CHAPTER 35. TRAITOR
RYDER
Body thuds, painful groans, and the stench of sweaty bodies filled the gym. It's already been days since we returned to the pack. With the flood reaching the borders, everyone was on the edge, frustrated and tense.
Father was having it worse. The old man was losing his mind and sleep. Scared to his wits at the fate of the people if the flood breaks into our pack.
He was taking his frustration out on the palace councils, urging them to find a solution to our predicament.
My men and I have been scoping the border, doing as much as we can to keep the flood off, even just for a short time, just until we figure out what our next plan would be.
Rackline already has clogged waters and the soil there squelches under feet. That fact left me anguished and greatly unsettled. I haven't slept in days, all I did was stake out in Rackline, making sure the waters haven't broken out from the soil.
This wasn't a good time to accost Hara so I just watched her from a distance. She stays indoors almost all day and just steps out the few times she needs to grab something.
This was a difficult time for everyone, and we needed to let off the heat, or we'll explode from pent-up frustration.
Seated next to the speed bag sections, I watched a speed bag dangling in the air from Darius' massive punches. Dressed in tight shorts and a hairband, with hand wraps, he was all sweaty and muscle-bulging.
He was supposed to be training the rookie standing next to him, but the dude has been carried away and just aimed at ruining the bag instead.
The rookie watched him with a thread of confusion mixed with a greater dose of fear. With every punch Darius delivered to the speed bag, the rookie gasped. Finally, Darius gave it a rest. The rookie looked like he wanted to bolt out the window when Darius turned to him.
“Your turn,“ Darius grinned and patted his shoulder. The rookie nodded frantically and stood at the spot Darius was.
Darius gave him a quick brief on how to go about the punches and he began giving the speed bag series of weak punches.
I hated watching the rookies. Makes me wanna call them out for being so weak. But then again, they're just beginners. I should try to understand that, right? But it just doesn't sink in like that.
I was itchy to go knock the wind out of him when he missed a punch and collided with the speed bag instead. Such a pussy!
“Hey,“ Darius said, as he came to stand next to me, grabbing a bottle of water from one of the palace Omegas.
“He's awful,“ I grunted.
He gulped down the water and gave a short laugh. “Nah, he's doing just fine. Give him time,“
“Yeah, right,“ I puffed, not wanting to engage more in the argument. Unlike me, Darius had the patience for the rookies. Probably because he's been a warlord for years and trained quite a number of them.
“You're not gonna take a shot at any?“ Darius asked, gesturing at the workout tools.
“Nah, I'll pass.“
In just yoga pants and a sleeveless shirt, I wasn't doing any of the workouts. Wasn't in the mood. A thousand thoughts were running through my mind and they had my spirit low. Watching them was refreshing enough. But I had no urge to get into the action.
The approaching light steps attracted our gaze and mine widened at the sight of Jason. He was dressed in tight shorts. With no shirts on, his tattoos were the only thing clothing on the upper side of his body. He had his shoes on and was taking sips from his bottle of water and holding a towel in the other hand. He was yet to look our way.
“Haven't seen him around much,“ Darius snorted. “Is everything cool between you two?“
“Why do you ask?“
“Well, because he hasn't been hanging around you like he used to. Is he taking a break from his duties?“
Darius' questions went unanswered. Whatever going on between Jason and me was just between the both of us, no third party.
Ever since I returned, I limited his schedules and made him scarce around me. He didn't object, guess he needed the space too. We were going through an unexplainable phase and needed a good time apart from each other. More importantly, I stopped him from being my spy, leaving him with no reason to get any closer to Hara.
I never got to ask him about the quote or why he was at Hara's place so early that day, why Hara had picked up his call, or why it feels like he had done something more than just being my spy. I was dying to confront him, dying to ask him the torturous questions I was harboring. But I was scared I might not be able to fight the urge to tap into his mind. Scared of what I'll find out. Scared of what I was gonna do to him when he admitted it.
He handed his stuff over to a random rookie and joined the others sparring in the boxing ring. He wore padded gloves, not bothering with the other gear-ups.
He was pretty good at spars, always having the upper hand over the warlords, except Darius, of course.
Watching him was suffocating so I looked away instead. My gaze caught the rookie he had handed his stuff over. He was whispering to his partner, something about Jason having a call and was unsure if he should go give it to him or wait till he leaves the boxing ring.
“Go get me Jason's phone,“ I said to Darius, “He's having a call. It could be Tiffany, might be something important,“
“Sure,“ Darius obliged and went to get the phone. Returning to where I was, he was staring intently at Jason's phone screen.
“What is it?“ I was tense.
“Does Jason have a girlfriend?“
“None that I know of. Why?“
“Then it's a crush. Whoa!“ Darius gasped amusedly, shaking his head. “She's beautiful, looks like a keeper to me,“
“Let me see that,“ I demanded glacially. He flung the phone at me and I caught it in the air. My breath hitched as I looked at the screen and it was Hara's picture staring back at me. Jason had used her picture as wallpaper. This just confirmed it. Jason was a fucking traitor!
Seeing red, I flung the phone back to Darius. I stood up from the chair with so much force that it crashed to the floor.
The speed at which I got into the boxing ring was more of Red's than mine. I pounced on Jason, pinning him on the floor.
“Ryder, what the fuck…!“
I silenced him with a hard punch to his face. My fangs were bared and I was ready to shred him into pieces.
Lost in my rage and at the damage I was doing to him, I hadn't seen Darius coming. Not until he knocked me off Jason's body and hurled me out of the boxing ring.
It all happened in a flash. I'd hit the bare floor hard and the loud gasps filled the gym. It was the first time Darius was manhandling me. He never could, but right now, he'd done it so easily because I was blinded by my rage and jealousy.
“Ryder, are you alright?“ his voice echoed, but I shut them out, letting the dizziness take over instead.