Jordan POV.
The dirty cabin was much warmer than the cold snow, my foot hurt real bad, the trap have closed and ripped a few tendons and broken a bone or two, I knew that but I had to act all strong in front of Micah, showing him that I’m strong. Breathing his scent in, holding him tight, that all helped with my pain, another night spent on the ground, in the cold, out in the wild.
The night was long and painful, Micah was crying, thinking he’s the reason I’m hurt, I saw the trap shinning in the dark, everything was white and dull, but the shine, I knew something was up then, I jumped ahead of him, pushing him out of the way, if there’s any kind of danger, I’ll be the first to be there, not Micah.
“Jordan…” I heard a quiet voice says, shaking me awake, I opened my eye, to see Micah facing me, in his human form, his face was puffy and tired, he looked like he hasn’t slept last night, he looked just like I felt, like shit.
“I’m awake,” I answer him, it’s time to get moving, it’s time to end this stupid competition and win.
“The hunters got too close during the night,” Micah says with a shake of his voice, they are scary with their guns, they aren’t playing fair, but we got each other now.
“It’s time to win this,” I tell Micah, I tried to stand up on my injured foot, my whole body ached and hurt, I bite down on my lip, pretending that I’m not feeling any pain.
“Jordan, you’re in pain, fuck this, let Joshua win, we can just leave,” Micah tries to tell me, but I refuse to leave.
“No, Micah, just no,” I say in a firm voice, but that only got Micah’s eyes to fill up with tears.
“You’re hurt, you almost died last night! I don’t want to be alpha, I just want to be with you,” Micah says tears going down his face freely now.
“No, Micah, if Joshua wins, he’s going to kill us, if your father knows we have run away, he’ll follow us, this is your right, you trained your whole life to be alpha, you deserve to get your peace,” I tell my mate, I didn’t care if he’s going to be alpha or not after we win, he can leave it after he won, but it’s going to be his choice, not anyone’s else.
“Jordyyyy,” he says jumping in into my arms, crying, why is he crying now, he wants to leave.
“Why you crying, baby don’t cry, stop crying please,” I beg him, I’ve only seen him crying ever since this stupid training started.
“You’re perfect, perfect,” Micah says crying, I hugged him tighter, but it’s enough of crying and hugging, now it’s time to leave, I held his hand and limped out of the cabin.
“Do we need to run?” I ask Micah with a smile, if we need to run, well, we’ll run, my foot have healed, but not enough for me to run, but I can move. We started to walk, making sure that no traps are on the way, Micah used the stick technique, it slowed us down, and he made sure every step we took was a safe one.
“We’re almost back, I know this trail,” Micah tells me two hours into our walk, we’re almost there, we kept walking but then I heard some noises, a voice of a certain wolf I wish to kill.
“Micah,” I whisper, making a shushing sign with my finger up to my mouth, he nods his head yes listening up to any noise with me, it was Joshua.
“Yes, alpha, I’ve spent the whole night searching for them alpha, the cold must have taken them, they are buried back under the snow,” Joshua says, he’s lying, we are alive, and we’re going to kill him for this.
We moved real quiet and slowly now, not allowing Joshua to hear us, is he alone, or are the hunters still with him, we can’t risk it, not with me being hurt, me and Micah shared a look, if we shift, we’ll be quicker and lighter on our feet, being injured have thrown my energy levels low, but I can’t whine about being tired or needing extra sleep and food.
Shifting was hard and painful, my wolf tried to heal me, but I haven’t rested or eaten enough to be able to heal such a bad injury. We moved quietly, our paws hardly left any mark on the snow, as we got closer to the alpha, we could smell them, smell the blood over there, we could see other pack members standing next to their alpha, their current one, soon it’s going to be Micah, we were almost at the finish line.
“Joshua, you idiot! Run they are here,” I heard the alpha yell, he’s helping him! Talk about cheating, could he be any worse?
“What! They are dead!” Joshua yells back, he’s really an idiot, can’t he see us, the alpha pointed at us as we ran down toward him, winner takes it all.
“They’re not, idiot, run!” Alpha Blade yells again, shaking his head, is he sure he wants him to be his next heir and alpha?
“Coming,” Joshua yells back, running down after us, we ran faster, it’s a race now, Micah kept looking back at me, but my injured foot was slowing me down, I tried to push him forward, he’s the one who’s supposed to win, not me. But Micah kept dragging me, coming back toward me, pushing me forward, at the same time as Joshua was coming down toward us, he looked well-rested, unlike us who’ve been struggling the whole time.
We can do it, we can do it, I said, pushing Micah ahead of me, jumping in after him, everything happened so quickly, it was a mess of ice, running, pain and bodies collapsing together. I looked up to see all three of us here, we made it at the same time, but some of us worked hard to make it here while others cheated their way here, we’re the ones who were supposed to win, not Joshua, the alpha can’t announce him a winner, not with as many witnesses standing here seeing all of us stumble together.
“You idiots! All three of you, I gave you the easy way!” The alpha yells slapping Joshua on the face hard, he just confessed to cheating.
“This isn’t fair alpha,” I heard some of the pack yells, they all knew he was cheating, this isn’t how things work here.
“Let’s take this to the next level then,” the alpha yells, shutting the rest of the pack up.