“I don’t know what horrible things you’ve heard about our pack,” Stella said. “But they're all wrong. Kaden wants to trust you. He brought you here, yes, but he also healed you. He hopes you’ll pass the tests and join our pack. That's why he asked me to look out for you and help you with whatever you needed.”
I frowned as we made our way back to the house. Stella's words seemed at odds with how Kaden had acted toward me. But then again, this pack wasn't anything like I'd expected. I was having all my assumptions challenged today. Maybe there was more to the sexy alpha than I’d originally thought too.
Chapter Fourteen
Kaden woke me at the crack of dawn with a harsh knock on the door. "Time to get up, little wolf."
By the time I’d crawled out of bed and opened my door, he was nowhere in sight. It was hard to believe I was living in the same house as him, as I had yet to see him. Not when I'd gotten back with Stella with our groceries and helped put them away, nor when she and I had shared dinner that evening.
That changed quickly enough though. After I got ready and went down to the kitchen, he stood at the counter, arms crossed like he’d been waiting for me to come down. His dark hair was a bit rumpled from sleep, and the top button on his shirt was open, showing a tiny glimpse of all that hard muscle underneath. I tried not to let my eyes linger too long, even though they very much wanted to linger.
“Good morning,” I said, mostly to see the scowl on his face deepen.
“Get something to eat, and then you can start cleaning,” he said. “You’re going to begin with my house. Every room except for my bedroom and bathroom. Don’t go in there. Understand?”
“Loud and clear,” I said, trying my best to not let the sarcasm show in my voice, but I must have done a pretty poor job because his frown became borderline murderous. I bit my tongue to stop myself from saying something else stupid.
“Cleaning supplies are under the sink,” he threw over his shoulder as he left.
I sighed as I looked over the house. It wasn’t filthy, so at least it wouldn’t take a long time, but it was still much bigger than any house I’d cleaned before. It had been my duty to clean Dad's house, and Jackie always made sure to leave things around for me to do. In case you get bored, she’d say, tossing me unfolded laundry. At least here Kaden would likely ignore me, and I couldn’t see Stella being petty like that.
I started in the kitchen after eating a light breakfast and made my way slowly around the house. Despite my resentment at being the pack’s janitor, I made sure to clean everything thoroughly. Stella came down at one point, grabbed a blueberry muffin and some coffee, and then headed off to her job as a kindergarten teacher. It still amazed me that the kids here all had their wolves so young. I bet that made her job a lot harder, but probably more fun too.
I stopped outside of Kaden’s room last. His was the only door I hadn’t seen open, and I had no intentions of breaking his rules. He’d no doubt smell that I’d been in there the moment he stepped inside. But I couldn't help but be curious what it looked like inside his room.
Instead, I went back downstairs. It had taken me the entire morning to clean this place, and I was ravenous. I ate lunch quickly, thinking about Stella’s words to me at dinner. Tomorrow afternoon is when you start training. Head to the clearing behind the house.
My mood lifted as I stepped outside, breathing in the warm summer air. I’d get to shift today, and I was looking forward to that most of all. Even if I had to put up with Kaden’s growling and glares. At least he was nice to look at.
There was a small path that led from the backyard into the forest, and I followed it, hoping I was heading in the right direction. I was instantly surrounded by the sights and smells from these woods, so much more noticeable now that I had my wolf senses. I couldn't wait to bound through these leaves and under the trees on four legs.
I eventually found the clearing, a huge open space big enough for dozens of shifters to move around without getting in each others’ way. I was surprised to find it empty except for Kaden, who stood in the center, face tilted up to the sun as if he was trying to catch the scent of something. Light streamed across his features and my heart clenched at the sight, filling me with something a lot like longing.
He looked over as I approached, and when he pinned me with those intense eyes, I almost missed a step. His masculine presence seemed to fill this entire clearing, and even though he was intimidating as hell, I kept walking toward him without looking down.
“Where’s everyone else?” I asked.
“I’ll be overseeing your training personally," Kaden said. "I need to know what you know. How you fight, and how you’ll handle yourself in a situation when you face a real enemy."
I arched my eyebrow at that. I wasn't sure if I should feel honored or terrified to have his complete attention on me during these sessions. "And here I thought you didn't want anything to do with me."
He scowled at that but chose to ignore my comment. “Have you been taught to fight?”
“No, my dad didn’t want me to learn how. But I’ve been in plenty of fights, and I always made it out alive.”
“The last fight you were in would have ended pretty differently if we hadn’t rescued you.”
I snorted. “That felt a lot more like a kidnapping than a rescue."
His tone turned hard. "Would you rather I'd left you in the middle of the woods for the Leos to find you?" When I shot him a sharp look, he gestured in front of us. “You’ll start with stretching. I’ll show you what to do."
He sat down on the ground and motioned for me to follow. Then he led me in a series of simple stretches, and my limbs burned as they woke up. It helped get rid of any lingering aches from the cleaning earlier today. I watched the toned muscles of his arms move as he hugged one knee to his chest and quickly looked away. Focus.
“You’ll do this every day,” he said as we finished up.
I nodded, still looking at the ground. “I can do that."
“Even if we don’t train,” he added. “You need to be agile enough to fight at any moment, and these exercises will help keep you limber.”
Easy enough. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t done before, and he wasn’t doing any crazy handstands or anything of the like. So far, it looked like training was going to be manageable. I wasn’t arrogant enough to say that it would be a breeze though. I still had to see if I could fight. But this part, this small chunk, I had under control. It felt like a tiny accomplishment after everything I'd been through since the Convergence.
Kaden stood to his full height, making me look up at him. “Now, attack me.”
I expected him to take some sort of fighting stance, but he just stood, hands loose at his sides. For all intents and purposes, he looked like he was relaxed, but I knew he was simply waiting for me to make my move.
I stood and observed him for a few moments, trying to think as a fighter would. It would be best to try to catch him off guard. I was smaller and weaker than him, and he had proven multiple times that he had the ability to pin me down without an issue. I stepped back a few feet and tried to read his expression. His eyes gave nothing away.
“We don’t have all day," he snapped.
I launched myself at him, fists raised protectively in front of me, and darted around to his side, trying to get under his guard. The moment I sprang into action, he slid into a fighting stance. He moved out of the way as if he’d guessed exactly what I was doing. My fist met the air, and I overbalanced. He grabbed onto my outstretched arm and pulled me the rest of the way over, flinging me right past him and onto the ground. I hit with a whuff, and let myself collapse. Damn, he moved so fast.
“That was terrible,” he said, sounding almost bored. “Trying to get past my defenses. You made it blatantly obvious you were going to do it, but at least you weren’t stupid enough to try and attack me head-on. Get up and do it again.”
I pushed myself to my feet, still trying to orient myself. This time, Kaden didn�
�t let me duck past him, just caught me and pushed me back. I stumbled but didn’t fall. A small swell of pride went through me. I wasn’t perfect, but I wasn’t awful, either. I could do this.
“Again,” he said.
The more we fought, the more I realized how little I knew about anything. He would simply move out of the way and let my momentum carry me past him several times, or block my attacks and use them against me.
“How are you so fast?” I panted, as we circled each other.
“You’re a shifter, Ayla. Use your wolf reflexes.”
He darted at me, and I jumped back. It wasn’t the smooth, physics-defying motion he would have used, but I’d escaped. We circled each other some more, and I breathed in deep, trying to focus my senses. It didn’t help. I could see how quickly he was moving, then slow it down a bit so I could try to track his movements as I came closer, but I wasn’t able to land a blow on him. Frustration built as he continued evading me.
“I get it,” I said, as I tripped over his conveniently placed foot. “Can you actually teach me something now?” I looked up at him as he held his hand out to me. I reached up to take it but paused. “You’re just going to use it to flip me over your back or something, aren’t you?”
“Maybe. I wouldn’t trust my own word.” A slight hint of amusement played across his lips.
I glared at his hand and pushed myself up on my own. It was hard to focus on my anger when he rolled his shoulders, muscles rippling. If you don’t stop focusing on his muscles, you won’t learn a damn thing, I told myself sternly.
“I’ll show you some basic moves,” Kaden said. “It’ll give you a good base to start with, something to build on over the next few days.”
For the next hour, he went through some moves with me. It felt unnatural, trying to move my feet with my punches. Twice, I tripped over nothing but air. Each time, Kaden’s face broadcasted, seriously? I couldn’t help the blush that spread over my cheeks. I’d never been particularly clumsy, but there was something about training my body to do something different that made me feel like I’d never truly used my limbs before.
“You make this look so easy,” I said when I paused to take a breath.
“I’ve taught you the moves correctly,” Kaden said. “Your timing is just off, and you need to work on your body placement. It’s sloppy. You’re too worried about thinking about what you should be doing, and not letting your body do it.” He paused, and I huffed out another breath. “Go into a forward roll, like you’ve just punched someone and then come out from under their return attack.” He demonstrated the movement, making it look as easy as breathing.
I nodded and planted my feet, holding my hands up in the defensive position he taught me. “Start here, right?”
“Wider,” Kaden said, and I sighed and widened my stance. It felt wrong, and even as I tucked down and launched myself forward as he’d taught me, I could tell my balance was off.
I didn’t get fully over so much as I dove headfirst into the ground. I got my hands up in front of me in time, and rolled off to the side, pushing my momentum into not breaking my face. This was a lot harder to do than I thought it would be. Especially with how easy Kaden made it look. I had a feeling that the ground and I were going to be very well acquainted by the time training was over. When I glanced over at Kaden, he had his arms crossed over his chest, and I watched him let out a deep breath.
“We have a lot to work on,” he said, shaking his head.
Next, I watched as he demonstrated how to fall properly without getting injured. Then, he started pushing and tripping me again. This my body took to like it was natural, and it was. I’d learned over the years that in order to survive a fight, I needed to be able to take a beating and find a way to escape. It was how I'd survived this long.
A few times I looked up to see Kaden nodding, as if almost impressed. From him, it was practically glowing praise.
“Are we done yet?” I asked, panting as I stared up at the sky after rolling out of one more trip.
“One more thing,” he said. “Holds. You’re weak, weaker than most shifters, and if one gets you in a hold, you’ll have to be able to break it. Otherwise, you won’t stand a chance.”
Great, I thought as I pushed myself up off the ground again.
“We’ll start with simple holds, like this one.” He spun me around, and I didn’t even have time to open my mouth to ask him what he was doing before he caged me in his grip, pinning my arms against my sides. My brain short-circuited as his body pressed against mine, his broad chest hard against my back. His breath stirred the loose hairs at the back of my neck, almost as if he was leaning down to kiss the exposed curve of skin.
I didn’t even register that he was talking for several moments, his words coming to me as if they were slogging through molasses. “Use your arms, push mine up, and drop to the ground.”
What? It was hard to remember what I was even doing, let alone why I should want him away from me.
“Break. This.” He tightened his arms around me, fists pressing into my abdomen, just this side of painful.
I drew in a sharp breath. The pain snapped me out of whatever the hell that had been, and I struggled in his grasp. His instructions registered a moment later, and I lifted my legs up, letting myself fall, and tried to push my arms out and up.
He let me go, and I fell to the ground. What the hell? I thought and scrambled away. How was I supposed to learn how to break out of holds like that when I couldn’t even think? Why did he have this effect on me?
To my dawning horror, that wasn’t the only hold we were going to practice. Kaden dug the heel of his boot in my back. “Up,” he said, and I pushed myself to my feet again. “That was an easy one. Let’s see if you can get out of this one.”
We went through various holds, each one pressing his body closer than comfort to mine. They didn’t catch me off guard like the first one had, but I was still disturbed by the way my body responded to him. He didn’t show any signs of being as winded or sweaty as I was, and as I struggled against his holds, I half-expected him to just give up on me.
He hadn’t yet, but I was pathetically weak at the holds, and it felt like just another defeat. It was clear I had a lot of work ahead of me, and I expected him to pass me off to another trainer. As I tapped out of yet another hold and Kaden sighed, I waited for those words exactly. Instead, he just said, “That's enough. Meet me here tomorrow after lunch and we'll continue."
“What?” I asked. “You’re not tired of my incompetence yet?”
“You have a long way to go, but you’re not entirely hopeless,” Kaden said and headed toward the house without another word.
High praise indeed. I let out a long breath while my entire body ached, and I was glad Stella had gotten me those cold compress packs. I had a feeling I'd need them tonight.
Chapter Fifteen
I trudged to the edge of the forest, surprised to find Kaden waiting outside the house with Stella. I’d expected him to melt into the forest itself and reappear when he was ready to glower or menace again, but he just nodded to me as if he hadn’t just spent the last couple of hours watching me struggle to fight him.
“Stella is going to be taking over your wolf training,” he said. “She’s one of the best natural hunters and trackers in her wolf form that my pack has ever produced.”
By the way Stella was bouncing on her heels like an excited child, I suspected she had practically forced Kaden to let her be my teacher. If their relationship was anything like mine and Wesley’s, then Stella probably had Kaden wrapped around her finger. I started to smile before the grief hit me once again. It still hurt more than anything else knowing Wesley was gone. I spent most of my time trying to avoid thinking about it because it hurt enough that I had to stop and catch my breath.
I closed my eyes briefly, trying to breathe past the pain in my chest. One of the easiest ways to get past sadness was to transform it into anger. I shoved all of my hurt and pain into the thought
of getting revenge on the Leos who took him away from me.
When I opened my eyes, I wasn’t blinking back tears anymore. I was calm, collected, and I met Stella and Kaden’s eyes without issue. Kaden nodded to me and walked away without saying goodbye. At this point, I wasn’t even offended. Clearly, that was just how Kaden acted. No one else seemed to have a problem with it.
“Come on,” Stella said, motioning me to another part of the forest behind their house. I followed her through the trees, looking around. I still wasn’t sure where I was, and even Stella in her increasing kindness refused to tell me. I’d given up guessing and had resolved to wait until they trusted me enough to tell me. It wasn’t like I needed to get back home or anything. My home probably no longer existed.
Stella stopped in a patch of forest that looked like the rest, with trees all around us. “This is where the pups come to learn how to be a wolf and pack hunt. But we’ll be alone today.”
“Because you don’t trust me?” I asked dryly.
“No, because they’re in school,” Stella said, giving me an odd look. “I know Kaden comes off as a bit heavy-handed, but we are trying our best to make you feel welcome.”
I nodded and ducked my head, feeling just a bit ashamed. Stella had been nothing but nice to me, and even Kaden hadn’t threatened to kill me in a few hours. Though that might change at any moment.
“I’m going to stay in human form while you shift," Stella said. "We’re not pack members yet, so I won’t be able to communicate with you in wolf form. Now take your clothes off."
I hesitated just a second before stripping my clothes off. It wasn’t as bad, being around one person, but I still angled my body away from view. Maybe someday I’d be able to just rip my clothes off and leave them in piles, but today wasn’t that day.
“Shift now?” I asked Stella.
She nodded, and I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the pain. It wasn’t as bad this time, but it seemed to take forever, each bone reshaping slowly enough that I felt like I was being pulled apart at the seams. Finally, after what felt like a few long minutes, I settled into my wolf form and swished my white tail back and forth experimentally.
Moon Touched (Zodiac Wolves: The Lost Pack Book 1) Page 11
