I knew she was there. The thick burning stench of war could not mask the earthy scent of her skin as it caught in my throat. I could taste the longing in her body, pulling her taught like the archers bow before the arrow strikes. Yes, amidst the chaos of the fire the Chieftains' daughter was concealed as she carved her way through my men. I paused a moment at the battles edge until one by one they fell and her lithe grace revealed her to be both the dancer and the warrior that I had heard so much about. I watched as she vaulted in the air on the tip of a quarterstaff finding purchase in the firm sand. Her feet traced strategic sweeps through the red dirt and the movements both haunted and enraged me. How much of herself had she kept veiled from me? How much of it had been a lie?

The growl of an animal echoed across the field but its deep rumble clawed from my chest. This woman was mine.  No more games, no hiding, no banners of peace to cloak my way.

I knew the moment she heard the rough cavern of my voice scrape against the delicate slope of her ear. Her breath hitched and her eyes found mine- that honey drizzled gold that I remembered so well.

I bared my teeth. "Run"  I hissed. 

She did not defy me.

The light was dying and she was always mine in the dark when the soothing touch of night coaxed her desires, so she ran, and I ran with her. The path to her tent stretched before me and I littered it with the bodies of any foolish enough to come between us. No screams nor tears would sway me. There was no blood that I did not spill that day. This woman with the cruel heart should not have thought to toy with the soul of a Berserker. My rage was deep and no ocean drained of its salty tears could have contained it. Death would have been a blessing which I did not plan to offer her.

I slipped through her drapes like a snake in the night and crushed her shuddering frame to my body. Muscles trembled, sinews and tendons tightened fighting against the desire to shatter her traitorous bones.  How dare she think to win this war? How dare she think to try? I dragged the tip of an iron claw with practiced care up the curving arc of her throat and felt the battle won in the pliant lilt of her body beneath mine. It was not until the moonlight fell over her face and I looked into her warm golden eyes that I remembered that she was not the only warrior to lose themselves in the dark.