My Cursed Alpha

Chapter 21

I fell to my butt the millionth time.

"Gee, you really need to work out the minute we get back," Marshmallow said, as if he was helping.

"Wow, very helpful Marsho," I said, the sarcasm was evident.

"Marsho? I liked Marshies better," he whined.

"Plus if you keep on giving me nicknames, why not give Caine over there one. Maybe Cay cay, Cai, sugar cane?"

I nearly choked on my spit at the last suggestion.

His eyebrows went up and down.

"I would totally say I totally ship it if we weren't stuck in a hole. Not to mention a hole created by an ugly monster created by me. Hear that? An ugly monster created by none other than the, cutest, most adorable fox in the whole wide universe!"

I rolled my eyes.

"It would totally help if you actually help me get up the rope instead of blabbing about nonsense," I said, crossing my arms across my chest.

"I am helping, I'm helping you keep the rope steady while you keep wailing about your epic fails."

I gave him a look.

"How about actually teaching me how to climb? I can't go farther than this."

I stared at the ground. I was barely a few inches above it.

"Right, okay. I'm really bad at teaching so bare with me."

"Just get on with it," I muttered.

"I think you're not in the position to demand things from me, but, okay," he held a hand out for me to get up.

I gripped the rope with both my hands and waited for his instructions.

"So squeeze the rope in between your legs then reach for a higher grip and pull yourself up," he instructed, changing my grip on the rope and carrying me to the highest part he could lift me to.

I reached for the highest grip I could but I lost my balance and almost fell, but Marshmallow caught me and carried me back up.

Perks of having a strong pet.

"Don't go too high if you can't go higher, when you're going up, loosen your grip a little before going higher, then reach for a higher grip, I think."

I think?

I gripped the rope and started climbing a little bit higher. My legs worked in sync with my hands, gripping and loosening just at the right time. But, of course, I fell a lot of times before I got the hang of it, which is why my clothes are very muddy.

"Almost-," Marshmallow said as I neared the surface.

"How do I get up to the ground?" 

Marshmallow face-palmed.

"Um, I don't know, ask him to help you get up?" He pointed at Caine's face. "You're almost at the top, he can reach you. Just make sure you don't fall because I'm not going to coach you all over again, you're the worst student ever."

I reached the end of the rope, both my legs pressed on the soil.

"Umm, a little help here?" I called out to Caine.

I heard him sigh.

I felt his hands carry me up to the surface with ease.

"Where did they go?" I asked, looking around for the red-eyed beasts.

"Gone, they went back in the tomb or wherever they are after they left us in the pit," Caine grunted. "Marshmallow, you better start climbing or we'll leave you here."

"What?" I heard him screech. "I helped her get up and it took more than an hour and you didn't complain, and me?! I haven't even started climbing-"

"Exactly, so start climbing."

"Jeez, so moody," I heard Marshmallow mutter under his breath.

I wouldn't have heard it if it wasn't for my wonderful enhanced hearing.

Unlike me, it only took Marshmallow around 10 minutes or so, which, I think, was pretty fast or maybe normal to people who are used to climbing ropes.

"So slow," Caine said as Marshmallow finally pushed himself up to the ground.

"You took more than two hours in figuring out how to get up to the surface," Marshmallow shot back.

"I got up without a rope, you're lucky I didn't leave you here, you're the cause of this."

"I came here with him willingly," I piped up, defending Marshmallow.

I was, most probably, the cause of this.

"He allowed you to come with him, it's his fault for not knowing better," Caine snarled.

"I was trying to help?" Marshmallow said, unsure.

"Trying to help her get killed, right."

"He was trying to cure your curse," I said calmly, even though my wolf was literally kicking me mentally because of going against our mate.

"I don't need his help, I'm perfectly capable of curing myself."

"Right, you don't even know who cursed you-," Marshmallow put a hand to his mouth but the words already slipped.

Slowly, Caine turned around.

"What do you mean?"

I mouthed "don't" to Marshmallow, but, unfortunately, he took it as an opportunity to 'admit his mistakes' to Caine. Which I think is a really, really, bad idea.

"Hecate could never have cursed your dad and his sons and their future generations because she was way too weak for that, she just said the words of the curse to take the blame. And who would she ever take the blame for...?"

He was helping Caine connect the dots, and I don't think it will end up well.

"Who would she take the blame for?"

"Of course, you wouldn't know she had a pet..."

Where was he going with this?

This is going to get him killed, he should stop. 

My eyes were silently begging him to not continue, he held eye contact with me for about a second then looked away.

"She had a pet?" Caine asked. "She didn't really have a pet, she had a spirit animal, a fox."

He knew?

Marshmallow didn't show it on his face, but he was surprised. I know he thought that Caine didn't know anything about Hecate having a spirit animal or a pet, but I guess he did.

"At least your not as clueless as I thought you were," Marshmallow said, adding more oil to the fire.

"You're clearly having a death wish, if you wanted to be killed you could've just asked."

"I think I'll live. You won't kill me anyway unless you wanna live alone for the rest of your life," he snickered.

"Can we just go back home? I mean, you already have the ingredients so-," I started, but was interrupted by my most 'adorable and cute' pet.

"The ingredients aren't complete, some were taken."