I woke up to a low hum a voices that seemed to be coming from above me. I attempted to open my eyes but it was as though some unseen spirit had taped them completely shut. Not only that but I couldn't move, or respond to anything. This had to be a coma, it had all the symptoms of one. I remember when Mitzie's grandma was in a coma and she told me that her Nan could still hear people's voices, but just couldn't do anything about it. I definitely was in a coma, it was as if my body was a prison and my soul was trapped beneath the barriers. Trust my body to fail me on such epic proportions. What if I missed my lecture? My English lecturer hates me enough as it is, I don't need lateness to add to the hatred. But wait… That's not right, I haven't been to Uni in at least a month, I haven't seen any of my friends in weeks. At least it felt that way as I tried to recollect. In my memories, one moment I was at Uni and then the next memory is simply a blank wall. As I tried to gather my thoughts my body began to slowly respond; my eyes fluttered back to life and my arms and fingers began to twitch. Where was I? My eyes suddenly popped open, and a rush of light invaded my retinas. Lifting a hand and squinting, I shaded my eyes.
"Good morning Cleopatra."
I looked to my left, recognising that lyrical almost otherworldly voice. Thena, her name was Thena, how did I know that? As I absorbed her blurred figure, taking in her obvious beauty and striking grey eyes, a feeling of warmth and recognition flooded me. How could I forget Thena? My mouth sprang into a smile, as though it had a life of its own. Just the sight of Thena had induced some kind of drunken happiness, an intense emotion that I don't remember feeling before. Somehow though, amongst the over powering feeling of joy was a thin thread of dread, pure and utter dread but I just couldn't place the origin of this emotion. Shaking my head mentally, I ignored it passing it off as insignificant. Instead of dwelling upon the unwelcome emotion I turned to Thena.
"Morning, where am I?"
"Home."- The brisk voice had came from nowhere and I knew instantly I did not recognise it. It was broken, cracked as though severely aged, however it did have a hint of the lyrical quality of Thena's voice, but it was old and dying. I turned to face the man, taking in his broad shoulders, silver hair and cold grey eyes. It was his eyes that intrigued me the most; they froze me with their emptiness and stunned me with their great depths. The man who looked barely over 50 years old had eyes that appeared as though they'd seen a whole millennium. I was struck dumb, the words floating around in my mind, too scared to come out.
"That's right Cleopatra," I felt Thena sliver closer to me, "you're home now."
I turned back towards the female, my instincts sensing that she was the safer option but complete dread washed over me and made my skin prickle. As I looked between both unearthly creatures I wracked my mind for any indicator as to how I had ended up in this predicament. Were these people friends of my parents? No, they couldn't be, they were much too weird, not only that but something about them put me on edge. As is at there thinking to myself, something inside of me told me that I was forgetting something, leaving out something incredibly important, but I just couldn't put my finger on it.
"Cleopatra."
I shivered, Thena's sharp voices tore me from my confusing thoughts and threw me back into an even more confusing world.
"You must be hungry darling, I can hear your stomach."
I frowned laying a hand on my midriff as if that somehow my gut would give me the answers. I didn't feel hungry, I just felt plain confused, but before I could even voice my thoughts, a girl with incredibly long, blonde hair glided into the room with a tray of food.
"Here, Lamia has brought some food for you," Thena patted my shoulder and smiled softly.
I looked up at Lamia as she moved towards me and carefully placed the tray on my lap. Her light, grey eyes bore into me intently as though she were waiting for something. Lamia wasn't the only one, Thena was staring at me expectantly and so was the creepy guy who stood silently in the corner. I shivered and looked down to survey the food. There were two steaming croissants, cooked perfectly and as crisply as I liked them, on the side sat three rashers of bacon slathered in maple syrup and there was a glass of water sitting beside the plate. My stomach grumbled in response and the urge to tuck in was great. It was strange because I hadn't been hungry before, just scared but now I was hungry and scared.
"Eat the food darling, you'll feel much better afterwards."
Thena's voice was beginning to sound a lot less beautiful to my ears, and her smile was stretched cryptically, manifesting from friendly to a completely unadulterated ugly. That is when I knew I had to get out of there. This definitely wasn't my home and these people were starting to creep me out.
"I'm not feeling to hungry at the moment," I smiled wryly, trying to hide my obvious fear, "if you could just tell me where I am, or possibly let me call someone?"
Thena took a step closer, her eyes burning into me, "Cleopatra." Her voice was threatening, "eat. Eat and you can do what ever you wish to do."
I arched a brow, sceptical but my hand was already reaching for the fork.
"Okay… but I really do need to call some people…"
Thena nodded, her smile stretching even further. Before tucking in I took one last glance at the other two, who were staring back at me cryptically. I shuddered, looking back down at the food. It was most probably poisoned, but there was no other way out. I had so imagined my death being a lot less glamorous than being poisoned, I would've sufficed with dying of old age… painlessly… in my sleep. Now, I was probably just gonna get loaded up with cyanide and go out like Hitler. I shoved a rasher of bacon in my mouth, squeezing my eyes shut, expecting it to taste like bleach. Instead the pure sweetness of the syrup and the salty contrast of the bacon awakened my taste buds. It wasn't just the taste though, it was something else, something much more potent, but that brief notion was at the back of my mind as I chowed down the rest of the food.
"Good," Thena's voice was smiling, I could tell just by the sound of it.
During my eating frenzy she had placed a cool hand on my back and was rubbing small, perfect circles into my back. The movement of her hand that the food was lulling me into a sense of safety… and bliss. Once I had finished my breakfast off, and stopped myself from licking the plate, I downed the glass of the delicious water and licked my lips.
"Who ever made that is a goddess," I sighed contently, just about stopping my eyes from rolling to the back of my head.
Thena was the only one who laughed, it was a warm hearty chuckle, Lamia just stormed out of the room and the creepy guy followed after her. I didn't care though, there was that warm feeling again, spreading through me and filling me with light. My head swam and I felt almost giddy as my eyes began to droop.
"No Cleopatra, you cannot fall asleep, you must follow me downstairs and meet the others."
I felt myself nod almost hypnotically and my body moved towards her, crawling out of the bed. She held out a hand and a grabbed it, my lips mimicking her wide smile.
"Do you still want to leave darling?"
I felt myself consider it for a moment, and then deriving my answer I shook my head for a negative.
"No, of course not. Where would I go? This is my home."
The pack of wolves emerged from onto the barren planes of the desert in their human forms and surveyed their surroundings. They had been following a scent for hours now, it was only a brief smell, whoever had taken Cleo had made sure to conceal her scent well, but not well enough. A werewolf, named Kojo, had the most sensitive nose in the pack, which caused him some trouble but came in handy when it was time for a hunt. Kieran gave out orders for the men to set up camp for the night, they had been travelling for too long and they needed as much energy as possible. It was a terrible thought to even consider that every moment they waited put Cleo in more and more danger but Kieran knew his limits, and it would be an abuse of power to push his men further than their limits.
As the werewolves started a fire to cook their captured meat, Kieran wandered off, his nose in the air and a purpose in his mind. Leo looked up from the fire and watched as his Alpha continued his own private search. He knew that Kieran wouldn't be able to rest until they found Cleo, but he also knew that constant fretting would drive his friend to madness. Leo rose from his seat on the ground and made his way over to Kieran.
"Come on man, you need to rest, you're tired," Leo put a hand on his friends shoulder, hoping that it would reassure him.
Kieran only continued to sniff around with a desolate expression.
"You know only Kojo can smell her right now, so come back to the camp and get some food in your belly and get some rest."
"How can I rest when Cleopatra is in danger?" his voice was hoarse as though he were on the brink of tears. It was only when Kieran turned to face Leo, did he notice the tears in his Alpha's eyes.
"What kind of mate am I? I promised I'd protect her…"
"You can't blame yourself Kieran."
"But yes I can," he snapped, turning away once more "if I'd just waited a little while longer, until I was Alpha…"
Leo sighed at a loss for comforting words. "Well, we can keep focusing on the past or we can move onto the future and find her. We know she's alive so there is still hope."
As soon as Leo had uttered those words a deathly silence existed between the two men, stretching out until they both couldn't take it anymore and one finally spoke.
"What if… What if she doesn't want to be found?"
I was led down a staircase of a grand house, my legs were clumsy on the way down my Thena had a firm hand on my arm, steadying me along the way. As she guided me through the hallway, past the kitchen and into the garden, Thena sweetened my ears with how much I would love the others and her words were like morphine, how I had longed for a real home and a family and now Thena was handing me one on a golden platter. Outside was hot, blazingly hot, the sun beat down and created mirages amongst the exotic flowers and plants. The air smelt beautiful, it was full and rich of perfumed smells that it was almost sickly but I just couldn't stop breathing it in.
"Cleo, this is Jetharo and Margret," Thena gestured to two people making their way towards me from the haze of flowers.
The man was frail, old and hunched over whereas the woman stood tall, she was like an Amazonian princess with long, winding, blood red hair. Both had soulful grey eyes than burned into me with intention. I found myself wondering at the colour of my own eyes, I had forgotten but prayed to myself that they were grey also, I wanted to truly be apart of my family.
"Finally," Margaret pulled me into a tight hug, her lithe arms winding their way around me into an entrapping grip. I felt safe.
Before I pulled away to greet the aged man, christened Jetharo, Margret buried her face into my neck and inhaled deeply. If I wasn't mistaken I heard a low, hungry growl within her own throat, but I brushed it off and stepped forward to greet her companion. Jetharo simply looked up to me with his grey, almost icy blue pupils.
"So you are the one… you are the one who is to save us," he sniffed the air gently and shuffled closer. "Come closer so I can see you better."
I complied, moving so close to the man that I could see every single wrinkled line in his face.
"Hmm," he rubbed his stubly jaw, and turned to Thena, "this one is going to be delicious."
Very very very long overdue update, what's it been now… 5 months? Almost half a year. Well last time I updated I was in the process of revision, then I took my exams (I got ABCC btw) and then after that I got hit with writer's block, then went to the Caribbean for 3 weeks, came back and was hit with A2 at school so I have had no time, and when I have had time it's been a pretty dry patch where I have absolutely no inspiration. I hope I still have all my fans and I hope you haven't got tired of waiting for this. All I can say is that I'm sorry, and that life's a bitch and we all have to deal with her. Instead of replying individually to all your reviews on here (because there were quite a lot and it'll take up too much room) I shall do it personally, and I am thankful for every single one of my reviews guys, don't forget it. Thank you so much for reading and taking the time out to give me feedback, and thank you for sticking around!