A Second Time

Werewolves were not friends with anything made of pure silver at all. It repelled them and they just preferred to stay away from such. So, what the girl had just said made Beowulf's stomach clench a little. He was even already considering getting out of the line -- it was not like he needed to be in the palace in the first place. He had been very attentive to everyone that he had passed while coming to the palace -- but he hadn't felt what he did when he had met with that girl in the forest. Beowulf knew and was sure that he hadn't come across the human girl -- not yet anyway.

The girl was in front of Beowulf now and she didn't notice how unsettled he was about what she said about the silver thing. She kept on rambling about something -- something concerning how they had to filter through the people getting into the palace.

Beowulf understood what they were doing -- they were being security conscious and such and he could relate to that. The only problem with the whole thing was that he was a freaking werewolf. What was he going to do about being touched by silver? It burned them and would blow his cover immediately. He could not even begin to imagine how he would take all the heat for what his brothers had done in the Yidal kingdom the previous night -- what they had done to the princess. He would be used as a scape goat and that felt demeaning to Beowulf as he thought about it.

The girl got to the guard at the palace's main gate with Beowulf just behind her. As the guard was checking her fruit basket and touching the bare parts of her body with the silver rod that was in his hand, instantly, Beowulf felt something.

His gaze went to the palace's building -- where the pull was coming from -- that pull. It was unmistakably the same one he felt in the forest before he had run away. She was there. His mate -- she was there! She was in that palace.

Suddenly, the cool within Beowulf Sandulf was lost. He lost all coordination as he was almost compelled to jump over the guards and just head straight for the palace. He could feel it. The feeling could not be missed.

That night was the first time he had ever felt such and this was the second time he was feeling it again.

* * *

Within the palace, Yuri had not woken up since the attack. It was not that she had been poisoned but she was in a state of coma since she was struck by the wolves' arrow. The unexpected attack had sent her into a state of shock and she was laid on her bed in a ballet slipper-colored nightdress.

Her eyes fluttered open to a feeling in her chest. Yuri's eyeballs moved from side to side without her moving her head.

Sally was waiting beside her and was ecstatic that the princess had opened her eyes. "Princess!" she yelled before she caught herself and put her hand over her mouth. She shouldn't have shouted, she thought. With a much calmer voice, Sally said; "You're awake, Princess...Let me go and tell your father, he said I-"

"Sally..." Yuri muttered with a coarse voice. She cleared her dry throat and tried to talk again but couldn't.

Sally dashed to a coffee table that was in a corner of the room and poured a generous amount of water for the princess. Still, she watched the princess as if trying to make sure that Yuri would not disappear. The relief Sally felt was intense and she could not wait to break the good news that the princess has awoken.

Yuri was looking around as if searching for something. Her left hand went to her chest around her heart area as she stretched to take a glance outside and she had a look of confusion on her face.

"What do you need, My Princess?" Sally asked as she noticed that the princess was looking out for something. "Do you need me to fetch you something?"

Yuri didn't reply. Her mind was not even in that room with Sally -- talk more of her hearing and responding to what her maid had asked. Her brows creased as the feeling was becoming stronger within her. Yuri just felt like she needed to be outside. She felt out of place being on that bed in that room at that moment.

Yuri moved as she put her feet down to the ground and straight into a slipper that had been left there for her.

"The water, Sally," Yuri said clearing her throat a little again and with an outstretched arm waiting to receive the glass from Sally.

Yuri collected the water, drank, and handed the glass back to her personal maid. "I need to... I need to go outside, Sally," Yuri said. "Get my clothes ready," Yuri ordered.

It was as if Sally hadn't heard properly. "Y-You... I-I didn't hear you, my p-princess..." Sally stuttered.

Yuri shot her a look and if looks could kill, Sally would've dropped to the floor, dead.

She swallowed and shuddered. Then, Sally nervously nodded even though she absolutely could not understand what was going on with the princess. Yes, Sally could tell that there was something at play that she wasn't on to and she could not even guess what it was about. That alone made her feel disturbed enough. And Sally knew that she dared not tell the princess otherwise -- at least not when Yuri was in the strange mood that she was in that time.

Slowly, Sally walked to the chest where the princess' dresses were and started to look for a dress for Yuri.

"Sally!" Yuri exclaimed impatiently. Then, she didn't wait -- couldn't wait for Sally as she knew that her maid was being intentionally slow. Yuri walked to her balcony, the same place where she had been shot -- totally forgetting the trauma of the incident.

Her mind told her to look towards the gate which was miles away from the palace's main building as their land was massive. Yuri could see the line of people that were at the palace's gate even though from that distance, she could not tell who from who.

But the emotion that was smouldering her at that moment, Yuri knew -- she knew was the same one she felt when she saw that creature with fur and ears like a wolf's.