Chapter 4

"How were the dishes last night?" Lana whispered to me as I shoved a piece of toast into my mouth.

I ignored her… but barely. My sleepless night had put me into one hell of a mood and I wasn't up to putting up with her bullshit today. 

Ricky eyed me from across the dining hall where he was shoveling food onto a plate before he dropped into the chair next to me. 

"Spill." He said via mind-link, not paying me any attention externally.

"Didn't sleep well and that bitch Lana keeps pushing my buttons." I reply,  reaching for his coffee cup and taking a sip.

"Yuck! What is this?" I exclaim, barely able to swallow the bitter swill I'd just sipped.

Ricky grins at me,  looking more like a doofus than ever. 

"Green tea." He answers proudly. "The guys and I were discussing the benefits of clean eating last night as a way to improve performance. I'm giving it a shot." 

"You can keep that rubbish, thank you. I'm off to get a coffee refill to get me through this day. Will catch up with you on the training grounds." I stand, ruffling his already messy hair as I head back to the coffee pot.

After downing my second cup of coffee,  I head back to the cabin to sort myself out for training before catching up with the rest of my girls on the grounds. Amy was going through a series of yoga poses as a warm-up so I joined in, trying not to fall asleep on my feet. 

Finally the caffeine seemed to kick in as Jaydon arrived and sent us for our morning jog around the lake. I refused to be last again so made a wide berth around Lana, overtaking some of the guys as we thunder towards the finish. 

"Much better, Natalia!" Jaydon praises as I come in fifth. "Today we're going to do some basic combat in our human form then again in our wolf form. This is just for me to measure where you're at with regard to defense and offense." 

Jaydon loops a rope into a wide circle, getting us to crowd around it. 

"The aim is to get your opponent out of the circle. Matt and Daniel, you're first." 

We all sit down on the ground a few feet away from the rope,  a precautionary measure I was glad for when Matt picked up Daniel and hurled him out of the circle and into the dirt. We all applauded and cheered as the next two entered the circle. Again and again, opponents bit the dust. 

"Lana and Natalia. In." Jaydon shouted from his vantage point. 

It took all I had within me not to laugh at this turn of events as I strode into the ring. 

Immediately Lana charged, hoping to catch me unaware. I rolled neatly out of her way,  forcing her to skid to stop herself from running out of the arena. Rookie mistake. She turns and charges me again… clearly her only move. I side step her,  grabbing onto her arm and yanking it down,  throwing her body into a less than graceful summersault. She lands hard, knocking the wind out of her before she slowly gets up and charges at me again.  I bend down low and throw her over my body and out of the ring with a thud.

"Not bad for a rogue, huh?" I sneer down at her softly as I pass. 

Through the cheers I hear Jaydon say "Good defensive Natalia. I look forward to seeing your offensive soon. Lana, we'll have to work with you." 

The scent of my mate finds me and I'm immediately drawn to the figure leaning against a tree in the distance.

Good thing you only sensed him now,  huh babe? Ember taunts. 

I ignore him and join my friends, watching the rest of the fights until we were told to go for lunch.

"Guess that showed her." Ricky whispers loudly as he passes me, making a bee-line for the food. 

I find myself not being hungry so merely pick at my lunch until we're called back to the training grounds. 

"Ok everyone. Now it's your wolves turn. Feel free to shift and we'll begin." 

Immediately the guys start stripping and I feel a hot blush spread across my face. Megan grabs my hand and we make our way to a corpse of trees where we doff and fold our clothes before shifting. 

Oh yeah, baby! Ember celebrates as my bones break and reform, auburn hair sprouting all over my body as she takes control.

"Let's go and shine." Megan's dark brown wolf pads past me and I rush to join her.  

Ricky's white wolf, Storm, heads to me and rubs his muzzle affectionately against my neck in greeting. It's been a while since I've seen him. 

I smell Liam somewhere,  but focus my attention on the big black wolf in the centre of the arena - Jaydon.

"Alright runts!" He mind-links us.  "The objective is to pin your opponent. Megan and Ashley,  you're first." 

We watch as the girls battle it out,  their skills basically even. Eventually Ashley tricks Megan and throws herself on top of her,  pinning her down. A few more rounds go by with Jaydon adding pointers here and there. 

"Eric and Natalia." He finally calls. 

I can hear a grumble of surprise among the recruits as we enter. This is nothing we haven't done a million times under our Grampa's tutorage. We know each other's moves like our own and eventually Jaydon barks a halt.

"I guess we're not going to have a winner between you two." He laughs before calling in the next opponents.

Ricky sits next to me as we watch the final fights.  

"Ok runts. We're done for today." Jaydon announces.

Megan and I go back to our trees to shift back and dress. I know the second she is back in human form.

"You guys were awesome! You have to teach me some of those moves!" She exclaims, her voice slightly muffled as she pulls on her shirt.

I promise her I would and we walk back to the cabin together. 

"Arg! I've got a million messages from my mom, I'd better call her to tell her I'm still alive." Megan jokes as she juggles her cellphone from one hand to the other. 

I take that as my escape so tell her I'm going to chat to Ricky. As soon as I exit the cabin I feel as if there is an invisible thread pulling me toward the thick woodlands to the right of our cabin. Without a second thought,  my feet find themselves traipsing through the trees until the sound of a waterfall lures me further in. 

Water cascades down a cliff face, splashing into the crystal clear pool at its base. It reminds me of home and I feel a twinge of sadness as I think of Grampa being home alone.

"You're quite a good fighter." I hear Liam say behind me,  pulling me from my nostalgic thoughts. "You must have had a great teacher."

"The best." I reply softly as I turn to face him. 

He smiles brightly at me and I feel a twinge of annoyance that he's here. 

"Don't you have some pack business to attend to?" I ask him. "Your alpha is going to be pissed if he hears you've been watching the recruits all day instead." 

His eyes glisten with laughter as he leans against the nearby tree to study me. 

"It's kind of hard to focus on my duties when your scent calls out to me constantly,  mate." 

There. He said it. The M word. 

"Well try harder." I respond cockily, annoyed with him for some reason.  "I don't have time to dedicate myself to training and deal with you at the same time. I'm sure if the alpha discovered my mate is in his pack he'll send me to do my training elsewhere."

Liam looks at me thoughtfully.

"I guess you're right." He says before turning his back and leaving me.