Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 340: Rip Vs Alpha

Chapter 340: Rip Vs Alpha

*Trigger warnings: Death, fighting*

I opened my mouth to say something... to show my conviction that I would always choose death to being under the Alpha’s thumb. But I couldn’t get a single word out.

The idea of being eaten after death terrified me so much more than being his prisoner. I had done that before; I knew I could survive.

But I survived because of Rip.

Closing my mouth, I swallowed my words, not wanting to say anything I couldn’t take back.

Alpha looked up, smirking at me. However, before he could come up with a comeback, the door to the massive training room burst open.

I couldn’t make out the figure, the backlight of the setting sun making his body nothing more than a shadow, but in my bones, I knew who it was.

"Alpha," hissed the man, hissed my mountain.

"Rip," chuckled Alpha, no longer showing the customary fear toward the other Reaver that he had had before. "I thought you’d be here much faster. You never used to let her out of your sight. I guess even you have grown tired of her."

Rip entered the room, slamming the door behind him. "Never," replied Rip. "I was trying to learn how to share, so thank you for showing me that that was not possible."

I cringed for a moment, worried if he left Bai Long Qiang alive after returning without me. In all honesty, I understood where the man was coming from. Grief was best done when you were alone to lick your wounds.

If he had shown up right after I had found out my family had died, I would have kicked him out of the room, too. But just because I didn’t blame him didn’t mean that the guys wouldn’t.

"My pleasure," nodded the Alpha as he took a few more steps towards Rip. "You know, I used to be scared of you... well,... as scared as I could be. But now I understand why you were the way you were. The Healer healed you and made you more powerful than I was because of it. However, I am now healed, too. I wonder what a fight between us would look like..."

"It won’t be a fight," growled Rip, and I could hear the struggles he was having with himself. Everything inside of me wanted to be there in his arms, topping him up and letting him know that I was okay, but I couldn’t do that.

So I waited for him to save me instead.

But first...

"I love you," I shouted out to him, wanting him to know how I was feeling. It wasn’t a goodbye or anything like that. Rip was invincible. There was no way he was going to lose to the other Reaver.

"Love you, too," replied Rip as the Alpha launched himself at Rip.

The Alpha was the first one to strike, trying to land a punch to Rip’s face. However, Rip quickly dodged it and brought up his right hand to grip the Alpha’s arm.

Spinning around, Rip threw his elbow into the other Reaver’s head, the strike hard enough to cause Alpha to go off balance. Stumbling back a few steps, Alpha shook his head.

"Nice, I didn’t honestly think that you would have landed a hit. Should we step this up a bit?"

"If you think you can handle it, there could be a much easier death waiting for you if you just gave in now to your fate," smirked Rip as he stood up. He adjusted his black long-sleeve shirt and cracked his neck from side to side. "It’s been a while since I last let myself have fun."

"Ah, I suppose without the fights, you’ve had to play the good, loyal dog. Did she get you to come to heel? I’ve learned that eating a healer gives you all sorts of things. Is that what you did? Did you eat her?"

Alpha continued forward until he was just on the other side of my ring of puke. "Did she like it so much that she screamed? That’s what I want, you know. What I was denied before. I want to hear her scream."

As soon as those words came out of Alpha’s mouth, they hit their target. Rip raced toward the other man, his fist back as if to strike, but Alpha got there first. His right hand drove into Rip’s face, sending my man flying under me and smacking against the wall almost 20 feet away.

I knew the wall was padded; I could see it, but that didn’t stop Rip from making a dent in it with the force of that blow.

"Rip!" I screamed, grasping the bars beneath me. It was the only way to see what was going on without moving any more than necessary.

Rip cleared his throat as he struggled to come to his feet. "I’m fine," he assured me, rubbing his face that I could already see turning purple.

But just as the bruise formed, his internal healing took over, and his face returned to normal.

"For now," agreed the Alpha with a nod of his head. "But I really want to enjoy this. I spent years having to tiptoe around you. Fuck me if I am ever doing that again."

"Oh, I can assure you, you will be fucked," smirked Rip as he wiped the bottom of his lip. "And not the enjoyable way either."

"You know, for a Reaver that was just went into a wall, you are certainly cocky," grumbled Alpha as he put one of his hands into his pants pocket.

"It doesn’t matter who gets hits first, only who is still standing at the end," Rip replied, cracking his knuckles.

"I couldn’t agree more," nodded the Alpha. Suddenly, so fast that I could barely see his movement, Alpha was standing in front of Rip, his hands around both sides of his face as he quickly snapped my mountain’s neck.

I lay there, frozen for a moment, my breath caught in my throat.

But zombies could heal from a broken neck; I was sure that Rip could, too... right?

Alpha continued his motion until he had twisted so hard that Rip’s head separated from his body.