26. Bexley

26

BEXLEY

I stood out there the next day, half killing myself to train with Ronyn and his troops.

“Down, one, twooo!”

Angela’s death would be avenged.

“Down, one, twooo!”

I’d get my fucking life back.

“Down, one, twooo!”

And I’d find a way to make my pack safe again.

“Down, one, twooo!”

I groaned as I dropped into the grass. Three hours. That’s all it took. Three hours with Ronyn and his troops, and I couldn’t go another fucking second. I heaved for air as I stared up at the hot summer sun. It battered my skin, sending sweat droplets sliding down my skin.

I saw someone’s hand come into view before Dom’s cheeky little grin came into focus.

“Need some help?” he asked.

I smacked his hand away and stumbled to my feet. “I got it. I got it.”

Then, I stumbled, and Dom had to catch me with his hands. “I don’t think so. Let’s go get you some water.”

Ronyn kept calling out his marks. “Down, one, twooo!”

Dom led me away from the training troops. “There’s always tomorrow, all right? Let’s get you some water, and maybe a nice bath.”

The days came and went. The sun hung heavily in the sky while kids ran around giggling and the troops continued training. I was out there every day with them, though. I didn’t care that I could only stay out there three hours. I didn’t care that Ronyn ran me into the ground. As far as I was concerned, if I couldn’t keep up with them, I had no business being around them. So, every day, I walked out there and stood under the afternoon sky, ready to work.

“Down, one, twooo!” Ronyn barked.

“Come on, come on, come on! You can jump higher than that!”

“That’s it! That’s it! Stay with it! Come oooon!”

“Down, one, twooo!”

I saw Dom approach the edge of the troops, but I hadn’t given out yet. I was tired, yes. Frustrated, sure. Angry, absolutely. But, as Ronyn clapped his hands above his head and kept our mark, I surpassed my three-hour mark.

And made it to three-and-a-half.

“Way to go!” Dom exclaimed as he clapped his hands above his head.

I leaned against a tree as everyone took off into the woods. I watched them shift and go running, no doubt training their cardiovascular systems. I heaved for air as I placed my hands on my knees. Jesus Christ, these people didn’t take a fucking second to breathe for nothing. It was impressive, to say the least, being able to train like that day in and day out.

“Hey,” Ronyn said as he came to stand beside me.

I lifted my head and placed it against the tree behind me. “Just give me a second. Just gotta… phew… catch my breath.”

“You’ve done just fine for the day,” Voss said as he magically appeared from behind Ronyn.

I shook my head and waved my hand haphazardly in the air. “I got it. I got it.”

Ronyn’s voice grew serious.

“Ronyn,” I said in a mocking tone of his voice.

He crooked his finger beneath my chin and raised my gaze to his. “Good job today. You went thirty more minutes than usual. Go rest.”

I watched him shift into a massive all-black wolf with those same steel gray eyes of his.

He jumped over my head and rushed off to be with his troops.

Did he just… compliment me?

“Oh, boy,” Dom said as he took my hand.

“Ronyn said something nice,” Voss said as he took my other hand, “time to get the smelling salts. She may just pass out.”

The days continued to pass, and I slowly became stronger. Three and a half hours of training became four. Four became four hours and fifteen minutes. And little by little, my body carved itself back out. I gained weight as me and my pack continued to be absorbed into Voss’s pack. My muscle structure rebuilt itself after weeks of nothing but meat and berries in the woods. I trained in the afternoons with Ronyn and his troops, then rushed around with the children at night.

I felt my old body coming back.

I felt strength rushing its way through my veins.

And it felt great to feel alive again.

I needed to be strong, though. As strong as I could get. As strong as I could possibly push my body. Not only did I need to protect the children of my pack, but Angela deserved justice. I wasn’t abandoning my pack, anyway. Not during a time when they needed me the most. The guys were right, if I was the target of the same vampire they were hunting, it made no sense for me to leave. It made no sense for me to abandon the children of my pack like I was abandoned as a child simply because I thought I was protecting them with my absence.

But, if I was going to protect them from vampires, I had to be in much better shape.

“All right, troops!” Ronyn bellowed over our heads. “Today’s training comes in the form of endurance.”

A sigh of relief ricocheted across the crowd, and I couldn’t help but giggle softly. He ran us fucking ragged with the sprinting and short-term burst training. Now, it was time for what all of us excelled at.

Waiting out the enemy.

I saw Ronyn bouncing his head mindlessly to himself before he spoke again. “We’ll start over here with Lieutenant Reggie. Count off in twos. Lieutenant!”

“One!” he exclaimed.

“Soldier!” Ronyn bellowed as he pointed to the next shifter.

“Two!” she exclaimed.

Ronyn pointed to the next person in the line. “You’re one again. Say it.”

“One!” the young man shouted.

“You,” he pointed.

“Two!” another soldier shouted.

“One.”

“Two!”

“One!”

“Two!”

One by one, we counted off into twos. And when he got to me, I yelled out two at the top of my lungs. He snickered and shook his head before he continued on down the line, until every single one of us had numbered ourselves off.

Then, Ronyn raised his hand into the air to command attention. And it worked. “All right, everyone! Ones are shifting today! Twos are riding backs! We’re practicing our back drills today, everyone!”

“Who’s riding with you, commander!?” a young woman shouted.

I piped up before he had a chance to speak. “Is Voss coming to the training with us today?”

Ronyn slowly panned his gaze to me. “No.”

A couple of the girls twittered on, giggling to themselves when the woman asked. Ronyn shot me a look and it made me curl my lips over my teeth. So, the gaggle of girls Ronyn trained had their eye on Voss, huh? I felt Ronyn’s steely gaze on me as he shifted into his wolf form, prompting all of the ones of the group to do the same. One by one, the wolves meandered until they found their partner, and I only assumed that Ronyn was talking to them in their little groupthink thing that they did. They moved around as if he were giving orders while I stood there, waiting for whoever was going to carry me into the woods. It didn’t shock me one bit when Ronyn’s all-black wolf came up to my side and bent down, though.

He didn’t strike me as the kind of man that wanted me straddling someone else’s back.

Especially when he helped to keep my secret.

Ronyn howled toward the sky and I wrapped my hands into the black fur of his wolf’s coat. And when he took off, I let out a bombastic howl of my own.

“Woooooo hoooooo!” I exclaimed as I pumped my fist in the air.

We soared by a tree and I reached for a branch overhead. Why? Well, because I saw everyone else doing it, too. As I rode on Ronyn’s back, I watched those riding on the backs of wolves reach out for tree branches. They snapped them off while some reached down and picked up massive rocks. And one by one, they dueled with one another.

I had no idea what in the fuck was happening, but I reached for a stick above my head and broke it off without a second thought.

A feeling of rushing air whipped by my back.

“Hey!” I exclaimed as I tugged at Ronyn’s fur.

He skidded around and came to a grinding halt before I found myself face to face with one of Ronyn’s soldiers.

He flipped his stick around in his hand and grinned. “Hate to do this to you.”

I flipped my stick as Ronyn slid his paw through the dirt. “Give it your best shot.”

The wolf he was sitting on leapt over my head and he damn near whacked me with that damn stick in my face. But, I was quicker. I dodged as Ronyn turned himself around, and before I got my bearings, he took off. Rocks flew at my head, and I dodged them, but just barely. I saw shifters being knocked off their wolves before shifting into their animal forms, switching places with their partners.

So, every time someone got knocked off the other’s back, they had to switch.

Guess I better not get knocked off, then.

Ronyn ran around as I attached myself to his back, whopping my stick through the air and slamming people off the backs of their wolf counterparts. I kicked my leg out and got so close that I was able to kick people off. Ronyn skidded to a stop and sent me flying through the air at one point, where I managed to knock two people off their wolves before wrapping myself around a tree. I circled back down and dropped to my feet, twirling the stick in my hand as I watched people all around me morph and shift. Switching places and getting their bearings. Grabbing makeshift weapons and doing the best that they could.

I hopped back onto Ronyn’s wolf and continued my relentless assault.

Before I knew it, the sun set, and Ronyn pointed us back toward the compound. Everyone fell in line behind him as I continued riding on his back. Sweat drenched my clothes as they clung to me. I smelled like hell, but I didn’t care. We were all sweaty and hot and dirty. I squinted my eyes as I gazed up at the sky. A brisk wind kicked up, signaling the approach of autumn. We still had a few weeks to go before fall was upon us, yet I already smelled the world around us changing.

It was my favorite time of the year.

And I couldn’t wait.

I hopped off Ronyn’s back and watched him shift. His body magically clothed him as barely-there wisps of black and gray smoke wafted around his etched form. He grinned at me through that scar on his face as the people around me shifted back into human form. Clothing themselves with their magic. Shaking off the day as if we hadn’t just spent all damn afternoon running drills in the woods.

I felt everyone’s eyes on me, and I knew they waited for me to use my magic. I knew they waited for me to shake off the sweat and allow my magic to clean me down, just like they did. All of them stood there without an ounce of sweat on their bodies. They didn’t even look like we had drilled all day! Their clothes were untouched. Their faces were pristine. Hell, they weren’t even panting like I still was.

I drew in a deep breath and forced my lungs to settle. “You guys just don’t like baths, do you?”

Everyone erupted into laughter. Their heads fell back as they walked away, patting my shoulder and congratulating me on a job well done. Even Ronyn’s deep, earthy chuckle rumbled toward me as the crowd dissipated. I wiped my forehead and puffed my cheeks out with a heavy sigh. My thighs felt like they were on fire, clinging to Ronyn the way that I did all afternoon.

He came to stand at my side in the shadow of the woods while everyone made a break for the compound.

“Almost five hours,” he said.

I shrugged. “Battle exercises are different. I’m much better with those.”

He grinned. “Isn’t everyone?”

I nudged him softly. “Thanks for having my back.”

“No need. You had yourself under control.”

“Still. There were a few moments back there where I could’ve been knocked off, and you pivoted me.”

He shrugged. “That’s the drill part for our wolf forms. The one riding our backs isn’t the only lookout. In fact, they shouldn’t even be looking out at all. Not if the wolf is doing its job right.”

The wind kicked up again and I sighed softly, relishing its cooling licks. “Mm, mm, mm.”

“A fan of fall?”

“Very much so.”

He nodded. “So is Dom. You two will have that in common.”

I peered up at him. “Do you have a favorite season?”

“Winter.”

“You a fan of the snow?”

“I’m a fan of the lack of training.”

I barked with laughter. “See, I’d never be able to get away with that.”

“You’ll get used to it.”

His words gave me pause and I looked up at him for a while to see if he’d expound. But, he didn’t. He just kept his steely gaze forward, locking onto the crowd of shifters making their way toward their homes. I watched him while he watched them, and not once did he peel his stare away from his troops.

He watched them until they were all in their homes safely before he turned his attention back to me.

And even then, he kept his stare straight on as he spoke. “I owe you an apology.”

I looked down at my feet. I knew he was talking about the bath house, but I didn’t want to ruin such a lovely day with such a stupid thing.

“It’s fine, Ronyn, it’s?—”

“It’s not fine,” he said curtly.

I nodded slowly. “Okay, then it’s not fine.”

He drew in a deep breath. “You deserved better from me in that moment, and I was much too selfish.”

I took a chance and placed my hand on his upper arm. “You can’t keep holding that over your own head, Ronyn. That was… weeks ago.”

To be honest, it was fucking months ago. Almost three damn months, to be exact. Jesus, was I really with them for that long?

“I’m sorry, Bexley.”

Something about his voice prompted me to look up. And when I did, I found Ronyn finally looking down at me. His brutal face relaxed into something akin to sorrow, and the steel gray eyes that held both fire and ice churned with something I hadn’t seen yet in his features.

Something that was almost… kind.

“I forgive you, Ronyn,” I said as my hand fell away from his arm. A cheeky smile crossed my face to try and break the tension. I didn’t like seeing him beat himself up like that. “But, that doesn’t mean I won’t make you pay for it every once in a while.”

A smirk slithered across his cheeks. “Is that what you call these last few weeks of training? Because if you have, watching you be sweaty and angry is hardly punishment.”

I tossed him a playful wink before my need for sustenance tugged me toward Voss’s place. “Trust me, you’ll know it when it happens. I assure you.”

“I’m sure I will,” he said through his chuckles.

And as I turned around, I found Dom jogging toward me. I saw him waving his hand in the air as if he tried to track me down in a crowd, even though I was the only one walking across the field. I peered over my shoulder, watching Ronyn watch me. Hovering there, in the shadows, like always.

I watched him disappear into the shadows before Dom reached me. “Hey! I heard some of the troops talking about the drills. Sounds like you didn’t fall off your wolf once.”

I smiled at him before I drew in a deep breath. “He had my back on a few occasions, though, when he saw something coming and I didn’t.”

Dom offered me his arm. “Well, from what I know of his training drills, that’s sort of the wolf part of the whole exercise.”

I linked my arm with his. “That’s how it was explained to me.”

He walked toward Voss’s place. “Ready for some food? Voss has something good coming from his kitchen window.”

I leaned my head against Dom’s upper arm. “We should get him an apron.”

Dom barked with laughter. “He would rather die.”

“You know, one of those pink, frilly, lacy ones? I bet the kids would love making one for him.”

Dom let his head fall back with his laughter. “Oh, man, I’d sell my soul to a lot of places to see Voss in a frilly pink apron.”

“What was that?!” Voss called out his window.

“Nothing!” Dom and I yelled in unison.

I giggled as I looked up at him while we stood next to Voss’s porch. And for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why Dom looked at me the way he was.

“What?” I asked.

He tilted his head. “What’s what?”

“That look on your face.”

“What about it?”

“What’s it for?” I asked.

He licked his lips and slid his hands into his pockets. “Just admiring the view.”

I rolled my eyes. “Dom.”

“Hey, I’m just being honest.”

I snickered softly and shook my head. There was so much going on and so much happening in the background that I hadn’t yet had a chance to bring up with them why they thought I was their mate when they first came across me. I hadn’t heard any of them use that term in a while, so I figured there probably wasn’t much to it. But, as I gazed up into Dom’s face, I couldn’t help but notice how his gaze fell to my lips.

How his tongue mesmerized my eyes.

How his warmth drew me nearer.

How his voice commanded my attention…

“Bexley,” Dom muttered as he stepped closer.

His arm threaded around me, and I felt my body caving to him again. “Dominic?”

He pulled me flush against him. “You look beautiful in the setting sun.”

And as his face leaned closer to mine…

“Come and get food if you’re hungry, damn it!” Voss exclaimed out his window.

He slammed it shut, causing both me and Dom to burst out laughing again.