Chapter 40

LUIS:

“And there you go messing up again,” Ryk says as soon as I finish the explanation that has my mind all cranky all day.

“I know I did, man. You don’t remind me once more about how stupid I can be most times,” I respond saucily, bending my head a little to avoid a tree branch.

“I wasn’t implying that. I just do not understand why you keep messing things up with Alpha Soma. I get that this is your first time trying to make a relationship with a woman work, but is it worth all of these insecurities you’re portraying?”

“Even with what I just told you is going on around me, you think it’s not worth it?”

Perhaps he didn’t get what I said about the issues I’m facing. Because why would he be making a conclusion based on just me messing things up with Soma? I admit that I did mess up, and I’ve always been, which is unjustifiable. But I have a valid reason this time around.

“Maybe that alone sounds legit,” he finally says, his tone stating that he awkwardly realizes his mistake. “But is it worth telling her to avoid you fit the umpteenth time?”

“Right there,” I flip a finger in his direction, “Right there is where I can say I messed up. I shouldn’t have gone to tell her to give me some time apart so I could sort out myself. I just shouldn’t. If I had known better, I would have avoided a possible confrontation with her, ‘cause man she was pissed,”

Briefly, I stare at Ryk to see him nod his head. “I would too if I were in her shoes,”

“That’s if you were a lady,”

“Nah, not just that, man. Say if Nicole keeps on being insecure around me, and constantly making me feel like I were the issue, I would tell it to her face that she needs a check,”

“Oh,” I can only say as I raise my brows at the brutality of his words. Ryk could be harsh most times even when it came to his woman. But I shouldn’t be too surprised because reality was speaking here.

“So, you see. It’s the same way I would react. Maybe you do need a check.”

I glare at him. “Don’t even go there, Ryk. Who says I’m not fine?” I say, almost to the point of yelling at him.

“Take a chill pill, man. It was just a joke,”

And then I look away from him because I could see that I might have overreacted. Well, he did deserve that reaction from me for trying to make a joke out of my situation. For sure I’m going through a lot here.

Silence ensued from there between us as we sought to find our way into the woods. We were on the verge of getting to the location where the first showdown between me and those masked men took place. The other times I’ve been in confrontation with them have been in other locations but I wanted this part to be more like a piece of evidence to Ryk so it would not sound like I am making it all up.

“About what you told me, are you sure that you couldn’t make out any scent from them?” Ryk asks me much later, killing the silence immediately.

I shake my head once. “Not even a single one,” I tell him. “It was like they had none on them at all. The same thing happened when I encountered them again. I couldn’t even make out a single scent on them to tell what identity they could most likely have. Felt kind of messed up to me that it had me questioning myself,”

And I bend to avoid another branch. The rate at which the woods out here is thick could be one of the reasons this territory isn’t safe to me anymore. If I had the chance to discuss it with one of the leaders, I would gladly do that but I know I wouldn’t be able to handle myself in such a situation so it was best I keep to myself.

“You still think it’s the beta’s doing? He can’t possibly send out troops of masked men to make you uncomfortable just to pass a message across to you. The beta I know doesn’t operate that way,”

I can’t help but mentally facepalm myself at the thought that he thinks he knows the beta the best. He might know him based on how he acts and all of that but what ground can he base his validation on?

“Can you beat your chest and say you know the beta too well?” I ask him.

“Of course, I can,”

“Then do it!” and I stop walking just to turn to face him. At the same time, he stops too, making us be face to face with each other.

I had to look down a tiny bit because despite Ryk being a tall man by the height recorded, he is still shorter than I am. An inch or two. But it was enough to make me the more superior one in height here.

“I... can... vouch... for... the... beta.”

Choosing to say the words slowly was actually more annoying than I expected it to be. Feels like something that would make me hit him square in the face for being such a dick head.

I shake my head in disappointment. “What you just did was the stupidest thing ever. How can you vouch for a man you know nothing about?”

A sore smile appears on his face. “I’m a good judge of character, man,” he says, sounding confident in himself. “I’ve always been, so you should know that I wouldn’t have made that statement without having a good conviction of what I’m doing,”

I do not respond but turn around and start to walk away from there because we still have a long way to go before we get to the scene of the confrontation. Besides I have other things to do later so wouldn’t want this to be the reason I would have to neglect my duties.

I have avoided branch after branch that I cannot help but start to cringe at joe much damage this could do to me if I choose to go shirtless in an unwanted situation for example. Would I even be able to cope?

Truthfully, I’m not comfortable. I wish I am but the uneasy feeling that came with the last time seems to be kicking in. Much worse than even the last.

My head starts to spin in a way that I cannot explain. I can’t even place my hands on why I have this sudden change of feelings about everything that is going on around here.

When I stumble, Ryk asks me, “Are you okay?”

I put a hand to the side of my head to see if I would suppress the feeling that came with this place. But I couldn’t even feel a change yet. “I don’t know, man. I’m just not comfortable all of a sudden,” I tell him, still trying to get a result from pressing on my head.

“Do you want us to turn back?”

I have it in me to say yes but all of a sudden, the feeling is gone. Just as quick as it came. Now that was something I would want to question because of how quick it was. Maybe I am just being sensitive about my environment because I do not see why I should react the way I just did.

“Let’s just go. I’ll manage,”

We tread on from there, while I am hoping that the feeling doesn’t come back to me. I don’t think it’s such a good feeling and definitely not something I can handle.

“This is the place,” I announce when we finally arrive at the spot where I had a little confrontation with the masked men. If it hadn’t been for the bane that I knew would weaken me if I stayed any longer than that, I sure would have continued to charge at them. The only question that has been eating me is how they were able to survive the use of banes. Weren’t they wolflings?

“So what happened here?” I hear Ryk say.

I move forward until I was staring right at the dent on the tree. This must have happened after I pushed the first masked man so hard into the tree and then try to take the mask off of him.

“I sneakily came at one of them hiding in here and we got into a fight that ended up with me having the upper hand. In the bid to unmask the man, another came from nowhere and tried to hit me from behind but I moved away from the incoming danger. Then, poof!” I can’t help but demonstrate with my hand, “bane exploded all over them that it had me running to safety before I get weakened by the smell of it,”

“Bane? All over them?” Ryk sounds incredulous after saying that. His reaction was expected because I would go the same if I were in his shoes.

“It came as a shock to me as well. I thought they were supposed to be our kind until that incident occurred. You can see why I had to question myself when I couldn’t get their scent,”

I then go over to the very spot where I remember them using the bane as a means to escape. If they had been weakened by the smell, I’m sure a sign of bodies would be somewhere around here. But nothing.

“You know, we might need to report this issue to the Alpha. I think it’s a much bigger issue than—”

BANG!

And swiftly, I turn around. But I am met with the shock of my life because what I can see is Ryk staring at me in shock, eyes wide open... and with a hole to his head!

“Ryk!” I yell out his name and run to his body before he collapses to the ground. I hold him tight, but I could already feel life seeping out of him. “Oh no, no, no. Don’t do this to me, Ryk. Stay with me,”

I look up to see that I have been surrounded by quite a number of masked men in similar clothing to those I’ve encountered before. Before I could even react to the new development, I suddenly get chokehold from behind with a piece of clothing on my nose.

I try to fight it but I get pinned down from both sides by the others. The smell exuding from the clothing tightened on my nose has bane on it, already suffocating me.

And while I start to lose consciousness with tears already seeping out my eyes, an unexpected general mind-link gets to my head:

‘Code red! The pack has been invaded!’