Author’s Note: One F-Bomb dropped and some other rough language

After Valerie left the cell, she locked it behind her. As the heavy lock clicked back into place, Lenora shivered and hugged herself. Once alone, sorrow shrouded her, and she was unable to hold it back. Lenora doubled over, bowing her head into her hands. Hot tears fell unchecked while her shoulders shook as sobs overtook her. “Och, Tyrone, my love! Och…Tyrone!” All she wanted was for her beloved wolf to burst through the bars and take her away from this hellhole. She wanted to hold her wee ones and tell them everything was all right now. “I’m alive! Och, how do I make ye understand?”

Lenora tried to reach for Tyrone telepathically but was rewarded only with a sharp throbbing in her temples and behind her eyes. Nausea roiled inside her, and her stomach lurched alarmingly. She made it to the toilet just in time to bring up the little water she’d had and then violently dry heaved. Groaning and crying, she leaned her head on the toilet bowl and cursed Shane Clayton fluently in Irish, then English. “I’ll get ye for this, Clayton. I’ll make ye wish ye’d never been born. That’s a promise.”

At last, the nausea subsided, but she still felt chilled. She had to get out of this nightie and get something on her feet. Rifling through the bag Valerie left for her, she found some jeans and a sweater. After pulling them on, along with socks and shoes, she felt slightly warmer. Still, she wondered if she would ever get fully warm again. The only way she figured it would happen was when she was back in her Tyrone’s arms where she belonged.

Lenora sat in the chair and must have dozed off. The next thing she heard was the heavy lock on the cell clanging and the bars sliding open. She blinked once, but when her eyes landed on who was standing there, she narrowed her eyes and snarled. “You!”

“Well, look who’s up,” Shane drawled, giving Lenora a scathing look.

“Just what is the meaning of this? Why have ye locked me in here?” she hissed.

“Questions, questions,” Shane said, rolling his eyes. “You’d better be careful, dearie. You’re not in any position to ask questions or make demands, after all. You’re in my clutches now, and I call the shots.”

Lenora leveled a defiant glare at Shane and kept silent. If she knew Shane the way she was sure she did, her silence would get the better of him, and he’d start running off at the mouth sooner than later.

Sure enough, it happened after a long minute. “I suppose I’d better lay down some ground rules, bitch, which I expect you to follow if you know what’s good for you. First, get used to this because this is your new home.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Lenora said icily.

“Shut up or I’ll shut you up myself!” Shane growled. “Secondly, you are to follow Valerie’s and my orders to the letter and quickly.”

Lenora snorted derisively and rolled her eyes.

Shane shot her a malevolent look and continued. “Thirdly, and you’d better remember this. My brother Allen thinks he’s in love with you. He wanted you here, and for the sake of his diminished mental health and my satisfaction, I made it happen. You will be nice to him and cooperate. You won’t hurt him mentally or physically, and you will make him believe you care about him.”

“And if I don’t?”

Shane reached into his pocket and pulled out a gun. “This one isn’t for you although I have another one that will do the job if you get way out of line. Oh, no, this one has silver bullets, which I won’t hesitate to use on that thing you’re married to and those brats of yours. I’ll kill every last one of them, including your precious Landon and his pretty little wifey if you don’t tow the line.”

An involuntary shudder wracked Lenora’s body, her face going gray as fear seized her. Her family being killed off one by one was something she would never be able to endure.

“Ah, so that got you where you live, didn’t it? Now then, are you gonna cooperate?” Shane said.

“Yes,” Lenora said, trying to clamp down on the awful dread that made her mouth go dry in an instant.

“I thought you’d see it my way,” Shane smirked. “Now that we have that out of the way, it’s high time I kept you updated on the latest news. I’m sure you’ve already figured out that your family thinks you dead. Well, guess what? Your funeral is tomorrow, and according to what Valerie tells me, they’re giving you quite the fancy sendoff.”

This hit Lenora like a cement truck, and she felt a piece of her heart die. “This is low, even for you, ye prick.” Her voice was laced with hatred and loathing, two things she felt very rarely in her life.

“it is what it is, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Poor Lenora will be sooo missed. It seems I’m the only one who knows what you really are.”

“Fuck ye!” Lenora growled like a lioness and flipped Shane the bird.

Shane just laughed and, without a care, sauntered to the door. “Saint Lenora. Cussing like a sailor and flipping me off. So unladylike! What would your adoring public think?” Shane said over his shoulder just before letting himself out and sliding the bars and lock home.

Once Shane was out of earshot, Lenora’s bravado broke. She sank miserably to the floor on her knees and burst into uncontrollable tears. //Och, Tyrone, my darling, please hear me. i’m alive, Wolfman! I’m alive…and I’m trapped. I want more than anything to come back to ye and the wee ones, but I’m locked down. I’m being held…and I can’t get free.// Although the pain behind her eyes and in her temples screamed, she was desperate to reach her Tyrone, no matter what it took.

Through blurry, tear-filled vision, Lenora looked at the sword and shield etched on her palm. Moving the fingertips of her left hand over it, she called Tyrone’s name over and over in her mind. //I’m alive, my Tyrone. I’m alive! Please hear me.//

Placing her right hand over her heart, a vision slammed into her like a boxing glove to the face. Tyrone sat on the sofa at home, just staring off into the distance. The anguish rolled off him in waves, which Lenora felt as though it were her own. //Oh, my Lenora! How can I put you in the ground tomorrow? How am I going to make it through saying goodbye to you? The kids…oh, Lenora, they miss you so much!//

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In the vision, Lenora saw how Tyrone had gone into the wee ones’ rooms to check on them. Everything played before her like a movie: Tyrone wiping Andrea’s tears and singing to her, Aurora painting her picture and singing Tears in Heaven, and Tyrone comforting Aurora, then putting her to bed. Lenora felt every ounce of grief, every tear, and every yearning cry for her.

As the vision played on, she tried to reach for Tyrone once again. //Tyrone! Och, my darling, Tyrone! I’m alive. I need ye to feel this, to know this in your heart. I need ye to feel me being alive, Wolfman. I love ye so!//

As the vision began to fade, Lenora saw Tyrone’s posture stiffen. His eyes focused sharply, and his fists clenched. “Lenora?”

//That’s it, love! Please feel me. I’m alive!//

Tyrone cocked his head as if listening for something. “Lenora, where are you?” Then, he pounded his palms against his forehead. “I thought I felt…but no, it’s gone, if it ever was even there. I thought I felt her…thought she was…” A sob rose to his throat, and tears slid down the great wolf’s face. “Oh, Lenora…oh, my Lenora! I’m going crazy.”

In the last discernible seconds of the vision, Lenora both saw and felt her beloved break. Anguish was written all over his visage and squeezed his already broken heart in a vice. For the first time in a very, very long time, Lenora couldn’t filter the empathic signals as they barreled into her. They kept coming, and there was no defense, no shield to protect her from the worst of it. It was too much for the weakened witch, and all Lenora could do was cover her ears and cry out in agony as Tyrone’s sorrow mixed with hers. The world started to spin, then went black. Lenora felt herself falling. A moment later, the floor rose up to meet her.

As Lenora lay on the cold, hard floor of the cell in a dead faint, Tyrone curled up on the sofa and closed his eyes. “Oh, my Lenora! For a minute there, I thought I felt you. You seemed to come through plain as day. You were alive…but that’s impossible. I saw you die and felt you go. Oh, Lenora, I held you in my arms and watched you d-d–” The stricken wolf buried his face in the sofa cushions and wept bitterly.

Author’s Note: A couple pictures contain poses I got from Bee from Poses by Bee. She makes some awesome ones and is a super talented pose creator for Sims 3. Thank you, Bee, for sharing your wonderful creations.