Aveline frowned. She was trying to sleep but there was a dull ache in her shoulder and she could hear this really annoying growling sound. It was if a pack of wolves had decided to have a conversation in her bedroom, all low snarls and loud growls.

Wolves.

She opened her bleary eyes, not able to discern much in the low light of early morning. Aveline blinked, raising one hand to rub at them, a twinge of pain radiating from her shoulder as she did so. She was lying on her back directly on the cold earth, dew seeping into her cloak from the long grass. There was a thick strip of canvas above her head, stretched between two trees, but apart from that she was exposed to the elements. As she became more aware of her surroundings, she felt the ache in her shoulder more intensely, along with the cold.

"Wha' ya think she was doin' with the Horde, Ivar?" a male voice asked, and Aveline curled in on herself. "Ya think she's a turncoat? A spy?"

Urging herself to remain calm, but to be bold, Aveline lurched up into a sitting position. Her eyes widened in fear and her calm fled as she took in the large group of worgen standing a few feet from her. They were gigantic, and one man in particular stood out; almost a foot taller than any of the others, he stood before them with everything about the way he looked and held himself screaming 'I'm the boss'. A wild, tangled mane framed a long jaw full of razor sharp teeth and intense golden eyes. His body was all lean muscle and his hands and feet were tipped with wicked looking claws.

Aveline stared at him in terrified silence, too petrified to do anything else. She didn't move, she barely breathed, for fear of drawing his attention upon herself. She only sat there, wondering what on Azeroth was going to happen to her now, completely oblivious to the fact that her movement had not gone unnoticed.

"Oi, Ivar," a female voice said from a nearby treestump. "Sleepin' Beauty awakes."

Aveline turned her gaze to the left, her eyes settling on a worgen she recognised as the woman who'd shot her with a crossbow. Her response was immediate; she screamed in terror and hurled herself to her feet. The reaction caused all of the assembled worgen to turn to her as she tried to run away.

She hadn't gone more than a few paces before one of the worgen cut her off. She wheeled about sharply, only to find that way blocked as well. Panic surged through her system and she began screaming again, a high-pitched screech that caused the worgen to grumble and shake their heads in discomfort.

"Shut up!" growled an angry voice, and it was so commanding that Aveline stopped mid-shriek. Her teal eyes flicked anxiously over to the alpha male, who was glaring at her. She wrapped her arms around herself, shaking head to toe and terrified out of her mind. She let out a small 'meep' as the behemoth walked over to study her.

The male worgen walked around her, and Aveline could feel his eyes taking in every inch of her body. By the Light, he'll tell me to run and then chase me down for sport! she thought, only slightly mollified by the thoroughly unimpressed look on his face when he came back into her sight.

"Relax, woman," he snorted derisively. "I am not going to eat you."

Aveline must have looked as surprised as she felt as there were a few laughs from the crowd. She raised her gaze, but only as far as the worgen's chest. "I... I'm sorry!" she rushed out. "M... most of the worgen I've seen before are the ferals that roam through Duskwood. I've only met one non-feral worgen before."

"Duskwood, eh? I've heard tales of that place," he replied. "You must be stronger than you look to have survived it." His tone was slightly less growly as she looked at her face. "How did you end up all the way out here? Were you helping those Horde bastards?"

"No!" Aveline cried, finally making eye contact with him. "I was kidnapped!"

"Kidnapped!" snorted a new voice, another female. "Wot, is that why you were 'elpin' them ta bury their dead?"

"I aim to be a priestess," Aveline protested weakly to a few jeers. "The dead deserve the dignity of a proper burial."

"Ivar, ya ain't seriously believing this codswallop, are ya?" a second male asked. "Why would anyone be kidnappin' the likes o' 'er?"

Ivar's eyes narrowed on Aveline's face once more, and she fought the urge to run again. He looked thoughtful. "Who kidnapped you?" he demanded.

"Goblins," she blurted out without thinking. She could not let these people know about the weapon. "I was visiting a cousin in Goldshire and there was a raid. I was taken prisoner by a couple of goblins who sold me to a blood elf as a slave."

"To tha' warlock fella?" the first female worgen asked. Aveline's eyes welled with tears as she nodded.

"He is an awful man!" she exclaimed with a small sob. "You've no idea how glad I am to be free of him. " She looked at Ivar with pleading eyes. "Please, sir, I just want to go home."

Ivar looked at Aveline, his gaze sharp and intense. For a moment, she was afraid he did not believe her lie, and that he would refuse to aid her. Then he looked over his shoulder. "Betty!" he called, and a smaller female worgen stepped forward with a nod. She had a staff strapped to her back that reminded Aveline of Sebastian's, so she assumed the woman was also a mage.

"You now how to open a portal to Stormwind?" Ivar continued, and Aveline let out an audible sigh of relief.

"Of course I do," the woman replied in a very cultured voice. "What do you take me for; one of those halfbrained harvest witches?"

Ivar's snout contorted into a rather scary grin. "Do it." The worgen turned back to Aveline. "It is not Duskwood, nor even Goldshire, but it is as close as I can get you. It is all I can offer out here."

"It is where I live now!" Aveline exclaimed, bestowing a genuine smile on Ivar as the mage began her summoning. "Thank you!"

Ivar waved his hand dismissively as the portal swirled into existence. Betsy stepped back with a scowl on her face. "That took more effort than I thought it would," she complained. "The arcane streams felt polluted."

Aveline gave one last tentitive look at Ivar, he waved at her again. "Go on, girl," he said. "Get out of here so we can get back to killing Forsaken."

She did not need to be told again. With a hurried nod, she grabbed the skirts of her ruined dress and ran through the portal. Aveline felt her stomach lurch as she was pulled through time and space, and then she was finally back in Stormwind.

Home.

Mathias did not so much dismount from his gryphon as he did fall out of the saddle, his weary body kept upright and functioning only through the consumption of copious amounts of coffee and the odd shot of whisky. His worry for Aveline, and the information she had locked away in her mind, consumed him, and he could hardly close his eyes, let only sleep, because of his need to find her.

His footsteps were heavy as he walked from the stables to SI:7 Headquarters, feeling angry and frustrated that another lead had turned into a deadend. His wife's absence was like an itch he could not scratch, a torment that besieged his mind constantly with the knowledge that something irreplaceable was missing.

"About time you showed up!" Callista snapped as he stepped through the front door. "Sir." she added as an afterthought.

"What is it?" Mathias sighed.

"Your little missus is back."

Mathias' head snapped up as he stared at Callista. "What did you just say?" he demanded, eyes narrowing. If this is her idea of a joke...

"Aveline's back," Callista replied, sounding as if Aveline had merely been out of town visiting friends for a few days. "Portaled into the Tower. The mages - "

"Where is she now?" Mathias asked, his voice urgent.

"Your place," Callista said. "Rell and the others are with her."

Mathias was out the door before his agent had finished talking, his fatigue vanishing as he rushed towards Cathedral Square. The journey seemed to take him twice as long as usual, but afterwards he would have little recollection of it, save for a memory of knocking Lady Bellweather into the canals.

When he came to his house, he crashed through the gate and up the footpath. He was vaguely aware of the shadowy presence of Rell and Sully by the front door, but did not acknowledge them as he all but kicked in the front door.

"Aveline!" he shouted as he stalked up the hallway. "Aveline!"

There was a short silence and then she was there, running out of the kitchen to stare at him, her sweet face and teal eyes alight with happiness. "Mathias!"

Mathias stopped and just stared at her. Aveline was dressed in one of her long nightgowns and had obviously just had a bath as her hair was still damp and her skin looked freshly scrubbed. He felt the tension leave his body as he gazed upon her, but his anger was fuelled as he noticed the dark circles under her eyes and the amount of weight she had of that anger must have shown on his face because Aveline's smile faltered and she cringed.

"Oi, mate, your scarin' 'er," Georgie growled as she stepped into the hallway, her brother following close behind. Mathias spared them a brief glance before he turned back to Aveline, his gaze softening.

"It's all right, little mouse," he said softly. "I'm not angry with you. Never with you."

Aveline relaxed and before he knew it, Mathias had walked up to her and swept her into a tight hug. Her small arms wound about his neck and her shoulders shook. Not wanting her to cry, he did something he'd been dreaming of doing ever since Perenolde had kidnapped her: he kissed her.

Georgie let out an amused huff and stalked back into the kitchen for more food as Aveline wrapped herself more tightly around Mathias' body. Sebastian, however, remained and started to cheer as the spymaster lifted his wife into his arms and cradled her against his chest.

"No one will ever take you away from me again," Mathias swore, looking directly into Aveline's eyes. "No one."

Aveline's lower lip trembled and her response was an almost inaudible "I know", followed by a soft kiss to his cheek. Mathias smiled at her, then carried her upstairs. He was completely oblivious to Sebastian's goodnatured catcalls, which were silenced by one of Georgie's gauntlets hitting the mage in the head.

Mathias said nothing as he nudged the bedroom door open with his foot, walking swiftly over to the bed and laying his wife upon the mattress. He paused, just staring down at a sight he had begun to fear he would never see again.

Aveline returned his look, a blush staining her porcelain cheeks. "I love you, Mathias," she said in that lovely soft voice of hers, and he was left dumbstruck for a moment. Then what she had said truly sunk in and he felt a wave of happiness surge through him. Its intensity was fierce, and he had never before felt anything like it.

"Good," he murmured, lowering himself onto the bed beside her. "Good." He ran his hand over her cheek, revelling once more in the feel of her delicate skin. He claimed her lips in another kiss, and there was no more talking after that.

It was early morning, the first rays of sunlight just beginning to kiss the hillside. Mathias lay on his back, arms wrapped around Aveline, who was snuggled into his side. Her head was nestled on his shoulder, and he would have been lying if he said she wasn't the most beautiful woman in the world to him. He knew he should be getting up to go report to the king, but he could not bring himself to leave his wife like that after their first night together. Her first night with anyone.

Surprisingly, he was not bothered by shirking his duties as spymaster at all.

Aveline twitched in her sleep, muttering something about worgens being gigantic and scary. Mathias kissed her head and shushed her, and she eased. In that moment, he realised that for the first time in a very long time he had something precious to protect on a personal level. Before Aveline, Mathias had always been focused on Stormwind and the Alliance. On the bigger picture. But now...

A slight frown marred his features. His feelings for Aveline, his fierce instinct to protect her at all costs, worried him. Was his wife a fatal flaw?

I won't... I can't do anything to jeopardise my little mouse, he thought, arms tightening around the sleeping Aveline. He stared at her face, one hand moving to stroke her feather-soft hair. My plan backfired. Instead of binding Aveline to my side, I have been ensnared by her.

He was still mulling over this troubling revelation when a loud banging reverberated through the silent house. Someone was hammering on the frontdoor.

Aveline jerked away, her eyes full of fear. Mathias calmed her, reaching for some clothing and the daggers he kept on the nightstand. "It's all right, little mouse," he crooned. "It's probably one of my agents. Go back to sleep while I deal with this."

His wife nodded, but remained sitting up, clutching the sheet to her chest as she watched him throw his clothes on. He paused long enough to kiss her, then hurried downstairs as the banging intensified. His butler beat him to the door, opening the door in his dressing gown while still maintaining a dignified air.

"Finally!" Odariah panted. "I was beginning to think I was going to have to smash a few windows!"

Mathias scowled. "What the fel do you want, Miss Hunt?" he demanded, none too impressed to see the priestess at all, let alone at this hour of the morning. "You woke Aveline."

"Save the tone for someone stupid enough to be intimidated by it, scowly," she retorted. "I have news and it involves Aveline, and you."

"Then spit it out so I can deal wit... " Mathias said, but Odariah merely spoke over the top of him.

"Samara's awake."

AN - -_-. My apologies for the obscenely long delay.