Chapter Two: The Greenest Eyes

When we began our journey through the woods towards the battle, it remained quiet and tense, the budding fear that something awful had happened to Daniel took all of my will to try and suppress and forget. But the closer we loomed towards the border of Alpha Curtin’s, the louder the unmistakable sounds of a battle to the death could be heard, the more my heart pounded in my chest thinking of Daniel laying on the floor unable to get help.

With this thought in mind, myself and the group of men behind me soon burst through the lining of the trees where one of the tensest and severe battles I believe I had ever witnessed stood before us. The men didn’t hesitate to rush into the thick of the battle with their swords drawn and fresh fire in the bellies, while I still stood in my place scanning the entire scene.

It was awful, the way our men lay on the ground beneath the fighters' feet either dead or close to that point broke my heart, but what I also saw was the amount of men I didn’t know laying beside them, I guess we could pack a punch if we needed to. But as much as it broke me, I wasn’t looking for these men, my eyes were focused on finding Daniel.

From the quick scan I did, I couldn’t catch sight of him for even a second, forcing that same worry to settle down a little until I looked properly, I finally move from my place and began to enter the battle, having to dodge the other men fighting to the death against the beasts.

“Daniel!” I began to shout at the top of my lungs hoping he’d hear me over the raging sounds of the battle, but I was still left with not even the faintest of responses from him.

As I walked deeper through the field, my heart pounded in my chest as I began to check some of the men who lay dead on the floor, to my relief, I didn’t catch sight of him in the growing pile of dead bodies but that didn’t mean I still wasn’t petrified for where he could be.

“Have you seen Daniel?!” I asked towards Jackson, one of our guys as he managed to take down a guard who fell to the floor in a heap.

“No! Not since the battle started!” He replied before he quickly ran back into the battle to fight even more men, his explanation once again leaving me more worried and lost than ever before.

In the mists of my worried thoughts and frantic scanning of the battlefield and men, an odd smell began to hit my nose, I call it odd not because of the smell, it was by far the most delicious mouthwatering smell I believe I had ever come across in my life. But that kind of smell didn’t fit with the scene that was before me, blood and death was all I should have been smelling, but the faster the wind blew, the more I became engulfed with the smell.

My mind soon drifted away from Daniel and where he could be, to finding the source of this intoxicating smell, it was as though I couldn’t do anything else but follow its beautiful path. Using the smell as my guide, I walk deeper into the battle, the men throwing swords at one another or the wolves ripping people apart seemed to fade into the grey, I didn’t care anymore.

As I reached the very heart of the battle where all the men had gathered who were full of eagerness and will to battle it out, my mind drifted ahead of me. The way a little hill like section caught my full attention, around five men stood on top of the small mound watching the battle unfold, but there was only one man my eyes drifted to, the man stood in the very centre.

His body was huge and muscular, the tight black suit gripping his broad shoulders and seeming to hug every inch and dip his body made, such a body caused mine to heat up as though it was preparing itself for something. But my eyes didn’t stop at his body, they climbed up his chest and past his chiseled jawline to the most beautiful pair of green eyes I had ever seen.

Instantly, it was as though the rest of the world around me fizzled away completely, any sounds of the battle or sense of danger and fear which should have been pulsing through my body seemed to melt away into the bloodstained grass underneath my feet. The way the colours seemed to dance around sent shivers to run down my spine as I’m pulled into some odd type of trance, one for the life of me, I couldn’t escape and, in that moment, I had no desire to.

This mysterious man seemed to also be pulled into such a spell, the way his eyes refused to leave mine for even a second was evidence enough.

“Mine.” I saw his lips speak through our intense gaze filled with nothing but possessiveness and want, I could have remained in that state forever.

But the feeling of my body getting tackled to the ground with more force than I believe I had ever experienced cut me from the moment, I’m smashed down to lay on my back in that grass by a terrifyingly huge brown wolf, its teeth sharp and ready to eat me.

Panic set in as the said huge wolf goes for my shoulder and grabs ahold ready to pull me apart, pain ripples through my entire body as I scream in unbearable agony. But it was this pain and my will to live that told me I can’t give up; I’m not allowing this creature to take my life like they had done to some of the people I held closest to my heart.

Even though doing so caused the worst pain I believe I had ever experienced in my life, I turned my body slightly so my free hand could reach into my back pocket. Grasping the silver dagger I had stored away before I left, I rip it out and plunge it into the chest of the wolf, which instantly, releases me from his grip howls in pain.

Through the pain filled howl, he morphs back into his human form, that dagger soon in the chest of a naked man, but bringing my legs up, I kick him off of me with all my strength where he lay on his back staring at the sky.

I didn’t know if it was adrenaline, but I soon get to my feet and began to scan my surroundings, the deepest pain I believe I had ever felt from my shoulder clung to my senses. My hand soon placed upon the wound where it was coated with blood within mere seconds, I needed help and there was only one man I wanted, Daniel.

Hobbling through the battle much slower than before due to the amount of blood I was losing, my eyes snapped from side to side hoping to find Daniel, but I was still left with the same outcome. My head began to spin the longer I pushed through the men on the floor and even had to pick myself up when a dead guy blocked my path.

Another man I knew very well stood off to the side with a smile on his face as he watched over the battle, but his presence let me know I might be in the right place, so using the last of the strength I held, I drag myself over to him.

“Erin! It seems as though you were stuck in the battle.” Markus laughed as he watched me stumble around at his feet but force myself to stand up again as my head spun.

“Where’s Daniel?” I asked the same question that had been swirling around my head since this battle begun, I needed to find him so he could help me.

“Oh, he’s dead.” Was all Markus shrugged not seeming to care about the words which left his lips, but as soon as he spoke, I felt my heart begin to crack as I looked back up at him.

“What?!” I asked on the verge of tears as my brain tried to comprehend what it was being told, but the more his words seemed to swirl around my head, the more I felt my body give way.

“Yeah, he was deep into the battle and was able to take loads of them down, but he was surrounded, haven’t seen him since so you know what that means.” Markus continued to shrug as though Daniel dying was a normal thing, whilst I could only weep uncontrollable as the gravity of what he was saying truly hit home.

“No! Daniel!” I began to sob as my legs buckled from under me and I dropped to the floor, my tears mixing with the blood that continued to pour out of the wound on my shoulder.

“He died fighting the good fight! Now it’s time for us to continue his legacy, fuck this!” Markus began to say still not seeming to care in the slightest before he locked eyes with his new target and rushed off with his sword to get it done.

All I could seem to do was sit on the ground weeping, the thought of never seeing Daniel ever again caused fragments of my heart to break with each second. The more I thought about him and what he had to go through in his last seconds of life, the more control I seemed to lose of my body and soon lay on the ground, my back against the dirt as I gazed up at the warm summers day, but I felt anything but happy.

I was unsure if it was the grief or the blood I was losing, but I begin to slowly lose consciousness, my eyes getting heavier with each passing second, my sobs also becoming muffled as I slip away into darkness alone, laying on the field where so many others had fallen.

But a looming presence above me allows my eyes to open, blurry due to the crying and my injury, it was hard to fully make out what I was seeing, but a large figure engulfing me in his own dark shadow stood above me. In the haze of all that had happened, those same bright green eyes shone in my mind as this man knelt to be at my level, his hands soon pushing onto the wound on my shoulder as though he was trying to stop the bleeding, but those eyes of his didn’t leave mine.

“Stay with me.” His deep beautiful voice spoke, that sound as like the smell was heavenly to me but even if I wanted to, I couldn’t stop my eyes when they fully dropped closed slipping me into darkness but this time, I wasn’t alone.