Xavier (1st bk of Wolfcreek Pack) (Completed)

Chapter 25

I had been doing ok until I reached the fifteenth mile, then everything went downhill from there. My whole body ached from pain, and my heart was pounding hard in my chest. Sweat dripped down my back causing my shirt to stick to me as I still ran the course. And, I was downright exhausted.

My breathing was labored as I kept going, not knowing where the Wolves were at. I had no idea why, but I didn't want Xavier to see me struggling as I was now. I didn't want him to penalize me, even though he had promised me he wouldn't. He understood that I was still healing.

I hadn't fallen yet, but that changed when I was about half a mile from completing my first twenty miles. I could see the place where Derek was standing that signaled the end of my first twenty miles and the start of my second when I tripped and fell to the ground, hard.

An annoyed growl escaped my clench teeth as a wave of anger and annoyance filled my body. I hated feeling so weak, so useless that I couldn't even do a simple run without falling.

Movement in front of me caught my attention, and I looked up to see Derek about to walk towards me, his face masked with worry. I glared at him, stopping from moving as I dared him to continue.

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and pushed myself into a standing position. I took another deep breath and continued on my way, ignoring the pain that I felt and opened my eyes as a wave of determination filled me.

"Ca-" Derek stopped talking when I glared at him as I finished my first lap and was about to start my second. He was halfway in my way, and I had a feeling that he was trying to stop me.

"Get. Out. Of. My. Way."

Derek set his jaw and moved out of my way as he nodded his head. He didn't say a word as I walked past starting on my second and final lap.

***

I shouldn't have done it. I shouldn't have started my second lap because every mile or so I had been falling down and struggling to stand.

I could feel the gaze of the Guardsmen on me as I made my way along the course, but I couldn't see them. I had a feeling that some of them were from my group, cheering me on with each fall and hoping that I would rise and take the next step forward, the next mile before I fell again.

On my tenth mile, I think, I was getting weaker. It was getting harder and harder for me to stand up again, but I did it anyway and continued on my way.

I fell down again on my sixteenth mile. My whole body was shaking and begging me not to continue. I wanted to forfeit, to call it quits, but I couldn't. I couldn't do that not after working so hard to get here.

I grunted when my arms gave way and wouldn't let me stand. I rested my head on the ground but didn't close my eyes in fear of succumbing to the darkness and my exhaustion.

"Awww, look what I found," I heard his voice, causing a shiver of a fear running down my spine. He had found me. "Look at this weakling of a Mutt that I had been put with." He tsked. "Such a shame for such an all-powerful Alpha."

"You aren't real," I said, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath in. I couldn't smell anyone, and I knew I was alone. "You are just a hallucination."

"I am? Are you sure? Why don't you open your eyes and look around? I mean, I am right behind you."

I opened my eyes and turned around to see that he wasn't there. I turned back around and again tried to get up but couldn't.

"Why don't you stay down like the weakling you are? Or better yet, call out to the Guardsmen? They won't come to your aid. Your precious Commander will not let them."

I stayed silent, my heart dropping to the pit of my stomach. I knew that he was right. I that the wouldn-

I growled and dug my claws into the ground, breaking me from those thoughts. I lowered my head to the ground and felt the coldness of the Earth, cooling down my overheated body. "You're lying," I said, even though there was a trace of hesitance in my voice. "They'll come."

He chuckled, and that chuckle sent a shiver down my spine because I knew that I was going to get punished for calling him a liar and calling him out. "I am?" he asked. "Why should they come for you?" he asked. "You are weak. You are worthless. You do not deserve the position that you have been given. Y-"

Something clicked in me at that minute as he battered me with those sentences, those lies, that he had told me every day as he beat me into submission.

Those sentences were lies. They were not the truth but a factor that he used to control me to make me seem weak to everyone, including myself.

"Shut up," I said, interrupting him.

"What?"

"I said: Shut. Up," I replied. I lifted my head from the ground and imagined my mate standing in front of me.

I could see him crouching in front of me with the tip of a knife covered in blood, my blood. His tennis shoes were stained with my blood with a pool of it underneath him. Slowly, I moved my gaze up, picture those skinny blue jeans that he wore to the rolled up plaid shirt he wore to show off his "muscled" arms.

Finally, I lifted my gaze until I was looking straight into the face of the monster that I called my mate.

His pink lips that I had so badly wanted to kiss were pulled back into a sneer of disgust as I looked at him. His dark brown eyes were filled with disgust and hatred, no trace of love in them. His messy, dark blonde hair that I used to love to run fingers through when we first started dating sat on his head and didn't look attractive to me any longer.

"What did you say?" he asked, his voice cold and hard. "I would choose your words carefully, Cassandra Marie. We don't want a repeat of last night do we?" He held the knife higher, the blade glinting in the morning light. "You don't want to join your parents, do you?"

I set my jaw, reminding myself that he was a hallucination, a figment of my imagination as my stomach clenched with dread. He couldn't hurt me. "I said, shut up. Do I have to say it in a different language to get you to be quiet?"

Camen stayed silent and waited for me to continue.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "I deserve the position that I was given," I said. "I deserved it then, and I deserve it now. I am not worthless. My group cares about me. They love as their own." I dug my fingers into the ground. "And, I am not dead, Camen. I would be if I were weak. And, guess what?"

"What?"

I opened my eyes, a new wave of energy and determination filling my body. "I am not weak." I pushed myself up onto my legs and imagined Camen standing up as well.

We stood at the same height, both of us standing at 5'9. We had never been close in rank, him being the bastard son of an Alpha and an Omega and growing up being an Omega as well with me being the offspring of two pure Alphas.

That was why he had started to beat me because he hated that a girl was capable of beating his ass and was stronger than him. He used my emotions, my dream of having a little family, and the mate bond for beating me into being submissive to him and to any other male that wanted to beat me. He called me his pet, his toy and nothing else, not even calling me his mate. He never told me that he loved me, and I had no idea if he was capable of loving someone and not just sleeping around.

"You have no control over me anymore, Camen. I won't allow it. I will train so Goddamn hard that when you see me next, you will be the one quaking with fear. You will be one begging for mercy, begging for a saving grace. Not me."

He stayed silent.

I sneered and narrowed my eyes at him as I started to walk past him. "Oh, and one more thing." I turned around and flicked him off. "You can kiss my fucking ass, Bitch, because I do not need you anymore."

And with that, I turned around and ran away, determined to run the rest of the way there.

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A/N: Heck ya! Go girl power!