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48. Ivan
Kaugnay na kabanata
The Beta's Prize 49. Cherish
I spend most of the evening sitting blankly on the bed beside a small black canvas bag. It contains just a few basic items of clothing and food. There is nothing of value I can include, no money, nothing to assist us once we get out of here. The trivialities of which long black dress to pack was robotically completed. After throwing up I cried whilst Martha softly held me until I fell asleep in her arms. Any remaining adrenaline must have ebbed away from my body, leaving me exhausted. Halo tried to soothe me by suggesting I conserve my strength for what was to come. However when I woke, flinching and flailing, Martha was still holding me, stroking my long blonde hair, perhaps imagining her own girls in my place. “Martha if he dies…will we really be free?” “I don't know but it is the closest I have ever come to it in all these years. Vincent doesn't like to be seen as a man of poor honor.” “But then Ivan…” “He has made a noble choice,” her voice more strict and matronly than friendl
The Beta's Prize 50. Ivan
I mentioned feeling as though I was on a tightrope when she first taunted me in the dark as she slowly headed around the bed a few weeks ago. So this was what it felt like to fall. That first knock on the door, getting nothing but silence, hit me like a sledgehammer. The plummet was sickening. Looking around the corridor, debris and carnage everywhere I started cursing myself for not getting back sooner. Out of desperation I tried that second knock, hearing her familiar scuffle and squeal sent me skyrocketing. My heart soared as though a trapeze artist had grabbed me mid-air. I know we don’t have time for this, we need to be on the move while it’s dark, whilst the crowd is still here causing chaos but fuck, the instant I see those blue eyes I cannot put her down. Her smile, the pure illuminated joy on her face is now etched into my memories. My goal in life is to never put her through such worry again. /Or yourself/ Kohl added, /we cannot let her go again./ We need to get out
The Beta's Prize 51. Cherish
In silence we trundled away from our spotlit prison, the roads bumpy and jarring. passing through town after town it was clear just how big an influence Vincent had held over the area. Everything revolved around gambling. Ivans painted portrait hung in several shop windows along with Denton. It made me shudder, his face curled up in a snarl that I’d never seen before. There was even one of Xavier, his snarling disfigured rage marked with a huge red cross, signifying his end. Even though it was the middle of the night, bars and taverns were bouncing with life. Clearly some people had done very well out of the looting tonight and were celebrating. Quite how this area of wooden buildings and small stone walls would fare without the income from guests travelling to watch the Showcases was a serious issue. Was Ivan right, would another gang of thugs just take over? Ivan kept quiet, his hands white, wrapped around the steering wheel, eyes laser-focused ahead. This was the trickiest part.
The Beta's Prize 52. Ivan
I’ll probably end up saying this for every day I get to spend with her but Cherish is something else. I have no idea how I didn’t crash the truck, my eyes were constantly drawn to her gorgeous face. That blonde hair tumbling down in waves soft, rounded cheekbones and pink lips. Those big blue eyes, taking everything in. After fooling around in the truck we sat together during the final hours of the night, dawn beckoning, as she slowly peeled the wrapping from my hands. Though I hadn’t been too badly hurt by fighting Denton, ripping that metal ladder from the wall had torn my palms pretty badly. I had a few worries, none that I wanted to burden Cherish with right now. Firstly, we have absolutely no money to buy more fuel with. At best when we run out we are going to have to hope someone will buy the truck and not rip us off. In this part of the world, I’m not holding my breath. From then we are going to have to hike. Pretty shit start to her freedom. Secondly, she needs to eat. She
The Beta's Prize 53. Cherish
Having successfully teased Ivan into blushing once more before we set off I soon fell asleep. The soft trundling of the truck was lulling, as long as I didn’t think too much about the last time I was in the vehicle. Sadly though having wheeled transport came to an end. We arrived at a little town, a collection of stone built cottages with a large hall at its centre. Families milled about, families played happily whilst in the distance there appeared to be a bustling town square. It was nothing like the squalid, run down shacks we had left behind in the Shadowlands. Ivan was outside the truck, talking to a grey-haired man in his fifties. He was examining the truck, the hood was up and he was gesturing at various areas. I gave Ivan a sleepy wave, those green eyes of his seemed to light up on catching mine as he gave me a soft smile and a little nod. Then he put his head down and got back to chatting. Eventually he came to my passenger window, leaning his huge arms down on the open w
The Beta's Prize 54. Cherish
Walking helped clear both our minds. Ivan didn’t elaborate further on why he grabbed me so tightly but he told me lots of tales of growing up. How kind his parents were, how his own first shift had happened at fourteen and how he had bolted off up into the mountains, by the time he shifted back he was completely lost. He laughed at describing how he ended up building a raft from logs, trying to float back towards Silver City then just as he’d finished it he remembered there was no river, only the huge lakes and jetties. He had made it though, his father had been following from a distance to make sure he was safe. His stories were so jolly, all these adventures and excursions. Even warrior training sounded fun, then from the age of eighteen living in the Silver City castle. “My life has been so boring until now, I could sum up my existence as just plant, harvest, sell, fight, and that would cover it.” “No silly adventures with friends, surely you must have been romanced by someone,”
The Beta's Prize 55. Ivan
I knew she would love it up here. It had taken my breath away too all those years ago. Reminiscing about my own first shift brought back a lot of memories. Most of them are good. There are always horror stories. The shifts that go wrong. Where the human cannot control the wolf or fights too hard against their control, and they end up getting hurt. More than one person has been known to go mad, unable to cope with the voices. If you don’t learn to see it as an amplified conscience it can start to get to you. A chatty, non-stop wolf would be horrendous. Kohl and I were a good team because although he was quick to anger, very aggressive at fighting and a truly dangerous beast in wolf form, he considered matters like a military strategist. Whether Cherish’s little flashes of temper, her frustration at lack of control would be a good or bad thing for her wolf was another. Her face watching me make the deal with the truck buyer today, if I hadn’t consulted her, she would have been outra
The Beta's Prize 56. Cherish
What a rush. There are no words to describe the past few hours, to fully escribe hte racing of my heart adn the way every sensation came alive. So the pain was horrific but I trusted Halo and wow, I was rewarded. When Halo first sped down that cliff face I wanted to scream with exhilaration, so she let of a huge howl for me. Showing me the forest through her eyes, her knowledge was fascinating. Once she sensed Ivan starting to track us she simply said /watch this/ and took off like a rocket. I’ve never known speed like it, her precision and deft little paws didn’t stumble once in the darkness of the forest. One continuous flowing movement, rocketing at such a pace there wasn’t a chance for Ivan. We kept up the frantic sprinting for ages, until finally Halo whispered, /can you smell Ivan, we have doubled back onto him, he is now upwind from us so we can track him./ Ducking low we moved silently through the undergrowth, being such a small wolf she had no trouble picking hiding place
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