When Arthur left for the meeting with the Baron and Cardinal, Catherine returned to their apartment.

  "Miss Catherine?" One of the older Maids inquired of her in a confidential tone. "Do you have any dresses for an official dinner?"

  "I have some evening dresses and a few ball gowns, Miss Sara..." The Nekomi answered and rubbed her eyes. "Sorry, I'm tired."

  "I imagine so!" Sara sighed with compassion and slowly shook her head. "Unfortunately, Baron Howthorns decided to hold an official dinner for your Lord and Cardinal Felix Xanah today. As you can imagine, your presence will be expected."

  "But..." Catherine's eyes opened wide, and she felt as anxious as she had ever been.

  "Don't worry..." The Maid said with excitement. "Lady Elene was even going to give you some of her dresses in case you had nothing to wear. She insisted on you being present. You have about two hours to prepare."

  "I... Oh... I'm honoured to hear that." Cate blushed and looked at herself. "I should bathe myself before I start preparing..."

  "I leave you to it, then. If you need any help, just knock on the door. The guards will summon one of the girls to help you." The maid explained with a friendly smile and left Catherine alone to bathe.

  The Nekomi quickly walked to the bathroom, shedding her clothes quickly, and tossing them in one corner. She would have to wash them later, but now she needed to get ready. She went into the tub and wiped herself down before letting the tub fill completely. As much as she wanted to do it quickly, she knew that it was far more important to do it right. She would die of embarrassment if she brought shame to Arthur in any way. It took her the better part of half an hour to wash herself, and she even changed the water twice. She left the bathroom wrapped in a towel and approached a mirror that was taller than she was which was standing in the bedroom. As she closed the door to the sitting room, she put away the towel and looked herself over in the mirror. She looked much better already, but she had still not recovered to the extent of her pre-slavery form. She started trying on the dresses Arthur had bought her and, before she knew it, an hour had passed. She finally decided to wear a simple red gown with black lace and was wondering if she should use cosmetics when the city shook with a violet explosion.

  Then so many things happened at once.

  The doors to the bedroom opened a heartbeat later and four of the Baron's guards started shouting, asking if she was injured. Then a window was broken in and dark, masked figures attacked the soldiers. In horror, she watched as they overpowered and killed the guards before she collapsed. Catherine didn't know what was going on, but knew that she was falling asleep. She heard more guards coming and the sounds of battle when someone lifted her.

  ???

  Catherine woke up in a chilly dark cellar with her hands and legs tied. Her heart beat like crazy when she realised that she had been kidnapped. To her surprise, she was leaning on a soft and warm... Something. A wall, perhaps? But her bare legs were touching the cold floor. Or something like that because it was too dark to see anything. Suddenly her heart stopped as she realised that the bed moved. As if it were breathing.

  "Catherine, you woke up. Good." An unfamiliar, but surprisingly friendly voice welcomed her.

  An unsettling feeling that whatever she was leaning on was alive deepened with each word spoken by the invisible voice. The wall moved with each word and, while she couldn't precisely describe the strange feeling building inside her, surprisingly she wasn't afraid.

  "Who are you? Where are we?" She asked with a muffled voice as she tried to see anything in the darkness.

  "Do you remember when Arthur told you that you are always guarded?" He asked instead, with a slightly amused tone.

  "Yes..." Cate confirmed with a strange spike of disappointment. She trusted his assurance and now...

  "He was talking about me." The voice said smugly. "My name is Shade."

  "Lord Ives never told me about you..." She said carefully.

  "I know!" The voice almost growled. "He was afraid that you might be scared of me."

  "Well... I'm quite scared right now anyway, so I don't believe it can get any worse." As absurd as it was, she believed the voice. "I'm Catherine Clark, Shade. Nice to meet you."

  "The pleasure is mine. Don't move for a moment. I'll cut those ropes." He said, and she froze, only to feel a movement of cold air, and she was suddenly free.

  "Thank you." She rubbed her wrists and ankles. They were sore and ached under her touch. "That will leave a bruise."

  "Don't worry. Our shiny knight will heal you in no time." Shade joked with a chuckle and she felt better.

  "So, where are we?"

  "Still in the city, near the Temple. But I doubt anyone will find us here, which is a problem." He said with a hum. "Do you still have your item of holding?"

  She realised that her beautiful ring was gone and felt tears welling in her eyes.

  "No... They must have taken it."

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  "Damn it..." The voice sighed and fell silent for a moment. "Oh, well... Arthur will need about half of the day to purge the city. He won't be asking many questions and he is going to be extremely pissed off. So, let's see... About a day to be sure everything is fine... Hmmm... Maybe two days to be sure. Can you last for two days? I don't really want to leave you here alone, but breaking you out might be problematic for Arthur."

  "It wouldn't be fun, but I can last for two days without food." She assured him nervously. "But without water..."

  "You can conjure water with your magic." The voice nearly shrugged.

  "Magic!" She brightened and focused as she created a cage with her fingers.

  A small orb of fire glowed between her fingers, illuminating the room she was in, and she quickly noticed a torch on the nearby wall. She slowly walked toward it, focussing even harder to light it with the tiny blaze she was holding. Her mana was draining fast, but fortunately, the torch quickly caught the flame and the entire room was illuminated. She turned around with a proud smile and froze. Her heart stopped beating and all blood drained out of her face. In front of her, filling most of the huge cellar, was a magnificent and yet terrifying wolf. He was lying on the floor and watching her with intelligent blue eyes. In a panic, she looked for the man she had talked with before but, besides her and the enormously large black wolf, there was no one else. Very slowly, she backed towards the wall, despite knowing she had nowhere to run.

  "So maybe Arthur was right and you would panic, after all..." The wolf said with Shade's voice.

  "You... Are you talking?" Cate asked, eyes going wide in absolute disbelief as she dropped to her knees, taking deep breaths to calm herself down.

  "Indeed." The wolf nodded and crossed his paws in front of him. "If that wasn't clear by now, I'm Shade."

  The confirmation, while unnecessary, helped to calm her down. She was still slightly nervous, but somehow she was able to remain steady.

  "I'm surprised you haven't screamed." Shade looked at her with curiosity.

  "What good could it possibly do?" She asked in a still slightly stunned voice as she stood up and dusted off her dress. "I've been kidnapped, locked in some cellar with the biggest wolf I have ever seen, and the only people who would hear me screaming are the thugs who put me here. Those bastards!" She looked down at herself sadly. "They destroyed my dress!"

  "A Fenrir." He said and she blinked at him in surprise.

  "Excuse me?"

  "I'm only technically a wolf, but to be precise, I'm the peak evolution of a wolf. A Fenrir." He said proudly. "As you can probably guess, I'm not just any Fenrir as well. I'm a Shadow Fenrir."

  She looked at his pitch black fur that did not reflect any of the flickering torchlight and recalled everything she knew about the shadow creatures. Then, she swallowed.

  "Is the Shadowland real?" She asked with dread.

  "Of course it is." The Wolf… No, Shadow Fenrir, smiled.

  She opened and closed her mouth, uncertain what she should ask and what to do. Abruptly, she shook her head to focus her scattered thoughts and looked back at the doors. They had numerous locks and a heavy bar on them, so she doubted that she could force her way out. But Shade, on the other hand, shouldn't have any problems.

  "Can you open the doors?" She asked.

  "Yes." He said without hesitation. "But I won't do it."

  "Why?!"

  "Look around, Cate. Tell me what you can see." His deep voice was full of an amused patience.

  "We are in a deep cellar, without even a window, and with only a small air duct. The walls are made of stone and are most likely very thick. I can't hear anything from above, if there are any people up there, the ceiling is likely also very thick. I'm closed in with an enormously large Fenrir. The door is closed with a lot of locks..." She hesitated, looking closer. "Something’s not right... Some of these locks work from the inside..."

  "Which means..." He lowered his head.

  "Which means that no one can get to me..." She looked at him in shock.

  "Exactly." Shade nodded and tapped the floor next to his side with his paw. "Now, when those morons locked you here, they didn’t realise they can't re-enter since I closed and locked the doors. Even if they manage to break them, I can and will kill them. Arthur asked me to keep you safe and, arguably, you are in the safest place you can be for the moment."

  She looked around and found a small crate. She opened and closed it with disappointment at its emptiness. Nonetheless, she placed it in the spot pointed out by Shade and sat on it. She felt him shift closer to her and with surprise realised how incredibly fluffy his fur was.

  "So... Now all we have to do is wait?" She asked, leaning back into the Fenrir, who lay his massive head on his paws and closed his eyes.

  "Indeed. Arthur will find us soon. But if he doesn't, I'll break you out of here myself and take you to him. I'm sure that people will freak out, but that's not exactly my problem." Shade shrugged and yawned, baring sharp fangs as large as swords. Well, at least as long and sharp as daggers...

  "I think you are right." She giggled, imagining walking back to the manor with the towering Fenrir at her side. "I'm quite tempted to do it just to see the people's reactions."

  The wolf started laughing. "I knew I would like you."

  "Thanks." She smiled and yawned again.

  "You can go to sleep if you want. You were tired anyway after the last month of intensive training." He yawned again as well. "I'm sure it will be over before you wake up."

  ???

  "Gods..." Cardinal Felix whispered in disbelief as he watched Arthur butcher the entire company of enemy Templars with holy magic.

  After he cleared the mansion, the Arcadian went into the streets full of enemies who were trying to take over the city. The Cardinal recognised many of the Templars, and even the soldiers of Baron Tamal who hated Howthorns. Normally, they would struggle greatly with fighting them off. But it looked like someone had made a horrible, horrible mistake by kidnapping Catherine. As Sion explained it to Felix, in theory she was Arthur's slave. In practise, may the Gods have mercy upon any fool who would treat her like one, because Arthur Ives wouldn't let that mistake slide. When he had first heard about it, he took it as a joke. Now he saw how horrible a mistake that error in judgement was. The seasoned warriors had no chance facing the wrath of the Arcadian. The two Saftian Paladins, who had previously been outraged by the Arcadian noble's behaviour, were looking at Arthur with undisguised awe.

  What was even more frightening, though, was that he deliberately attacked to cripple his enemies. As he had said earlier, he was going to take prisoners.

  "You asked me how sure I am that making him my friend was a good idea. That someone might call me a traitor." Sion pointed with both hands towards the furious Paladin, who walked from man to man asking a single question. "Oh, I know that five or ten of your highest level Paladins could do the same. Probably. However, he is doing it alone and, as you can see, he’s not even breaking a sweat."

  "Where is my Maid?!" The Paladin’s low furious voice echoed across the street, making friend and foe alike shiver in dread.

  Thank you all for reading.

  I wish you all a great day and as always I wait for your comments.

  A big thanks to and who edited the chapter!