Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 163: Err On the Side Of Caution

Chapter 163: Err On the Side Of Caution

I had three options: fight, flight, or freeze.

I couldn’t fight my way out of a paper bag right now... not like I ever could....

My mind was screaming flight. It wanted me to get off Rip and bolt out the door and away from everyone and everything. I wanted to find a hole in the ground and bury myself in there until I could think. No matter how many decades that might take

But instead, my body chose to freeze, and I was stuck on Rip, completely unable to move as fear completely took over.

I expected Alpha to be like Mike Myers or Fredy Kruger and appear when I least expected it, ready to kill me. I could practically feel him watching me from the shadows, waiting patiently until I let my guard down long enough for him to slit my throat.

The sensation was so strong I shivered in terror and curled even more into Rip, my head in his chest. I would have to remember that... I could never let my guard down.

I had no doubt that he would kill me the second I did.

"The Camp is gone. There are no Reavers left, let alone someone strong enough to call the hunt," murmured Rip as he tightened his hold around me. It was borderline painful, but not so much that it actually hurt. Instead, it helped settle my body and stopped my thoughts from swirling out of control.

"Between you and Alpha, who would win?" I asked, desperately needing to know the answer. I mean, I understood that Rip was more powerful than Alpha, but it was never something that anyone talked about, let alone confirmed.

And sometimes, hearing was just as important as knowing.

"Does it matter?" he asked, and I could feel him trying to shift me so that he could see my face, but I refused to move.

"It wouldn’t be a contest, honestly. Alpha had no power over me at all. Period. He was not my Alpha. In a fight, I would have destroyed him, and he knew that."

This time, he managed to get a finger under my chin and gently raised my face so I could look into his eyes. "Alpha is dead. You are free," he said slowly and gently as if he was trying to drive the words into my head. But I just couldn’t...

"Then where is his head?" I asked, staring back at him. When the days got really bad, and I didn’t think I was going to live another day, Rip had promised me that he would give me Alpha’s head on a silver platter.

We both knew I wouldn’t ask for it, but he offered it. He assured me that when he killed Alpha, I would have his head.

Rip’s eyes went wide, and a look of panic flashed over his face for an instant before he calmed himself down... but it was enough. "He burned to death. I watched it happen," he said, dropping my head and wrapping both arms around me.

Normally, I would feel safe and secure in his arms, but those feelings didn’t come this time. Instead, it was like a bucket of ice water hit me in the face, making me cold down to my bones.

There was no proof that Alpha was dead other than Rip’s word that he was burned to death, but how do we know it was actually Alpha?

"Trust me, Little Bird, Alpha is dead. Li Dai Lu and her men took care of him."

"How would they know what he looked like?" I asked. Part of me knew that I was being paranoid. I was a victim who had been just set free; it was expected that I was jumping at shadows. Freedom took a while to get used to.

But there was a voice in the back of my mind that knew if they were wrong, and Alpha was still alive, then he was coming for me.

I let out a long sigh, not knowing what voice to listen to.

Just because you aren’t paranoid doesn’t mean that someone wasn’t out to get you.

I used to laugh at that statement, but now I could see the truth in it, and that made me sad.

"Did you talk to him before he was killed?" I asked, looking back up at Rip. Maybe if I just understood what was going on, I would feel better.

"No, Li Dai Lu’s man destroyed his tongue," said Rip slowly, his eyes flashing for a second before he looked back down at me.

Great, now, instead of feeling better, I was just spreading my paranoia.

We both knew that Alpha was a slippery bastard, and it wouldn’t come as a surprise if he had more than one foxhole to hide in until things blew over.

I wanted to ask if the body that was burned at least looked like Alpha, but he could have found someone to be his body double... it wouldn’t be that hard.

There were hundreds of Reavers in the Camp that most people never saw; to say that there was one that could pass for Alpha was not that big of a stretch.

Not to mention the changes he had undergone in the last little while. New clothes, new haircut, new glasses... new temperament.

I shook my head, trying to get the thoughts out of my head. No. Rip told me that Alpha was dead. Burned to death.

He was right.

There was no way that someone who had only seen him once could mistake him for anyone else.

They killed the right guy.

I was free. I needed to move on.

----

Rip’s head was spinning, and he was spiraling out of control. He wanted to storm out of this room and Rip Li Dai Lu’s men apart, but he knew he couldn’t. He would need to bite his tongue and clear his thoughts.

One of them was a spirit user, and the last thing Rip needed was someone going through his head.

Or at least someone who was not his Little Bird.

But her words made sense.

Sure, she could be making mountains out of molehills, but in this case, he couldn’t say with even 80% certainty that she was wrong.

He had no way to confirm that the one killed was the Alpha of Camp Hell. And until he could, it was better to err on the side of caution.