A Queen's Dark Prison

Chapter 2: Nightmare

-Valerio-

As everyone left the meeting, I stayed back, leaning back in my chair, and closing my eyes for a second. I had tracked Octavia to some place out in nowhere in France. I wasn’t sure which way she was going now, but I knew I just had to follow the trail of bodies. I could only hope that Connor didn’t get to her first. I wouldn’t allow him to get his filthy hands on her again. I would burn this world down before that happened. I loved Octavia more than anything. In the beginning, I had been such a fool, thinking I could fight our bond, keep my promise to Michael and just not want her, but I had learned it the hard way that it was simply impossible to fight the bond. It always got to you in the end. There were a lot of things I regretted doing to her, but we had both changed. We had both made up for the past, and then … then people tried taking her from me again. I knew the older alphas were angry at me for dissolving the council, but I had made sure anyone who tried speaking against me for doing this, felt my wrath. It had not been pretty, and I knew it also might turn them onto Connor’s side, but I would kill anyone who had anything to do with Connor or Octavia’s k*dnapping. I would not be kind. I swore this.

“Meow!”

Suddenly, the orange fatball thought it was the perfect time to join me. Someone had clearly not closed the door probably, and she had pushed her way inside. She was sitting on my desk, her tail swinging back and forth, and her yellow eyes started back at me.

“Meow!”

“Don’t you have something better to do than annoy me?!” I asked.

I was not the biggest fan of this cat, I had to say, but of course, she didn’t care. She walked closer to me, and I backed further away.

“No!” I said, knowing her plan, but she didn’t care.

She jumped right on to my lap and started to get comfortable. I wasn’t about to have it, and grabbed her by the neck, holding her up, and I wasn’t sure, but it looked like she was smiling smugly at me.

“No! I said no!”

Just then, Koda joined us. He was never far from the little cat, always wanting to make friends with her, even though she hated him. If she could just see the irony.

“See, this one I like,” I told her and went to pet Koda’s head.

Now she didn’t seem so happy, and I put her down on my desk again. Yeah, she looked very displeased now that Koda was here, and I had declared I liked him better. She turned around giving her big butt to me, before jumping down from my desk. I heard a loud thud as she landed, and I rolled my eyes.

“Someone needs to get you on a diet,” I mumbled.

“Meow!”

Apparently, she had heard me and was even more displeased now. I sighed and leaned back in my chair, running a hand over Koda’s head. He licked my hand and I turned to him. It was like he could sense something was very wrong with me, and he gave me worried eyes.

“I will get her back,” I said.

He just tilted his head to the side.

“Octavia will come back to me … she has to …”

She had to …

I stood from my chair, knowing I couldn’t sit here forever, and walked to my room. I fell down on the big bed. Her scent was barely even there anymore, and it pained me more to smell her scent than it calmed me. It was why I had been locked in the office, instead of my room. I just couldn’t be in here, but I was going to get her back. Now that I knew I had convinced others to help me trap her, I found it easier to breathe a little. I didn’t have to worry that everyone was going to kill her. I slowly closed my eyes. I didn’t think I would actually fall asleep, but I did.

I am walking down this long dark hallway, not sure where I am going. I can’t really see anything, but at the end of the hallway there is a light. I follow it and as I reach it, I realize I am standing in front of a door that has been opened a little. I push the door, so it creaks open and suddenly I am standing in a dark forest. I don’t see anything but trees around me. I turn around myself not sure where I am or how I am here, then suddenly I hear rustling. I quickly turn around, just as a pair of silver eyes lock on me.

“Octavia?” I ask.

She growls, slowly emerging from a bush. She circles me, her dark fur making it perfect for her to stay hidden in the darkness, but her eyes light up in a way normal wolves’ eyes wouldn’t. It wasn’t that obvious if you didn’t already know a second presence was hiding on the other side, but if you knew, you could see the difference. Her eyes have changed though. They have always been hard. As a kid she was taught to harden herself, but I also saw love in them. I see no love now. I see … nothing. She isn’t herself.

“Octavia, listen to me …”

I hold out my hand in a way to indicate I am not a threat, but she growls at me, and then suddenly pounces, taking me off guard, but it isn’t me she catches. She goes right through me, as if I was just a ghost. I turn around, hearing another wolf whimper. They disappear into the darkness, and I follow them.

“Octavia!” I shout, but there is no answer.

I can hear the whimpering and growling, but I can’t see anything.

“Octavia, where are you?!”

I try my best to follow the sounds, and soon I find her at a small river, standing over a body, that is now a human body, scratch marks everywhere and the face … I can’t even recognize it. She circles the body, as if she is scared the rogue isn’t dead, but he is. There is no doubt about that.

“Octavia … step away,” I tell her.

She doesn’t really hear me though, yet for some reason she lifts her head and looks right at me.

“It’s okay. I am coming for you,” I say.

Just then, I hear a loud howling and realize it is the rogue’s friends.

“Go!” I shout.

She just continues to look around confused, trying to find the source.

“Go now! His friends aren’t far away! You can’t take them all,” I tell her.

She just growls deeply and then stands over the body like she wants to protect it. She doesn’t really, I know that. She simply wants to show them that she is not scared, and the reason that their friend is dead is because of her. Who is she even? Octavia isn’t like that. Her wolf isn’t like this! I know her wolf, I have felt her, and she has always had a very kind heart. That is why Octavia never became the cold killer Xavier wanted her to be. Her wolf stayed kind, and she reminded Octavia of that kindness in her. It helped her to find a way to love me, but I didn’t see that kindness now. I saw someone who just wanted to kill anything in her path.

“Octavia, my strong queen, run!” I tell her.

I just want her to hear me. Why can’t she hear me?!

“Octavia!” I shout.

Like she has actually heard me, she turns her head and looks at me again. There is a strange look in her eyes, as if she really sees me, but then she shakes her head in a strange way and bolts the other way. I watch her run away, I want to follow, but it is like a force is pulling me back, and soon I am back in the dark hallway, being pulled from that light in front of me.

“Octavia!” I shout one last time.

I woke up covered in sweat, not really sure where I was. I looked around in the room, trying to figure out what had just happened, and when I realized I was home, I slowly calmed down. My heart was still beating like crazy inside my chest, but I felt a little calmer. I ran my hand through my black hair, taking a deep breath. I wasn’t sure what the dream was about. I had had them a lot lately, which was why I wasn’t sleeping anymore. Not just because I couldn’t really calm down, but because my dreams always haunted me, showing me horrible things that happened to my mate.

I sighed, still trying to calm myself, when I heard a strange rumbling sound behind me. I was sitting with my legs over the side of the bed, and I slowly turned around, seeing the fatball now in my bed.

“What are you doing here?!”

She only cracked one eye open. It was clear she had been sleeping here for a while. She purred loudly and just closed her eye again. I turned to look at the door, but it was closed.

“How did you get in here?” I asked.

She didn’t answer me. Instead, she stood up, stretched her fat body, and then started to make herself comfortable again. It was clear my loud voice was disturbing her sleep, and she made a show of showing me, she was getting right back to sleep.

“You are not supposed to be in here!” I growled.

She just ignored me and curled into a ball again.

“Doesn’t your owner miss you?”

She started purring loudly, and I sneered annoyed, before grabbing the fat cat. She dug her claws into the blanket, and almost tore it a little, before I got her to let go. Then I carried her under my arm, like a football, before going over to the door, and throwing her outside.

“I don’t know how you got inside, but whatever you did, don’t do it again!” I told her, pointing at her.

She just sat there on the red carpet that ran along the floor and looked up at me, her tail starting to swing back and forth again.

“Meow!”

“I mean it!” I said and slammed the door in her face, exhaling deeply, and feeling so damn on edge from the dream I had just had.

I quickly pushed away from the door though and started to undress, so I could go shower and get all the sweat off me. I wasn’t sure if what I had seen was real, but I knew I had to go get my mate soon before there was nothing left to save.