One Night In No Man's Land

III

Elise held her throbbing head as she opened her eyes to total darkness, her hands could feel sand grains beneath them.

She slowly got to her feet, crying out in pain as she did. She could feel the warm blood running down her skin and it repulsed her as she cried in weakness.

She limped through the forest, unable to see her path as she clung to trees to support her broken and bleeding body.

She was desperate in need of shelter, food and help but in the Rogue Lands that was impossible. The only hope she had was a scouting team to come looking for her but they were unlikely to dare come.

Her eyes suddenly fell on flickering lights in the darkness, ones that were shaped like fires, not like the horrifying eyes of rogues that had drifted across her thoughts hauntingly ever since she awoke on the river bank, by some miracle still alive and breathing.

She climbed onto a bridge, a large bridge that spanned over an abyss if darkness and she swallowed her fear as the rain poured down, not extinguishing the glass covered torches.

She soon enough reached the end of the stone bridge and her eyes went wide as she gazed upon a huge magnificent stone castle that was bigger than any castle, real or fictuous, that she had ever gazed upon in her seventeen years. It's massive imposing size and its beautiful form left her breathless and enchanted as she slowly walked towards the gates in a daze.

Her tiny form slipped through the gates hoping someone would be there and that someone would be able to offer her some help or at the very least shelter her from the storm.

Even if they did not, the gates would protect her from rogue wolves until a search team came, if they came.

She walked slowly up ivy covered stone steps that were lined with torches under stone passage arches that kept them from being trodden out by rain.

She pushed open the heavy door with much difficulty before shoving it closed behind her, wondering if she was to meet any weird fantasy creatures. A talking unicorn would not be too bad after all, as long as it was friendly.

An inexplicable pull began to tug at her chest and her hands wandered the cold stone as she descended down stairs into deep catacombs that would have her running any other day.

Each step made her feel more safer, more belonging, happier and it was strange and it fascinated her. It made her curious to follow the torch lights.

She wanted to see what her instincts guided her to for a wolf's instincts were never wrong, regardless of how wolf they were. Omegas like herself were still very much wolf, just weaker in their shifting and abilities.

Her body wandered led by the guide of an inate instinctual feeling that consumed her, tying around her like a ribbon and tugging on her like ropes tied to her being pulled.

Her bare feet found themselves walking through mysterious empty chambers and passages for what must have been at least an hour until she entered a place that made her feel strangely at peace.

Her hand ran along the wall as she stepped into a stone chamber. The red flames of torches danced on the golden stone.

Crimson valure drapes hung down from above the arches where they fell from golden structures. It felt almost ethereal and very mysterious. It had a grip on her.

It was strangely alluring to the girl guided only by the instincts she had. She curiously approached the drapes and let her hands trail the soft light fabric.

Her hands parted the pieces of curtains as she entered the chamber. She was filled with curiosity when she should have just tried to find a bed to rest on in the actual castle with her injuries and exhaustion.

She was still injured badly, blood still painted her skin, but it was not important when she was drawn to such a place.

Her eyes fell on a golden bed with crimson covers that had a figure lying atop them. The figure was a handsome, very attractive, young man who appeared to be at least eighteen. Her fingers drifted over him and she felt absolutely no heartbeat at his bare chest, no pulse, no breathing. He was dead, however he had not signs of it. He was too young to die naturally, poisoning did not seem likely somehow and he had no wounds.

What was stranger was that the place seemed to have been designed for him but a castle in the Rogue Lands was crazy and to have such a large, magnificent castle he would have to have been a wealthy Prince, a son of a King, or a very wealthy King. However there had been no kings for centuries.

Besides that the castle had been unoccupied, there was no way the man could have died recently, if he was a man. He had to be a perfectly carved statue.

If he was a person he would have long since decayed into a skeleton and he was not in a coffin. Despite that he seemed so real. The artists of that era must have been really really talented.

She did not spend much more time pondering how the statue came to be and its purpose as the statue somehow grabbed a hold on her.

Her fingers lingered above his lips before gently giving them soft light caresses, her fingers mapping out the surface of his soft smooth lips. The soft surface lowered slightly under her touch and his lips moved with her fingers as if they were real.

She had no idea why she was so drawn and attracted to a statue of all things, was she that desperate to get a mate when ahead was not of age to have one as the laws put out by her pack put the legal mating age to eighteen.

Her fatigue and weakness slowly began to consume her, eating at her strength, as the pain of her injuries, that she had somehow forgotten about, crept about.

She doubled over in pain and weakness as blood continued to drip from her wounds like water from a leaking tap. She had lost a lot of blood and unlike ordinary wolves she did not heal incredibly fast.

She was unable to go any longer. She knew she should have paid more attention to her injuries instead of letting them bleed. She should have stayed in the castle and treated them.

She grew faint and weary and her body fell on the bed. She collapsed onto the statue lying on it, her eyes drifting closed.

There was no possible way that she could walk back up the stairs and through the maze of long twisting corridors before searching for a bedroom. She could definitely not walk with the huge amount of blood loss that she had experienced and the pain of her injuries.

Her eyes slowly closed and her head went weak on the chest. Her body succumbing to weakness.

Her head rested above where the heart should be. The heart which began to beat as she gave up.

A gentle strong hand guided itself over the helpless little Omega's back. Gentle fingers danced across her soft skin as a pair of dark brown eyes shot open and fell on the sight of her.

"My Regina you finally came."

                                                  
A/N

So I know I just published this story today but like already 35 reads and 10 votes and so many amazing comments I had to post this one. I mean you all deserve it. This is like the quickest response I have even gotten when publishing a book usually it takes like two or so months to get this many reads but instead I got it in like two hours.

Also I would like it if you guys could comment your thoughts and theories on things. Who knows I might use them or they might give me an idea during a period of writers block.

Ps: I am not posting the next chapters immediately but I will soon like tomorrow or later in the week.