Ajax

He was just going to his post like normal. He was going to play it very cool and pretend like nothing was different, and stand around bored until Lara gave him the signal.

He just wanted one thing to go smoothly for one day - but those wishes were denied immediately as he watched the clock tick by, hour by hour. Lara should have been here by now to at least give him a 'yes' or 'no' on the validity of Veltar's whereabouts. It was nearing the end of his shift, and worry spilled over into fear.

...and then he felt something he didn't ever want to: the very real, and very deep dread from his mate. Something had gone wrong - and Lara was in some state of distress. Ajax knew he couldn't leave his post immediately, that would be too suspicious. So he took a page from Metas' book and sucked in a soft breath to calm himself and think of a solution without getting into a frenzy.

Luck seemed to bless him, though - and soon there was a loud commotion coming from out of the palace gates.

"The princess - someone find Princess Syri!" a handmaid came out in panic and had tears down her face. "She's gone, she's been kidnapped - Jyriah and Joss were the last ones to have her, and they've disappeared, too."

Ajax looked at the black-haired female fall to her knees and sob into her hands. She must have been in a lot of trouble - or somehow bonded with Syri very quickly. With Silas as Alpha, he was guessing it was the former.

This was a great opportunity, though. He would use the chaos to make his way into the castle with a bunch of others who were now turning the place upside down.

Ajax pretended to search, but in reality he was sniffing out Lara in hopes of rescuing her - or better yet, not having to rescue her because everything would be fine. He knew something was wrong, and wherever Lara was, she was intense pain in her legs. She was holding back her connection from him, but each time he put pressure on his feet, he'd feel prickles and stings of pain.

He sniffed the air subtly and continued to check over his shoulder to make sure no one was following him. Ajax quickly found that the east wing was not where his mate had gone, but the west still held her essence in the air.

'Lara, I'm coming...' Ajax thought as deeply as he could in hopes somehow, his mate could feel him and gather at least a little relief.

His steps were not slow as he finally was able to disappear around the corner and down the stairs out of sight of the many, many wolves running around in search of someone who luckily was no longer around.

Lara's scent grew stronger as he descended another set of stairs, and his pace picked up so much that he tripped over a couple of stairs, but managed to catch himself on the wall before he took a terrible injury.

By the second landing he was attempting two stairs at a time as Lara's presence strengthened and peaked on the very last floor at the bottom of a very dark hallway.

"Lara...?" Ajax dared to ask - he did and didn't want to know the truth.

"...Baby, please be here.." he said a little louder and started to quake when she gave no response.

'No..no no... I should have come down here with her. I should have found a way...'

"Lara..." he called out louder as he went further down the hallway.

"Ajax! Ajax!" Lara cried from behind a heavy, thick door.

"Goddess - how..how did you end up in here? Are you okay?" Ajax asked in panic.

"Silas...he caught me coming up from down here, and some maids ratted me out and said they saw me down here with Syrana. Listen, Ajax - you need to get out of here and warn Metas that Silas stole that gem-key from me. It was still warm and glowing - he can get access to all the weaponry he wants! Go - go tell him, don't worry about me!" Lara yelled as loud as she could so Ajax could hear her.

"I'm not leaving you here, are you fucking crazy!? I'd rather die than leave you in that cell," Ajax argued.

"Ajax - our duty is to the kingdom first and always. We vowed to serve Metas until death. This intel is far more important than my life."

"Nothing is more important than your life!" He screamed back and hit the door with his fist in anger.

"Right now, this really is more important, Ajay... Please. If you love me, if you truly love me - you won't let my sacrifice in here be in vain. Please warn Metas!"

"I think he already knows," Jyriah greeted from behind a secret wall that he and Metas walked out from.

"SHIT--Why!?" Ajax hissed in alarm.

"Silas has my blood stone?" Metas asked in a deadpan voice and his face lost some of its color.

"Metas - I'm sorry! He was stronger than I was - he took it from me. I put up a fight, but... my legs are broken..." Lara whimpered out loudly and hit the back of her head against the door she was sitting against.

What was worse was that Syrana and Veltar had been entirely silent, which made her feel trapped in a pitch-dark room with two dead bodies. This moment would never leave her again, unfortunately - and for the rest of her days, she'd come back to this place should she ever be stuck in a silent, dark room again.

"He did what!?" Ajax roared.

"SHHH! What's wrong with you? You want to let everyone know we're down here?" Jyriah whispered harshly.

"Metas - let her out right now, before anything else - you need to let her out," Ajax looked to his Alpha with wide eyes of panic.

"Yes, agreed. Let's grab our pack and go. I have every confidence someone heard those shouts," Metas agreed and reached forward to turn the knob - but a bright, fiery pain stopped him as a thick iron arrow pierced his forearm.

Everyone turned to the location where the strange object flew from, and at the end of the hall was Silas holding what humans once called a cross-bow, and it seemed he had gloves, and more iron arrows to spare.