Chapter 4 #2
“Oh, come on now. You look like I stole your last Girl Scout cookie.” He touched my shoulder fleetingly.
“I wish I didn’t have to teach you how to fight a wolf, either, but there are other packs out there too, and they’re also dangerous.
Don’t go thinking that all of the danger to you comes from inside this one. ”
As if they’d heard his words, Sienna and her crew shoved their way through the gate, and it rebounded off the wooden fence with a loud snap.
Leon turned, his expression irritated. “There’s a private training session going on here.”
“We’re just going to watch,” Sienna called back. “See if we can pick up some tips.”
Leon glanced at me. “You okay with that?”
I shrugged. The answer was not really but I couldn’t exactly say that. Besides if they saw what I was learning, maybe they’d leave me alone next time.
Leon scratched a line in the dusty ground with his sneaker and took his T-shirt off. Sienna whistled, and Brad chuckled as Leon turned to face them again.
“I won’t keep telling you,” Leon said. “If you want to stay and watch, you’re quiet about it.”
Sienna mimed zipping her lips shut, but the silver glare she sent my way chilled me. Somehow, I’d made an enemy here, and that made Leon’s lessons even more important.
“Hey. Eyes on me.” Leon spoke to me then stepped back and shifted, his shorts shredding as he became his wolf, with fur as black as his hair and startling aquamarine eyes that seemed to light with a magical fire.
He prowled a little closer, and fear shot through me. I glanced at Sienna, and she smirked.
“Skin-stain,” she mouthed before moving her finger across her neck in a dramatic display of threatened violence.
I shook my head like her presence didn’t matter, but it threw me off. As Leon prowled slowly closer, his whole body vibrating with that casual elegance Conri had displayed in human form earlier, I stepped back instead of adopting the correct defensive pose.
“Shit.” The word slipped from my mouth as I tried to position my feet in the right places and shift my weight forward, the way Leon had shown me last week, but I was too late.
As I focused on my body and how to stand, Leon was already leaping toward me, and his weight took me down, pinning me beneath him.
“Skin-pet.” Sienna wasn’t mouthing anymore, and it wasn’t only her voice I could hear.
Skin-walker. Skin-stain. The usual taunts rang around the yard, and I tapped Leon’s huge paw, encouraging him to shift his massive bulk so I could slide out from beneath him.
I met Sienna’s eyes, and she laughed loudly. “Two for two? Nice going, skin-scourge. Why do you even bother?” Then her eyes widened as she glanced behind me, and I turned in time to see Leon wrapping a towel around his waist.
He was naked, but I was used to seeing everyone naked when they shifted back. It wasn’t usually a big deal, but from the hungry look in Sienna’s eyes, she wished Leon didn’t have such handy access to his towel.
“Just what the hell is going on here?” Leon demanded, but his anger wasn’t for me. It was reserved for Sienna and her friends. “I’m trying to teach and you’re distracting both of us. Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”
“Maybe you should fight fair?” Sienna pushed away from the low fence and sashayed forward a little, the wind lifting her hair as she moved.
“Maybe you can fight someone who can fight back? Someone who can handle all of you?” There was no denying the double meaning in her words, but Leon’s face tightened.
“Out,” he barked and pointed at the gate. “I don’t want to see any of you in here again when I’m teaching a class.”
“How do I book a one-on-one session?” Sienna’s tongue flicked over her lips and her eyes widened in a parody of innocence. “I could use some extra help and personal attention, too.”
“You’ll have to come find me when I’m not busy.” Leon looked beyond her as he ground out the words, his jaw appearing painfully tight.
“Are you sure we can’t stay? We’ll be quiet now, I promise.” Sienna made her voice breathy, full of all sorts of other promises, but Leon shook his head, and I cringed. I didn’t want his protection, and I didn’t want to need it.
When he defended me, it just made me look weaker.
As Sienna led Brad and the others from the yard, they grumbled among themselves.
“You can come back and train later,” Leon called after them before turning to me. “You doing okay?” And as much as Leon was probably one of the biggest players in the whole pack, with a different woman in his bed any night he could manage it, his eyes gentled and his tone was caring.
He could never show anything like favoritism toward me. Not if he wanted to move upward in the pack, but he didn’t seem to have a whole lot of time to spare for Sienna. Not if the way he still looked at me was any indication.
He’d shown increased interest in me recently, even more than he showed in the women he just wanted a quick fuck from—he’d spoken to Conri about it.
There was something almost gentlemanly in the way he treated me.
He’d wanted the opportunity to court me in a more formal, shifter way. But I was too different.
The pack would never go for something like that. It was why he couldn’t favor me—the same reason Conri couldn’t favor me. Aside from Leon’s reputation and ambition, he was a wolf shifter through and through. The pack wouldn’t want my genes diluting the strength he’d otherwise pass on to his pups.
And my humanity made me delicate.
Too delicate to withstand a wolf’s mating habits, that was for sure.
They got pretty rough, if the stories I’d heard could be believed—and I was pretty sure they could, because Taylor, my best friend in the pack and the only person who conveniently ignored my lack of ability to shift, wasn’t one to hold back or to tell lies.
From the things she’d said about the male wolves, I’d never be able to satisfy Leon’s urges, and I’d get broken if I tried.
“Can we pick this up tomorrow, maybe?” I felt weak just asking. What kind of baby couldn’t cope with name calling from people she’d grown up with?
The furrow in Leon’s brow deepened, concern etching itself on his features. “Sure thing.”
Relief met with shock inside me. He never made things this easy for me.
“Just make sure you go through some of those starting postures before we try again. Those are fundamental.”
“Sure.” I wasn’t certain I’d ever be able to defend against a wolf, but Conri had to at least see me try, and Leon would no doubt report back to him.
“See you tomorrow.” He turned away to pick up his T-shirt, and I grabbed my backpack and hightailed it away before I had to talk anymore. I was already humiliated enough without dragging it out. All I needed was a shower.
I’d just put my hair dryer down and was brushing my hair when my cellphone rang.
I glanced at the screen, but I didn’t need to.
The blaring music I’d selected for this ringtone had always sounded impatient to me, and it only signaled one person—Taylor.
Something about my best friend telegraphed impatience.
Even on a good day, she seemed to hop from foot to foot and talk a little too fast, like she was always desperate to get to the next thing.
“Hey.” I answered with just one word.
Taylor would launch straight into conversation anyway, so there was never any point in saying more.
“Come out with me tonight, babe? Stacey’s organized a memorial service for Mom, and I just can’t deal.
” My friend sighed, her exhale echoing gustily into my ear.
“I mean, crap, it’s been how long now? And Stace commemorates every year like Mom just died yesterday.
It’s too much.” But her protests didn’t hide her pain.
She just didn’t grieve the same way as her sister.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I should have remembered.”
“Pshaw.” I pictured my friend pushing me away with her hand.
“I don’t expect you to remember. Half the time I don’t even want to remember.
That’s why I’m going out.” She paused briefly but not long enough for me to say anything.
“And that’s why you’re coming with me.” She paused longer this time, but I still waited long enough that I knew it was my turn to speak.
“Okay,” I murmured, but it was hesitant. I wasn’t sure it was a good idea for us to leave, for Taylor to be so visibly absent from such an important ceremony and for me to be associated with that absence.
But maybe that was selfish? After all, my best friend needed me, and she was asking for my support. Why was I even considering what the others would think of me? I sighed. My head was a mess. Maybe it would do me some good to get away from pack lands for a while, too.
Everyone else would be busy at the memorial service, anyway, and I never felt like the most welcome person at official pack meetings like that—like I was an outsider trying to fight my way in. There were always whispers and no doubt Sienna would crow rather than merely whisper today.
Getting away would definitely be beneficial for both Taylor and me.
“What’s up? You sound kinda out of it.” Taylor’s tone changed, and I had no doubt she was wrinkling her nose as she considered possibilities.
“Oh. It’s not much.” I didn’t want to go into all the shit with Sienna. “Conri gave me a new job today.”
“Oh? What are you doing for that lovely brother of yours now?”
I laughed, able to imagine Taylor batting her eyelashes. Conri never hurt for female attention. “I’m liaising with his vampires.” I rolled my eyes so hard I was sure Taylor would hear them rattle.
“Oh…ugh. That’s actual shit, babe. I don’t know how he can stand to deal with them after they…after they…you know…” She didn’t finish, but yeah, I knew.
Shockwaves still reverberated around the whole pack about Conri’s and my parents’ killing, even though no one liked to address it directly. Bastard vampires.
“Yeah, I know.”
We were both quiet for a moment, both apparently lost in our own thoughts.
We’d both lost people and somehow, Taylor had always been there for me, despite her own tragedies.
Whenever I’d been picked on at school, Taylor had defended me.
She’d almost guarded me at some points, taking on my battles as her own.
I definitely owed her this night out. We had a lot of history, and me feeling sorry for myself didn’t mean I got a free pass to let her down.
“You know what?” I injected as much cheer into my voice as I could manage. “I think you’re right about this night out. We both deserve it.”