Chapter 36 Vale
Vale
We follow Bonnie’s dad out to the park. It’s an overcast day. Bonnie wasn’t worried by us leaving in the slightest. I admit I am a bit nervous, I want to impress this alpha. He is, after all, Bonnie’s father.
“This is a test we cannot afford to lose.”
Dakota leans forward, peering through the windshield as Sanderson turns off the dirt road we’ve been driving on and parks in a carpark.
“What do you think he’s going to have us do?” Rory asks.
“No idea, but keep yourself ready. He’s more dangerous than he’s letting on,” I say quietly.
I park the car and get out. It’s cool but not cold, and the winds are blowing in a way that makes me think rain’s coming in the next twenty-four hours.
“Right, I brought you out here because I need to know that you’re going to be able to look after my daughter the way she needs. That you can keep up with her.”
He grins.
“Follow me.”
He leads us into a fenced area.
“This isn’t part of the park. Well, it is, but it's private land, and we got a grant that allowed us to build this out here so long as we made sure we trained people who requested it. Now, you need to understand, Bonnie holds the record at eight minutes and twenty-seven seconds.”
We round a corner, and I stop, my eyes getting wide and huge, and I just stare because it’s like my dream playground.
“Oh, wow,” I breathe out.
“Shotgun!” Kota shouts and races up, climbing the wall with ease. He sits on the top for a minute, surveying the rest of it, before standing up and flinging himself across space and onto a net that he climbs as easily as if he’s walking up stairs.
When I tear my eyes away, I find Rory and Cyn stretching.
“What are you doing?” I ask them.
“Trying to beat her record.”
That’s right, Bonnie has the record on this obstacle course. I suddenly hunger to steal it from her, to prove I’m an alpha that is worthy.
Her dad pulls out a stopwatch and points out each section. “Climb the wall, then you have to get through the vertical rope maze. The pits are next, then you’re crawling. Up the wall again, rope climb. Well, you get the drift.” Sanderson pauses. “He sure is having fun out there.”
I’m almost jealous of him.
“Right, well I’m glad to see how excited you four are.”
Rory gets ready, and Sanderson glances at his stopwatch.
“Go.”
He shoots off. I step up beside Sanderson and look out.
“I’m looking to know if you guys are going to be working with Bonnie, going out with her on the trips. Am I hiring you?”
“We wouldn’t leave her alone,” I say with quiet confidence. “We don’t need money, we just want to be with her.”
“Great. So, I’m going to teach you everything I know so I know you’re safe out there,” he says.
“And it starts here?”
“I can get a good feel of someone on the course. What kind of brave you are, what kind of stupid, your physical capabilities, and what you love.”
“You can see all that?”
“And then some, but I’ll teach you that, too.”
And then, to my utter shock, he throws a knife at Cyn.
My alpha spins and snags it out of the air.
We all stare at each other. My anger is roiling, but I dare not attack. I watch him like he’s a dangerous snake.
“Interesting,” Sanderson says and strokes his chin. “Just how trained are you?”
“Very,” I say thickly.
“Good. That will make this easier. Good time, you’re twenty seconds too slow,” he says to Rory.
Rory spits a curse, but Cyn’s up next.
“Are we throwing knives at each other?” Dakota asks with a wide smile.
“Target. Go.” Sanderson points to a tree, and before he can hand over his throwing knives, Dakota has embedded them in the red center of the circle.
He’s surprised; he doesn’t want to be, but he can’t help it. This alpha underestimated us.
He whirls and attacks me. I block him and attack back. He steps back three times before he kicks at me. I jump back, landing in a crouch and glaring at him.
He grins.
We attack again, exchanging heavy blows I know I’m going to feel, but no matter how he tries, he can’t defeat me, and I know that with a little bit more effort, I could have him.
He steps back, breaking out of the fight. “Time. Too slow, ten seconds.”
Cyn lets out a frustrated sound.
I growl and tug off my shirt, then walk to the start line, glancing back.
“Go.”
I fly up the wall, barely touching it, and fling myself into the ropes, taking a path that I’d already mapped out.
I laser my focus on moving my body, maneuvering through it.
Each section is a challenge that I shove myself through, unwilling to lose.
By the time I’m crawling across the mud, I’m starting to enjoy myself.
As I burst across the line, Sanderson calls out time.
He looks up with a look of deep surprise. “You got her time exactly.” He purses his lips and frowns. “Bonnie’s going to be really mad about this.”
I shrug and pick up my shirt.
“Right. Let's talk skills. Where are you weak? What don’t you know?”
“Rafting was one we were a bit lost on,” Kota admits. I think he’s got a bit of hero worship for Mitchel Sanderson.
“Can you swim?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I can teach you to read the water and navigate it easily.”
And the afternoon passes like that. He tests our tracking, hunting skills, along with our ability to set up camps, start fires, identify wildlife and plants. We fought several times, and he pit us against each other, watching us and pointing out tips and areas we need to improve.
As night comes, he points up to the stars. “Can you navigate by the stars?”
I shake my head. “We never needed to know.”
“Well, now you do. No GPS in the wilderness.”
I look up and back at him. “Bonnie is one of the most impressive people I have ever met. The way she navigated the trip was incredible. But I can see where she learned it from.”
“Sucking up will win you no favours here.”
“It’s not sucking up, it’s…” I stop struggling for words.
“Things went wrong out there, and Bonnie got hurt, and things got dangerous, now I would have handled them, but she wanted to deal with it, and I wanted her to know I respect her decisions, but her skill and passion in everything she does comes across loud and clear.”
“I’m still fuzzy on what exactly was happening out there,” Sanderson says with an edge.
I shrug. “Misfortune. Inexperience. I don’t know what to blame it on, but I can tell you that, without her, I don’t think we all would have survived it so well.”
Sanderson smiles. “I think it was fortunate that you four were there. Things could have gotten a lot messier.”
It’s curious that he doesn’t seem overly concerned about what happened, and it’s clear that Bonnie hasn’t told him about us, though I’m dying to know why.
“Let’s head back. Shower. I believe my lady is cooking up a big meal for everyone.”
We get in the car, and once we’re on the road following him back, I relax, letting my mind wander.
“Anyone else think that was weird?” Cyn asks. “Not like actual weird, but more like he’s-a-trained-killer weird. Like maybe our hunch was right?”
“Yeah, I picked up on that, too,” Rory murmurs. “Do we think the detective is after Sanderson?”
“There’s no proof he’s like us. Yet,” Cyn grumbles.
I incline my head, unwilling to voice the thoughts because what if we’re wrong.
“We need to focus on what we know and just watch and wait. No point making assumptions.”
“Well, whatever assumptions we’re making, you can be sure he’s making them about us, too,” Dakota says.
That is a mildly unsettling thought.