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Chapter 16 - Black and Blue

Braeden

Smack, my fist collided with the pad.

Smack, smack, smack, three quick bursts sent Henrik stumbling back.

Sweat bled from my face, seeping out from my soaked hair. I knew Henrik was bored, I wasn't giving him much of anything to think about. Nothing fancy, no dodging or maneuvering. To be honest I wasn't even fighting with him, I was just using him as a punching bag.

Smack, I saw Nereyda's violently violet eyes boring into me.

Thwack, I saw that bastard's arms wrapped around her.

Suddenly my fist went forward and was met with air. I stumbled forward, looking up in surprise at Henrik's frowning face.

"I've been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes," he said, pushing the pads off his hands.

I said nothing, panting and watching him as he started to pack up. When it looked like he really wasn't going to come back into the makeshift ring with me I sighed and started unwinding the tape from my hands.

"I wasn't finished," I grumbled rather futilely.

"Yes you were." Henrik said firmly, the force behind his words surprising me slightly. Not that I really cared what he thought, at that moment I was pretty sure I wanted to drown myself in the lake.

I chose to ignore him, scooping up my shirt in one hand and pulling it over my head. Maybe I would accidentally drown whilst bathing. I stormed off in the direction of my bath (the lake), doing my best to ignore the sound of Henrik's footsteps following me.

"C'mon Braeden, don't be a dick," his voice called out from a way behind me.

I turned to face him, realising that he wasn't going to leave me alone any time soon. My anger had hastened my steps and I'd ended up quite a way in front of him. Henrik huffed loudly as he approached me.

"Are we gonna talk about this or what?" Henrik had a typical Paladian accent, one of the common people. I'd managed to make my common Cretan accent more civilised along my travels but sometimes you could still hear it.

"There's nothing to talk about," I all but snarled as he continued to invade my space.

"Bullshit!" The shorter man exclaimed.

I gave him a dead look, preparing to walk off again.

"I was there last night," he continued, "I'm not blind."

I rubbed my temples in exasperation. "I'd be concerned if you were Henrik," I tended to get sarcastic when pissed off. "I'm not sure how well people would take to a blind man getting in the ring."

Instead of the expected 'fuck off', his face broke into a grin. I glared harder, disappointed with the reaction my mocking had induced.

I continued to the lake, Henrik trotting along right beside me. "Come now Braeden," he said. "Even without my eyes, I'd be able to smell her on you. And, I'm sure if it wasn't for those vile concoctions Gelina has us drink, I'd have been able to smell you all over her last night as well."

I ploughed on through the forest, pretending like I hadn't given what he was saying any thought. In truth, I knew that the potions which eradicated my scent were the only thing that stopped Nereyda's family from smelling her on me. In other words, the potion was the saviour of our relationship. Even if I could only think of it as the devil. I wanted everyone to know she was mine, everyone who even glanced at her to know immediately that she was taken. I'd never felt more possessive of anything or anyone in my life.

"Let's just get it over with," he said elusively.

I looked at his hard eyes set in his even harder face.

"Have you fucked her yet?" The tone he used sounded more like a statement than a question. Very matter of fact.

He was blocking my punch before I could blink and in seconds we were engaged in a rowdy fight.

I pushed him away eventually, laughing against my will. He could be incredibly impertinant.

"Yeah," I sighed at last, referring to his previous question, "we did." I paused, "and I claimed her."

The mood sobered immediately. Henrik stared at me with his mouth agape. "You did what?" He finally choked out.

I couldn't bring myself to look at him, so overcome with shame that I was. I hadn't planned on telling anyone but, well, Henrik had his way about things. I didn't say anything, stripping off my clothes and jumping into the lake some way down the pier. Nereyda had loved it here.

Henrik joined me eventually, treading water as he watched me with sombre eyes. I tilted my head back to gaze at the sky.

"Asher might have to kill you." He said the words quietly but they seemed to bounce off the water a thousand times, resounding in my head.

I'd already thought about what he said but hearing it said aloud, from the lips of another no less, seemed to solidify the feeling of dread that saturated my every pore. Claiming Nereyda had to have been the biggest mistake of my life. And yet it wasn't a mistake at all.

I climbed out of the lake, not liking the way my sudden nausea reacted to the water. My confession had turned my mood impossible further and I felt utterly powerless. I was trapped by my own circumstances, by my own actions. There seemed to be no way out, no way to resolve everything. I would lose, no matter what I did.

I'd walked to the city hall and found myself ascending the broken staircase to the crypt that lay hidden at the back of the building. When the wolves had ruled Lithia, the 'city hall' had been the pack house, and the crypt I made my way towards had been the previous Alpha's private temple. It was now the only temple in the city.

I wouldn't call myself religious and yet I knelt at the feet of the stone wolf in front of me. Not just a wolf, but a god, Haela's all seeing stone eyes bored into me. And as I hung my head, my forearms face up by my sides, I prayed with everything I had. I prayed that the gods allow our mating to succeed, flourish and blossom, for they were the ones who had marked us as two halves of a whole.

They were the ones who had molded our situations to what they were, molded our circumstances to cause us pain, pain, pain. They had planned our doom, schemed it even. And now they laughed down at us from the heavens, laughed at our helplessness, our suffering.

I spat at the feet of the hateful god and pushed quickly to my feet. The gods could all rot in heaven if they liked, I was sure that if they were all there, heaven more closely resembled hell.

On the main road everything was quiet, as usual. However I was surprised to see people hanging white banners outside their windows. People only did that in times of great celebration. The only explanation I could think of was the Queen's announced pregnancy, but surely that in itself was not a cause to hang banners. When the Queen actually gave birth, yes, but not just because she was pregnant.

I exchanged smiles with a few people as I walked down the street. There was a strange hum in the air and everyone seemed a little more animated than usual. I entered a corner shop to buy a few things for the party. At the cash register I motioned to the banner hung up outside the window.

"I seem to be a little behind," I told the cashier. "What's the big event?"

He looked up at me in surprise at my ignorance. "You haven't heard?" He exclaimed softly. "The princess is getting married in two days!"

In the end I somehow ended up with only a bottle of whiskey, drinking it as I shuffled my way home. Guards in leopard form glared at me from within alleys, the King's increased security meaning I had to put up with many more than I would like.

The King knew the rebellion wouldn't attack again so closely after yesterday. So he brought the wedding forward to ensure it all ran smoothly. I was supposed to have Nereyda for another two weeks. Now I'd completely lost her.

The whiskey was nearly gone by the time I arrived back at camp, a fact I noted with dissatisfaction. I'd been meaning to share with my fellow packmates but, oh well.

I saw with blurry eyes the huge bonfire that blazed in the middle of the camp. Wolves danced and sang raucously, and in the middle of it Gelina loudly read from one of the scrolls we'd stolen the night before.

The King's palace had been our temple and all of the spells, blessings and rituals of godly nature had been locked up, rotting there. Until last night.

Tradition demanded that before you went to war you had to ask for the gods blessing. Something we had all been unable to do without the incantations of old. Not just tradition, actually, most people believed that if you did not ask the gods to help you then you would fail. After all, they were all powerful. If you asked the gods to bless you and then failed, well, that was your own fault. The double standards really did amaze me.

As the alcohol people swam in my brains, Nereyda stole my thoughts again. I thought of how close I had come to killing her. Her eyes closed, head tilted up, the entirety of her neck exposed to me. I'd held the knife in my hand as I kissed her, ready to bring it up at any second. And then what had I done? Oh I sank my teeth into her flesh and tied myself to her for the rest of eternity.

That evening could not have gone worse. I'd been ready. Ready to either confess my part in the rebellion or drag my jagged knife across her porcelain throat.

It was getting late, the first cracks of dawn glinting around the palace. I rested my body against the low hanging branch of a nearby tree, knowing that I probably wouldn't be able to hold myself upright. I glanced down at my forearm as I hung over the branch, the bold numbers sprawled out there taunting me. Slave numbers. Another reason Nereyda and I could never be.

Gelina stumbled towards me then, obviously having had much too much to drink herself. She slipped on the dew of the morning grass as she approached me, I grabbed her shoulders to steady her, and we both went tumbling to the floor.

She gave a breathy laugh as I did my best to keep most of my body weight off her. I don't know how my drunken mind didn't see it coming but suddenly our faces were far too close and then her lips were brushing mine.

I froze in confusion, thinking that it must have been an accident. Then she reached up and kissed me again, taking my silence for acceptance.

I rolled off her, determined to get to my tent even if it meant crawling there.

"Wait," she slurred.

I didn't, careening off in the vague direction of the bonfire. I should've known something like this would happen. After all, my whole life was going to shit. 

--- A/N ---

Hopefully that answered some of your questions...not all of them though! See what Nereyda thinks about all of this next week ;) - Z