One Night In No Man's Land

XXIV

Elise stared at the high up ceiling with a crystal chandelier that sparkled in it's own light.

She had no idea what was happening around her as statements and words were thrown back and forth. She hardly understood anything. It was so foreign to her.

The only reason she was even in the meeting was because Revion was too afraid to leave her alone. It was a very understandable fear. She knew she would fear leaving her alone as well. She was not reliable after her running into the forest and he didn't want her getting attacked or having an mental breakdown.

She looked down at the pencil that Revion was tapping. Out of pure boredom she contemplated whether she could balance it on her nose. It would be fun to try it. She had never tried to balance a pencil on her nose.

She suddenly remembered there were people. People who were strangers to her. She did not want to embarrass herself in front of them. She was a queen. She was supposed to be respected.

Saying that in her head felt odd. Her? Respected?

Her eyes went wide as the realization dawned on her. She was literally queen. She had more power than an Alpha. How did anyone just entrust that to some let alone a mere girl who was thinking of balancing a pencil on her nose.

Then she remembered that she was not the one in charge. Her mate was. She wondered how that worked. How did he handle it. Sure he was born and bred into the job but the responsibility had to be taxing and she was not the easiest person to look after.

She was a lot more fragile than the average wolf. She felt sorry for him. She wondered if she should try to help him relax. He was still struggling to sleep at night and she did not like it.

She could not do anything though. They were in a meeting. She had to be professional.

It was so boring being professional.

She understood why pups had colouring books when brought out. Lucky pups. They got to get all distracted. She got nothing. She wondered if she could steal a pen and paper and start sketching.

She froze as the one word she understood was uttered. War. After all the weird political and tactical mumbling she finally understood one phrase.  It was not a good phrase. It was a very bad one.

She stared at her mate, hoping for some sort of answer but obviously he did not notice her lack of understanding and probably was not going to interupt his meeting to discuss war with her.

She felt that asking him to explain would draw unwanted attention to herself and make her look stupid. She felt stupid enough already. She had also garnered a lot of attention after her emotional attacks of sort.  They probably thought she was a whiny cry baby of sorts and although she could not really deny it she did not want people thinking she was entirely helpless or pathetic.

In her mind she had always had a picture of what a queen would look like and act and she hardly fit that box. To her a queen was bold and smart, capable of making decisions quickly. A queen was also tall and always calm. A queen did not need help. She always pictured a queen as having a large wolf, as all people did. Rulers were meant to be the strongest in battle and that meant they had to have strong wolves.

She was rather short though. She could not even shift at all. Maybe that was better than shifting into a tiny wolf that could not run even a mile without collapsing. She was not calm either and she was shy and needed help a lot. She could not make decisions when she needed to either. She felt like a failure already.

Revion glanced down at his mate. He was starting to feel his wolf becoming distressed and concerned.

Was she getting overwhelmed? He did not like exposing her to an unfamiliar environment with so many people so soon but he was too afraid to leave her on her own.

His hands picked her up by the waist and he placed her on his lap. He made sure she was sitting nice and comfortable. He then leaned her closer to him, letting his own wolf calm hers.

It felt relaxing feeling his own wolf beginning to seep into her mind and calm her wolf. He had never tried it before but he believed that he should have sooner.

He was able to get a momentary image of what her wolf could have possibly looked like. She was tiny but still larger than a pup and still smaller than a pet labrador.

Her wolf was small due to her being unable to shift. A wolf needed to shift at least once a day especially as a pup to develop properly and grow. She had not had such a luxury with a weak body.

He was lucky she had survived at all. Only a handful of unshifted wolves like herself survived past the age of five from what he knew.

He stored the picture of her wolf to memory. Her soft fur was a cool grey with a few soft lighter hairs on her tail and underbelly. Her paws had lighter grey fur that made her look like she had  little boots on.

His wolf was mesmerized by his counterpart, rubbing against her and licking her as a show of goodwill.

Her little whines and small attempts to swat him off with her paws were met with more enthusiasm as he entertained her. Revion felt as if he was in another world.

He had to snap out of their shared space for the meeting.

He was glad to feel her body having relaxed against him. She was just cuddling now. That was much better. He could monitor her better whilst she was against him.

He had originally wanted to sit like that when he had first brought her into the meeting. He had been afraid though. She did not like showing affection in public. She had a rather adorable idea of it being reserved for private where she could be alone with him and not have people spying on their interactions. So he had just allowed her to sit on her throne beside him.

He felt so happy to see her not panicking on his lap as she cuddled him. She was making progress and he liked that. He liked to see her boundaries get pushed in a safe controlled environment.

Being her mate, he had a desire to see her grow and develop. He just was afraid of her getting hurt. If she got hurt she would likely lose progress and that was not good for her. She was already withdrawn enough.

He needed to push her a little more though. He needed to start venturing out to expand his empire. Her pack had been trained and most were to return to the lands with one of his officials to maintain order.

He could start directing his attention to the other packs. The best way to annex them was through meetings with her at his side. Diplomacy was always the first step.

As much as he wanted to go out on a conquering rage, it was best to reserve energy where he could. If he could beat an enemy without fighting that was favoured. If it did not work he could bring his army to defeat them.

                        
A/N

Thanks for the wait.

My inspiration has been lacking a little lately.

Thank you for all your support.

I also just found out that instead of having Revion's last name being lupus meaning wolf (I know it is cliche) I found out that lupus is also a rash. So his last name has been altered to Arric. Thank you to those who pointed it out to me. I really do not wish for a character to be named after a rash.

Quick question:

If you could do anything to René what would you do?