Page 25 of The General’s Captive (The Rift #1)

O nce we got back to the Train Yard it warmed my heart to see how many had survived thanks to Riley’s quick actions. Taylor had fought him but in the end him and Michael’s had taken control of the situation ignoring her command completely.

As for the Train Yard each of the train cars had been turned into makeshift dormitories, which had been split into genders.

The outbuildings had been used to set up the kitchen and communal area but the downside was how few bathrooms there were, which would be tight for the numbers.

Seeing as people were just grateful to be alive at this point nobody complained about taking turns.

As for Riley and I…well, I couldn’t help blush when he carried me to a separate building informing me this would be where we were sleeping.

His gaze searching for any trepidation in my reaction to hearing this but there was none, surprise yes, but he would get no argument from me if he wanted us to share a room.

But it did make me hold back a smirk when he offered,

“I thought seeing as beds were scarce, we could share.” I nodded, hiding my grin from view or whatever wry reply was burning my tongue.

The small office had been emptied of its desk and chair so that all remained was a sofa and now a bed that must have been brought in. I knew that since this place became an option for evacuation, Riley and his team had spent more time down this way.

The guys going through the houses in the surrounding area and loading beds and other provisions into the bigger trucks before bringing them here.

No doubt without Talyor’s knowledge as she would have most likely told them it was a waste of time and resources.

As for Riley, he always liked a backup plan.

Which made me look around the room and wonder…

had this always been intended for us or had this been a last-minute change?

That moment we shared just before the alarms went off felt like so long ago and we hadn’t really been able to discuss it any further.

Did Riley mean what he said or had he just been caught up in the moment?

I couldn’t help but let my insecurities get the better of me asking if Riley had been thinking straight right after the shock of losing his best friend?

Butterflies swarmed my stomach as he helped me to sit on the bed.

He then lowered to his knees and helped me unlace my boots, ones thick with dust from running.

“You know my hands work just fine.” I teased making him wag his brows up at me making me giggle.

I also knew that like this most people wouldn’t have questioned his motives as being anything but genuine as I knew that we were mostly always like this with each other.

Of course, there had been that kiss in the truck and what he had said about my pants, but I couldn’t help but worry about his frame of mind.

So much had happened in the last twenty-four hours for him, I needed to be sure this wasn’t a result of that. A way to deal with all the emotion and getting confused about his feelings because of it, my paranoid brain unable to shut off.

“What is it?” he asked as he watched the questions play out in my gaze. I released a sigh before sitting back on the bed, one that was up against a wall, giving me something to lean back against. Then I patted the space next to me and told him,

“We need to talk.” At this his eyes widened before he commented with a sigh,

“Well, that’s never good.” I gave him a wry look and told him,

“I think we are due a talk about what happened.”

“Babe we just talked for two hours straight in the truck.” I rolled my eyes and pointed out,

“You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t, so why don’t you spell it out for me…I received a hit to the head remember so forgive me the loss of brain cells.” I giggled and teased,

“Not many to start, so you can’t afford to lose more.”

“Ha, ha funny girl. You wanna keep being cute with me or talk?” I released a sigh and came right out and said it,

“You kissed me.” His eyes widened before they grew playful,

“Yeah babe, I was there, not gonna forget the day I finally got my head outta my ass.” Well, that was nice…okay so more than nice it felt great. But I pressed on regardless.

“About that…” I said which was when the penny dropped for him.

“Ah so that’s what this is about.” He said making me frown.

“You wanna know why now and knowing you you’re over analysing the shit out of this.”

“I do not…” I stopped when he gave me a pointed look and admitted,

“Okay fine, but I still need to know as I don’t think I have exactly made it a well-kept secret how I feel about you.

” At this his expression softened, no doubt at the sight of my blush as it wasn’t something I had ever verbalised before.

No doubt why he reached out and brushed a piece of my hair behind my ear in a tender way, hair that had grown a lot in the last three years with the long lengths I usually kept up in a ponytail and back from my face.

The shorter lengths and bangs that had long ago grown out now framed my face thanks to all the fighting.

“You never told me how you felt.” He said making me swallow hard before reminding him,

“Yeah, and we both know what would have happened if I had.” He raised his brows at that prompting me to say more.

“I had been at the base for what…Two weeks before you were making a point.”

“Yeah, and what point was that?” I resisted my usual urge to roll my eyes at this and repeated,

“How fucking stupid it was for people to start a relationship during an apocalypse. Your words remember.” I said making him wince.

“I can see that those words stuck with you.” He commented dryly and I shrugged my shoulders at this.

“I took it for what it was, Riley.”

“Yeah, and what was that?” Was he seriously asking me that question?

“A warning never to take it beyond what we had…a friendship, the boundaries you set.” He tensed at that before releasing a frustrated sigh now rubbing a hand through his floppy blonde hair that seemed to fall in a natural place of sexiness.

“Yeah, I did and now you want to know why, right.” At this I shook my head.

“No, I know why, I have always known why, because you didn’t want to get hurt again and to let someone in during a time like this that you thought was nothing short of foolish.” He let his big shoulders drop before telling me,

“Your right but your also wrong.”

“In what way?” I asked.

“I had blurred the lines of our friendship a long time ago Alex and you’re a fool if you didn’t see it.

I have cared for you so much more than just as a friend and you know it, I think you have always known it.

” he said making me shake my head but he turned to face me, bending a knee to rest on the bed so as he could take hold of my shoulders and turn me to do the same.

“Yes Alex you have. You were just too afraid of being wrong and ruining what we had. I was a fucking coward to ask and thinking I had missed my shot, that we would forever be stuck in this fucking friend’s zone.

I was so scared of losing that piece of you, any piece I could get, that I didn’t want to fuck it all up.

” I swallowed hard at his confession, my heart in my throat as he expressed every mirrored emotion I too had felt.

“So, you pretended?” I asked reminding him of his own words said to me back in my room at the base.

“Pretended to be your friend? No, never… but did I pretend that I didn’t crave more, yes… every damn day.” At this I couldn’t stop my reaction as I threw my arms around him, pulling him close as I whispered,

“Oh Riley.” And he held me back dipping his head to my shoulder as he breathed me in.

“I was an idiot.” He said after pulling back, his eyes tender as he took in my tears, the emotions tripping over as it felt like a dream. I chuckled at that, admitting,

“Yeah, not going to disagree with you there and don’t forget the terrible timing, which I have to ask…”

“You want to know what happened, what made me tell you finally.” I nodded now stroking along his fingers and the back of his scared wrist as it rested on his knee.

“You sure you want to hear this? It was pretty fucking horrendous, Alex.”

“Let me carry the pain with you.” I told him and he closed his eyes as if those words had meant everything to him, then he nodded before explaining,

“The supply run for most part went as smooth as they can go. We found the warehouse, loaded up the supplies and then suddenly darkness started to roll in, it’s like they knew we were coming.

As soon as we started to load back into the Jeeps they were there, we didn’t even realise at first as it was so dark, like night had fucking descended. ” I inhaled a quick breath.

“Like it did the day of the Rift?” I commented making him flinch.

“Yeah, just like that. Then Jacobs pointed out the small yellow dots hovering around us like stationary fireflies and as Rodriguez moved forward the dots disappeared…it was a fucking creature right in front of our faces blinking!” I sucked back another sharp breath as if I was seeing it for myself.

Yellow eyes… I knew what that fucking meant.

“It all happened so fucking quickly, like we all realised what they were at the same time and before we could lift our guns to shoot Rodriguez was gone. His screams pierced the silence and I swear I can still hear the sound of his muscles and bones being ripped apart just as Jacobs lit up the scene with the torch.” A hand flew to my mouth this time, as I uttered a horrified,

“God no.”

“It was fucking brutal! I had never seen anything like it. I would rather have shot blindly into the dark than see what they had done to him in that split second. There was no way we could have saved him, we would have been picking up the pieces for hours.” He said, this voice thick with the emotion as he played it out all over again making me feel bad for pushing.

But then I also knew that he needed to get it off his chest for his own sanity or it would just eat him alive.

A feeling I knew well when finally getting to talk about what happened to my uncle.

As it hadn’t just been his death that had plagued me, it had been knowing that pieces of him had been left in those woods.

That his body would never know a burial or be laid to rest, just like thousands that had lost their lives to the Myths.

“They were werewolves, weren’t they?” I said as it wasn’t hard to guess.

“Yeah, from the description in your book, I would say so.”

“I… I didn’t know they hunted in packs…I am so sorry Riley…if I had known I could have…” At this he took my hand in his and shook his head before saying,

“No, don’t do that Alex, you couldn’t have known and even so there was no warning, nothing to indicate what was coming. This isn’t on you…it’s wasn’t on anyone.” He added making me nod, glad that he didn’t blame himself at least as like he said, there was nothing anyone could have done.

“But I did notice that dark vail you have described in your book before.”

“The darkness?” I questioned.

“Yeah, it just seemed to rise up around them. We sprayed the bastards with bullets but it was like an invisible shield or barrier was protecting them. The bullets were hitting something just not the wolves, and the bullets were just falling to the ground.”

“Christ.” I hissed.

“They nearly snatched Hamilton, but Volkov pushed him away and got a nasty wound to his shoulder. I don’t know what stopped them but they all turned, sniffed the air, and then howled in unison before sprinting away.” My eyes widened at this quick to question why,

“Wait, they just left? Just like that?”

“Yeah, and a fucking good job at that or we all would have ended up like Rodriguez” I shuddered at that, also thankful, as I didn’t know what I would have done if anything had happened to him.

“You never told me how you knew about the werewolves and how you managed to write about one.” He said making me shiver as I thought back to my own terrifying experience and how I came to realise the myths about them were true.

They hated silver.

But then the movies made the idea of making silver bullets easy.

However, when you were stuck in the middle of an apocalypse, not so much.

Not only did you need a shit ton of silver to melt down, but you also needed the equipment to make them in the first place and it wasn’t exactly a common skill taught in schools.

I released a deep sigh before allowing my mind to take me back to one of the most frightening nights of my life before admitting,

“Because I fought one once.”