Heather

"I forgot for a second how new you are to this." I groaned, but he continued on before I could bitch about the lack of explaining going on. "We mate for life. Once you’ve been claimed, that’s it. We all know that there’s more guys than girls and—"

He was missing the point entirely. "Excuse me but I do believe I’m living in the age of equal rights for women. This claiming stuff isn’t going to fly with me."

"It’s not like that. I’m explaining this wrong." He started messing with the pads. "We just have a different way of viewing relationships than norms."

"Well, you boys are just going to have to deal where I’m concerned because I’m not getting claimed. I’ll do the claiming when and if the time ever comes." I pulled my hair free from the band, shook it out, and sloppily put it back up.

Why were werewolves so confusing? And my life was majorly messed up if I was pondering the degree of confusion werewolves were causing in my life.

Still, I wanted to put a stop to whatever pain Xander was feeling. "Look. I’m not trying to be a bitch about it, so I’m sorry if I am being one. I like you and—"

He finally looked up. A lazy smile spread across his face. "You do?"

Oh, no. Now I’d really done it. I didn’t mean I liked him liked him. "I mean I don’t—" Brent growled and I could physically fell his anger pulsing through me. The pain took my breath away. I cried out, silencing the room.

I hit the ground on my knees and rubbed my chest.

My heart actually ached. Brent watched us with golden eyes. The expression on his face matched the pain I felt. But how was I feeling his pain? I wasn’t even touching him.

He stomped out of the gym, slamming the door behind him.

"I’m going to go make sure he’s okay," Callista said over the now silent gym. She said it sweetly, but the look she gave me was nothing nice.

Shit. Somehow I’d made a complete ass out of myself. This was not what I’d intended at all.

Xander knelt beside me. "Are you okay? What just happened?"

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Brent’s feelings faded when he left. He thought I was hitting on Xander, and that had hurt him. I was pond scum, total bottom feeding cockroach, for making him feel that much pain. I’d really stepped in it this time.

There was no way out of it without hurting Xander’ s feelings. I couldn’t set him straight right then. Not while everyone was watching.

I straightened and let go of the last lingering of anger and hurt. "Can we just, you know, have some fun doing this? I’m seriously nervous and everyone is staring now that Brent..." I motioned to the doors.

"Don’t worry about them. You’re going to do fine. No one’s expecting you to be Jet Li on your first day." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Leslie and Serena went back to sparring in the middle of the gym. Leslie did a back flip to avoid Serena’s sweeping leg. She landed on her feet, and then kicked. Serena grabbed Leslie’s foot and twisted, sending Leslie spiraling to the ground.

They were amazing. "I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to do that."

"We train from the time we can walk. We might not be able to shift till we’re teenagers, but our reflexes and strength are never as bad as a human’s. You’ll catch up."

"You don’t know me well enough to say that. With my luck, I’ll miss those pad things and hit you in the face."

"Wouldn’t be the first time."

I tried to stand how Xander showed me. I needed to get out of class with the minimum amount of embarrassment.

"This is so lame." I lightly tapped the pad with my fist.

"Oh, come on," Xander said. "Just do it."

"Okay, okay. Fine. But if I look like an idiot, it’s your fault. I’m not taking any of the blame."

"Deal. You don’t know what you’re capable of yet, so don’t limit yourself. Pretend that my hand is your worst enemy. The person who was the meanest to you. The one you dream about destroying." He slapped the pads together and then held them out again. "Hit it!"

For a second, I pictured the face of my ex-best friend from second grade—the one who started the nickname Freaky Heather and spilled to everyone what I could do—but I wasn’t that angry with her anymore.

The face morphed into Callista’s. Anger raged through me.

I got back in the stance and glared at the hand target. I put my whole body behind the punch, following through with my shoulder and twisting at the waist like Xander had shown me. As soon as my knuckles hit, I knew something was wrong but it was too late to pull back.

Xander flew three feet and slammed into the wall. The boom reverberated through the gym over the other sparring noises as he crumpled to the floor.

Dread swamped me. What had I done?

"Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. I’m so sorry." I kneeled next to him. Xander’ eyes were closed. "Wake up. Please. Please..."

He started laughing.

"Jerk." I shoved his shoulder into the ground. "This is so not funny. I thought I killed you."

He grinned. "Come on. It’s kind of funny." He jumped up and grabbed me around the waist like I weighed no more than a teddy bear. "My little wolfie," he said as he spun us around in a circle.

I growled and smacked his shoulder.

He gave me a squeeze. "Don’t think that this is going to get you out of doing more reps."

Maybe he really had hit his head. "No way. I’ll kill you next time for sure. I don’t know if you know this, but I am kind of super strong."

"I hate to break it to you, babe, but you took me by surprise and I went with the hit. Just a little drama to up the fun level." He winked.

The gym doors swung open and Mr. Langdon strode in wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt. "Brent is sitting the rest of this class out." A series of groans echoed through the gym. More than a few people glanced my way.

Go ahead people. Blame the new kid. Not like Brent had any responsibility in this whole situation.

"Settle down," Mr. Langdon said. "You’ll be stuck with me for the next few days. I hear you haven’t done your running yet. One hundred laps people. Now."

"One hundred. Is he serious?" I slapped a hand over my mouth. Oops. I didn’t mean to say that out loud.

"Totally. You never know what to expect when Mr. L teaches the class. He’s really good at kicking our butts," Xander said.

"How far is that? This gym is massive."

"It’s about the size of four basketball courts put together and then some. Nine-ish laps is about a mile."

So eleven miles. That’s nearly a half marathon. West and I ran nearly every morning before school, but only three miles. On a good day we hit five. This was a whole different ballpark. "This is nuts."

"Too much talking. Not enough running," Mr. Langdon said.

At least we weren’t doing it outside. It was way too hot and humid to be running out there. I settled into a comfortable pace next to Xander. Something about the sound of everyone’s feet slapping the wood was pleasant.

It took me a minute to realize that we were all running in sync, every footfall matching. I stumbled, breaking the rhythm.

Xander grabbed me before I fell.

My feet matched the rest of the class again. "This is very Village of the Damned."

"What?"

"You know that horror movie where those kids all look the same and do the same thing. We’re running in perfect sync. Exactly matching Mr. Langdon."

"That’s part of being a pack. If we were racing, then we wouldn’t match, but when you’re a pack it’s comfortable to move as one."

I made a face. "I never agreed to join any pack."

"Well...kinda, through Brent, who is part of our pack."

Mr. Langdon sped up, and we met his faster pace.

"Does everyone. Join the pack?" It was getting harder to talk.

"Pretty much."

"What if. I don’t want to?"

"You’re a girl. You kind of have to."

I growled. Werewolves were kind of sexist. "You’re pissing me off."

"Relax." He bumped me on the shoulder. "That’s not what I meant. It’s just, well, haven’t you noticed the ratio?"

I let my silence speak for me.

"Not a lot of girls are born. That’s why Callista thinks she’s so special. Her mom had two girls, which is unheard of. Those two think they’re the shit because of it. Anyway, it’s about a ten to one ratio. We take care of our women, and they’re never without a pack."

I gave him a sideways glance, hoping he got the point. He was bringing out the feminist in me again and there wasn’t that much ra-ra feminism in me to begin with.

"Look. There are tons of packs to choose from. All over the world."

Mr. Langdon sped up the pace again.

"You. Don’t have. To choose. Now."

I was too winded to respond, but I didn’t like where he was going with this.

The call of the pack slid over my skin, urging me to stay in step with everyone else.

It took me a couple of tries to get my footfalls to break their beat. It wasn’t that I had anything against the pack stuff, but I didn’t like the idea of having someone dictate my moves, even if it was just the way I was running.

"What. Are. You doing?" Xander said.

I couldn’t answer him. Staying on the offbeat took all my concentration. I forced my legs to move faster until I was next to Mr. Langdon. Whispers followed in my wake. I was gasping as I reached him.

"You’re just full of surprises," Mr. Langdon said with a smirk.

I matched his pace, but made sure my feet hit the ground just before his did.