My Dark Flower

It was during the war that I came to realize the horrors of mankind. How we are doomed from the start from birth to the day we die, and it was in the moment when the battle cries pounded in my ears, the dried blood sticking to my skin and the heavy sword across my back that I saw her, not on the battlefield of course, but in my head almost like I was daydreaming but it felt a lot more real like I could reach out my hand and touch her, feel her soft skin against my rough calloused hand from years of battle. I could see a hand painting, making gentle brush strokes on the drawer, from what I saw next made my breath stop and it was in this moment that I knew she was mine and that I needed to find her if only to know that she was okay or maybe even to learn her name if I am lucky. The darkness that she drew, the stars and the moon aligned with the night sky, and that thought alone that she found comfort in it made me swell with happiness with pride that she, someone who is mine, for she sees darkness the way I do. I vowed at this moment that I would stop at nothing until she was in my arms safe and sound, and if she fell in love with someone besides me, I would let her go. 

“Alpha, we found her." At those five words, my heart stops in my chest. I have been waiting 500 years since that vision to hear those words, and now I have finally done it. I have, at last, found my princess, my queen, my equal after all these years. I come around from the desk and place a hand on the soldier's shoulder in gratitude for him finding our Luna. “Where is she?” I ask, my voice trembling with each word, not believing that she is finally here, she is finally in our grasp. He walks beside me leading me to where she is. “She is being held in the dungeons-” A growl escapes my lips before he can finish. “He dismisses me entirely continuing, “She is the Alpha of the Blood Moon pack, she was found snooping around our borders, we had to lock her up.” We turn the left corner and that’s when it hits me, her scent, the smell of lavender. The sweet calming fragrance makes my wolf howl and does a lazy dance in my head. “Thank you, Brett, for your service.” At this Brett turns around to return to his post, leaving me alone with my thoughts for the next thirty seconds. “I wonder what her name is? Maybe Lena… Lacy… Aliya… or even Briar?” I say to my wolf, who continues to prance and dance around in my head. “Well, whatever her name is, it will be perfect just like her, in every aspect, every imperfection.” I agree with my wolf and cut the link, we stand outside our mate's cell. 

Her brown hair cascading down her back in dark waves. She sits on the cot, her legs crossed with her hands on her lap, looks as though she is doing some kind of meditation. I look to the two soldiers guarding her cell and dismiss them with a wave of my hand. “Hello, little mate.” I hear her say, her voice like silk, so smooth with a bit of an edge to her, almost like her scent. I unlock her cell and walk over to her taking in her features. When I am standing directly in front of her, she looks up at me, her dark lashes brushing against her cheeks as she does so. I jump back not expecting her eye color to be something so unique, so brilliant, the color so vibrant, so entrancing. A deep violet, like all but unlike all. It hit me the second she looked at me and her name whispered past my times, too stunned to move, to think, to breathe. “Ianthe Aster Sabourin, daughter of the lost King and Queen of Arilea, the last known hybrid known to history.” 

I remove her from the cells and take her to my bedroom, where she will stay. I don’t try to make conversation with her, but I do watch her as she fiddles with her eyes, and has a glazed look about her, almost like she’s thinking about something, I watch her motions as her bottom lip flips between her teeth and holds there. I tell her that we’re almost there having to cross the packhouse to get to my quarters. I ask her where she's from, but I get no reply. Maybe she just doesn't want to share it with me, I mean we are the enemy after all. I tell myself that she doesn't trust us yet and that is something we will have to gain with time. I open my bedroom door and quickly start picking up my clothes from off of the floor and throwing them into the dirty hamper, picking up loose papers from the floor, bed, and chair and putting it on the office desk connected to my room, to give her room to sit down. "Sorry I didn't get a chance to clean up today." She mumbles that's fine and goes to take a sit on the bed with her hands in her lap. I keep a safe distance not wanting to upset, while I wait for her to speak, comfortable with whatever she wants to do. "What is your name?" She asks me. Her voice, smooth like milk when you first pour it into a glass. "Ailith Grace Maldanado. This is my kingdom and you are to be my queen, my equal, but only if you want it." A smirk covers her beautiful face and that sign enough of me that she wants it, that she wants me. "Do you have any family, that you would like to come here to my pack, to be with you during this transition?" Her smirk is gone, replaced with a sad, distanced look, "I don't have anyone." I say the one thing anyone else would say in this position. "I'm sorry if there is anything I can do to help don't hesitate to ask." She nods her head as a sign of thanks and begins playing with the fly away string on the comforter. "I don't remember my family from before and don't want to. I don't want to know what happened to them, where they are. My eyes are confirmation enough of who or what I am."