2
“So you’ll stay?”
Niko sneered. “Guess I have no choice.”
Small relief sat within me knowing we’d still have at least seven of us to protect our territory. Niko was a slimy asshole sometimes, but he was loyal, so despite our differences in the past, I was glad he was staying.
Sudden tightness in my chest had me coughing. The pain made me squeeze my eyes shut as I coughed into my elbow. When I opened my eyes, I glimpsed my mom, Gretel, and my dad, Oslo, Gavin’s Beta, standing together near Gavin and looking on in concern. I wiped red specks off my arm, hoping they didn’t see, but my breathing remained ragged. It took all I had to control it, soothing the hoarse whistling into shallow inhalations.
“Okay,” said Gavin, “we’ll begin training right away. Today, if possible. Those of you who are leaving should leave as soon as possible.”
Everybody murmured, nodding to one another.
“If anybody from the Mythguard or Eastpeak contacts you, don’t respond,” he cautioned. “It’s become clear that we can’t depend on assistance from either of them, or else we risk Muriel falling into questionable hands. But we don’t need them. We can endure this on our own. We will find a new Alpha to overthrow David.”
Replacing David had become our solution. There was no way we could defeat Dalesbloom and the Inkscales with brute force. Fighting them head-on would get us all killed. We had decided that the only way we could come out of this with as minimal deaths as possible was to eliminate David, and Colt if necessary, and plant a new Alpha in their place. There had to be somebody in Dalesbloom who would help us, who had a mutual idea of peace without shedding more blood. David would be as good as dead once he completed the Lycan ritual, anyway. No leader could be effective as an uncontrollable hybrid, a man-monster, and we knew now that it was David’s ultimate goal to obtain Muriel so he could use the unicorn’s horn to complete the ritual. He was condemning himself and his pack to self-destruction—and we had to stop him before it was too late.
After those who were skipping town had left the cabin, the remaining were Gavin and Billie, my parents, Niko, Albin, and me. We moved into the kitchen, all seven of us crowded around the kitchen table where Gavin laid out a schedule and a spread of papers with illustrations of defensive and offensive techniques. Not all of us were warriors, but it was imperative that we became as much, even if we had to scrape together our determination to do so.
“We’ll have our first training session this afternoon,” said Gavin. “I’m going to train Billie to start. Oslo, I want you to refresh the basics with Albin, and Niko and Aislin will spar to gauge their skill level. You’ll be fighting as humans first, then as wolves. Gretel will take Muriel to the Mundy home. Try not to injure one another too badly, as Muriel is still recovering from all the energy she used healing everyone after the fight.”
Hot discomfort rushed through me at the thought of dealing with Niko and his scuzzy fighting techniques, all while sustaining chest pain that grew worse with each breath. But there was no way I’d let my pain show. I was Aislin Mundy: a champion, a gladiator, a fireball, and I couldn’t reveal even the slightest vulnerability. Besides, outlasting the pain would prove my ability to protect my pack. One day, when my parents retired, I would become Gavin’s Beta. I would lay down my life for him and Grandbay, even if it meant fighting to my dying breath. Sparring Niko would be nothing compared to that.
I caught Niko’s eye and he smirked. It didn’t deter me.
Heading outside, I followed Niko to a patch of mowed grass near the far edge of the yard. Gavin and Billie stayed near the cabin, little Billie determined and full of zest to learn, while my dad had Albin in the middle of the yard. Beyond the yard, warm sunlight from that sunny August afternoon filled the forest with a golden glimmer. No foreboding shadows lurked on the periphery, just towering trees and the gentle rustle of leaves caught in the wind. Blue skies made it a beautiful day, but none of us could enjoy it, knowing what dangers were waiting for us outside of Grandbay.
Niko tossed his trucker hat into the grass, then unbuttoned his red flannel and tossed that aside too, leaving him in just a stained white wifebeater. He bent his torso and raised his hands in anticipation of a grapple.
My fighting spirit urged me to taunt him. “Oh, you think you can outmaneuver me in those jeans of yours?”
The way his nose wrinkled made his moustache wiggle. He had sort of a short mullet going on that completed the whole sleazy trucker look. “Worry about yourself, Mundy.”
I scoffed. Whatever, the grass and mud stains he’d get on his jeans when I crushed him into the ground weren’t my problem. Then again, I supposed if we were fighting anyone as humans, it would be in whatever we happened to be wearing at the time. Fortunately, I mostly wore jeggings that gave me the full range of motion I needed in my legs to kick anyone’s ass.
The first thing I did was quickly assess Niko for weaknesses. He would probably focus on using his arms more than his legs. The long tuft of hair behind his head would provide me something to grip, but I had the same weakness with my red hair pulled into a ponytail. I would have to shoot low and avoid his hands. My lungs radiated with pain and I cleared my throat before breathing in long and slow.
Niko struck first, hurtling directly at my midsection. I slid sideways and dodged him, giving a hard kick to his hip, only for my attack to backfire as the impact led my foot to the ground. My back was to Niko, who used the force of my kick to redirect his weight to his opposite foot and thrust his shoulder into my right side. His size and weight caused me to stumble sideways, twisting my body so I faced him again, but he all too quickly grabbed my arms and pulled them in toward my chest and down. My shoulders followed, and I knew he would try to gain control of my neck from there. I twisted my neck, my left shoulder dipping and my right shoulder rising as I tried to turn my body. Just as he wrapped his left arm around my neck, I bit his bicep above his inner elbow. He howled and grabbed my ponytail like I expected him to. I rammed my heel just above his knee. That caused him to buckle forward but left my torso open—and he retaliated with a sharp thrust of his palm into my chest.
The intense collision took my breath away, agitating the pre-existing injury to my left lung. Pain paralyzed me as I stumbled back—pain powerful enough to bring me to my knees as I struggled to breathe. Niko advanced on me, and in a fit of panic I raised my hand, unable to ask for pause as a coughing fit wracked my chest. I was lucky that he stopped.
The ache was unbearable. I felt like I was suffocating, unable to inhale, as if my chest was already full of air that my lungs wouldn’t accept. All I could do was keep coughing, and out of reflex I coughed into my arm, hiding the droplets of blood that escaped my lips. I wilted on the ground, wheezing while Niko stood above me.
“If I were the enemy, you’d be dead by now,” he said.