[O] Trapped

"I-I don't know," the boy murmured softly.

He didn't know what he wanted from the Wolf.

Some new company, perhaps. He spent all his time around Rai, Khaliq and Amr. As much as he enjoyed spending time with them, he did want to see new faces.

I want to get out of here.

He growled softly, swiping at the bar with his large paw, causing a ring to echo through the dungeon.

If nothing else staying down here for the last few days had be boring.

It had worked to calm him down but he was restless to get out.

"I can't do anything about that," the boy murmured softly.

He couldn't let the Wolf out of the cage. Ti had no authority within the Wolves of the mansion.

He'd probably end up getting himself killed if he did open the cage.

Can you get the Alpha for me?

Now that he was calm, he was ready to listen to the man and if he could negotiate a way to get out of here he would.

It was obvious that there was no way he was breaking through these bars.

He had managed to dent and bend them but it wasn't enough for an escape.

Ti nodded, pushing himself slowly to his feet.

He gave the Wolf a smile. "I'll look for him." He took a few steps back before spinning around on his heel, a lot more gracefully than one would expect from the seemingly rather awkward boy.

Tibor made his way up the stairs slowly, turning to glance back at the Wolf over his shoulder every few steps until he couldn't see the Wolf any more.

It took a while to find Aleksandr. But when he did, he relayed the message that Zephyr was looking for him, blushing and looking away and biting his lip as he relayed the message. He had interrupted something intimate between the Alpha and his Hybrid.

Ti knew that he'd probably have that image on his mind a lot.

Alek had nudged Chester away from him gently when Ti began talking and after dismissing the young Shifter, he made his way towards the dungeons.

"You wanted me?" he asked as he descended the stairs.

What do you want of me so I can be let out of this cage?

He replied, sitting up tall as he watched the Alpha draw closer.

Unlike last time he didn't growl or snarl, he didn't try to attack the bar or bite the man.

He just sat there, watching him intently and listening for the Lycan's demands.

Alek's lips curled upwards a little.

"Time in the cage has cooled you off," he commented as he stopped in front of the cage door.

"Turn back," was his simple demand.

The wolf went silent for a moment, turning back was not an easy fast, he hadn't done so in quite some time.

Still, if that is what it would take.

He lay out on the floor and let his eyes slide shut as he tried to focus on his human form.

A growl sounded as his bones began to creak and crack, his transformation was slow and painful as his front paws took on the appearance of human arms which stretched out and gripped at the ground desperately as the rest of his body took shape.

The entire process took well over fifteen minutes as his body slowly warped, his growls morphing into the pained cry of a man as his head shifted and morphed.

He was left sprawled out on the cement, panting heavily, his tanned, muscular body covered in sweat.

Dark curls stuck to his bow, his piercing silver eyes pressed shut, amongst his dark locks stood a single white ringlet which started at his temple and tumbled down the side of his strong jaw.

Alek stood patiently as the Wolf started the painfully slow process of turning back into a human.

Alek silently hoped that this turn would spark some memories in the man. Being in a more human form would prompt more human thoughts and memories.

Would Zephyr remember him now?

The Lycan stared down at the man as he laid on the ground, the silence clinging to him deafening as he waited with baited breath.

The man gave a pain groan as he tried to move, after not shifting for such a long time it felt like the first time all over again.

Slowly he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees before sitting up.

His gaze moved slowly over the room, confusion written all over his face before they turned up to the Alpha.

His eyes went wide, his gaze filled with disbelief, glassing over as he held back tears as his mind was flooded with long lost memories.

"Theo ... esý eísai?"

He murmured, his words hesitant encase he was hallucinating.

________________
Theo... is that you?

If he were a lesser man, Alek would have slumped in relief when the man's gaze settled on me and he muttered those words.

Zephyr did remember him.

Instead of gushing something stupid, Alek merely nodded.

Zephyr reluctantly pulled his gaze away from the man, looking down at his own body before looking around at the room.

"Where are we?"

He asked as he steeled himself to stand, pushing himself to his feet.

He was uneasy on them for a moment but took slow steps toward the edge of the cage, grasping onto the damaged bars.

These were elven...if he had done this much damage to them.

"What did I do Theo?"

He wouldn't be in here without good reason.

"Sicily. It seems you became rather well travelled when you lost yourself to the Wolf."

An answer to both questions, however insensitive said answer may be deemed.

Alek leaned forwards a little when Zephyr stepped forwards and gripped the bars.

"Your Wolf has quite the temper."

Zephyr was a little taken back by the reply, looking at the other man in disbelief before pursing his lips.

"Is this why you're being so distant with me right now? You're mad because I lost control?"

He asked, his jaw clenching as he tried his best to remain as calm as possible.

"It's a wonder I'm still sane, though I can't really be sure I am..."

He muttered, stroking the bars slightly, letting the cold metal move over his palm.

"For all I know you could be an illusion and I could be completely mad. Either way... a Lycan can only be alone for so long Theo, full moons spent in solidarity, I've never taken a mate, I spent every mating season cut off from everyone else..."

He let out a sigh and let himself slide down the polls, sitting out on the floor beside them.

"You have every rite to be mad, but I've been searching for you for such a long time and they never stopped searching for me. I wont apologize, my wolf is strong and he is the only reason we have survived this long."

The wolf wouldn't give into despair when the man had long given up, he didn't have emotional weakness, he had thrived in adversity and got them both out in one peace.

"Not because you lost control," Alek denied lightly.

"Because even in your loss of control you forgot about me." His voice was barely audible. It was rare Alek allowed himself to sound this soft; this weak. He wasn't one to let his guard down.

The younger Lycan gave a dry laugh at the older Wolf's pitiful murmuring.

"I don't remember you ever wallowing in such self-pity before." This man was very different from the one that he had spent centuries with. Zephyros would never list off this list of the woes of his life.

Alek didn't know whether to feel pity or sadness.

Even when he wasn't a Wolf, Zephyros was lost to him.

"I wasn't wallowing."

Zephyr growled in response as he shot Aleksandr a glare, accidentally his teeth sharpened as his wolf reared it's head.

The man cursed under his breath as he took a breath, willing his teeth to return to normal.

Keeping his wolf caged after so long of letting it free wasn't easy.

"You're mad because my wolf didn't remember you?"

This provoked a bitter laugh from the man as he looked up at Aleksandr and shook his head softly.

"Has it slipped your mind that you forgot about me? You found a way to escape and you left me in that place."

Alek felt a stab of hurt at the accusation that he had forgotten one of the three most important people in his life.

"I didn't leave alone by choice. I had found the escape, planned it for the two of us. Three, actually, but Mitera would never have agreed to leaving behind any one of her children."

The man's head inclined slightly, his curly brown hair twitching with the movement.

"I didn't account for early guards. They appeared and I had to either take the dive or be killed on spot. Lycustheos was already growing tired of my ill-conceived escape plans. He wouldn't have kept me alive for any longer. If not for those guards, I had every intention of returning to the yard and finding you."

His arms crossed over his chest to form a pitiful barrier between himself and Zephyros' hurt.

"I had to choose between life or death. I thought that in choosing life I could come back for you later. I spent three centuries after that attempting to find further holes in their defences, hiding in the shadows."

"And after those three centuries?"

He asked looking up at the man, his eyes still narrowed.

"I spent far longer than that searching for you after I escaped from my new owners.

Lycustheos thought I would be the next to escape so he sold me off to a Vampire coven."

The Lycan snorted in disgust, that experience had been worse than suffering at the hands of the Elves.

"You stopped trying to get me out but I didn't stop looking for you and yet you can stand there and be mad at me?

Maybe coming to find you wasn't worth it after all."

He murmured as he looked away from the man.

"I got careless one night and was found out. Attacked and almost dragged back into that godforsaken hell-hole half dead, assumably to be taken to Lycus and have the job finished." His voice held little emotion now. It was quiet and sharp, piercing Zephyr with every syllable that escaped his lips.

He didn't even realise the slip of tongue and the familiar way he had spoken in reference to Lycus.

"I couldn't risk it any more. I loved you, Zephyros, but my own life was important, too. Three centuries was enough." Spending every waking moment of his life attempting to get to Zephyros and every sleeping moment dreaming about getting to Zephyros. There was a point in which Alek would have burned out. He couldn't just have one focus any more.

"If you want to continue to be petty with me and throw blames you'll be severely disappointed. I have already done the angsty meeting up with the past and I have no desire to go through that emotional trauma again."

He was done with the emotional bullshit that came along with skeletons.

"Your ultimatum is clear, Zephyros. Either we talk this out without forcing blame or I kill you here and be done with it."

His emotions were thin, barely clinging on to the last vestiges of self control. Alek was weary now after this week of emotional trauma. This was far worse than what he had gone through with Lycus.

He was willing to resort to drastic measures to be rid of this pain.

"You call him Lycus now? Since when have you been so informal with that Elf?"

I loved you, Zephyros.

That ran bitterly through his mind, loved, past tenths. Theo showed no of the past emotion, none of his once fiery spirit.

Aleksandr wasn't the only one disappointed in this reunion.

"Would you kill me, pup? You gave it to me as my only other option so I can assume it wasn't just an empty threat."

That surprised him more than anything else, they had spent so many years protecting one another and now he was being threatened with death.

"Perhaps for a year now," Alek mused.

How long had it been since the two had become partners? At least a year. Probably closing in on a year and a half.

"I am done with the bullshit that seems to concentrate around me when I meet someone from my past, Zephyros. Even at the risk of losing you, I will not suffer the trauma that follows again. It has happened too often over the past three years."

Alek stepped forwards, his hands resting on the bars just above Zephyr's. He leaned forwards so his skin was almost touching the cool bars.

If either of them wanted to, one of them would be able to lean forwards and claim the other's lips.

"If it means peace, I would force myself to kill you." That didn't mena it would be a pleasant experience.

Theo wasn't the man he once knew anymore, this entire world had changed around him.

He was never one to quit but he too had endured enough, he was at the end of his rope with no where left to go.

His gaze turned back up to Aleksandr as he pursed his lips.

"Then lets both find peace at last, shall we?
Atleast I'll go out as a man instead of a beast."

If he felt any hurt at those words, he didn't show it.

His gaze continued to bore into Zephyr's steadily as he licked his lips slowly.

"Zephyros would cry if he saw the man he'd become," Alek murmured softly as he turned around and made his way towards the stairs.

"Make yourself comfortable. You're condemned to starve to death."

"My purpose, my only purpose ever since I got out was to find you, now I have and the man I've found no longer cares.

If anyone should cry, it is you Theo, I've stayed true to myself and it's obvious you no longer need or want me.

He frowned but nodded at the verdict, maybe some part of him still cared if he couldn't deal the blow.

"As you say, Alpha." That was what Theo had made of himself, not a man, just a title.

He replied, his tone sure and strong as he gripped the filled water bowl in his cage and tossed it out so he wouldn't be tempted.

"I ask that you not visit me until you're sure I am gone, I don't need additional suffering."

He replied before moving to sit against the wall, he was in for a long wait.

It wasn't until he ascended into the main house that Alek crumbled.

He reared around, fist connecting with the old stone walls of the stairwell. The stone cracked and crumbled, dust flying up around him as crumbled bricks littered the stairwell, falling down them into the dungeon. Some bricks likely got as far as Zephyr's cage.

With shaky steps Alek made his way to his bedroom.

Without a word when he entered the room, he dropped to his knees in front of Chester and wrapped his arms around the boy, letting the silent tears flow.

He needed comfort.