Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 133: Warm Enough?

Chapter 133: Warm Enough?

"You know, some women would kill to be this skinny," I joked. I had never really been overly overweight, but I definitely liked my sweets enough that I used to have curves in all the right places. Now I would give my left arm just to get my boobs back.

And yes, that was what hit me most when I lost all the fat and muscle I had... so sue me.

Rip looked down at me for a second, and I could see the smirk on his face. "I will find a way to make this better for you... to give you more food. I am one of those guys that likes some cushion for the pushin’, if you know what I mean."

I rolled my eyes and let out a small chuckle. Leave it up to a guy to still think about sex at a time like this. "You get me back to how I was before Camp Hell, and you can have all the ’pushin’ you want."

I wanted to cringe as soon as those words came out of my mouth. Okay, so my comeback could be better. I wasn’t used to flirting with people, but from the heated gaze that Rip had given me, I didn’t do too badly.

"I am going to hold you to that."

-----

Winter that year was one of the most brutal ones that I had ever experienced.

Alpha hadn’t truly taken Rip’s words to heart and, as a result, lost a few women and even a few fighters due to the cold.

Rip was on a rampage for the first week that the snow started falling. He would bring me so many blankets that they wouldn’t all fit in my cage, so he built me a nest of sorts.

Two blankets went under me to protect me from the frozen metal bars while I huddled under two more. While I was warm-er, I had so many blankets around me that my entire cage was full from bottom to top. Then Rip took a few of the other blankets and draped those over top of the bars, trying to keep the wind out.

It wasn’t the warmest thing I had ever been in, a tarp of some kind would have done a lot better at keeping the dampness of the snow from seeping through the blankets as well as stopping the wind, but at least I wasn’t one of the ones to die from the cold.

Have you ever been in a rescue center for animals? Seen all the cages placed one on top of the other?

When people started dying, and Alpha realized that he would have to get new fighters and whores for his business to continue, he decided to put all of the women in one of the cabins.

He stacked the cages one on top of the other until there was only a tiny path for the girls to walk when they were taken out.

But oh my god... the smell.

If you were one of the unfortunate women at the bottom of the pile, everything fell on you... and I mean everything.

But I was lucky.

----

"Are you sure you are warm enough?" he asked for what seemed to be the hundredth time.

"Yes," I laughed as he tucked yet another blanket around me in so tight I couldn’t even move.

"And you’re sure?"

"Positive," I replied, the smile never leaving my face.

Rip had told the Alpha in no uncertain terms that I was not going to be living with the rest of the women in that cabin and ignored the Reaver when he protested.

Instead, my monster carried me, cage and all, into his cabin and placed my prison in the corner of the room beside a wooden fireplace.

I still remember the pain as the warmth of the room pierced through my freezing body. Fuck, it hurt... but I was finally warm.

However, Rip wasn’t content with that. Taking out my key, he unlocked the cage and gently carried me over to his bed, where he proceeded to tuck me under every blanket he could get his hands on.

Then he lit a fire in the fireplace.

"And you are sure you are warm?" he asked, looking down at me, his eyes narrowed as he took in the sight in front of him.

"Snug as a bug in a rug," I assured him, the warmth pulling out a yawn from inside of me. I was stretched out, covered in blankets, and all my body wanted to do was sleep.

"All right. You stay here, and I’ll be back as soon as I can with food. The fights have been suspended until the roof of the arena has been completed. The VIPs bitched that it was too cold for them to want to watch people kill each other for money," grumbled Rip as he walked toward the door.

"I’m going to lock everything up behind me. No one should get in, but if they do..."

I nodded my head in understanding. If they got in, I would have to defend myself to the best of my ability until he got back and could rip their heads off.

"Be right back," he repeated for the hundredth time.

"I’m not going anywhere," I laughed. All you could see from the bed was my head, so I really wasn’t going anywhere.

----

I must have drifted off to sleep because the next thing I remembered was the sound of something scraping outside of the door to Rip’s cabin.

Thinking that it was nothing more than him returning, I closed my eyes and drifted back off.

That was my first mistake.

The second time I woke up, it was from a hand being clamped over my nose and mouth.

"Ah... Rip’s little Birdy..." sneered the Reaver as he towered over me.

I could feel my heart pounding in my chest as I struggled to breathe. I tried to open my mouth to bite down on the hand, but he had a finger wrapped around my chin, preventing me from opening my mouth.

"He thinks he is so smart... so perfect. But did he really think everyone is as stupid as Alpha is? I could see the way he looked at you, the way he held you. He is only here because you are... and I want him gone."

Oh God... he was going to kill me.