Cursed World

9

otherwise a stench would come out of it. I hadn't showered in days and Gina had the nerve to say something to me. Didn't she know I'd nearly lost my life? What was a little funky armpit to her? She'd shoved me over when she came to stay the last time.

"Ewww, your pits smell Richard, you need to wash them. That's so gross."

"I was almost pronounced dead and you want to talk about my armpits?"

"Yes, I want to talk about your armpits. They are totally gross."

I felt Gina didn't love me anymore. She didn't understand. Her wounds weren't as bad as mine, she'd been sliced a few times, but the brunt of the punishment had been reserved for me.

Zion, Mathew, Kory and Darren had all recovered and were walking around freely while I limped everywhere. I wished it was them and not me. Now I knew why Vera recovered so quickly from her wounds, why all the scarring she had from years of countless beatings had all but disappeared.

Time to get up and at least shower. That was the least I could do. I shook my wavy dirty blonde hair as dandruff flakes flew to the ground. s**t. I had to shampoo my hair too. Normally Gina would be by my side to help me. It was our thing in the shower. I would wash her hair and she would wash mine and normally we would make love after that. I let the pleasurable memory go as I shuffled like an old grandpa wolf to the shower turning on the water. I had a large bandage over the majority of my torso. It had been secured so as not to get wet in the shower. I touched my side as I let the water wash away some of the grit and grime from the last few days. The healer was due to change it later today so I at least didn't want to funk the nurse out once I arrived to the mess hall.

Where had Vera gone to was anybody's guess. I'd laid awake deciding she would be eaten alive by Lizbeth. Never in my life did I think she would have the cunning to run. To make it beyond the gates she should have left long ago. For so long she frustrated me because she sat there and took the beatings. She didn't even try to do anything about them, she just allowed me to keep punching and kicking her a*s on a weekly basis. Handling the grief from losing my parents wasn't something I dealt with well. I wiped the smeared mirror to look back at myself. What I saw was a shell of myself. Vera had done a good job of knocking a few teeth around and I wanted to kill her for it. One of them had already turned an ugly shade of grey which meant the tooth itself was dead. Now I would have to see the dentist and have them pull it out. That's the last thing I wanted to do.

I got myself to the kitchen and made myself a shake. Barely. I found myself about to call out to Gina, "Gi- two f***s. This is bullshit." With great difficulty I managed to pour myself a smoothie. Mine tasted nothing like the

one Gina made. It was gluggly and full fruit pulp. I

screwed up my nose, but at least I didn't smell so terrible

now. Making my way to the barracks proved to be

difficult, but I wanted to man up and recover quickly. The

faster I got back on the battlefield to search for Vera the

better.

Gina crossed my path in the mess hall. Her wary eyes flashed me the warmest smile I'd seen from her in a couple of days. "How's my babe?" She leaned forward as she normally did rubbing her hand on my chest. Annoyed that she left me to fend for myself when I literally fought Vera off to be with her, I pushed her hand away.

"Get off me Gina. I had to make my own smoothie, tasted s**t too," I spat out.

Gina chortled at my surliness and kissed me softly on the cheek and nipped at the side of my ear.

"Is my little wolf mad? Come on, I will go home with you tonight, don't worry about it. You smell damn good today, better than you smelling like horse manure like you did yesterday. Might need a scratch and sniff test tomorrow," she giggled, but kept teasing my lips with her butterfly kisses that I had a soft spot for. I couldn't help but c***k a smile. Gina never smelt bad. She smelled like strawberries and cream, I never knew all the potions and creams women put on, but I liked them all. Are you okay Richard? Omg I can feel your pain. What have you done. What have you done.

I dug a little deeper and reached back to her as the nurses dragged me out of the chair and I flopped to the ground. Come back Vera. Come back... please.

I narrowly avoided falling flat on my face as I heard the booming voice of my brother.

"Lizbeth, what have you done, you old dumb bastard!" The walls, they looked so pretty, I'd never noticed how pretty the walls were. Who painted them?

"Come on, we need to get him out of here." The nurses were talking, I was sure they were speaking. Or maybe I dreamt the whole thing up, maybe my arm was rightfully attached to my arm. Surely it was. It couldn't be that I'd lost a limb. Was that my blood smeared all over the ground?

Clive

I got wind of Lizbeth's crazed mistake from one of the new trainees Clara. She was a redhead, fast on her feet with some of the same attributes in terms of speed that reminded me of Vera. By the time she reached me on the training field with sharp breaths she had nothing left in her lungs.

"Come, come on. You have to- you have to come to the mess hall. Lizbeth- your brother. Come, not much time."

Perplexed by her jumbled message I followed her anyway running with her. I knew it was bad due to the pace she ran at. I jogged as we crossed the field and I ran into the mess hall and into a b****y circus. Blood was dripping all over the ground and Lizbeth was standing in the corner laughing to myself. Nobody else was laughing with him. It was just him cackling soundly in his own world. My brother was being dragged forward by two nurses as the bright red arterial blood continued its trail through to the medic room.

The hall was now full of wolves as Lizbeth climbed the oak bench table and stood on top of it shouting at the top of his lungs. "We are the Mount Hunter pack, and we will not be defeated. Each and every one of you will be requested to rise for battle. I will set the precedent, that I will not be defied! Vera Hunter is to be taken down. She will come now. She has connected via mindlink with Richard. She will come, as she values and pities her little friends." I realized what was going on. Lizbeth had cut off my brother's hand in order to bring Vera to him. He was a sick son of a b***h, and I was at a crossroads between my dear friend Vera, my messed up brother and the pack itself. I had no choice, but pretend to fight. In the back of my mind I remembered what Vera's parents did for me and how they selected me to stay alive. I would never forget it.

Vera

A searing shot of hot liquid made my arm numb. So numb and tight with thousands of pins and needles running through it that I had to stop in the middle of dinner. "What is this?" More of a rhetorical question as Anglo wouldn't have the answers for this one. Steel gray eyes of panic stared back at mine.

"Vera, what is it?" I howled in pain as the feeling got worse.

"Shit." I feel forward to the floor. "It's Richard, he's in trouble. He's in deep pain. Lizbeth, it's Lizbeth, he's a maniac. Cut off hand." I felt a whoosh of energy shoot through my bloodstream and all of a sudden things began to float around the room. "They must have given him some medication. He's floating now." I opened my eyes wide. "Lizbeth hurt him badly, there's something wrong with that man. I'm going to go back. I can't leave Valerie there with a crazed man. She won't make it."

Anglo grabbed my hands. "Vera, don't go back there, please, don't go back. I don't want anything to happen to you. Let Clive fix it. Let him deal with the situation."

"No, no I can't. I have to go back. I can't leave her there. Lizbeth will hurt her. Anglo, please understand."

"I don't, but okay. See, training was a good idea. Don't forget the skills we've worked on here." Anglo grazed my lips with his mouth as I prepared for the biggest fight of my life. I was about to walk into the wolf's den, and it would be a miracle if I survived.

"He said what?" I perked up at his words, unable to believe that Richard really learned nothing from the ordeal.

"He said he overheard Richard planning on revenge. If hadn't been bedridden he would have been the first to hunt you down."

I stayed silent, disappointed but not surprised. I didn't know what I expected.

"Well, I'm glad he's so...consistent. You can always count on Richard for that," I said sarcastically. I was really over the pity-party phase when it came to Richard rejecting me as his mate (at the very least) and practically chasing me down to s*******r (at the very most).

"Are you sure you're okay? I've never heard of a mate bond causing one to take on the person's injury, but with your luck, you could be the first."

Taking my hand from his, I began leading us out of the woods. "Ha ha," I said dryly. "I'll let you know if my hand starts falling off."

Behind me, his musical laughter joined the soft rustle of trees and early morning birds twittering.

***

With every reminder my wrist gave me of Richard's state, my anxiety rose to a fever-pitch. I'd been sitting on the couch, entertaining myself with my book, while Anglo was in the kitchen doing something. Thoughts of what was going on back home kept entering my mind, making me reread every sentence several times. Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore and had to stand up and expel my nervous energy.

I paced back and forth across the worn out carpet, threatening to bore holes into it with my boots. I felt my body slick with sweat, yet chills crawled down my back from the potential risk Lizbeth posed to Mount Hunter. The ongoing pain of my wrist from Richard's end didn't help.

At that moment, Anglo came back from the kitchen, a cup of tea in his hands. He noticed my fervent pacing and anxious demeaner. I was a hairsbreadth away from biting through my nails and fingers.

"Vera, you need to calm down," he said soothingly, giving me an exasperated look. He pushed the cup of tea into my hands. The cup was chipped but the heat warmed my hands in a comforting way. I took a small sip, the searing liquid slipping down my throat, leaving a satisfying warmth in its warmth. I had to admit, it was grounding.

"Chamomile?" I asked, taking another sip. It was good.

Looking a little shy for some reason, he chuckled. "Yeah, no honey or sugar though. I hope that's alright."

I hummed. "It's delicious. Thank you." The thoughts rolling around in my mind since finding out about Richardcame back to the forefront. I placed the cup down on the coffee table. "Anglo, I need to tell you something."

Warily, he nodded. "Go on."

"I...have to go back."

"Back? To Mount Hunter you mean?" An incredulous expression appeared on his face. "You can't be serious."

I took a deep breath, running a hand through my already disheveled hair. "I am so serious. I have return to help them. Reilly is dying, I can feel it in my own hand. He's losing a lot of blood. And while I'm not that sympathetic to him right now, I can't help but imagine what Lizbeth might do next. His screws are loose. If he dares to do something so gruesome to a pack member, who knows what he could do to the pack. Clive was worried about this exact thing, remember?"

He placed his hands on my shoulders, steadying his gaze. "Look, Vera. I know you want to go back and see what you can do. But it's insane over there - they want to find you adn do who knows what with you."

I squeezed my eyes shut at the truth. "I know. I know the town hates me and wants me dead. I know Lizbeth is after me. But I can't just...stay here and do nothing."

He shook me, albeit gently.

"You're not doing nothing, you're staying safe."