Somebody's Watchin' Me

Lya

Time at the pack passed in such an odd way. Things that would seem so small to others - like a spur of the moment lunch date with a stranger - were a huge deal, while monumental things came across as expected and ordinary. Maybe it was just how my brain processed things, not how pack life was different.

Oliver and I didn’t get our run in the day before yesterday, and for that, I felt bad. Instead, we went over to his grandmother’s cottage so she could talk to my wolf. It was so interesting willingly letting Tala come forward and take control, while I just sat back and watched from the sidelines. All she wanted to know was how exactly silver affected Tala. Tala’s answer surprised me, too. Basically, it seemed like the silver just suppressed her presence, making my more human traits come forward. My scent, my senses, all the way down to silver just coming across as an allergic reaction, it was more humanesque. It hurt her significantly, but it didn’t shut her out like I thought for so long. She was the one who had made the choice to sit quietly in the background, not heal me at appropriate speeds, keep things like a mate a secret. She always had the power to come forward, as made evident by The Incident with the whole killing the fiance thing, but very rarely chose to. Her logic was if I didn’t want her around, she could appease me and not be around… because she also didn’t want to be around me if I was just going to hurt her.

Yesterday, fear was the modus operandi to get me to shift while training in wolf form. I tried to shift on command, I really did. But, I ended up just standing on the field butt naked for ages. The only thing that worked was Cody charging at me as his wolf when my back was turned. After training, Cody had been extremely curious about my past - specifically, my family on my dad’s side. The ones who had taught me how to fight. He wanted answers, and so did I. He made several good arguments, too.

“So you’re telling me you are almost certain your dad is a werewolf,” he said, looking for clarification. I nodded in confirmation. “And you saw your family on his side regularly, even after your dad left you guys?” Another nod. “So that means your cousins are almost definitely also werewolves, which would explain why you fight like a trained wolf.”

I just shrugged. To be honest, the thought that they might share the same genetic anomaly my dad and I had never crossed my mind. “I think my mom just sent me to them for the summers so she wouldn’t have to deal with me,” I said. “She was scared of me, don’t forget.”

“With good reason,” he scoffed. “I wouldn’t want to meet you in a dark alley, wolf or not.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sure.”

“Really,” he insisted. “Do they know you’re a wolf? Your cousins are good. I want to know what pack they’re from.”

“I never told them. But how would I know about their pack?” I laughed. “I didn’t even know the pack my dad was in until Oliver planted a book in my room and Marjorie started asking too specific questions.”

Cody narrowed his eyes at me. The look was one that was full of suspicion, not curiosity. “You know what pack you’re from?”

I shifted uncomfortably. “It was pretty easy to connect the dots.”

“So you know.” It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t bother to answer. He just turned, leaving me standing by myself in the middle of the training field. I quickly turned, gathering the rest of my clothes, and rushed back to the packhouse.

And just like yesterday morning, getting out from under Anna’s thumb and away from the packhouse so I could make it to the training grounds in time was a feat that should count for training in and of itself. The more I got to know Anna, the less she intimidated me… but she still exhausted me. She was big energy, all the time.

“So what do you and Mr. Alpha have planned for today, huh?” she insisted. “He’s got me reading through and scanning a bunch of files of people who have joined the pack. I bet you have more fun plans.”

I just smiled and continued sipping my coffee.

“And when are you officially joining the pack, anyway?” she demanded.

That question caught me a little off guard. It had kind of been the elephant in the room. I was not at all opposed to it, but at the same time, I didn’t want to give up that last bit of independence I had. But, if Oliver and I were going to work out, I was going to end up as this pack’s luna, and I’d have to be a member of the pack for that. I couldn’t lead a pack I wasn’t a member of.

I wondered how that all fit into the Wulver Pack equation.

I rushed into Cody’s office just a couple minutes late. He glared at me over his cup of coffee and motioned to the chair across from his desk.

“Sit,” he growled.

I sat down cautiously, not particularly interested in getting reamed for just trying to stay under the radar. I had a good excuse for being late. Anna had a big mouth, and if I had told her I had to leave because I needed to get to training, that would have undoubtedly gotten back to Oliver. I knew for a fact he would be less than thrilled if he found out his gamma and his mate were going behind his back to train.

Cody snapped me out of my internal panic. “I don’t care what little secrets you and your mate keep from each other. That doesn’t concern me. But this pack and the safety of the both of you is my first - my only - priority. You don’t keep secrets from me.”

“Wh-what?” I stuttered.

“You know you’re a part of the Wulver Pack, which means your family is, too.”

“I don’t see how any of that makes a difference,” I said slowly, noting that I had never told him that was the pack I was fairly certain I was a part of.

“It makes a hell of a lot of difference,” he scoffed. “The Wulver Pack are the best fighters out there, and a few summers training with them goes a long way. I’m putting you up against one of our trained fighters today.

“What?” I choked. “They’ll kill me!” Sure, I could hold my own, but I wasn’t that good.

“No, they won’t,” Cody assured me. “I need a proper baseline for where you’re at. And handing Ellie’s ass to her certainly doesn’t tell me much.”

Part of me thought about whipping out the ‘hey, I’m Luna’ line, but I also knew Cody was smart enough to know when to let me play that card versus remind me of my lack of place. So, not really having any other options, I begrudgingly followed him out to the back corner of the field. Even though Cody insisted no one would recognize me, we had still made sure to keep our distance and train as far away as possible from the rest of the warriors. If anyone asked, I was just someone interested in potentially joining the ranks. He skillfully left out which exact rank that was.

Cody coached me through a brief warmup before waving over a hulky guy that I’m sure ate half pints like me for breakfast. I craned my head up to look at him and gulped in fear. I was certain he had ditched his shirt because his muscles flexing had torn it. This was it, this was how it ended. I had wolfed out and taken out a hunter that had nearly two years of preparation and planning to kill me, but this beast was going to snap me like a twig and he probably wouldn’t even notice. I glanced around, trying to find the cameras. Was Punk’D back on air? I was suddenly regretting agreeing with Cody to start training.

I didn’t miss this guy’s visual assessment of me, his sullen gray eyes taking in his next victim. He had to be thinking this was a joke as much as I was. I tried to offer a smile, but failed miserably. How exactly was Cody going to get a baseline from this? A flatline, maybe, but then he’d have to deal with Oliver.

He pushed the deep brown hair off of his face and offered me a nod before taking up a defensive stance. I shot Cody one last glance, hoping he’d call it and say he was just joking, before following suit.

Fear - legitimate fear - twisted into knots in my stomach. Give me a normal sized human, and I’d probably willingly give it a go. This person, though, I was convinced was a relation to Hodor.

He made the first move. I was not about to initiate a fight with this guy. I was happily surprised with how slow he seemed to be, easily dodging his advances. I just had to figure out how in the world I was going to land any sort of blow.

Opportunity struck when he threw all his weight at me, and I ducked around him, grabbing his arm and pulling it with me. I moved with him as he stumbled to the ground. With an arm pinned behind his back and a knee at his neck, I was able to land a couple blows, even though I was certain he hardly felt them.

A prickling sensation alerted me that we were being watched. Not surprising, I’m sure everyone was morbidly curious just how long I’d last. I was glad I hadn’t taken any bets, because I had already made it longer than I thought.

The feeling of being watched shifted from just prickles to more like stabs. I spared Cody a glance, hoping for some reassurance, but he was focused on something past us. I didn’t risk hazarding a glance over my shoulder to see what had his attention - I had this guy pinned. He used my distraction against me, though, and we were back to circling, ducking, diving, striking. I didn’t need to look around, I could feel we were attracting eyes. Smallest versus largest was probably a pretty silly fight to watch, but at least we were putting on a show.

I shouldn’t have been so surprised when a familiar voice boomed over the field. The voice was angry, and it was easy to be more scared of it than the man in front of me.

“What in the everloving hell is going on?”