Nightmares

"I was wondering when you were going to arrive, Metas..." Harbinger said through gritted teeth wide with pride as he walked back and forth in front of a retrained, and severely abused Myranda.

She had been cuffed with her hands under her belly and hooked to a chain belt that attached to her ankles. Her body was bruised, red, cut, and wasn't spared from a single touch. She was fully nude and draped over what looked like a contraption to keep her still.

His stomach churned, and he had to turn away from the site of his mate before he lost the contents of his stomach.

"Don't worry, she can't hear us...or see.. or speak... We had that fixed. Her mouth is a real problem, you know. We tried a gag, but, well out customers didn't like that. We figured a way around it, though," Harbinger went on and walked up to take his place behind Myranda, who jolted from the mere touch of his claw.

"Why? Why not just kill me?" Metas asked in rage as his eyes started to burn and his claws sank into his own palms as his body started to morph into the same half-lycan form that Harbinger had, only he was as black as night.

"I had my own reasons. She was fantastic at first, by the way. I hope you had your fill. I certainly did-"

"Shut the fuck up!" Metas shouted and tried to charge forward, but he found his wrists were bound by chains.

When was he bounded by chains? He swore he walked in here - and it was just them, but sure enough, he couldn't reach his mate. All the defeated male could do was watch as Harbinger reached forward and grabbed her beautiful strands of silky white and black hair, only to pull her head back violently.

"Sometimes she moans. I sure hope she does this time. It makes me wonder why you never bothered to treat her right. Are you not into females? Or was she just too hideous before we got her?"

"I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you and dine upon your corpse!" Metas growled and tried to pull away harder from the restraints that kept him stuck at the door.

Harbinger just laughed and helped himself inside of Myranda as he reached forward and gripped her throat as he gave her no gentle motions from behind.

The anguish in her face only made him fight harder, and his voice felt hoarse as he screamed for her.

Metas awoke with a start, and pushed himself up from the dirt and took in deep heaves of air. He choked on his own breath and felt around for his mate, who was curled into a ball and shaking. The Alpha frowned at his own sweat-covered body. He must have pulled the blankets off of her in his thrashing.

He reached over and pulled her towards him gently, both in the need for her, and the desire to warm her.

"You need to talk to her, Metas...you're waking everyone up..." Lara groaned lightly just a little bit away from him.

They had yet to make a big enough complex underground for everyone to have their own pods, so most of the main pack slept in the same den together, save for Jyriah and Joss who slept with the villagers to make them feel protected - and Veltar who slept in the cave (and Jessie when she'd sneak in there when she felt brave enough).

Ajax and Lara had no problem sleeping with Metas - they had long slept in a pile as pups, but it was a little bit odd to have Myranda apart of the group. Not because she wasn't wanted -- but because she slept so damn hard and it felt weird to talk when she was right there, and her not hear a thing.

"Yeah, man...I'm fucking tired....can you just.. I don't know- tell her you're having bad dreams? Maybe take her for your own so you stop having them. My nightmares didn't stop until I marked Lara's nape. I'm just saying..." Ajax added with a flat tone of fatigue. He didn't care about his volume, as it didn't echo in the dirt, and he knew Myranda wouldn't wake up anyway.

"She's probably having the same kind of dreams. You should take care of her before it gets worse. Honestly, I thought one time the dreams were so real that I stopped sleeping. It's just one of the drawbacks of being paired with your fated mate. You'll have that desire until you do it, just saying" Lara yawned and tried to stay asleep, but it was starting to become impossible with Myranda's whimpers joining the noise.

"I swear, Metas. If you don't take care of your mate, I'll make you. I know you want romance and stuff - which is great - but I don't think it's gonna happen, buddy. I'm honestly surprised you haven't yet. You waited for so long to meet her, and now you pass up the opportunity to lay with her? I had to be held back from Lara," Ajax doled on and tried to tuck Lara back into his side, but she popped him in his chest to reprimand him.

"Stop it. First of all, you were able to make it so romantic for us. Second of all, that's our private business, and you can speak about that when my ears aren't in range...." Lara replied with a hazy grunt.

"Well, we don't have access to the tools I had to make things romantic." Ajax replied matter-of-factly.

"Just... make it as romantic as you can, or make it up to her. You gotta stop with the nightmares, man. She doesn't need them either. Trust me, she's having the same dreams, but worse. If you think it is horrible to walk in on your mate being violated, imagine what it feels like to be the mate who is being abused. She loves you, and I don't think she wants anyone else to have what she wants to give you. I stressed about it until we finally were able to connect fully. Marriage is great and all, and the bonding ceremonies are sweet. However, as you point out so often, we're of natural magic. Nature is all we need to make things official. So make your vows known to Gaia, and let me have one damn night of sleep," Lara tried to not complain, but she was so tired from all the work done in the tunnels, that she couldn't help but be a little snappy at her friend.

...especially over something he could control...

"I feel sorry for her more than I do you, to be honest - but that's because I had the very same dreams she's suffering from right now. Also, she sleeps really hard. I fear for her safety if we ever get raided...." Lara added one last time as she tried to wriggle back into Ajax's warm embrace.

"Jyriah said she's slept through fire before. I thought he was exaggerating..." Metas returned with a flat tone that was filled with disbelief.

"Clearly he isn't. Listen, Mets. If you want us to help, we can. No female deserves to have romance sucked out of their first mating. Trust me, I can cook up something really interesting with what's around. I mean, I did surprise Lara after all," Ajax offered lazily.

"He really, did..." Lara swooned sleepily as her eyes started to become heavy again.

"You and I will talk about it immediately tomorrow," Metas answered with affirmation.

"Good, good..." Ajax trailed off as though he were falling asleep, but he couldn't help but give his friend a little bit of a hard time before he was done. "Haha...if only I could go back in time to give you a good ribbing about how I have to help get the illustrious Prince Metas laid."

Metas chuffed. He had nothing to reply to that, because it was a truthful fact, and it was pretty comical.

"I love you, Mets. Go back to bed," Lara muttered and tucked her head away so that she could shut the rest of the world out and go back to the sleep so well earned.

"Love you guys, too. Sorry for waking you up," Metas replied warmly towards Lara.

"It's cool as long as you don't let it happen again," Ajax joked with a slurred speech that dripped with fatigue. "No more talky time now. Night night," the silver wolf yawned and said nothing more about the inconvenience.