WARNING: Domestic abuse.

Chapter 14

Ivan felt the familiar bubbles of rage boiling up inside him. The results of Arthur's spell were in. Lars had taken Matthew to the neighboring human kingdom, which opened a whole can of complicated worms. If the humans knew they were out there… But the three kingdoms could cope, they always had.

The more pressing concern was that, even with this knowledge, they were getting nowhere. The festivities turned potential-war-meeting were going nowhere. It was expected, of course. They were former enemies, still on shaky grounds. With said shakes on par with full on seismic events. Quite frankly, Ivan wasn't sure some of the people here truly understood the "former" part of the "former enemies." There was more arguing over trivial matters, like landmark sizes, than a true consensus or debate happening.

Ivan knew that enough people were definitely on his side. All the warlocks except for the famously neutral Vash and Lily were ready to charge forward. Matthew was, after all, one of them. Most werewolves voiced their support with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Even if Matthew meant nothing to them, they were hosting and responsible for the security of the event. They felt somewhat at fault. The group with the least reason to help was the vampires. Of course, Francis agreed. For reasons unspecified but Ivan theorized it probably had something to do with Arthur. But his agreement brought almost the entire vampire party with him. With the exception of Natalia. But Ivan could live with that. Majority rules and all.

The issue was consensus, nevermind the useless fighting.

A few had run with Ivan's earlier call for war. Siege, starvation, blood, guts, gore... the whole shebang. Arthur was trying to push a stealth operation. In and out. Simple. Alfred, on the other hand, was being unreasonably loud proposing that they simply demand for him back. By far the worst idea.

So, Ivan kept quiet, and thought. Whole picture, not just the king, not just Lars, but the entire kingdom… The relatively quiet kingdom.

"Everyone! Silence!" Ivan shouted, and for once everyone gave him attention. He was, after all, the unspoken ring leader of the Rescue Matthew Mission.

"Humans have him, right? But the humans at our borders haven't acted any differently. This means that, even if they have him, they may not know about us. Or if they do, they haven't told everyone. Da?" A few nods in agreement. Understanding, a good start. "A stealth mission is our best option. We sneak in, learn what they know, get out."

Matthew did a once over of the clothes being presented to him, raising an eyebrow, his jaw quite literally dropping open a slight bit.

"No. No way am I wearing that."

He could do the foundation, blush, mascara, even the cat-eye eyeliner. But for this, he had to try to put his figurative foot down. He was, under no circumstances, wearing a dress.

"Sorry, hun, but you have to. I have orders," Michelle replied, holding the dress up for him to see a bit clearer. Matthew cringed at the lace.

"But it's purple. And there are frills."

"Look," Michelle sighed. "You will have to wear it one way or another. Either Lars puts it on you," Matthew closed his eyes with an annoyed look. "Or I can lift that spell off you for a quick moment, and you can move to put it on yourself."

Michelle gave him a sheepish smile, as if knowing that the proposition would be tempting enough for him to take. Lars certainly knew it would be. The bastard.

"I guess I could put it on then."

"Great!" Michelle fumbled with a little ball-like gadget in her purse. "He said if I just opened this…" A little twist of her wrist and the ball split in half, a puff of pink smoke falling out. "That you would be able to move."

Matthew breathed in deeply, feeling a tingling sensation course throughout his muscles. He wiggled his fingers and smiled in relief. Laying around was overrated.

He slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position, rolling his head around in a circle with a slight crackling noise. A serene smile slowly drew itself onto his face as he stood up, immediately trying to crackle his magic around him. His smile fell when the flow of magic refused to rush through his brain. It lay there, dormant in some deep recess of his being. Michelle picked the dress back up from the ottoman at the end of the bed and Matthew wrinkled his nose. He shook his head and, with a deep exhale, snatched the purple, frilly mess from the girl in front of him and disappeared behind the changing screen.

While the dress was disgusting, Lars had terrible taste, Matthew was glad to get out of the clothes he was kidnapped in.

Matthew sighed, looking at himself in the mirror as he struggled with the laces on the back. It was a long satin purple dress, lace lining the hem and puffy purple sleeves with more frills at the end. He huffed out in irritation, trying to contort his arms into a better tying position.

"Michelle, could I, uh, have some help with these laces, please?" Matthew called out after a few more moments of struggling.

"Of course! Those torture traps take practise, even for women!" She called back, skipping around to help him.

Matthew huffed out in surprise as Michelle yanked the two laces tight around his body.

"God almighty…"

Michelle laughed.

"Yup," She said lightly, tying the ends of the laces into a neat bow. "I told you, torture!"

Later on, dress laced up and make up brushed up, Matthew sat in an awkward cross-legged position, leaning against the headboard talking to Michelle, who sat on the Ottoman, about Lars. Apparently he had shown up a few weeks back and fought his way to an audience with the king. After destroying half his guard and then bowing down, the king had no choice but to trust him. Not to mention the power Lars would bring, and the knowledge of their freak supernatural neighbors.

"So, how did you end up here?" Michelle asked. "You don't seem to be here on purpose, and I'm assuming you're pretty powerful yourself. Along with everyone else in your kingdom. What happened?"

"I was at a conference of sorts, really more of a party, held between the three supernatural kingdoms. And you see, I normally go unnoticed, really just went because I was easily available. But there was this werewolf I'd seen at a few conferences before. I thought he didn't know I existed, I mean, the man sat on me for a whole meeting, ya know?" Michelle furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"He sat-" Matthew waved a hand.

"I told you, no one notices me. Anyways, he confessed his love for me and I panicked, fainted, and Lars took the opportunity to capture me."

Michelle squeaked and covered her mouth in surprise.

"You passed out from a love confession!"

"Yeah…" Matthew flushed a bit. "I don't really do well with l-"

Matthew was cut short when Lars came bursting through the door, looking absolutely furious.

Please don't tell me he heard us. Please please plea- Matthew's own thoughts were cut off when Lars spoke.

"A mangy werewolf confessed to you?!"

"Shit," Matthew swore quietly. Michelle quickly glanced his way in horror. Lars caught the glance.

"What? So it's true. Are you keeping secrets from me, my tulip?" Lars was seething and moved to grab Matthew. The smaller man rolled off the opposite side of the bed to scramble away on all fours. Lars' eyes narrowed even more.

"You're moving about," he observed, sauntering around the bed to where Matthew was sitting against a wall. Matthew immediately jumped up so he could stand face to face with him, sitting was never a good place to start a fight.

"Good, you're so…" Lars trailed off, eyes running down Matthew's dressed up form. "Nimble. Especially for a man in a dress for the first time. I should've asked you to wear one before."

Lars reached out to caress Matthew's cheek, only for the slight man to stop his arm, twisting his own body around to throw him. Hand to hand defense was always important.

Lars' back hit the floor hard, Michelle screamed and Matthew? He just ran. As fast as he could. He even made it to the door frame before Lars got back up and cast a spell. Matthew quite literally froze in mid air, half his body out the door before he felt himself slam against the floor.

Lars grabbed his hair and pulled, Matthew clawing at the arm as he felt himself get pulled up. But another spell was spreading through him like warm molasses, sapping at his physical strength until he could barely reach up to his head. He was thrown onto the mattress with a grunt and Lars crawled over him, hand frim, but not choking, around his throat.

"You don't fight against me, Matthew. It won't end well."

Lars turned to Michelle, standing against a far wall, both hands covering her mouth in an effort not to make a sound.

"Leave." The friendly maid grabbed her purse and ran off in fear.

"Now then," Lars turned back to his prey. "You're going to tell me the name of that mut that confessed to you."

"No," Matthew spat out, more just to spite the man than anything else. Lars tilted his head to the side, regarding Matthew with amusement. With the hand not currently choking Matthew, he slapped him across the face.

"I need. A. Name."

Matthew's tongue flickered across his lips and the hand tightened.

"I-Ivan." Lars nodded and let go of Matthew, letting him gasp for deep breaths.

"A werewolf named Ivan, huh?" Lars raised an eyebrow. "I'll be sure to put his name on the top of my hitlist for later then."

Then Lars laid onto the bed next to Matthew, smiled contentedly as he pulled the small man into his arms. Matthew was too scared and weak to move anymore and just lay there, limp, as Lars hummed into his hair. He kissed the top of his head gently.

"You're mine."

Now that I'm in quarantine...