The crow and the beast - Kaz brekker

chapter 30 - plans in motion

Cara woke up with a feeling of dread. She couldn't explain why but she felt like something would happen that that she did not like. She looked around the cave and saw the other crows were mostly still sleeping, kaz included.

He was snoring lightly as he was nestled on his side against Cara. She tried to move from underneath him very slowly as to not wake him up. she made sure his blanked was tightly wrapped around him before she stalked to the exit of the cave.

She nodded at nina who was keeping watch as she walked outside. It was a cold morning as the first light came over the horizon. She made her way around the hill and jumped a few ledges until she was on top of the hill overlooking the valley below.

she saw their destination, a small group of houses surrounding a well in the middle. The people that lived there were responsible for most of what Cara went through she realized. She was so young when her father went off to fjerda that she couldn't even remember his face but she knew that when he died her mother moved to ketterdam.

So if he never died she might have never gone to ketterdam at all, never saw the pits, never stole a kruge. maybe even lived a happy life with her parents. But she also would have never met kaz brekker, never met any of the crows. The pondered what life she would choose if she was given the choice.

As she looked out to the valley snow began to fall, together with the icy wind it became pretty cold where she was. Her breaths coming out in little clouds. She thought about what she would do today. She had been thinking about this from the moment they left ketterdam. Would she kill the people that murdered her father or would she show mercy?

she was still thinking about this when she heard a whistle coming from below her. kaz had woken up and was probably wondering where she was. She stood up and made her way down to the cave where kaz was waiting at the entrance, both hands on his cane as he looked outside.

"where have you been." Cara shifted back to her human form, nobody was going to find them here right now. "up the hill." She responded to kaz. His facial expression was emotionless. "is everything okay?" he asked.

"yes I was just thinking." He nodded, knowing exactly what she was thinking about without needing to ask. He did not want to pursue the topic any longer because he did not want to influence her decision, wanting her to make her own decision on the matter.

Cara walked into the cave and began helping the other crows break the camp up and packing everything again. Once everything was ready kaz made sure everybody knew the plan exactly to the last details and send them off, leaving only Cara and him in the cave.

she approached him at the entrance of the cave and stood next to him. she spoke quietly. "you know, if these guys hadn't done what they have then I would have never met you, or the other crows." Kaz glanced at her but his expression did not change.

"my life would have been totally different... but I think I prefer where I am now over where I could have been." Kaz looked at his hands that were on his cane. He didn't know what to say.

Cara turned to him seeing an almost pained expression on his face, she knew shat he was thinking. That she deserved better than what she had, the typical kaz brekker thoughts. "kaz, I would never leave you, or the crows or the dregs. You guys are my family now." She placed a hand on top of his as he was gripping the crow head of his cane.

his eyes met hers. "you know I chose you, not because of you are the 'great bastard of the barrel' or because I wanted to 'heal' your trauma. I chose you because I genuinely love the man you are, to everybody else you are 'dirtyhands or the bastard of the barrel or mr brekker' but to me ... to me you are simply kaz."

kaz moved swiftly, his cane falling to the ground, as he wrapped both arms around the woman in front of him. he held her thightly, as if scared she would disappear if he let het go. Cara wrapped her arms around his chest as he buried his face in her hair. They stood there like that for a little while before kaz pulled back leaving his hands on either side of her face.

She saw a single tear on his cheek when he spoke. "you are the best thing that ever walked into my life, please stay safe out there okay." Cara nodded at him and he quickly pressed a light kiss on her lips before taking a step back again and picking up his fallen cane. "now lets go, we don't want be late."

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it took them 15 minutes to sneak up to the valley, Cara had shifted back in her black wolf however the snowstorm had picked up so her black fur was covered in snow, making it fairly easy to hide against the white surroundings.

The streets were empty, everybody being inside most likely due to the weather. They sneaked up against a house overlooking the square when an alarm sounded. It sounded like an old church bell. A few men came outside of their houses carrying weapons.

kaz turned to Cara "we have to distract them, otherwise it gets to dangerous for the other crows to capture the men we want." Cara nodded her big head at him. she looked at the men who had now gathered I the square, there were only about 10 people there, they could easily take them.

They were all holding some form of melee weapon, from bats to knifes and some even held a mace. Before she had time to come up with a plan kaz was one step ahead of her – literally. He had stepped onto the square as all the men turned towards him.

"what is all this bell ringing about? Is it time to pray?" The men charged at him and Cara jumped out of her hiding spot, she ran straight over one of the men and bit another in his neck and threw him away like a ragdoll. She didn't know kaz was going to be reckless like this so she did not even have time to shift to her monstrous form, making her combat options limited.

she saw kaz fighting off 2 men with his cane. One of the men had managed to sneak up on her and cut her hip, she quickly turned around and bit him in his arm as he was about to strike again, she turned her body and threw the man away. Some of the men kept their distance and waited for the right opportunity to strike giving her a chance to look at kaz again.

he had managed to knock one of the men unconscious but was struggling now with the other man who was a lot bigger than him. She jumped to him and pounced on the man. Biting him in his neck and killing him almost instantly.

she got off of him and looked over at kaz again, then everything seemed to move in slow motion. He yelled something at her that she did not hear because of the gun shot. When she turned her head she felt the bulled go passed her, a millisecond later she heard it connect with a sickening thud.

She looked back at kaz and saw him on the ground, not moving. She heard the guns cocking sound and immediately shot into action with a loud growl she jumped to the guy standing a few meters away from them. she jumped on top of him knocking the revolver out of his hand, she bit his arm that he used to hold the gun in and ripped it clean off his body.

The man let out a blood curling scream but Cara wasn't done with him yet as she took his other arm in her mouth and threw him against the nearest building with so much force it made a cracking sound when he hit it and left a dent in the brick wall.

She then jumped back to kaz, not caring what the left over men were. She scanned him but couldn't see the damage as he was wearing a full black outfit that was already soaked because of the snow. She heard footsteps come closer to her.

She placed herself protectively over kaz as she made her as tall as possible she took a deep breath and roared. Not the howl of the wolf but the roar of the monster. There were only a few men remaining and they all dropped their weapons and fell on their knees.

Cara glared at them making sure they weren't pulling out any tricks on her until she felt kaz move, she quickly hopped off him. She looked at him like she had seen a ghost when he opened his eyes. He grunted as he sat up.

"I am okay, I think." Cara helped him up by lowering her head so he could use her to steady himself. He opened his coat and shirt revealing a thin chainmail shirt underneath. When he did that the bullet fell to the ground.

"your uncle gave this to me before we left" Cara couldn't believe her eyes. He was okay, however she would definitely examine him later for any injuries, he might have broken a rib from the impact.

As if on queue jesper and wylan came into the square with a man dragging behind them, he was on the ground bound by his hands and feet as they were dragging him on his back behind them. then Matthias and nina appeared with a man to, his hands were bound together as he was walking behind them, Matthias holding the rope.

Lastly inej appeared, however the man she had with her was a lot younger looking than her target. His hands were bound behind his back as he obediently walked into the square.

Kaz had picked up his cane and limped over to inej. "who is this, this is not the target"

"that is true, the target is deceased, this is his son and only heir." Kaz nodded as he motioned for the 3 prisoners to be lined up.

If the 2 older men didn't already looked scared enough hey were now definitely scared when they saw Cara. Kaz motioned for the crows to secure the other people that had surrendered before he looked at Cara silently telling her that whatever happens next was up to her.

She positioned herself a few meters away from the 3 prisoners. She wanted to be able to talk to them but did not want to do so in human form. So she shifted to her monstrous form, having full control over her shift she did it slowly this time so they could see her change into the very thing that they had murdered all those years ago.

once she was fully shifted one of the men spoke. "but we killed you, this is impossible." Cara walked over to the man. Getting all close and personal with him. "yes you did, you killed general Frederik, my father." All the blood drained from the mans face.

"now tell me why, why did you kill him?" the other older man spoke up. "he deserved it! He wasn't even fjerdan but he took our promotions, our money, our glory. So we got rid of him." Cara walked over to the other man and grabbed him by the collar lifting him up in the air until his feet were no longer touching the ground.

"and for that reason you will die today, I had not made up my mind yet but you don't deserve the life that was given to you." Speaking so much in this form was difficult but she tried her best. "so tell me, how did you kill him?"

she man spat at her but missed. "we poisoned him and kidnapped him, starved him for 4 days until he was out of energy. Then we broke his limbs and shot him in the head. We burned the body. He did not deserve a funeral" Cara bared her teeth at the man.

She brought his face to her fangs while she growled and that is when he finally broke, he knew he was going to die and she saw fear in his eyes. Good. She shut her jaws around his neck and pulled the body down ripping his head clean off. She let the body fall to the ground and threw the head next to it.

The young man, the son of her initial target shivered with fear. She passed him and went back to the man who had first spoken. He laughed at her "you don't scare me, not anymore." She decided on his death and took his arm with both hands and broke it, then his other arm. He screamed in pain. She let him scream a few more seconds in agony before she broke the man's neck killing him.

Finally she turned to the son. As soon as she saw him she knew she couldn't kill him. a son should not atone for his fathers deeds. "what is your name?" she asked the boy. He couldn't be older than 15. His voice quivered with fear when he spoke. "my name is Jonas"

"jonas." She tested the name for a moment. "I won't kill you today Jonas." The boy let out a sign but still quivered with fear. "however I want you to promise me something Jonas." The boy nodded not being able to speak.

"promise me that you will never kill people, live your life peacefully here in the valley. Rebuild your gang into something better because if you don't I will come back and finish what was started here today." The boy looked her in the eyes when he said. "I promise"

Cara used her claw to unbind him from the ropes. Then turned towards the crows. "feel free to take anything valuable from the houses of the dead but leave the house of Jonas as it is." She turned to kaz and saw him nod at her in approval.

she and kaz stayed at the square not speaking a word to one another while the other crows went back to gather the spoils. The men who had surrendered were allowed to go back to their homes to their families and Jonas was allowed to go back home as well. Cara knew they wouldn't dare to attack them now.

it took the other crows an hour to gather everything they wanted, they had put it all on horses and came back on horseback to the square, bringing an extra horse for kaz to ride. Their mission was successful and the crows were ready to go back home richer than they were before they left.