Free Web NovelChapter 78: Brutal Training I
The next day, I found myself at the training grounds at sunrise first thing in the morning. Even if Damon didn’t tell me to skip breakfast, I woke up late enough that I didn’t have time to get food anyway.
I thought Damon and I would be the only ones present at such an obnoxiously early hour, but to my surprise, there were already men and women warming up at the field in various forms of undress, and I had to avert my eyes at the nonchalant display of flesh.
Was it mandatory for everyone to dress like they were at the beach? Was I missing some memo about proper attire? Nicole had not mentioned this to me when she helpfully pointed the route to the training grounds last night at dinner.
Then again, it wasn’t as though I had many clothes to wear for such an occasion. I peered down at my oversized tee and shorts― the T-shirt was raided from Blaise’s own cupboard, and I snagged a pair of his more serviceable boxes to become my new pair of pants.
Beggars couldn’t be choosers.
Damon would be livid, but he only had himself to blame. Putting on Blaise’s clothes also enveloped me with his scent, a wordless reminder of my priorities. I was doing this for Blaise’s sake. Damon had caught me off-guard yesterday when he showed up without his shirt, but I vowed to not be taken by surprise again.
Blaise was the mate I wanted. He should be here on the training grounds, guiding me to do my best instead of being banished to do Damon’s dirty work.
"Harper, what are you doing here?" A familiar voice greeted me. It wasn’t Damon, since he still hadn’t shown up yet.
"Elijah! You’re here!" I exclaimed in surprise. Elijah seemed blessedly free of any visible injuries as he waved at me with more friendliness than I deserved. His left arm was perfectly healed, and so was the rest of him.
Gone were the vicious black eye over his right eye, the split lip, and the bruises that littered his body. Since he was shirtless, I could clearly see for myself that his skin had regained a healthy tan free of wounds. He was indeed back into the pink of health.
"I’m the pack’s charlie, all training sessions are mandatory unless I get permission to skip," Elijah explained. "I’m more surprised you’re actually here though. Are you sure you’re feeling well enough? Our training sessions are brutal."
"I’m ready," I said, but then I cast a wary eye out for the other wolves on the field. They kept giving me odd looks, and Elijah speaking to me had drawn even more of their attention my way.
Elijah spotted this and laughed.
"Don’t mind them, Harper, they are just surprised that you actually showed up to train after what happened during the ritual combat," Elijah said. "Half of them didn’t believe you would live through what Damon put you through, and the other half didn’t believe you would show up for seconds."
"Is training that bad?" I asked warily. My stomach turned, threatening to hurl out yesterday’s dinner. Damon did tell me to give breakfast a miss.
"Well..." Elijah hesitated, "Everything is hard at the beginning, isn’t it? I’m sure you’ll adapt. Damon isn’t a complete monster."
Very optimistic words from the same man who put Elijah in the infirmary. Damon was going to put me through the wringer.
Suddenly the air stilled, and my nose caught the same whiff of mint and pine. I scowled. "Speak of the devil." freeweɓnovel.cѳm
Damon Valentine appeared in front of me. Just like how his scent didn’t change from yesterday, he was still shirtless today, flaunting his muscles offensively in front of my eyes. I caught more than one envious and admiring eye wandering to his direction, but he didn’t seem to notice.
"You actually showed up," Damon said.
I tried not to be offended by his tone of surprise. I guess Damon must have really believed I was a directionally challenged fool, but at least that was better than him realizing I was out with Lydia.
"You told me to." I crossed my arms and tilted my chin up at him challengingly. "Are you sure you’re not going senile?"
Gasps rang from across the training field. Werewolves had incredibly sharp hearing after all. Next to me, Elijah shot me a look of horror.
"Harper, how can you say that?" Elijah winced. "Alpha Damon―"
Damon ignored Elijah’s attempt to plead for my life. His nostrils flared, and I could see an ugly flush crawling up his neck. "What are you wearing?"
"Clothes. Maybe you haven’t heard of them?" Since he still refused to put on a shirt. Maybe every other participant was scantily dressed since they took direction from their Alpha.
"You know what I mean," Damon growled. "Why are you wearing Blaise’s clothes?"
"It’s not like you’ve given me a lot of clothing options to choose from," I pointed out. "More importantly, I miss Blaise."
I purposely lifted the collar of the T-shirt to take a long sniff. Even to my untrained nose, I could still detect a whiff of his cedar scent. I felt a pang of longing.
"I’m doing this for him," I said firmly. "Now are you going to train me or simply criticize my clothing choices?"
"Be careful what you wish for." Damon’s eyes seemed to glow with intense emotion as he stared down at me like he longed to rip off all my clothing to make me suffer for my actions. He turned and addressed the rest of the pack. "Twenty laps, all of you!"
As one, the group of participants gathered together in lines of two and proceeded to sprint around the field. My mouth fell open. This field was huge; I would be dead on my feet by three rounds. And Damon was already starting with twenty laps?
"Alpha Damon, I don’t think Harper can finish that much. She’s just starting out and she doesn’t even have a wolf!" Elijah, bless his heart, once again tried to help me plead with Damon for mercy, but Damon was unmoved.
"If she wants to go with Blaise, she needs to make the journey to begin with. Twenty laps is the bare minimum."
"Fine," I growled back in response. I wasn’t going to back down from a direct challenge. "I’ll run your stupid laps!"
