Chapter Text
No warning came. No howls from their wolves nor a signal from their pathfinders. It was suddenly fire, screams, and the blood of her sisters running like a shallow pool under her feet.
Daphnae, barely awake, scrambled out of her hut and sunk her sword into the side a man who was about to finish off one her huntresses. The man’s armor was thick, well-made and expensive, but with her strength, she forced the blade through. Over his shoulder, the sight of Amalthea, clutching her throat and choking on her blood, sent her own boiling with rage. With a roar, Dahpnae plunged a dagger in the man's spine and twisted it, and then tossed his writhing body aside to go to her dying sister.
Around them, their village, their home, continued to burn, as men, like the one she had taken out, put Daughters and their beasts to death. The sound of the noble beasts giving their lives for the Daughters, their dying whimpers mingling with the crackle of the flames, and the Daughters, in turn, losing their lives, fighting to the end like the warriors Daphnae taught them to be, it made her let loose a loud, sorrowful howl to the gods.
“I will kill them all,” she vowed to Amalthea, but as she sought to end her huntress’ suffering and give her a quicker trip to the underworld, Amalthea stopped her, somehow finding the strength to reach for her arm. “What? What is it?”
Amalthea, unable to speak, cast her eyes to the hut Daphnae had been sleeping in, and then back at her, and Daphnae felt cold dread grip her bones.
“Where is she?!” she heard one of the men bellow in the distance.
They’re here for me, she realized as her brave huntress finally succumbed to her wounds, dying in her arms. For what I care most about in the world.
Murmuring a prayer to Artemis for her fallen sister, Daphnae stood to retrieve her weapons from the man who still lived. Persian, she could tell now that she got a good look of his armor. She stomped on his on face, the mask splitting open from the force of it, and with a snarl, she ripped her sword and dagger free, the man’s cry muffled under her foot.
Daphnae joined what few of her sisters remained, and while they did her proud, their brute strength and ferocity could only do so much against the invaders. She and her sisters were trained to hunt and survive in the wilds. These Persians were trained to kill, and they had come for that which she held most dear.
One by one, her sisters fell, and a piece of her heart was lost with them. Ailo. Tasoula. Marpe. Iphito. Nausikaa. Erato. One after the other, until only she was left.
It was the hardest thing to do to turn around and run, when her pride and loyalty told her that she should take a last stand, that she should die with her sisters, but her instincts drove her, sending her running from the Persians and towards her hut. She would protect with her last breath what her sisters died for, what was now the only thing that kept her whole.
They won’t have it. They won’t have her.
“Mater?”
Daphnae nearly stopped breathing when her pup, her little girl, stepped out of the hut and saw Amalthea lifeless on the ground. Amber eyes, the shade exactly like the alpha’s who still had her heart, grew wide with fear and filled with tears, and though Daphnae was in pain, bruised and bleeding from gaping wounds, it hurt so much more to have her daughter bear witness to this horror.
With an anguished scream, Daphnae pulled her daughter in her arms, covering the small, defenseless pup with her body as the Persians chasing her drew closer. She closed her eyes and said another prayer, seeking forgiveness to the gods and to Kassandra for what she was about to do. Her hand clutched the dagger, the only weapon she had left, as she whispered soothingly to her daughter, making promises she won’t keep. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, wanting her last memory to be the sweet scent of that which was brought into the world with love.
A roar, fiercer than any lion’s, stayed Daphnae’s hand. The Persians behind her also stopped, and they only had time to turn around before a force that would make even the gods tremble came upon them.
An alpha, unmistakable who by scent alone, tore into the Persians with such savagery that Daphnae could not look away. With one hand, Kassandra lifted a man into the air and snapped his neck while she drove her spear into the throat of the other, and then kicked another Persian trying to flank her, sending him into the fire. The choking Persian still stuck to her spear, she lunged for the rest, showing them as much mercy as they gave.
Daphnae always knew that Kassandra was a god among mortals, but it was only now that she saw it for herself. The Persians could do little to fight back, the force that nearly wiped out the Daughters of Artemis proving to be nothing compared to the might of the Eagle Bearer.
As the last Persian lay dying, his arms having been torn right off, Kassandra turned around, the terrifying rage melting away and becoming heartbreaking concern.
“Daphnae,” the alpha whispered, and Daphnae would have collapsed at the sound of her voice and the softness of her tone were she not already on her knees.
Kassandra took a step forward and then stopped, her eyes on the dagger in Daphnae’s hand. The alpha didn’t have to say a thing for Daphnae to know what she was thinking.
“Go, and do not return!” Daphnae had yelled what felt like a lifetime ago.
Kassandra sheathed her spear, and though she tried to resist, she couldn’t help but try to get a look at the whimpering girl Daphnae held protectively. She dared not approach. Few things were more dangerous than an omega whose pup was threatened, after all, especially an omega whose last words to her had been, “If we meet again, I will kill you.”
At the moment, with everything slowly sinking in, Daphnae didn’t know whether she loved the alpha even more for being respectful, or if she hated her for keeping her distance because all she wanted right now, more than ever, was to be held in those strong arms again.
“Daphnae, I’m so sorry,” Kassandra said, looking pained as she glanced at the burning village and the bodies of the fallen Daughters and beasts. “I sailed to Chios the moment I found out. I didn’t know-- you didn’t…” The alpha shook her head, cursing at herself, and then tried again after she took a moment to calm down. “Is she all right?”
Daphnae looked down, feeling a deep ache in her chest when she saw her daughter curled up and sobbing, so small and frightened. Unable to respond to Kassandra’s question, for she didn’t know the answer, Daphnae threw the dagger away and held her crying pup, whose father looked on helplessly.