His Eyes

"Bells! I heard bells jingling in the deepest part of my ears. Ophelia? Everyone dares to call me by my name now — parents, is that you?" I quietly hissed as I dwelled in an alien, unknown world. There was nothing there but dust and the crescent moon that cast its rays on my figure as I walked in an unknown direction. 

I could hear nothing but the wind whispering foreign words into my ears. Where exactly am I? Is this Paradise at last? Possibly, but I have been told that Paradise was brighter and more colourful — this place can't be Paradise, I refused to believe. 

"OPHELIA!" 

Someone called out my name once again, making my heart skip a beat. Curiosity had suddenly embraced my head and heart, no one had thought of calling me by my real name, only that Alpha Xenos had given me — Slave Woman. I promptly started to feel my lips quiver as I tried to speak — how unusual. It was so sudden that I was not able to move my lips because they were so incredibly heavy, not to mention my tongue that I felt it had gone numb. 

There was a paralysing emotion stuck in the centre of my heart — an emotion I could not name. My chest began to rise soon when the strong metallic smell of smoke travelled in my nostrils, burning my chest. There was a blinding light that came out of nowhere, promoting my eyes to shut. 

"Ophelia! Wake up!" A familiar voice called. I was impelled to open my eyes — and slowly, I opened my eyes and the first thing welcoming my vision was Alpha Xenos who had leaned too close to my face, wearing one haggard expression. I felt his weakling trembling hands enveloping my back, holding me tight and firm whilst his acidic, trembling voice horribly pierced my ears — bringing me back to the "present". 

I was coming back — my consciousness was returning. I lazily threw my head back into Alpha Xenos's arms and ignored the loud hissing of arrows as they whisked past my body which was lying uncomfortably on the cold floor. My eyes widened when I came to remember what was happening — we were being attacked. At least, those were the words I last received before passing out. 

Rudely, bullets pinged through walls and broke through windows that were now shamelessly left naked. Just a distance away, I heard waves crashing into each other — a sound I had never heard before. Not far from me, I could see swords clanking against each other — a mass of people; soldiers, who were covered in gold and silver armour with a peculiar symbol in the chest, fought their sweat off to kill the guards and soldiers of the Moonlight Pack. 

Alpha Xenos and I were just a few feet away from the bloody parade and we were being protected by two guards who firmly held their swords, waving them in the air to draw away threat. At this point, my memory was coming back to me, my vision was starting to become more clearer. 

From my right, I promptly caught a wave of fire mischievously swallowing the walls of the Moonlight Palace. "Protect the alpha!" One of the guards hissed when one of the attackers came rushing towards us. Quickly, Alpha Xenos got up on his feet and drew his sword out. With that, I swiftly raised myself up from the floor where I was left. The only thing I could transport towards a path of my lungs was smoke that was happily swirling across the building, quickly spreading aghast in my system. 

"REPORT!" Alpha Xenos roared at the guard a second after he had dislodged the attacker. "FRONTLINE MEN ARE ALL…DEAD. THEY KNOW WHERE TO ATTACK, SIR — WE ARE ONLY LEFT WITH THE UNTRAINED MEN WE RECRUITED A WEEK AGO!" The guard replied whilst he continuously mopped sweat from his wrinkled forehead. The two guards exchanged quick, alarmed glances as hope erased itself from their features. 

A sudden, unknown pain abruptly punctured through the walls of my brain, making my heart shiver with uneasiness. Clenching at my chest, I staggered back as I tried so much to get as much air into my lungs. Something was wrong, and I did not know what —

"Wha…!" 

"!" 

I scarcely aired a question when a familiar loud booming sound intruded into my speech. The ground beneath my naked feet which were covered by dust, started to tremble as walls broke into pieces, falling to the ground, not far from where we were standing. There — Alpha Xenos quickly rushed towards me and shielded my weak body with his shuddering figure. Everything suddenly went quiet — the shaking quickly stopped as if it was never there.

Breathing as heavily, I opened my eyes and looked around me — there was nothing but smoke, dust and fire that had not retired from destroying the Moonlight Palace. "Ophelia? Ophelia? Can you hear me?" Alpha Xenos suddenly placed his rough hand around my arm, pulling me close to him. There was…something unusual in the waves of his voice — Not cold, not warm, just unusually breaking smoothly with agony. 

"But…why?" I asked myself, my eyes twinkling as they looked back into his lifeless eyes. There, I quickly spotted regret all over his features — what a strange…thing for him to do. His touch…it was warmer than the others, for the first time, it was so sincere and delicate. 

"What…is wrong with you?" Instead of blurting those words out loud, I whispered them through my breath, frowning at his glance that hovered over me, making me sick with curiosity. Taking huge leaps of air, I recoiled from his touch and took a step back. Out of the blue, I could spot regret publishing itself across everyone's features. There was a heartbreaking silence — everyone, including me, waited for Alpha Xenos to utter something but he was quiet whilst staring at me. 

Outside, I could hear rumbling explosions and a warcry of our attackers. "No more hiding. I…have been in the dark for a long time now. It is now or never!" Alpha Xenos abruptly aired, his lips suddenly curled into a hideous smile that I guessed he had worn to encourage his guards…and me. I knew that there were only us left and the last few, broken standing walls of the Palace. 

He…he was smiling not at the face of defeat but at the shoulders of defeat — how could he? I have known him to be an old man who never backed down no matter what. "It's time to fight, Ophelia! I will fight! We will fight!" The alpha growled, his smile never falling from his face. I did not understand any word he had spat — what did he mean? I had to sacrifice my life for him? 

Quick-fire questions dangled across my head and just as I was about to reply at least one of them, another booming sound cracked into the hall. I swiftly went down to cover my face and the next thing my ears caught were footsteps thundering on the floor, echoing across the fallen Palace. 

"Your reign has come to an end, old dog!" A sonorous voice roared, sharply encouraging fear to strangle every one of my veins. There on the spot, my soul was paralyzed, I had stopped breathing for a moment. 

"The…night?" I silently hissed when a familiar scent sharply hit my nostrils. My heart quickly skipped a beat when the scent flowed deeply into the chambers of my head and chest — rudely waking my wolf. After so many years, my wolf…was waking up, boisterously blurting inside of me. I suddenly felt alive, my hands were trembling.

I remained frozen on the floor until I saw Alpha Xenos walk towards the sound of the footsteps. He carefully held his sword tight and prepared himself to strike. There was no emotion on his face and yet…his smile just stood there on his face. 

A rumbling peal of a guffaw quickly reverberated across, breaking into my ears with waves of audible intimidation. "And what are you going to do with that, ancient dog?" The same waves of the sonorous voice blurted. My heart sank back just a little —

Holding my breath, I slowly turned my eyes in the direction of the voice that was deep as hell. 

BEAT! My heart swiftly banged itself against my chest and raced straight towards the centre of my throat, wanting to jump right out. 

A pair of bright, golden eyes with a soft touch of steel that was smoothly penetrating in the pupils, glared at me. 

"MATE! MATE! MATE!" My wolf suddenly cried. I was breathing heavily with undistinguished emotions that were trailing everywhere in my figure. 

"It's…it's him!"

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