Chapter 11

"You have been avoiding me." Ariel grumbled as she looked at Kane. The latter looked at her like a deer caught in a trap, and Ariel had no plans of letting this deer go.

“I don’t think so.” Kane argued, doing everything in his power to avoid looking into her eyes. He knew it only took one look before he was sucked into the hole that was Ariel, and he didn’t think he was ready for that now.

"Yes, you are.” Ariel repeated, tucking her arms into themselves to appear menacing while she inches closer to him.

“No, I am not; if you would excuse me, I have some things to attend to.” Kane said, and he moved to the other side, trying to pass around her.

“At least, you should have the decency to look me in the eyes if you want to lie to me. Don’t you think?” Ariel huffed, not at all impressed with his performance.

Kane’s patience was already hanging on a thin thread, but he took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He needed to keep reminding himself that Ariel wasn’t a werewolf and that she had no idea about their world or how it worked.

She just needed to learn her place.

This time, Kane raised his head to meet her before he opened his mouth. “I wasn’t avoiding you, Ariel; if I was, you would know. Now, can you excuse me?”

Ariel’s breath caught in her throat as he looked up to meet her eyes, and suddenly she was speechless. Why was she just realizing his eyes were deep brown? They were so brown that they could almost pass as black, and she had never seen something so mesmerizing before.

Shit, the man was beautiful.

His jawlines were so sharp that they could cut her in half, and she could say thank you.

“Uhm, thank you for the compliment; I think you are also beautiful.”

“W-what? Shit, did you hear that?” She asked, and Kane just shrugged his shoulders. “You weren’t supposed to hear that.” Can the earth just open and swallow her now to save herself from unnecessary embarrassment?

However, Kane was already one step ahead of her, and he used her distraction to get past her and walk towards the room. Ariel looked up just in time to see that he was almost at his door, and she was seething.

“Coward!” She yelled after him, just as he shut his door tight. She was tempting to walk back to his door and kick it open, but she refrained herself and instead went the other way.

Somehow, she was just realizing that they both shared the same floor, and she hadn’t seen anyone else on their floor.

Does it mean he thought she was special enough?

Don’t think too much about this Ariel; hell, he is housing more than 50 people. You are just one of them.

It was brutal, but that was the harsh truth she needed to hear, and she was heading to her room. Her training with Toby was starting tomorrow, and she needed to prepare for it.

Ariel grudgingly went back to her room and spent the rest of the day brooding. If not for the man who had been assigned to bring her food every time, she wouldn’t have gotten anything to eat.

She was so done with everything here, and she couldn’t wait for the next day.

Eventually, it was the next day, and Ariel was beyond ready to start her training. Toby had told her that her training was going to start early in the morning, which was why she was waking up early.

He had training with others later in the morning, so he had opted to train her specially, and there was no way she was going to complain about that.

She walked towards her wardrobe, picking her best sports bra; it showed the least skin and covered her up so well, so it should be appropriate, and she paired it with a jogger.

Ariel wasn’t sure how intensive the training was going to be, so she picked up an apple, biting into it before she took her leave.

This time she walked down the stairs in a proud gait, strutting like she owned the place. She would feel eyes starting at her, but she chose to ignore them and focus on what she had come for.

She located the training room and held the door knob, twisting it and pushing it until it gave way. Toby was already inside, warming up, and he raised his head to look at the intruder.

“You came.”

“Of course I would; why are you surprised? I already told you I was interested in learning.”

“Most people would not have bothered, and I assumed you would too." Toby replied, shrugging his shoulders. Actually, he had been praying; she didn’t see through to it, but who was he kidding?

Ariel shook her head, not at all impressed. “Toby, you should know that I never back down on my words. Never. Now shall we?”

“Yeah, but before that, we would have to do a little warm-up to get your blood pumping.”

“Why?” Ariel whined aloud, but she got into the position Toby was showing her. “I thought I was going to be knocking off someone’s teeth today or something.”

Toby could only shake his head. “No knocking on anyone’s teeth for now, young lady. Now you just need to loosen your bones and get your blood pumping.”

“You should be the one getting his blood pumping." Ariel tried to joke, but Toby gave her a sharp look, and she wished she had not opened her mouth. “Geez, y’all can’t take a joke. Fine, what do I do?”

***

“No, no more. No more.” Ariel held a hand up, signaling him to stop.

Fuck! She had no idea she was so unfit until they began exercising, and 5 minutes into it, she was already panting like she had just run a marathon.

“We haven’t even started the training.” Toby quipped, a little too happy for her liking, and one look from Ariel was enough for him to burst into laughter.

“Ha ha, keep laughing. You win this time.” Ariel said, rolling her eyes.

“Don’t worry, cutie; with time, you will get used to it. I am releasing you early today so you can catch your breath. We will continue tomorrow, same time, same place.” Toby said, and he was walking out the door, leaving her alone.

Ariel was still flopped on the floor, trying to catch her breath. She stretched her hands to grab a bottle of water lying on the floor, and she opened it, chugging the contents down her throat.

She glanced at the wall, and she was jumping up almost immediately. She had just five minutes before the occupants of the house began their training, and she didn’t want to be in their way.

She picked up the bottle and was dragging her weary body up the stairs because someone thought it was wise not to have an elevator.

Ariel managed to make it to her floor in one piece, and she was dumping her ass on the bed, all sweaty and not giving a fuck. She laid down for some minutes before dragging herself to the bathroom to wash off the sweat and grime.

For the rest of the week, the routine was basically the same. Wake up, exercise, eat, sleep, rinse, and repeat.

And in all those activities, she had only managed to see Kane for a total of zero minutes.

But she wasn’t bothered about it, right?

***

Ariel had just finished her training for that day, and she was beat. It was nothing too complex, just some basic exercise to keep her in good shape, but it had a way of draining her.

She was going to start proper training next week or whenever Toby felt she was ready, but she didn’t care anymore. As long as she got the opportunity to leave the confines of her room, she would gladly take it.

Ariel bopped her head to the music that was playing loudly on the stereo before turning to look at Toby. “Do you dance?”

Toby tilted his head in confusion, trying to determine if she was joking. “Uhm, no. Why?”

“Do you want to?”

"No, I don’t think so.”

“Come on, it will be fun.” Ariel pouted, taking his hands and trying to get him to move. “Don’t be a killjoy now, Toby.”

Toby released himself and let her move him to the rhythm, even though it was awkward as hell. He was taller than her and everything, but Ariel could be a little more determined, and she made it work.

He wasn’t going to lie; the song was fire, and before long he was moving himself without her prompting and was actually enjoying it, and suddenly he was freezing.

“What the fuck is going on here?”