Shielding the Beast (discontinued)

Twenty-Nine | Betrayal

Unedited.
Warning: this is not edited whatsoever and is just something I had left before I stopped writing this book. If you read it, then God bless you, you brave soul.

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The sky is darkened by clouds. A few drops of rain splatter against the dark green leaves of the forest covering an Italian hillside. The air holds moisture in it, a forewarning sign of the downpour to come.

Cole walks ahead of me, leading the way up a grassy path. We'd traveled in mostly silence up until he decided to break it.

"That Venya girl, she's... not right," he says, as if just remembering his short encounter with her made him wary.

I think for a minute, analyzing what he could be hinting at. "What do you mean?"

"She doesn't wanna be here, and yet she is. She acts like she hates all of you, so she has no motive to." He speaks his thoughts aloud.

My shoulders shrug, a pointless gesture for the back of his head to see.

"She's the Gamma."

My response comes off as careless. My attempts at figuring out the pink haired girl were long given up. The only thing I still wondered was why she stuck around-- flaunting her bad attitude and obvious hatred towards both the Beta and Alpha of her pack. Maybe the consequence would be greater to leave than to stay. Maybe deep down something had changed and she was holding on to a piece of the past.

No. Stop giving her the benefit of the doubt. She doesn't deserve it.

"They won't get her back," Cole states harshly.

"I know."

"They'll kill her."

"I know."

"They'll take her as hostage and offer a trade: you for her. What's his face won't do it, and then they'll watch her die." His voice is emotionless. Numb. And so is mine.

"...I know."

The guilt began to set in, planting its root in my stomach and growing slowly.

Her life means nothing to me. She could die by my own hand and a second thought wouldn't be given. But something about being in the hands of the Liberators, something about having her future hang on a thin string at the end of their fingers, makes me empathize with her.

While I may know the fate that awaits her, I also know the sad truth of it.

Nobody will save you.

Daniel had insisted on going to find her. To track the Liberators down and rescue her. For what reason, I don't know. This is his ticket out, his free ride away from her. She's nothing but belittling and abusing towards him, and yet he still wants to play the knight in shining armor.

"While you two go to look at whatever, Asher and I will tail them to see where they take Venya." I remember him saying.

Cole and Asher had went down the rope of the tower first. While there, my hand took a firm grip on Daniel's arm, stopping him momentarily.

"You don't owe her anything." Those were my words to him as my eyes bore into his, searching for an understandable reasoning only to come up with nothing.

He had nodded his head in response. "No," he agreed, "I don't." And then my fingers fell from my grasp, and he descended down the rope.