Ava’s POV
I make my way down to the basement in my new tank top, fighting the urge to turn around every single step.
Why did Lily have to ask Rachel to train with us?
I reach the basement and take a right towards the old training room. The packhouse is always the first building in new pack villages, so they made a training room in the basement, long before the other training center was built.
It was way before my time, but I use to train down here with Caleb and Ralph all the time.
It’s basically just an open space with old black mats on the floor and that’s it.
As I get closer to the room, I hear Lily and Rachel talking. I hesitate at the door, the urge to turn around unbelievably strong, but Rachel’s damn Lycan hearing.
“Ava! In here, come on in!”
I close my eyes briefly and then walk into the room with a fake smile plastered on my face.
Rachel is wearing the tiniest purple spandex shorts I have ever seen. They basically look like boy short underwear. And a low-cut white sports bra with lots of crisscross straps and lots of cleavage.
I try not to feel jealous as I notice that her long, lean but curvy body is all muscular and perfect.
“Okay!” Rachel grins at me. “This is going to be so much fun!”
My stomach plummets in dread.
Lily jumps up and down, her long, straight, high ponytail whipping back and forth.
I stand to the side and watch as Rachel goes over some very basic instructions with Lily, helping position her into the correct initial attack positions.
She wanders over to me and lifts her eyebrows at me.
“Ava, want to show me your attack position so that I can help you correct it?”
Uh, such a bitch.
I grit my teeth together as I try to keep a smile on my face.
“No thanks. You can just help Lily for now, I’ll learn by watching.”
“If you say so…” She makes a face as her eyes roam up and down my body, as if she thinks I don’t know how to be in a correct attack position.
I clench my fists to my side as she turns her back on me to go help a very eager Lily.
I watch for half an hour as Rachel shows Lily basic moves, throwing jabs at me over her shoulder the entire time.
“Use your length Lily, it’s an advantage over shorter people.”
She glances at me with a smirk after every dig.
Finally, she stands upright and smiles at Lily.
“You are doing great Lily! Now I want to show you the moves in action. Come over here Ava, we’ll show her how intense fighting can be in real life.”
My mouth feels dry as I look at Rachel in horror.
What? She wants to fight with me?
I look over at Lily who smiles encouragingly at me.
How do I get out of this?
“Oh, come on now, Ava.” Rachel laughs her tinkling laugh. “You aren’t afraid to fight with me, are you?”
“Ava is a great fighter!” Lily chimes in trying to be encouraging.
I set my jaw and walk over to Rachel’s mat, my feet as heavy as cement blocks.
Rachel gives me an evil grin and then looks over at Lily.
“Now Lily, watch me. Watch my movements and how quickly I can take down my enemy when they threaten my territory.”
My stomach clenches and I start to break out in a cold sweat.
Enemy threatening her territory? Is she going to kill me?
She turns back towards me and crouches, grinning widely at me.
Racking my mind to think of any sort of strategy to not get killed, I crouch as well.
“Lily, count to three for us.” Rachel smirks, lifting her eyebrows slightly at me.
I swallow and concentrate hard, watching for any tell-tale muscle movements to indicate where she might move towards first.
“One.”
Was that a muscle twitch in her left leg?
“Two.”
Oh my god, was that the right leg twitching?
“Three!”
Rachel moves like lightening and I’m clutching my stomach as I feel like a boulder was just thrown into my gut. As I’m still trying to take a breath, I’m shoved hard onto my stomach against the floor mat.
Trying to get enough breath to tell her that I freaking concede, she grabs my hair and pulls hard, yanking my head off the floor.
What? This isn’t fighting!
I try to grab her hands to get her to release my hair.
She pushes my face back, hard, into the mat and I feel sharp pain and hot sticky blood running down my face and into my mouth.
Now I’m being lifted back off the ground and I close my eyes prepping for the pain, trying to reach behind me to grab at her hands.
“Rachel!”
My eyes fly open in relief as I hear that beautiful deep voice.
I’m dropped hard against the ground and I land on my hands and knees, looking back up to see Cameron framing the door to the training center, his face looking just as scary as it had last night.
“Oh, Cameron. I was just helping Lily and Ava train, since they asked me too.”
I can’t tear me eyes off of Cameron, who is walking towards me.
He bends over and picks me up, cradling me tight against his chest and looking down at me, his eyes dark and hard.
I feel a flutter of fear. Is that anger towards me? I didn’t even do anything wrong this time!
“Rachel, get out of the packhouse and do not come back in. If I see you in here again, I will rip your arms from your body.”
I shiver slightly and lean more against Cameron’s hard chest, his eyes never looking away from me.
“They asked me to help them…”
“Get the fuck out Rachel.”
Cameron waits until she leaves and then turns, still holding me tight, to leave the basement.
He says nothing as he walks up the two flights of stairs and carries me to his bedroom.
Ever since Cameron picked me up, all the pain seemed to have vanished from my body.
It’s like the mate bond helps everything heal quicker, just like my hand.
When we reach the room, Cameron walks me straight into the bathroom and sits me down on the long bathroom sink counter.
He places his hand gently under my chin and looks at me.
“Are you okay?”
I nod, feeling my skin tingle pleasantly from his touch.
His lips go into a very thin line.
“Why would you ask Rachel to train with you?”
“I didn’t. Lily did.”
He looks at me for another moment and then reaches over to run a washcloth under the sink and starts to clean the blood off my face.
“You seem to do nothing but cause trouble just to get extra training in.”
“I want to be prepared. After last night, I am vividly aware that I am not ready for a fight, and Lily isn’t either.”
His hand pauses as he looks at me, his face unreadable.
“I told you that I don’t want you near the fighting.”
“Well, that doesn’t guarantee that it won’t come to me.”
My heart beats hard against my chest as he looks at me. He throws the towel into the sink and sighs.
“Fine. I will train you myself.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Just to keep you out of trouble.”
I smile.
He rolls his eyes and shakes his head. Then he grabs my face again and tilts it back and forth, inspecting it for any more injuries.
Satisfied, he goes to pull away, but I grab his hand and he pauses.
I grab his shirt and pull him towards me, wrapping my legs around his hips.
He raises an eyebrow at me.
“You nearly got yourself killed last night and again today. I’m still upset with you.”
I wrap my hands around the back of his neck.
“Let me make it up to you then, Cameron.”