The crow and the beast - Kaz brekker

chapter 50 - suprising alliances

It was the moment Cara had been dreading for a few hours now, the sun had long since disappeared from the horizon as she stood in front of the window in the library. Kaz was behind her at his desk triple checking everything was in order before he left. Cara was patiently waiting until she would see the crows emerge at the clearing so she could say her goodbyes to them.

she was deep in thought when she felt arms snake around her body as kaz put his head on her shoulder. He hugged her tight from behind, meanwhile Cara tried hard to keep the tears from flowing but she couldn't hold back a sniffle and that is when kaz turned her around to face him. "I love you" he said those 3 words that meant the world again, his eyes soft and his voice raw of emotion. Cara couldn't hold back any longer as some tears flowed across her cheeks.

"I am going to miss you." kaz brought his hands to her face, wiping away her tears with his thumbs. He did not need to use words to tell her he would miss her to, she knew by the pained look on his face. She still did not understand but she trusted kaz and if he said that this needed to be done she believed him.

he brought their lips together for a kiss, the moon shining brightly on them both through the window. Kaz was the first to pull back, he seemed conflicted, trying to find the right words to say something. Cara brought her hand to his cheek. "what is it kaz?" she saw his eyes fill with worry for a second he opened and closed his mouth as if he was going to say something but decided against it at the last moment. Then he got a look of confidence as he spoke.

"if I return I will ask you to be my wife, and we will build a family together." Cara was to shocked to respond for a moment, this was not something she would have thought kaz brekker would ever say but then again it wasn't the first time he dropped a bomb like this. But when she realized just what he had said she smiled. "not 'if' but 'when'. And WHEN you return I will be here waiting for you that is a promise." Kaz brought their lips together once more. the kiss lasting for almost a while minute as their lips moved in sync.

Cara was savoring every second of it. When they pulled back and Cara looked out of the window she saw the other crows and peter emerge from the forest. "its time" she whispered to kaz. he did not even look out of the window, just at her. he offered her one more smile before he let her go to get his coat and hat. Cara followed him outside to say bye to the others.

first to come was Matthias. "I will look over nina while you are gone." She said to the big man, he smiled at her. they hadn't spoken many times but that did not mean they weren't friends. "thank you Cara." The next to jump off the horse was jesper of course. He threw his arms around her waist and lifted her up from the ground. "i am going to miss you." he said while he put her back down. "I will miss you to jesper, the gambling tables will look empty without you." Jesper smiled and winked at her before wylan came to stand next to jesper.

Cara gave the boy a big hug. "take care of them wylan, I am sure you have packed something for every situation imaginable in that backpack of yours." Wylan laughed at her comment. "I have indeed stashed it full with provisions for the mission." Jesper interrupted. "there is nothing my boy doesn't have" he laughed when he put his hand on wylan's shoulder, wylan smiling shyly at jespers comment.

then inej walked up next to her. "oh inej" Cara gave the girl a big hug as well. "take care of them for me okay" inej returned the hug. "of course, we will be back before you know it." When they pulled back Cara mustered a smile before peter put a hand on her shoulder. "we will be find sweetheart, you won't have to worry about us." She hugged her uncle as well before she turned to kaz who was just finishing his little speech to jesper and wylan.

she wasn't sure if kaz would show affection to her in front of everybody but he opened his arms for her, she quickly made her way over as she pressed her lips to his. "you come back to me you hear me mr brekker." She whispered to him. "I will always come back to you." he whispered back.

When he broke the hug he held her hand for just a little while longer before he made his way to his horse and getting on. "lets go" he said as the others got on their horses. And then they trotted off disappearing into the forest leaving Cara in the middle of the clearing on her own.

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She did not sleep that night, and a few times she even convinced herself to follow them but never made it out of the house before turning around again to sit back down. Kaz had trusted everything to her and she couldn't let him down. when the morning came she had drank at least a liter of coffee before the secret doorbell rang.

when she opened the door it was ben who stood there. 'good morning mr. Cara, I have already fed the horses and was wondering if there was anything else you wanted to do today?" from that moment she decided to focus on her work, she couldn't just sit at home and wait for kaz to return, she needed to show him she could make herself useful.

so the next 3 days she spend her time teaching ben to ride and take care of the horses, andby the third day she deemed him fit to train the horses on his own, except for elvis, moon, venus and belle because she wanted to train them herself. In the evening one of the dregs would bring her the reports of the day and previous evening of the slat and crow club.

the next few days were spend in her house at kaz's desk. She tried to make sense from all the paperwork. She had found kaz had left her some notes telling her that some amounts should never go below x amount or she could do certain things to fix it. That helped her a lot with going through the paperwork and after 3 days she had figured out how to deal with most of the paperwork.

on the 7th day she went to ketterdam, she was riding elvis this time, she had decided to not take belle because she deemed it to quickly and did not want to get caught with a stolen horse. Once she entered ketterdam she noticed some people looking at her before turning their heads, weird, she thought but did not pay any more attention to this.

it wasn't until she entered the barrel when she noticed the posters. It was clear as day why people had turned to look at her, her face was clearly on the posters with the sentence 'meet the beast of ketterdam'. She hurried elvis down the streets and into the stable next to the slat before entering the slat.

she saw one of kaz's lieutenants sitting at a table and motioned for him to follow her into kaz's office. They both took a seat, she felt weird sitting in kaz's spot. "whats with the posters?" she asked the dreg. "I don't know mrs. Cara, they showed up this morning, I have my boys out there finding the source as we speak." Cara nodded glad he had taken action right away before she needed to tell him to. "good, is there anything else to report?" the dreg in front of her seemed to think for a moment before he spoke again. "yes in fact, there is a shipment for you at fifth harbor." Cara nodded her head and dismissed the dreg.

she then put on her coat again and went outside to walk over to fifth harbor. Once she got there she saw the harbor actually being mostly empty. A few dregs were unloading some stuff, she all recognized them as dregs who worked for the lieutenant she spoke to at the slat. She walked over to them but when she was in the middle of the harbor a loud voice made her stop in her tracks.

"stop right there!" She stopped walking and turned towards the voice. She saw a group of at least 10 guards standing at the entrance of the harbor with their guns out. "put your hands up!" she complied and raised her hands above her head. "on your knees! you are under arrest for the murder of multiple people in the streets of ketterdam!"

she got on her knees quickly not wanting to escalate the situation. She glanced over at the dregs on the docks and she knew, she knew immediately from the looks on their faces she had been betrayed by her own gang.

the guards quickly moved to secure her, binding her hands with some sort of plastic rope. and not much later she was thrown into a cell with the words "the head of the guards will see you when he finds time in his busy schedule to see a criminal." So she waited. She waited for what seemed like hours in a dark and rusty cell, from what she could gather she was the only one in this prison block.

then she heard a door slam close and not much later a guard stood in front of her cell pulling her out. "time for your punishment beast." He growled at her, she knew better than to respond as he took her down a few hallways until he opened a door and put her down on a chair on the opposite side of a desk. A man was standing in front of a window with his back towards her. "leave us" the man said and the guard left with one last glare to her and closed the door behind him.

when the man turned around she recognized him immediately. He was the one that gave the crows the job to clear the trading route from the hyena shifters. "I can see you recognize me" the man said as he walked behind her and untied her hands. "I am sorry for this, really. But there was no other way that I could think of to set things right." When she looked at him confused he continued.

"I got promoted after the crows had successfully completed the job because I was given credit for finding the right crew for the hob, I am now head of the guards in ketterdam. Which is how I know about the posters in the barrel, and I also know that it was one of your own gang that set you up because I saw his tattoo when he came to one of the guards. We have of course known about the 'beast of ketterdam' but when I looked into it I saw a pattern in your 'murders' they all lead back to what was once called 'the pits'." Cara looked at the man on the opposite side of the desk, not being able to hide the shock on her face, he knew a lot.

"I can see you are surprised, we know a lot more than we let on about the dealings in the barrel. But it brings in tourists and frankly we couldn't stop most activities there even if we tried. . . . I know you almost gave your life for the job I had given you and I want to make things right, which is why I am going to give you a clean slate. No more criminal records, they are as of now all waived. And in a few minutes we will announce the truth about the beast of ketterdam. People know it is you now, we cannot change that but what we can change however is the fact that people know that you are not a ruthless killer but that instead you kept the streets safe of criminals." Cara couldn't believe her ears.

"this way we hope the people of ketterdam will accept you as you are, I know how hard it is to be a shifter in a world that wants nothing more than to hunt you down for sport. My father was a shifter, my mother was a normal human." Cara nodded at the man not knowing what to say.

he put a piece of paper in front of her. "please sign this contract, it states that all your records will be wiped and that from now on you are an official citizen of ketterdam." Cara signed the papers.

"good, now that we have settled this little thing, I will turn my head while you go take revenge on the people that deserve it." Cara smirked as she stood up and shook the mans hand. her next destination was the slat.