Military Mate

Chapter 18

Olivia's POV

"Why do you want to play 20 questions?" I ask on the way there. 

"Because I was thinking about it when you went to go train. We don't really know each other anymore since you left when we were kids and all. I want to know if you still like turtles...." He looks down at the ground as he whispers this.

 "Like turtles? No, of course, I don't like turtles! I love them you gosh darn fool! They're the best thing in the world, next to all meat pizza of course...." I stand a little straighter at this. Also getting strange looks, but who cares?! Turtles and pizza are life! Eugene laughs at me.

 "What are you laughing at? It's not like I just told you I sleep in the nude or something! I did that once!" Eugene laughs harder. 

"It happened once, and it was either that or freeze my butt off! Literally! I'm not joking here..." He was gasping trying to get a straight face on in between breaths. 

It wasn't working too well. So I took and stood him up, made him stand still and told him not to growl at what I did next. I went, put my hands on either side of his head touched his cheeks before I pulled them back off and slammed them into his face. And the whole pack turned to me, thinking that I was trying to harm Eugene. I guess I was in away.

 They started towards me before Eugene got his wits back to him and raised one hand using the other to rub his jaw. "I understand that what you just saw may want you to attack, but I am fine as you can see. My mate was just trying to stop me from making a fool of myself." I heard multiple gasps and whispers soon follow at the mention of his mate. "She is loving and sweet, once you get around her tough exterior. I hope you will treat her with the same kind of respect you show for each other. Now, on with what you were doing." He says shoeing them along.

 "And next time," He whispers in my ear, maybe a little less force." He smiles and kisses my cheek. "Because, that hurt Olive, that really hurt. And that's a lot coming from me." 

"Oh, I know. Mr. Tough man got beat by a girl, what a shame....." I tease him. I would continue, but he grabs my hip and pulls me into a kiss. When we finally come back up for air I want to go back in. The fact that someone clears their throat is the only reason I don't. I look around and find no one.

 I hear it again, but this time it's in my head. "Listen, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we should probably get going before people start leaving." I see her point

 "Yeah of course you do, you're basically talking to yourself right now. So, of course, it makes sense to you." 

Eugene then interrupts, worried. " Are you ok? Your face is in a weird position..."

 'You know what they say, your face will stay like that if you keep it too long. So, you might want to fix it.' Grape smirks in my head. So I make my face go back to normal.

 "Sorry, Grape was talking," I explain.

 "About what?" 

"About how we need to get going. Come on!", I say waving him along. "We should go." 

We start going around, seeing what people have actually done. And what they haven't. "You know its called watering the garden for a reason right? You actually have to do it for more than ten seconds. You don't go sit and wait for something to happen, you water it with sprinklers, check to see how the plants are doing, stuff like that. Now get off your butt and do it! If you really wanted to have a fun day, then you should have thought about that before you skipped most of the training." I give him a dumb look.

 "Am I right?" He nods. 

"Well then, GO!" It's my turn to nod as he goes to water and walks away.

 As we stroll along past our last person I reach over and give Eugene a quick side hug. He looks over, surprised. "What was that for?"

 "For coming with me. Would you rather have me punch you cause I can still-" I start acting like I'm going to punch him, but he interrupts me. 

"No no, I like hugs."He quickly exclaims pushing my fist away, smiling.

 "Good. Why don't we stroll around for a little bit, you can show me your favorite spots around. Then, after the sun goes down, we can do that Netflix and pizza date. Sound good?" I ask looking up at his tall frame.

 "Sounds perfect. And I know exactly where to go first!" He starts pulling me along, like an excited kid in a candy store. That's when the ground starts shaking.

The calm meadow we were in becomes complete chaos as more and more people come in the offensive toward us, barreling down on us until I no longer see anyone that I know. Even Eugene has been pushed away in the oncoming wave, or maybe I was, it's uncertain. It's all I can do to fight against these... people that are seemingly coming to us for an onslaught. It's when a few within my peripheral vision shift into some version of half-wolf, half-human that I know whats going on.

The rogues came at us full force, attacking left and right until it just... stopped. Leaving as quickly as they came and still standing there like an idiot until I heard it.

My dad was laying on the ground in a very unnatural looking heap. Blood seeping from wounds left in his sides by the claws.

"Dad? Dad!" I yell as I rush to his side. His eyes were closed and his breath shallow, but he was still alive.

Getting down on my knees I placed my hand on dad's shoulders, only to bring my hand off with wet red blood. Checking him for other injuries is hard, I can't tell the difference between his blood and the blood he took from other bodies. From the ones I could find, however; were terrifying. Ripping and tying pieces from my sweater to his ripped torso and torn legs doesn't seem to help, but I do what I can.

It was then that I felt my dad's weak hand on my arm. "Honey, you need to stop. It's time for me to see your mom again. I know it's not the time-" He coughed and hacked up phlegm and blood before he groaned and his eyes fluttered shut.

Finally getting a grip and remembering what I could do I yelled for help. Help out loud, help in the mind link, even yelling to the sky for help; whatever that would do I don't know. Eugene and a few of the soldiers broke through the trees. Coming over to help, Eugene picked up Dad but stopped short. He turned to face me with a look that I never wanted to see in a million years.

"I- I'm sorry Ol..." He hadn't picked up my dad's... body, he'd just known. He opened his arms and I ran to them, smothering myself in his chest to prevent myself from crying.