10. Superstrength and Other Surprises
10
Superstrength and Other Surprises
Samuel guided us along the edge of the clearing until he spotted what he wanted. He stopped and pointed.
“Pick up that branch.”
He was indicating a fallen bough as thick as my arm.
I walked over and picked it up. It felt surprisingly light.
“Now break it,” Samuel ordered.
“I can’t just—” I started. The branch snapped like a toothpick in my hands. My mouth went dry. “Oh.”
“That’s why young werewolves undergo training as soon as they can walk,” Samuel explained. “Better than them accidentally breaking something expensive. Or someone.”
“Like Mark,” Bo suggested helpfully.
“No mauling humans,” Samuel said sharply. “It’s our most important rule.”
“Even if they deserve it?” I hazarded.
“Even then.” Samuel wrinkled his brow. “Who’s Mark?”
“My ex.” I grimaced. “He and his new girlfriend got me fired from my job today. To be fair, my boss was also gunning for my blood.”
Samuel blinked. “You got fired from Pennington & Graves?”
“The auditors weren’t happy with the firm’s performance. I was the sacrificial scapegoat.” I waved the broken branch. “So how do I do this?”
Samuel hesitated, like he wanted to ask more questions.
“Control comes from focus and intent,” he finally said. He picked up another branch. “Watch me.”
He applied exactly enough pressure to crack the wood without shattering it.
“Your turn,” he said.
I tried to copy him with my next branch. It disintegrated.
“Again,” Samuel ordered. “And while you practice, let’s discuss pack hierarchy.”
“Oh boy,” Bo muttered.
Samuel ignored my dog’s sass. “The alpha’s word is law. Always.”
“What about the luna?” Bo asked innocently.
“The luna has significant influence too,” Samuel admitted grudgingly.
An impish impulse had the next words out of my mouth before I could help myself. “Over the alpha?”
Bo looked impressed at my boldness.
“Over the pack.” Samuel’s eyes gleamed. “And over the alpha, when she chooses to exercise it.”
The intensity in his gaze sent heat crawling up my neck. I broke eye contact first and went hunting for more boughs, knowing I was being chicken and not caring.
Three more branches met explosive ends before I started to get a feel for it. It was like learning to use a muscle I didn’t know I had.
“Better,” Samuel said when I finally managed to crack a branch cleanly. “Now do it ten more times.”
By the eighth attempt, I was consistently breaking the branches with controlled pressure. It felt like something had clicked inside me. Like my human mind and new wolf instincts were beginning to sync.
Samuel’s eyebrows rose slightly as he watched me fracture my tenth branch. “You know, you’re learning this stuff faster than I expected.”
“Is that good or bad?”
“It’s unusual.” He studied me thoughtfully. “Most newly turned wolves take weeks to develop this level of control. You’ve done it in under an hour.”
“Maybe I’m just naturally talented,” I hazarded.
“Abby is the smartest cookie I know,” Bo huffed proudly.
“The other cookie you know isn’t exactly smart,” Samuel pointed out.
“Touché,” Bo admitted grudgingly.
I was glad Ellie hadn’t insisted on coming with us. But I also couldn’t help but agree. I’d known Ellie since kindergarten and she was never the sharpest tool in the box to begin with.
“Next lesson,” Samuel said. “Catching without crushing.”
I wrinkled my nose. “What I am catching?”
He reached inside the duffel bag and removed a Tupperware.
“Oh.” Bo brightened, his tail wagging. “Are we having snacks?”
“No.” Samuel removed an egg from the container and tossed it at me.
I caught it instinctively. It pulverized in my grip. “Damn.”
“I don’t think you were meant to do that,” Bo said unhelpfully while Samuel passed me some hand wipes.
“Let’s try again,” Samuel murmured.
Five minutes and fifteen eggs later, I caught my first intact egg.
Samuel’s eyes widened a little. “Not bad.” He recovered his composure. “Next pack rule. Showing respect to pack elders.”
Bo stamped his forepaws with an indignant look. “If you say we have to roll over, I quit.”
This coming from the dog who habitually exposed his stomach to complete strangers for gratuitous belly rubs.
Samuel sighed. “You don’t have to roll over. You just need to be polite and courteous.” He paused. “Speaking of which, you might want to reconsider your attitude toward Pearl.”
Bo sniffed. “Your cat is a snob.”
“He’s not wrong,” I said.
“She’s not my cat. She’s my mother’s cat.” Samuel rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Look, Pearl has been in the family forever. She’s like an heirloom no one wants. She was around when our pack first moved here.”
Bo and I traded a cautious look. Amberford was several centuries old.
“Is she immortal?” I said warily.
“We don’t know what she is, frankly. But no alpha has ever dared remove her from the pack.”
“I reckon she was embalmed,” Bo offered. “Like a mummy.”
“He watches the Discovery Channel,” I explained at Samuel’s leaden expression.
“Anyway, everyone in the pack respects Pearl. And Victoria doesn’t take kindly to disrespect either.” Samuel picked up a tennis ball next. “Let’s try something faster. Head over to the other side of the clearing.”
I did as I was told. “Here?” I called out a moment later from across the way.
The ball came at me like a bullet. I snatched it out of the air, surprising myself.
“Again,” Samuel said.
His throws got increasingly challenging, his arcs growing wider and his speed accelerating as he tested my reflexes.
I caught them all, some by the skin of my teeth.
“This is weird,” Bo commented uneasily after my twelfth perfect catch. “Even for a werewolf.”
Samuel’s expression had grown brooding. He reached into his bag and pulled out a lacrosse ball.
“Last exercise,” he said. “I don’t want you to catch this one. I just want you to jump and stop it.” He paused at my confused look. “Imagine creating a wall of compressed, moving air in front of your hand as you leap,” he explained. “You want to time it perfectly so it meets the ball at the correct velocity. Focus all your senses on this.”
What he was describing didn’t sound within the realm of normal physics. I said as much.
Samuel shook his head. “Trust me, it’s possible,” he said confidently. “Even Hugh can do it.”
I made a face. “That’s not helping.”
He smiled faintly. “It’s unlikely you’ll manage it the first time, but you’ll get there eventually.”
I hesitated before reluctantly agreeing to give it a try.
“Ready?” Samuel said.
I cracked my neck and shook out my limbs. “I’m ready.”
He drew his arm back and threw the ball without so much as a warning. It whistled high through the air, so fast I would have missed its trajectory had I blinked.
Time seemed to slow as it curved toward my position.
I focused all my senses just like he’d told me to. My breath caught.
The air was suddenly sharper.
I could see every speck of dirt, every minuscule droplet of water, every infinitesimal blade of grass being carried by the breeze.
Muscles bunched as I crouched, my gaze locked on the rotating ball, its every revolution crisp and clear. I jumped when my inner wolf told me to, hand shooting out and fingers clawing slightly to trap the wind.
The ball stopped dead an inch from my palm, the thump it made echoing across the clearing like a gun shot.
I landed lightly on the ground and caught the ball without even looking. I stared at it, my heart racing and my blood singing with elation.
“I did it!” I looked up with a grin.
Samuel had gone very still on the other side of the clearing. Even Bo looked stunned, jaw agog beside him.
My smile faded at their stares. It dawned on me that I’d just done something that shouldn’t be technically possible for someone who’d been a normal human twenty-four hours ago. Elation gave way to apprehension.
“It was probably beginner’s luck, right?” I said nervously.
Samuel and Bo exchanged a look.
The Hawthorne alpha frowned. “There’s only one way to find out.”
Five minutes and several ball throws later, we concluded it was not beginner’s luck.
“Could Abby be a super werewolf?” Bo asked in an awed voice as I crossed the clearing to join them.
“Super how?” Samuel said guardedly.
Bo fidgeted. “You know, superstrong, superfast, super—snarky? Is there such a thing in werewolf world?”
“No.” Samuel studied me with a frown when I reached them. “How about we stop here for the night?”
I swallowed, unsure if it was disappointment or annoyance I was feeling. I’d executed his every instruction just like he’d told me to and yet I couldn’t help but feel like I’d done something terrible.
Samuel’s face softened at my expression. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Abby.” His fingers brushed mine as he took the ball back, causing the mate bond to hum between us. “It’s just—I’ve never seen or heard of a newly turned human adapting to their inner wolf this fast. It’s almost like you were meant to be a werewolf.”
Mrs. Chen’s chilling words came to me in that moment. From the nervous look Bo gave me, he was recalling the same.
Samuel ran a hand through his hair. “I need to talk to Victoria and our pack about this.” His eyes darkened a little as he watched me. “Maybe someone knows something I don’t.”
The trip back to Parkside was taken up with him telling me and Bo the rest of the Hawthorne pack rules. He took out his cell after he pulled up outside our apartment building and started typing.
“I’m sending you an address.” His fingers moved rapidly on the digital keyboard. “Be there at nine a.m. sharp tomorrow.”
My phone pinged. I looked at the text he’d just sent me.
It was in downtown Amberford.
“Where is this?” I said warily.
“It’s the headquarters of Hawthorne & Associates, our family firm. We’re always in need of a good accountant.”
“Oh.” My chest tightened as I stared at him. “You’re offering me a job?”
He hesitated, a strange look flitting in his gaze. “Yes.”