of returning.
Returning? Where?
Do I even want to? Do I have to?
But I rather like this place. It's familiar. But it's not death. It's someplace else.
There are all those I love and they all cherish me, respect me. They'd fucking die for me. But I wouldn't let them.
That's why I was here again. It was all a part of the plan, wasn't it?
But what plan?
But then I was no longer in that plane of existence.
Wrenched away from that swirling pit of.....memories?
Almond eyes lit up with mirth and a beaming smile promising me days of joy.
That's the first thing my blurry vision and disoriented mind conjured up when I fluttered my eyes open.
And then those eyes became lifeless, the radiant smile slipped away and only horror and pain remained.
Gasping and wide awake, I shot up with eyes wide open before the drumming pain inside my head and the blinding light made me close them right away.
I wanted to groan loudly but with how weak and unsteady I felt even that wasn't possible. Unknown hands rested on my shoulder and pushed me back to lay down again. I didn't protest.
Perhaps because I felt like someone had sucked all the life out of me and then put me through a several hundred lashings so I felt like my body was broken beyond repair.
I parted my dry as sand lips to breathe in.
My nostrils tickled with the smell of fresh grass and open lands, fragrant flowers and lively breezes. Someone's warm feminine hand felt my forehead and murmured to herself.
I wanted to open my eyes but it was as if they were sewn shut and heaviness clouded my eyelids, rendering me helpless to see the world. My body wouldn't respond to me. I was feeling like an intruder and the restriction of my body's movement was at odds with how my soul and mind seemed to be racing, floating.
My senses awakened when I thought I scented sage and wood but then I was struggling to keep my wits again.
Sunlight strummed over my lids, making me feel the warmth all over my body. It was golden light that I could see even with my eyes closed, a glaring contrast that I was both thankful for and felt it was unwanted with the headache and the sensitive state of my eyes.
Was I covered in sheets? This bed was soft. Softer than I remembered.
Remembered...what? That bed of violent sheets in some other place...
Or the hard chest pressing into mine, tucking me away from the world, like he could keep me from leaving.
Who was he?
I moved my lips but nothing came out. I tried to swallow but my throat was too dry.
I couldn't remember anything.
Or could I?
"Rest, Cara. Sleep."
A disorientated voice spoke to me and I tried to move my head in the direction of the sound when her hand rested on my cheek affectionately but my body disagreed.
And then everything went black again.
•○•
When I came to the second time, I felt lighter.
There was a gold colored ceiling which met my view when my eyes flitted open. It was pretty, I suppose. There was the structure of a dark furred wolf on it. Gleaming yellow stones embedded into the structure where the eyes were. It was just the head and mane, like it was pouncing out of the wall right at me.
I stared at it, unblinking until I finally closed my eyes again and then opened them.
The color was ebony.
Of the wolf's face made jutting out with such structure, I mean.
I inhaled slowly, undoubtedly feeling tendrils of a familiar scent of sage and wood wrap around me. The scent was stronger and I could sense it better.
My eyes still remained glued to the ceiling.
The breeze was warm but hints of freshness lingered. It passed over me, moving strands of my hair against my cheek.
I just took my time, feeling different.
Alive.
"Oh, you're awake!" A voice that was speaking of strength made my eyes snap to the side.
A woman stood there with a grin on her face. Her raven hair was cut short to her jawline and she wore a sleeveless black tunic gilded with green and gold. A pair of tight-fitted green pants were on her legs and leather boots inched upwards. Her skin that was visible was a pretty shade of well-tanned brown. She was almost a dark beauty.
She approached and I tried sitting up on the cloud - uh, I mean bed I was on.
I could only get myself to lean up on my elbows and weird feelings of rejuvenation and exhaustion surged through me.
"Glad to see that you're awake." She genuinely looked happy but my eyes were riveted to hers.
There was something so....familiar about her entire being. And it wasn't just recent, something was knocking at the doors of my memory. I narrowed my eyes slightly but she only patted my shoulder.
I thought I'd have flinched away but instead the familiarity in the touch had me sitting relaxed.
"Here, have some water." She handed me a goblet full of cool liquid and I was thankful because my throat felt dry and hoarse. I couldn't even speak or swallow.
Where had I been? The dessert? In the pits of hell?
I silently took it, letting the water travel down my throat. For some reason, even the smallest of things felt like they had a ginormous presence and as if I was feeling them after an eternity. Deep into my bones and the very essence of my being.
As I drank, something clanged against the steel goblet. My eyes burned as they looked at the intricately made silver-red bangle still resting on my wrist.
When I finished the contents of the glass, the female took it and then sat down on the bed in front of me.
"How long was I....out?" I don't think that was the correct word either but it was what it was and I was grasping at straws right now.
"Three days and then you were conscious yesterday before you slept the entire day. So technically I guess four days?"
Three days.
I know I was dead but it seemed so surreal. There was so much I had to sort through but I had made a chest inside my mind where I stuffed it all away.
We stared at each other and I finally decided to comment on something, "Your eyes are beautiful." My voice came out scratchy.
Hr lips twitched, "What you mean to say is something else so don't beat around the bush, Cara."
I wasn't surprised that she knew my name at all and that fact scared me more than I cared to admit but I still held on. "I've met you before. I know you."
She nodded, "That's correct." Grinning she winked.
"You're that wolf. The one I helped on our journey from Celera to Valeryn." Even as I said it, I knew there was something more wriggling in the back of my mind about her.
The raven haired woman smirked. "So you recognized me." Her yellow eyes, even in human form, were riveting. She was a werewolf. "Good progress, Cara."
She stood up and rolled her shoulders, moving around the room with speed and then she picked something up at the same time the door opened.
We both looked to the spot where three females stood, bowing. "Lord Micah sent us to aid you."
"Oh, yes please prepare the bath."
I blinked. Lord Micah?
Before I could voice my inquires, the raven haired woman returned while the others went to...draw a bath for...someone...I think.
"I think you'd like a bath. Here are some clothes."
As a matter of fact, I really would. I felt like there was layer of my skin I just had to shed now. So I gulped down all of my questions and decided not to look the gift horse in the mouth.
"Thank you...er...?" I was waiting for her to tell me her name.
"Melida. It's Melida Russell."
Russell? Oh, no.
•○•
After the long drawn bath in the big bath room's pool, my muscles lost a tad bit of their soreness. The scented oils at my disposal made my skin softer and fresher. I felt much cleaner and better.
And the small amount of food I'd been allowed to - or more like my stomach allowed me to - eat hadn't done a filling job but it'd have to work.
Overall things seemed okay with my body. I was able to walk and talk properly but something was still very different.
And no matter how much I was trying to suppress the memories, I could only manage to tramp down on thoughts of an ocher haired Fae Princess.
My death...that I couldn't forgo. Not right now.
I had died but I was alive right now. The only conclusion I drew was one that I took as the truth without a second guess.
If I'd been human previously then I wasn't one now. That much was for sure. Or I would have had to be a different creature to have survived but nothing told me I was anything but human.
I should have felt scared here but for some reason I didn't.
I know I died. Then how was I even standing here, alive and good?
What had those snippets been...? They were like my visions. Blurred but familiar and....
I pressed down on the golden shirt with long puffed sleeves and black cuffs that I had on. My black pants had seams of gold thread and fitted my legs like a second skin. There was a thigh sheath on them that was stitched on. My hair had been braided with utmost care and a looping gold ribbon held it together.
"It wasn't just me who thought you'd prefer practical clothing like this after waking up instead of corsets and gowns." Melida chuckled as the maids scurried out of the room, done with their work.
I had to say, the craftsmanship of the clothes was exceptional but Melida's considerate words was even more so.
I tried avoiding the eyes of the Russell in the same room as me but it was kind of impossible.
"Here you go." I looked up from my outfit to see Melida holding out my Silern dagger by the hilt.
But my eyes snagged onto her wrist held out. A wrist where she wore a bangle similar to mine and...hers. It was the same silver with red designs. Expensive, old and bewitching.
Why did she have that?
My muscles stiffened and as I locked eyes with her again, they seemed haunted as she inhaled and gestured to the dagger again, silently telling me to put that bangle question aside.
I didn't know how I knew but I did.
I didn't have a problem.
I didn't want to remember.
The dagger. Right. I should take it but.....
I just stared.
I stared because I remembered how it felt to die at the hands of someone you thought was your protector but had killed you. And that too, with your very own dagger.
What fun.
But like always my rationality won and with reluctant movements, I took the dagger and slipped it into my thigh sheath.
The feel of it had barely changed and it was sharp, deadly and beautiful like always. Yet I felt so different.
Don't think of it. Don't remember your father's hug. Don't remember the feeling of comfort and dread associated with it. Don't remember the dagger coated in your blood. Don't remember those golden eyes. Don't remember that bright smile and those lifeless eyes--
I wouldn't bring up Sera because I was not ready to accept the truth. Maybe she'd survived--
"Have a look in the mirror." Melida smirked and I followed without a word.
I froze the second I saw myself in the mirror.
My hair was onyx, shiny and thick.
My body was lithe and shapely.
My cheeks had slight color to them.
My outfit made me look like Melida. A warrior princess.
But it was my eyes that made my breath draw up short.
They were no longer just the jade green I'd glimpsed.
There were strange streaks of silver in them. Like lines origination from the centre of my dark green pupils. They were beautiful but where had they come from? Angst washed over me but I held my tongue and my heart beat faster.
"He wouldn't leave your side until I drove him away yesterday and then piled him up with work. He probably gave everyone a terrible time, moping and sulking..." She was mumbling to herself or me, I wasn't sure but I did hear it all. "It can't wait. Either you go to him or he'll tear things down. He probably already sensed it."
And the insinuations made tingles travel down my spine in a delicious manner, warmth at the thought of him cascading me in its embrace. But then cold horror seeped it and I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to block the memories.
"You'll drive him crazy." Melida gave me an appraising look-over before shooting me a grin.
My throat dried, "What? Who?" I dreaded the answer. Oh I didn't want to think of what I thought it was. I was avoiding the truth and I was good that way.
She chuckled and opened her mouth to speak but the door was thrown open.
"Cara!" Familiar arms hugged me and I gasped.
Hugging him back, I chose to forget the questionable things he'd done so far. "Micah...."
I prided myself in not trusting people at all. My gut and instincts were always spot-on. And no matter how much I wanted to convince myself otherwise regarding these visceral feelings concerning certain people I met.....I couldn't shrug them off.
He pulled back and Melida was shooting him a look of distaste that he returned.
His red curls were messed up and he had a slight beard growing. "I'm so glad you're alright."
I chose my words carefully as he let go of me but I decided to just confront him, "Can I even trust you? I don't..." I was surprised at the harshness that laced my words but he wasn't.
"Yes." His tone was firm and confident. "You can trust me, you know you can. I'm sorry for the confusion and the secrets but it won't be long before you'll know everything so just hold on, alright? And please trust me."
I hesitated, staring into his eyes before releasing a breath and giving him a slow nod.
Then he was pushed away and Melida grabbed onto my arm. "Go away."
"You're such a baby." Micah grumbled and I frowned a bit. "You're still not over that?"
Melida fumed and glared. "Are you leaving or should I do something?"
"Fine." He rolled his eyes and I rose a brow, extracting my arm from Melida's hold. "I'll see you later, Cara."
With that, he left and I stared after him, confused.
Melida grumbled something about making him pay under her breath and then shook her head. "Are you ready?"
I scowled, "For what?"
In answer, she held onto my hand and followed Micah's lead out of the open doors to this room.
"Where are we going, um-"
"You can call me Melida. Don't bother."
"Yes, well, Melida where are you taking me?" Even I said it, a ball of butterflies and fear took shape inside my stomach.
I made a point of noting my surrounding as she dragged me, quickly observing the guards, the golden shades plating the various accessories and the walls.
Russell.
I gritted my teeth. This couldn't be possible. No. Not a chance.
I was starting to make more sense of the pattern of gold shades here...
When we finally came to a stop, I was breathless and my chest rose and fell. I balled my empty hand and stared ahead at the closed oak doors.
Everything was happening too fast. I'd just woken up a few hours ago from death's bed!
The pull I felt called to me, and I rooted my feet to the spot.
"Melida...." My voice was strangely low as I narrowed my eyes at the smirking female. "Where am I?"
She let go of my hand and glanced out of the corner of her eye. "You need to ask me that?" Amusement laced her voice and I shot her a glare.
She chuckled. "You're in Adalda, Cara. The Kingdom of the Wolves."
Her words made the blood in my veins roar.
Adalda?
The very place I'd been fleeing to when Lucien caught me? The werewolf territory?
But why am I acting surprised. I already had my suspicions. All that gold and...the Russell sister. It was a dead giveaway.
But denial isn't easy to give up.
And hope isn't easy to let go of.
•○•
AN~
Welcome back! <3
So we are back on this journey and I'm excited! I hope this chapter was a fun one for you. Some answers we got? Or just more questions lol?
What are your thoughts on Melida? And Micah being there? And well....she's in Adalda! We waiting to know our King's real name finally or just wanna call him Alpha? XD
Anyways, this turned into a long chapter lmao, hope you enjoyed! And don't forget to vote and comment!
Till next time then, stay safe!
~Skyler