One Night In No Man's Land

XXIX

Elise watched as an expensive black car drove in through the huge gated arch at the edge of the bridge. She could feel her heart beginning to pound as she stared out of the bedroom window. The panes of transparent glass were all that separated her from what was to come. Was it childish to fear meeting people so much? Perhaps. 

Nothing anyone could say, could have stopped the anxiety building up in her chest. Her clenched fists held against the cold glass, whilst she peered down, curious and terrified. She had been told over and over that being so afraid was foolish, it was stupid, but what could she do about it? She did not know how to stop the paranoia, the fear, it weighed down on her, like a tower about to topple over. 

There was no escape, and much like a high school speech, there was no place to hide to avoid it. It would come, whether she was ready or not, and she was certainly not ready. Not ready in the slightest. 

She turned from the glass, yanking the curtains shut, the more she stared, the more fear she would feel. She needed to go down. She needed to go and out a smile, real or fake, and impress. As scared as she was, she had a kingdom. If she messed up, they could all be killed. 

The intrusive thoughts were certainly no help. It made her feel even worse.

She caught her reflection in a mirror. She could hardly recognise herself. The maids were amazing. Her curls looked orderly for once and any sort of blemishes on her skin were completely hidden. The navy gown made her feel like royalty. For once, she actually looked the part of a queen. 

She made her way to the door. The guests had arrived, try as she might, she could not escae them. She was sure Revion was a little nervous too, he just hid it well. He was a perfect King, she felt as if she was not good enough for him. But what did that matter, whether she was good or bad, she needed to be present.

It was just greeting people. So why were her hands all clammy? Why did she feel as if she was on her way to a guillotine instead of her loving mate. Hot and bothered, her skin was sweating. Her head had the nagging pain of a swirling dizzy headache. Worry and fear stabbed at her chest.

Each step closer, had her heart fighting against her ribcage. It was painful. Each beat was a hit of the knife. A hit of pain and a hit of worry.

The long floor length dress, sheening with sparkles, was a rope twisted around her body, dragging her to her doom.

Insecurity and fear meshed into a mess in her mind. 

She had little experience meeting with leadership. Her mate, and Rene. But it stopped there. She had never had a conversation with her Alpha or Luna. She did know that her Luna was extremely obsessed with perfection. She did not consider Omegas very attractive, so she purposefully kept them out of sight when other packs visited. Elise did not like her at all. The Alpha, well he was strong. Well in the pack she had considered him strong. He liked attention.

She had no true indicator, no idea of what to expect, not knowing was a frightening thing.

A hand was pressed against her skin, fingers slowly slipped against her own.

A voice whispered against her ear. "You look beautiful Regina."

Those four words were all it took to calm her racing heart. 

"I know you are scared but if you conquer this, you should not have to fear meeting people again."

"What if I mess up? What if I make a fool of myself and humiliate you?" Elise asked.

"Then you just learn from your mistake and try to work on it. If no one ever failed or made mistakes, we would be living in a perfect world, but as you can see the world is not perfect. So you are not the only one who fails or makes mistakes. I make them too. I get scared as well. My first meetings as a King, I spewed out utter nonsense because I got so nervous. It led to some odd things, but did the world end because I made a mistake? No, and if you introduce yourself as Pineapple instead of Elise, I do not think the world will end for you either."

Revion grinned as his mate burst out laughing at his "inspirational" speech. 

"Don't- give me any- ideas," she said between fits of laughter.

Revion felt relieved. She was distracted, it was the best way to help her overcome her fear. He did feel nervous but he had met many people before, important people. People who were probably far more important than this couple. The only thing he was scared for was if she messed up. He did not care if she humiliated him. He cared about her. If she messed up chances were that she would attempt to become a full on hermit. She was close enough to that already, and he did not consider that a good thing. 

He had noticed that the moment she failed at something, she would completely abandon it. It was as if she had no confidence in herself after a failure. After her friendships (if he could even call them that) failed, she abandoned the possibility of making new friends. She was stuck in the past. 

Elise then saw them between tears. A couple. A man and a woman. He was in a suit, hair gelled into place. The woman- well she was everything Elise was not expecting. A short dress, beautiful sandals and her hair had fly aways. She did not even appear to be wearing make up.

She practically ran at Elise, coming in like a hawk diving for the kill.

"So you must be the Queen? My scouts have told me so much about you."

"S-scouts?"

"Of course! A good Alpha must always be informed of any changes. Now why did he put you in something so formal. This is a meeting, not a black-tie event. Come take me to your room, we need to fix this immediately."

"Uh okay?" Elise said.

                                                

A/N

Hello!!! Has it been many months since I published? Yes. I am so sorry about that. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I just got a wave of inspiration whilst procrastinating work and I had to take it whilst it came and therefore you get this lovely chapter.

I have seen so many comments about people not liking Elise and how whiny she can be. Well I wrote her like that because no person is perfect and every character needs to grow and develop. I could try and excuse her actions by saying she is traumatised (which she is) but where is the fun if everything is just excused because of that. If you want to try justify how she is acting I do not mind since part of her actions are just, she is just sometimes irrational. At the end of the day there is no way I can tell you how to experience my characters. You see them in your own way, I do not think any two people can experience one character in the same way, and I love that!

So thank you for reading! I love you all and if you have been patient enough to wait for this chapter I am really really grateful and happy!