Chapter 35
"Ouhh, her eyes are opening!" A female voice shrieked in the room as my eyes fluttered open. I recognized it as belonging to Fiona and her voice was so loud that it made my head hurt even more than it was already hurting but I could tell she was just happy to see me awake.
"Shssh!" Cole's voice shushed, making me tilt my head to notice my environment.
Cole and Fiona both stood side by side beside my bed while Jika sat at the far end of my bed with a worried look on his face, almost resembles that of guilt.
His brows relaxed on seeing my face but furrowed almost immediately as he looked away from my face.
Cole and Fiona also noticed the look on his face as their smile fell and the silence in the room was leaving me worried.
"Well, I'm glad you're awake and better now. We should leave you to rest" Fiona said with a smile before dragging Cole's hands out of the room, leaving just Jika and I behind.
After some extra minutes of silence with Jika not even looking at my face or anything, I decided to break the silence.
"What's wrong,? I asked as I removed the blanket from me and tried to get up but the ache in my head brought me back to the bed with a wince.
"Don't stress yourself, you're just recovering " he finally said to me and covered me back with the blanket.
"You don't look good, what's wrong?" I asked again but he didn't respond as he let out a heavy sigh.
"I'll tell you soon, when you're better, but right now you should take some painkillers " He said and I kept quiet.
I wanted him to tell me instantly because I was tired of them always telling me "I'll know soon", my skin was itching to know now but there was nothing much I could do.
Shortly after, a maid walked into the room with some pills on a tray and a glass of water. I gulped the pill down and it didn't take so long before I felt the effect of the medicine and I was surprised at how fast it worked.
The weather seemed to be a little warm today and Jika was still sitting beside me on the bed. I have regained my energy and for some reason, I wanted to train in the beautiful weather but I had no idea how to ask Jika without him thinking I was crazy.
After some awkward silence between us, I finally decided to voice out, if he wasn't going to tell me what was wrong with him, at least it would be better if we were running up a hill rather than us staying in a big room with total silence because I swear I could snap any moment from now.
"Jika?"
"Uh?" He brought his head to look at my face.
"I'm okay now and I'm just wondering if we could train in the cool weather " I said and immediately noticed the mixed expression on his face but most of all, he seemed amused.
"Okay, let's go" he replied and was almost shocked at the way I sprung up from the bed.
"You gained your energy really fast, the bastard had spiked your drink with a hard drug without you knowing " he said with a slight hint of anger in his voice and I suddenly became numb. I had been dancing carelessly without noticing someone was watching me all the time.
"Who was he?" I asked as Jika took my hand and led me out of the room.
"Funny enough, he was the groom's brother" He scoffed while my mouth was opened in awe. How could he do such a thing on his brother's special day?
"Where's he now?" I asked, hoping he was locked up in a cell for eternity for what he did to me. The moon goddess only knows what else he would have done to me if he had run away without anyone noticing.
"Let's say you'll never get to see him anymore because he's dead and I made sure to break every bones of his and ripped it out bit by bit before he gave up on life" Jika said with pride, and memories from last night flashed through my mind as I remembered hearing sounds of bones cracking and breaking.
I felt chills going down my spine as I tried to remove the thought of it from my head but it wasn't going to leave so soon. I wondered how much pain he would have felt.
"Don't tell me you're pitying him" he looked at me with a serious eye and I immediately scoffed at it in pretense.
"Serves him right " I responded but deep down, I was actually pitying the man for having to die so badly on his brother's wedding day. How would his brother have bared to watch the horror sight before him.
"So what should we do today?" He asked as he rubbed his chin in search of an answer.
"How about running up the hills like we did the other day?" I asked and noticed a smirk tucking up at the corner of his lips.
"That's just a warm up, we have to do the actual training now" he said and I gulped in fear but he was quick to notice.
"Don't worry, it still involves running but this time with obstacles' ' He said like it wasn't going to be hard but on getting to the field, I didn't think I wanted to continue with the training anymore because the sight before me was horrifying.
"Am I going to pass through all these?" I asked in fear while pointing to the different scary things on the field. It had all sorts of things and sharp objects and worst of all, a crocodile in a pond and there was a swine above it to swing pass.
"What if I mess up and end up dead?" I turned to ask Jika who only had a proud smile on his face.
"You'll be fine, I'll be right here all through and nothing's going to happen to you because I won't let you get hurt " he said and for some reason his words calmed me down and I chose to trust him.
"Here goes nothing" I said to myself as I started the devious training, I had been surviving so far and was in the middle of the field. The next task was the scariest one where I had to pass the crocodile but on turning back to look at Jika, he was nowhere to be seen as I spotted him walking towards the pack house and he was far away.
It was at that moment I knew I was screwed and there was no way for me to go back as it was even harder to go back and my only choice was to continue.
The weather suddenly changed and wasn't being so fair with me as rain started to pour. The crocodiles were now very visible as they all brought out their fierce heads for some rain to fall on them.
"Jika!" I screamed and knew he would have heard me but he chose to ignore me. With every courage left In me and after saying my last prayers I decided to swing on the swine with my eyes shut closed and luckily for me I was able to pass the pond with a racing heart.
The rest of the obstacles were minor and I passed all of them immediately before crashing flat on the floor. I had thought I wasn't going to make it but surprisingly I did and I still can't believe I did that.
"You'll catch a cold if you lay under the rain, let's go under that tent" Jika's voice rang beside me and I lifted my head to see him standing elegantly with a satisfied grin on his face.
"You monster!" I yelled at him but it only made him laugh even more. He must have been watching me from afar but on getting to the tent and meeting some cups, a jug of hot coffee on the table and a blanket made me realize he had actually gone to the pack house and left me in danger.
"You said you wouldn't let anything bad happen to me so why did you leave?!" I yelled at him with red eyes as I could feel anger all over my body.
"But in my defence, nothing bad happened to you " he smirked, making me even more frustrated.
"This is so not funny!" I pouted and sat on a bench trying to calm myself.
"If I had been there, you would have wanted me to help you out of the field and wouldn't have done it yourself, I had full faith in you and you didn't let me down " He clapped his hands twice before joining me on the bench and wrapping my body with the thick blanket. It felt really warm and I could feel my tensed muscles relaxing.
Jika was right afterall and I couldn't stay mad at him, I knew I would definitely have called for his help half way through the field but I had done it on my own and it made me proud.
Since I stepped into this pack, I realised that my skills have improved massively and I was able to handle some tasks on my own. I haven't been passing out like a weakling and to top it all, I've been exercising well.
I could also notice some glow up in my body and I was starting to gain flesh in only a few days of being here. Maybe this was meant to be my happy home.
"Coffee?" He asked and I nodded in approval, why wouldn't I want coffee in this type of weather. Who wouldn't?
He smiled at my response and poured some freshly made coffee into two big mugs and I watched as he added all sorts of other things to it.
I was impressed by his skills until I saw him adding some cubes of sugar into the coffee.
I hated sugar In my coffee but It was already too late for me to talk as he had already added two cubes into my coffee.
"Here you go" he said to me with a smile on his face and I collected the mug by returning the smile. I brought it to my lips hoping it wouldn't taste that bad and surprisingly it turned out to be really good.
We sat under the tent sipping coffee from our mugs for some while until I remembered he promised to give an answer to my question.
"Why were you acting all weird back in my room?" I asked but I seemed to have caught him off guard as he choked on the coffee he was drinking.
"Shit I'm sorry" I immediately apologized but he gave me a sign that he was okay.
I didn't bother to ask him about it again since I wouldn't want him to choke on his coffee for the second time but he was actually ready to answer me this time.
"Well, I haven't told anyone this but only Cole knows about it and he had not told Fiona either."
"I once had a mate and she died just the same way you were about to. It was really strange because I had just found her to be my mate and had planned on marking her the next week in the presence of my father."
"She was sweet and all that, really patient and understood me. There was also an event that day and we both went there but unfortunately I was too drunk to notice that she was being held captive by someone. A man had taken advantage of her drunk state and was running away with her. We noticed she wasn't around and it didn't take long for us to spot the man carrying her on his shoulders as he was running away."
"He knew we had found him and we wouldn't think twice before killing him, so as to honour himself, he killed her right before we could catch up to him and all of that happened with me watching, it happened right in front of my eyes."
"I couldn't forgive myself after that day and that was what led to me treating women like eggs and I would never hurt them because it sickens me of how males take advantages of women just because they're stronger"
"The same thing almost happened to you and I hated myself because I was being so careless that I wasn't keeping an eye on you but I'm glad I was able to teach him a lesson to remember in his next life" He sighed after answering my questions and I now fully understand him. It must have been really hard for him.
"I'm sorry about that"
"You don't need to, it's fine" he responded with a small smile.
"But why do you treat me differently than others?" I asked but the look on his face made me realise I shouldn't have said that because he definitely would know that Fiona had discussed some things with me.
"Ah!, I should have known better when I let Fiona close to you " he chuckled and I was glad he was taking it lightly.
"Well to answer your question, I'm being like this to you because I like you" he said and my body froze. My nightmare had come to pass.