From Peace To Panic

Lucy's POV

Water glistened in the sun, reflecting the sky above us. Trees surrounded the glorious clearing, and in the center was the vast lake that caught my attention first. The mirror of nature seemed unreal, as if it didn't belong. Sand enveloped the bank of the lake and melted into grass leading toward the trees on all sides of the clearing. My mouth gaping open at the breathtaking image in front of me that only belonged in pictures. Birds sang their songs inside the trees and in the sky, occasionally swooping into the opening with long strokes from their wings. The entire place screamed calm, and without noticing, my body relaxed of its own will and my mind went quiet. No thought slithering through it, only functioning the necessities, like breathing. My wolf let her guard down and mine followed suit. I completely forgot about my past and that Deric was with me, not registering much except the beauty in front of me. I didn't know how long I stood there but I was abruptly pulled from my silence by Deric's voice. "Lucy?" I shook my head in confusion then turned around and looked at him in surprise. "Sorry, I kind of got lost for a second." I smiled slightly in apology. He took a few steps until he was right next to me. Slowly he shifted closer to me until our shoulders touched. "That's what I thought. Don't worry, when I first found this place, my parents had to send out a search party to find me." He chuckled as he recalled the memory. Deric turned to face me, "Come here" he said. He gently wrapped his hand around my elbow and led me closer to the water. Letting go he sat down on the grass and looked up at me expectantly. My arm was still tingling from his touch but I sank down onto the grass, only feeling warmth inside me.

"Sooo, we sort of got off on the wrong start and I was maybe wondering if we could fix that?" I looked at him as he spoke and only saw guilt in his face. Possibly because of the torture his men put me through but maybe because of something else. Nonetheless, I didn't like that he felt guilty so I answered him without hesitation. "Sure. How do we do that?" I looked into his eyes and happily realized that the guilt was fading away and being replaced by eagerness. Subconsciously my lips tugged up into a smile as Deric answered my question. "Why don't we just ask each other questions and see where it goes from there?" I nodded in agreement and then he continued. "I'll start and with an easy one. What's your favorite color?" Not being able to stop myself, I laughed at his innocent expression and in between my laughter I said, "Out...of all...the questions...you can ask...you wanna know...what my favorite...color is?" He started joining me. Our laughter mixing together and echoing around the clearing. We eventually calmed down and I finally answered him. "I like darkish blues. I do not like light blues that includes sky blue and baby blue." He looked at me strangely before speaking. "So you like blues that are not to dark and not to light. Like stormy or smoky blue." He wasn't asking for clarification he stated it matter-of-factly. As if he knew exactly what kind of blue I liked. It was quite amusing to watch him try and understand my brain and I almost felt bad for what I said next. "It depends on the object. I like sapphire stones, royal blue glass but I also like ice blue." As I said the last shade of blue my gaze drifted to his eyes and remembered the piercing ice blue color they were when his wolf was close to the surface. My cheeks started to feel flushed, so I quickly looked away in embarrassment and instead focused on the lake in front of us. I could feel his gaze on the side of my face, trying to will me into looking at him again as he spoke. "Blue's a good color, I like it. But my favorite color is green, like nature. Leaves, grass, forests but I don't like neon green or ugly greens, if you know what I mean." Still looking at the water I answered him, "Yeah, I know what you mean. Ugly greens, like snot." He burst into laughter instantaneously at my comment and I couldn't help but join in. We once again settled down and now it was my turn to ask a question. "What hobbies do you have?" Looking at the lake, I could feel his gaze on my face but I didn't look at him again, I just kept staring at the shimmering water as I waited for him to answer. He cleared his throat but stayed quiet for a while and I started to think that he wasn't going to answer my question. And I knew he had every right not to answer, because compared to him being the Alpha King, I was a simple nobody, a runt in other words. The weakest of a pack, the local push around that had to submit to even the lowest ranked pack members, that were normally used by everyone. That was me, unfortunately. But surprising me for what felt like the millionth time, he answered. "I like watching movies and reading books. I like building things. You know wood- and metalwork and so forth, but I don't really get much time for that." I could see at the edge of my vision how his face fell with sadness as he spoke and my heart instantly throbbed in empathy for him. I knew from experience what it felt like when you couldn't do the things you loved. Although I wasn't allowed to do much with the rogues, I was graced with a guardian angel for most of my life, Mel made sure I experienced as much as possible in my enclosed and dark life. Shaking away the terrible memories that threatened to resurface, I turned my attention back to Deric. He was staring at the water again, deep in thought, with a slight frown etched into his lips. His very soft-looking pink lips that seemed to beacon me closer to him. My shoulder pressed against his and the sudden firm contact made him jerk his head toward me and in that instant our eyes locked and our lips were inches from each other. I felt his warm breath fanning against my lips and my body felt like it was on fire. It was buzzing with a warmth I have only felt once and it was the first time I shifted, also laced with the pain of my bones breaking. There was no pain this time, only the heat along with the magnetic pull towards Deric. He leaned towards me too, suggesting that he felt the pull too. The thought of him being attracted to me made me feel good, happy and confused, but the confusion was nothing compared to the happiness and I couldn't help but smile at him. His hand lifted and wrapped around my upper arm gently with the hint of a slight tremor that made his fingers shake. My hand squeezed the hand I was holding, not daring to do more than that as he leaned down. His eyes never leaving mine and when he was just a hair's breath away, my eyes fluttered closed. An alarmed howl pierced through the silence and we both jerked away from each other. Deric bolted to his feet and looked around us, deep within the trees, for any signs of movement but there was none. But we were both on high alert because that howl was a warning, a warning of an attack.

"Come on!" He ordered, pulling me up from the ground by my arm and started for the canopy of trees. We rushed through the thicket this time, back to his house. He was in frenzy this time, holding my arm instead of my hand and pulling me along with his hasty sprint, only righting me when I tripped over some tree roots that were unavoidable. His grip on me started to hurt the instant that we were back at his house where Crystal and Liam, along with two other large muscular men, were waiting for us. "Take her inside and protect her with your lives!" Deric exclaimed whilst pushing me towards the group of people. Crystal steadied me out of my stumble and turned to ask him something but he was already walking away toward the front of the house. My question got stuck in my throat as he was about to disappear around the corner. And maybe disappear from my life, our future. "Deric!" It came out as a choked yell but still effective, making him stop and look at me over his shoulder. His eyes were blue again, his wolf close to taking control. There was a murderous glint in his eyes and it was unclear whether it came from the wolf or the man, but it gave me some hope that he was going to be alright. Whether I wanted to give into that hope or not was still unknown, but I couldn't stop the next words that came out of my mouth. "Come back to me." These simple words seemed to weigh tons in the space between us. Silence was all around us but I was sure that these trained wolves around me could hear my heart thundering in agitation and heard it soar to new heights when Deric answered my plea. "Always." Then he was gone and I was being pulled into the house with tears running down my face and silent sobs racking my body.