One Bite

Chapter 1-8

During the last two weeks on my father's island, I followed a regimented schedule without deviation or objection. Mornings I spent running around in wolf form with Cole and Elena, with their attention drawn more on each other. Then I attended history lessons with Elena, struggling to pay as close of attention as possible given I wanted to pass out asleep. After human form self defense and combat training with Cole in the afternoons, I fired off a few rounds in the range then collapsed into sleep.

And I ate. Boy, how I ate. I was never a red meat fan, but now all I ever thought about was food. So did Lumi, to the point where she decimated the island's deer population.

Otherwise, I slept up to twelve hours at a time. After years of the same Lumi dream every night, I no longer had any. Dreamless sleep in a realm of black nothingness was lovely.

After each exercise session, meal, and round of sleep, Lumi and I both grew stronger. She was quite stubborn and not talkative, but our connection grew each day. I forgot what my life was like without her in my headspace because, for the first time, I wasn't lonely or isolated. I didn't even care about having a mate, but instead treasured my first real friendship.

'Not friends.'

Lumi flexed her snarky sense of humor like a muscle.

I don't care what you say, Lumi. You're my friend.

I never spent time with my father, and not that he said anything, but lacked his usual exertion of criticism. I saw him every few days, although he received progress reports from Cole and Elena. The papers served as a reminder that while they seemed friendly, like the rest of his pack, they worked for him.

Physically, I got better.

"Finally!" I grunted as the sound of a heavy body hitting the floor filled my ears.

Five weeks of training later, the day before we left, I threw Cole down onto his back on the gym mats and pinned him. Realizing that we laid inches apart, panted out hot breaths, and sweat glistened down our foreheads, I pulled back.

Once my nose twitched at the smell of protein bar breath, how disgusted this position made me feel crept in. So I grabbed his shoulders, rolled him belly-down onto the mat, and pinned him again.

"Off, Princess." By the grim expression on the half of his face that I saw, Cole shared the same discomfort with our close proximity.

Or maybe he doesn't like his face mashed into the stinky-feet mats.

"But you have to admit." My hands shackled around his wrists, bent behind his head, I grinned as my knee pressed down into his back. "I got you."

He opted for an excuse, "Must be Elena distracting me."

I released him from the hold, then sat down next to him with a 'humph.' My fingers flicked a few strands off where they stuck to my sweaty face and neck.

"Alright," he relented into the gym mat, then pushed up to a seated position. "Nice defense, but you still have a long way to go."

Cole was right about Elena; those two were inseparable. Any moments they didn't spend with me, they were attached. Their annoying, puppy-eyed obsession discouraged me from the mating process and I retreated into the fictional relationships in my stories. Behaving worse than lovesick teenagers, neither moved or thought without the other knowing. That was my speculation, as I wasn't privy to their minds.

At my father's request, Erik canceled my pack ceremony. The decision spurned mumbles through his pack members and left me confused but without any explanation. I was left to assume that he changed his mind.