Cedric lay on the floor, a deep breath escaping his chapped lips at the same time his stomach growled obnoxiously loud. He felt pretty lousy, and that had slowly become the constant, having not remembered feeling normal for a long time. There were gaps in his memories, too, like someone took a hole-punch to them.
He heard another growl after a few minutes and accompanied it with yet another tired sigh. His belly was making a fuss, and it was weird because, instead of craving the raw meat that had been normalized for months now, he now really wanted a nice, home-cooked meal.
After several minutes of quiet contemplation, he pushed himself to sit up in a quest to shake off the dizziness that was only fueled by his hunger, but the sudden movement only seemed to cement his disorientation as he fell back down. Cedric had a bunch of questions bouncing around in his head, too. He knew he couldn’t go back to the pack because he still was a monster that they all feared, and rightfully so, but he had already gone far too long without food.
He had a solid idea of where he was, but he couldn’t figure out how he got there. Or what exactly had happened in any order that made sense.
The only memories that were clear to him were his failed coronation, his parents’ death, and the witch, Guinevere.
Another memory that stood out among the huge blur was the anger, hot and fiery, and the way it exploded in him, spreading with impossible speed until it took over all his faculties, leaving him a mindless, blood-hungry beast.
The anger was still lurking somewhere in his subconscious and was gaining energy as his hunger pangs increased. The floor was cold, and the dim light was doing nothing to help his annoyingly dulled senses.
Cedric distractedly thought about the times when his wolf instincts pushed him to eat raw meat, how that—albeit in fearsome amounts—had always been enough to satisfy him. He wondered why it suddenly changed and why even the smell of raw meat had now lost every appeal it once held to his nostrils and still protesting stomach. This strange desire for something more… civilized—a regular meal was even more terrifying than he imagined.