The yellow flag was just visible through the open-plan base layout, flapping over the other side of the platform in the gentle breeze. Will almost had it, was inches from snatching it up for victory, when from seemingly out of nowhere, Luke barrelled into the back of him, hitting his vest button and sending them both toppling over the edge.
“Bollocks!” Daryl watched in dismay as Will’s vest went red and Luke’s didn’t. But then when neither of them immediately got up, he snapped out of it and hurried over, Jason and Nathan hot on his heels.
Crouching down between them, he looked from one to the other. “You guys okay? Anything broken?”
Will pushed himself to a sitting position, grimacing as he glanced down at his ankle. “Not sure it’s supposed to look like that,” he gritted out. “So I’m gonna go with yes.” He glanced over at Luke.
“For fuck’s sake, Luke. Did you have to be so enthusiastic?”
Luke rubbed gingerly at his wrist and gave Will a sheepish smile. “Sorry. I got a little carried away.”
“That broken, too?” Daryl pointed to Luke’s wrist.
“Don’t think so.” He twisted it back and forth, grunting at the pain but not looking as white as Will had gone. “Bad sprain maybe. It’s already feeling better.” He shot Will another glance, gaze sliding down to his ankle. “I’m really sorry, Will.”
Will waved him off with a pained laugh. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll heal.” He met Daryl’s gaze and gestured to his foot. “Can you?”
“Yeah.” Daryl had done his fair share of realigning bones. The pack wars had taught him many things he’d never wanted to learn. “After three.” He did it on two, Will’s yell of pain echoing through the forest. “Stay there while it knits back together.”
He left Nathan with the two of them and stood to go see what had happened with the others.
When they spotted Rachel and Jenn climbing down the rope ladders, both with red vests but Jenn triumphantly waving the yellow flag, his heart dropped into his stomach.
Well, fuck.
CHAPTER SIX
The walk back to the lodge was slow going with Will’s ankle still healing, but despite Rachel’s team failing to get Jenn’s flag, spirits were high within both teams. Even Will hobbled along, supported by Luke and Nathan, with a smile on his face.
Jason also noted, with only a tiny amount of surprise, that they hadn’t automatically reverted to their own units as soon as the task was over. Not that he was cynical, but he hadn’t expected that after only one day. They weren’t all mingling like old friends or anything—Rob, Kevin, and Tom were all walking together—but the air of hostility present yesterday had almost disappeared.
Tasha and Kara were ribbing Simon about something, making him laugh, and Clive had slotted in between Rufus and Neal, the three of them deep in discussion about cats of all things.
Jason huffed out a laugh and shook his head.
It was a start.
Daryl had joined him in bringing up the rear of the group. He glanced over, a question in his eyes. “What’s tickling you?” They’d not mentioned the blindfold thing again, but Jason felt the weight of it nonetheless.
He gestured at those in front. “Not what I was expecting, I guess.”
Shrugging, Daryl let out a sigh. “Yeah.” He tipped his head in the direction of Nathan and then Rob, then lowered his voice to a near whisper. “That’s gonna take a lot longer, though.”
“Hmm.”
They’d both spoken to Rachel about Rob’s earlier action, or inaction, he should say. She and Jenn would talk to him later, but Jason wondered if it would do any good. Could Rob get past his hatred of Nathan—and Cam, he reminded himself—to make this work?
With neither him or Daryl on dinner duty, they grabbed a few snacks from the kitchen and headed up to their rooms. By unspoken agreement, they’d gone there instead of the living area. All earlier joking aside, Jason wanted to go through what exactly they’d be doing later, and he hoped Daryl was on board. He didn’t fancy pissing him off by doing something he wasn’t expecting.
As soon as they were in with the door locked, he sat on his bed and retrieved the note from earlier, rereading it aloud.
“‘For the next two nights at dinner, you will take turns to be blindfolded. The one with sight will escort the other to dinner, choose dinner, and help the other to eat. Then escort them back to the room.
Failure to complete this task will result in the two of you being solely responsible for the preparing of all meals for the remainder of your stay.’” Jason hummed, then met Daryl’s gaze. “How will they know?” He raised the piece of paper. “If we do or don’t do this. How will Alpha Cornell know?”
Daryl frowned. “Maybe they plan on paying us a visit.” He glanced around their room, scowl in place, and Jason realised what he was looking for.
“I don’t think the alpha council would place hidden cameras in our rooms. Do you?”
