Slaves of the Night

Chapter 8 - Because I Said So

Chapter 8: Because I Said So

  “God, you must be from the deepest pit of hel...” I growled out between pants as I rested the palms of my hands on my knees. Before I could finish my sentence Wes snapped his fingers like I was some kind of dog.

  “Less talking and more running, I don’t have time for your idle comments,” he said evenly, before turning his head to the side to crack his neck. We had just run three miles in the sweltering heat and he had hardly broken a freaking sweat. I swear sometimes I felt like the only miserable one in this place.

  “I’m not running another minute—this is ridiculous. There’s no point in you forcing me to run five miles every morning before the crack of dawn when your point could easily be achieved in one.”

  It was such a good thing I had found a Monster in the fridge before strapping on running shoes this morning or I’d be a sleeping heap on the side of the trail. When Rayne had snidely remarked to me that training wasn’t going to be easy, I didn’t think it would be because he gave me a guy who lives to torture me as my trainer. Okay that was probably a bit extreme, Wes would rather I didn’t exist entirely rather than be tortured, but since he couldn’t eradicate me, making me run five miles at five in the morning would have to suffice.

  My breath hadn’t even caught up to me when Wes started running again, clearly expecting me to follow. With a deep guttural groan I forced my legs to move one step at a time until I had built up a fast enough rhythm to keep up with him at a safe distance. There were reasons why I had never been on the track team, and me hating running was definitely one of them. My feet pounded on the dirt ungracefully while the guy in front of me moved without sound. If I had to list all the things that were downright disgustingly awful about Wes they’d go on forever. But they’d include the fact that he thought he was better than anyone else and even worse, could prove that he actually was.

  Our days for the past week had started exactly like this, with almost identical thoughts as what was running thru my head. Yesterday had been at least bearable because Alex had decided to tag along with us on our morning routine and pestering him nonstop with questions.

  “What’s it like to be on a search team?” “Has there been any headway on the investigation, any stragglers from the Redwood pack?” “What about any rival packs, did there have to be disputes?”

  Now, I had asked all the same questions,  but had gotten the cold ‘you are so undeserving’ shoulder but luckily Mr. I’m Perfect forgot that with my heightened hearing I could hear all the answers he had supplied for Alex. Maybe it was the way her auburn swooshed from its high pony tail as she trotted on ahead of me right next to Wes stride for stride, or her undying curiosity for the thrill of a fight, but somehow she got underneath his skin in a good way. And here I was thinking he was an emotionless sadist but at one point I could have sworn I saw a genuine smile come from his lips. Then again, maybe he was only like that around me. In any case, being the annoying pest that I enjoyed being, I goaded him about his emotions.

  “So what’s up with you and Alex?” I asked panting from a few steps behind him on the trail. The burn in my legs wasn’t going away so I tried to breathe in more air to oxidize my blood but it only made me sound like I was wheezing myself to death. Another reason why I wasn’t a seasoned track runner. It was so much simpler to run in wolf form, why even bother when I only had two legs to use.

  He gave me a sideways glance of annoyance but I persisted, pushing myself so I was trotting on right next to him. The man must run marathons in his free time because he hadn’t broken a sweat or tossed a single hair out of place that wasn’t already so from bed head. “What in the world do you mean?” he asked in a bored tone, like a parent getting tired of their idiotic child.