Lady of the Knight

Chapter 11 - Alpha

I was too afraid to go back to sleep that night so I just lay on the ground looking up at the stars. I watched the colour of the sky change from dark blue to a reddish pink as dawn took over. I sat up, brushed the dirt off my clothes and picked the dried leaves out of my braid. Brienne was still snoozing away with her back to me, an unconscious hand on Oathkeeper.
I found a log to sit on a little away from our camp that had a decent view of the horizon through the trees. As I watched the sunrise I thought about my parents, Jacob, Garrin...and of course Brienne.
I'd known her less than a week but Gods she had my heart. At first I thought she was just a handsome hero but now I felt something much more. When I thought she had gone yesterday I was so lost without her and the thought of her not being in my life scared me to death. I know there's something between us, her gestures and compliments go beyond that of just a protector. Did she care about me the same way I do about her? I had no idea. The way she acted when I went to meet Talia said yes, but her frequent dismissals of my advances said no. I was starting to feel like a burden.
As gorgeous as Talia was I kept imagining that it was Brienne I was kissing, those soft pink lips on mine as I touched her skin and ran my fingers through her golden hair...

"Beautiful morning" my thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Brienne's gentle voice. She sat next to me on the log watching the sunrise, she looked content and the muscles in her face relaxed again, her subtle beauty shining through.
"It is" I replied, staring at her profile.
"How did you sleep after your dream?" she asked.
"I didn't" I said bluntly.
"You mean you stayed up all night by yourself?" she said, turning her gaze to me.
I nodded.
"Why didn't you wake me?"
"Because you-" I sighed and found another reason, "you needed the sleep. I could hear you snoring from here!"
She sniggered but looked a bit embarrassed.
"Sorry about that" she paused, "and I'm sorry if I seemed cold last night, I just...I want to make sure you're safe".
"I know" I said, "I want you to be safe too. I'd kill every single one of them if anything happened to you".
"I would do the same for you," she said quietly.
We had long forgotten about the beautiful sunrise in front of us, we were only focused on each other. In my head I was pleading with her to kiss me, just one kiss to tell me everything I needed to know.

Suddenly Penny and Sable started neighing in distress. We ran back to our camp and saw a pack of five angry looking dire wolves snapping at them. As soon as we drew our weapons they switched their focus to us, snarling as they crept towards us with the alpha at the front. Saliva dripped from their mouths, they were hungry and we were their breakfast.
"What the fuck do we do?!" I whispered to Brienne.
"Don't make any sudden movements" she whispered back, her eyes fixed on the alpha.
We stared down the pack for a few moments before the alpha let out a long howl and the rest of the pack lunged at us. Brienne somehow managed to punch one out of the air as it lept towards her, it hit a nearby tree and fell unconscious. I rolled out of the way of the one that was coming towards me, it skidded across the ground then scrambled its way over. Before I had a chance to react it was on top of me, I stuck both of my daggers into either side of its neck and twisted them. Its predatory eyes rolled into the back of its head and it collapsed on me, I shoved the body off and leaped to my feet.
A cry of pain filled the air as one of the wolves sank its teeth into Brienne's leg. She plunged her sword down into it with both hands piercing it straight through. Its jaw slackened and it fell, dead and bleeding.

As I watched this unfold another wolf landed on me and pinned me down, this time from behind. One of my daggers flew out of my hand and its sharp claws dug into my other arm, drawing blood and restricting my movement. This wolf was bigger, stronger and clearly more intelligent than the previous one. As it snapped at me, I grabbed a handful of ash from the burnt out campfire and threw it behind me, the wolf yelped and loosened its grip allowing me to flip over and stab it in the neck. But this one didn't go down as easily and swiped its claw across my cheek, I pulled the dagger out and jabbed it several times in the side until it was finally dead.

When I got back up the alpha had Brienne pinned against a tree, the only thing blocking it's fangs from her neck was Oathkeeper. I pulled out a throwing knife and took aim, hearing Brienne's teachings in my mind, "focus on a target area...take a deep breath...now throw". I threw the blade and it landed in the side of the alpha's head, knocking it to the ground.
"Is it dead?" I shouted over.
Brienne circled the lifeless body then jammed her sword into its side and pulled it out again, "it is now".

"Argh!" she yelled and fell to the ground as her adrenaline wore off and the pain from the bite kicked in. I ran over to her.
"Bri! Tell me what to do! I can help!" I said panicking.
"Get my pack".
I grabbed the brown sack from Sable's saddle and ran back over, frantically looking for bandages. I took off her boot and lifted up her pant leg to see a large bite mark that left several open wounds and blood smeared all over her leg.
"Fuck!" I said in horror.
"It's alright, just bandage me up" she said, her breathing slightly staggered.
I wrapped the bandages around her calf but the blood was still seeping through. So I ripped off my shirt sleeve and wrapped it around.
"What are you doing?!" Brienne said.
"Saving your life for a change!"

Once she was bandaged up and I had calmed down she noticed my injuries.
"Your face..."
"Oh it's nothing. I'll probably just end up with a scar to impress the ladies" I joked.
"Like your tavern girl?" she said slightly bitterly.
"She's not the one I want to impress".
It was then that I noticed something out of the corner of my eye.
"The alpha. It's wearing a collar" and I absent-mindedly walked over to it, crouching down for a closer look. It was wearing a thick red collar with a pendant that had a symbol on. I felt the colour drain from my face, I knew this symbol...
"Imogen?" Brienne called.
"It's their sigil. The Red Riders! They sent their dogs after us!"
"We need to get to Winterfell" Brienne pushed herself up using the tree and limped over to Sable.
"Are you OK to ride?" I said, darting over to help her.
"It doesn't matter, we have to go. Now!"
I retrieved my dagger and throwing knife then climbed onto Penny. We galloped away leaving another bloody crime scene behind.