Chapter 7

SARAH

I did it. I don't know how, but I did. I made the grumpy Alpha smile. Not only that, I made him actually have fun with me.

It was nice sharing that part of myself with him. I don't even share it with Ash. It's a coping mechanism my mom developed to try and stop me from causing havoc. Every day, before school, she'd turn on music and the two of us would crazily dance until we had to leave.

Sharing it with Jayson felt almost natural. Like he's supposed to know my secrets. Dancing with him made me feel relaxed. We just met, yet I feel like I've known him for years. Like we could actually be friends.

I've been wanting to thank him for the great time I had, but it's Thursday and I haven't seen Jayson since Saturday morning. Cass has been training us all week. I asked Cass where he was and he said Jayson had to head home for pack business for a few days. He's supposed to be back today. So, I'll probably pop into his office after practice to say hi.

Cass isn't bad. Pretty fair. Definitely likes to make us sweat.

"Come on guys! Pick it up!" He yells as we run a small obstacle of hurdles, tires and rope nets.

I get over the ten hurdles ok, but then take a full-on header off one of the tires. It's the third time I've fallen on this damn course.

"Sarah! Get it together!" Cass yells.

I shoot him narrow eyes and go back in line.

The bigger guys fly through the course, but a lot of us land on our faces.

Georgia trips off hurdle number four, taking out five and six on her way skidding up the course. "Argh!" She yells as she sits up holding her arm. Pushing the hurdles off her.

Cass and Kale run up. Kale lifts her arm. Georgia screams. Kale looks up at Cass. "It's dislocated."

Cass bends down to Georgia. "Sweetie. I want you to hang onto Kale real tight now. Don't look. Ok?"

She nods as tears run down her face. Kale hangs onto her, holding her head, into his chest, away from her shoulder. He looks at Cass and nods, a solemn look on his face.

Cass takes a deep breath. He holds her arm in one hand and her shoulder in the other. "On three, ok? One....two...." and he held her arm and popped her shoulder back into place. 'Three." Georgia screamed and cried into Kale's chest.

Kale held her. "Shh...the pain will go away. It'll go away. Hang on. Just a minute."

He rocked her a bit while the pain dissipated.

He let her go, wiping her face. "The pain going away?"

She nods. He stands her up. "Ok. Why don't you go and sit for a bit." He flashes her a smile and she gives a little smile back.

As Goergia leaves, Kale turns back. "Alright guys, let's get back to work!" He claps his hands and jogs off the course. Cass sets the hurdles back up.

I step out of line and jog to Georgia. Squatting in front of her. She has faint tears but seems to be better. "You, ok?" I ask

"Yeah. I'll be alright. It was really nice of Kale to do that." She smiles.

I look back at Kale and back at her. "He's a really nice guy. Funny too. You should talk to him more." I grin.

"You think?" Her eyes lit up.

"Totally." I grin.

"Sarah!" I look back and Kale's pointing to the line. He looks at Georgia and smiles. He gives a thumbs up asking if she's OK and Georgia returns it.

I quickly turn to her. "Definitely talk to him more. Ok. I got to go."

She gives a little wave. "Bye. I shouldn't sit out long."

I jog back in line. Feeling kind of good that I may have played a little match maker here.

I was about to go on my run, when I see Jayson walking up past the dorms, heading for the Alpha building. He doesn't look this way. At least I know he's here now and I can thank him for a fun morning. I'm kind of excited to see him after not seeing him for so long.

After lunch, it was pack run drills. Two lines of us jogging around the field. When Cass yells Alpha, the runner at the back has to sprint to the front of the pack and take the lead.

Kale was running along beside us, "Pick up those feet! Get this pack moving!" He yells.

Cass, running backwards, yells, "Alpha!" And I sprint fast to the front. "Come on, Sarah. Faster!" He claps his hand.

After about an hour, we're done. People started tripping over themselves. Messing up the line.

Kale laughs as half his line goes down like a set of dominoes. "Ok, stop guys!"

We all tumble to the ground.

Cass walks around our dying bodies. "That was good. But you can do so much better." He steps over me and continues. Side eyeing me as he goes by. "I want more stamina from you next time. You got me?"

A weak "Yes, Alpha." comes from the bodies littering the practice field.

Kale claps his hands. "Ok. Hit the showers and go get dinner."

Like a pack of wolf zombies, we all head for the locker room.

Once I'm showered, changed and had dinner, I head to Jayson's office.

I run through everything I'm going to say. Smiling at the thought that he might be happy to see me after so long.

I turn down the hall Jayson's office is in, with a little bounce in my step, but something slows my pace.

A sound. I slowly walk to Jayson's office door. It's open a few inches, like someone didn't close it properly

I grow confused as I hear grunting and growls. I hesitantly place my hand on the door and push it open.

My jaw goes slack and my eyes go wide. My cheeks flush about ten shades of red.

Jayson has Wren, naked on his desk. His jeans around his knees. I swallow. They're right in the middle of having sex. My breathing speeds up. My heart races. I'm frozen. My eyes locked on his bare back. Wren opens her eyes. She slaps his back. "Jay." She stops him.

"What?" He pants and follows the direction of her eyes.

His eyes break my frozen lock. I look around wildly. "Oh......um....shoot...I'm...uh....I'm so sorry...." I quickly shut the door and run down the hall.

When I'm around the corner, I slam my back against the wall. I lean my head back, trying to process what I just saw.

I mean, I can't get mad. I can't get jealous. I can't get anything. So why do I feel weird all of a sudden. My wolf is whining. I need to catch my breath.

I hear a door open. I don't want to get caught again, so I run for the dorms. Once safe inside my room, I slide down the door and sit on the floor.

I'm not sad, or angry. I'm confused. I thought me and Jayson had some sort of connection. Clearly, it was my imagination or maybe some stupid, teenage crush.

One thing for sure, he's not interested in me. He's mostly likely just pretending to be nice to me. Probably figures I'll listen better then with him angry at me all the time.

Well, that's not happening. Now that I know he's just pretending to be nice, the gloves are off. I'll make him wish I never stepped foot in this place.

****

I didn't look his way once at all practice on Friday. I stayed in Friday night when everyone headed to Feral. Ash tried to get me to go, but I told her I had the stomach flu. Lame since we never get sick, but she left it alone.

Saturday morning, I didn't do my usual run in the woods to dance to music. I wasn't in a dancing mood. I needed to let out some aggression.

We have an indoor arena here with a sports locker. I'm really good at picking locks, from all the times I broke into my high-school, so I let myself in and headed for the sports locker. I grabbed a baseball bat. There was a bag of tennis balls in there and I grabbed those too.

I climbed the service stairs to the roof of the arena. I walk out to the edge. It overlooks the whole practice field. With the dorms across the way. Great place to hit some balls.

I dump the balls all over the roof. I pick one up and give it a squeeze. I toss it up and swing the bat as hard as I can. I connect and the ball goes into the practice field bouncing across it and almost hitting the dorms.

I grab another. I bounce it on the roof and catch it. Throw it up and hit it with a growl. It flies through the air and hits the second story wall of the dorm two building.

I do this a dozen more times. But I'm still feeling agitated. I have about fifty more balls to get this out of my system.

I hit ball after ball. Riddling the walkway of the dorms with them.

I'm in a zone and not paying attention at all.

I didn't see Luke, Jayson, Cass and Kale come out of the dorm and start up the walk.

I didn't see Luke pick up a ball and turn to Jayson. I certainly didn't see where I was aiming my next ball because it went flying at full speed and connected with Luke's stomach. Dropping him.

"Fuck!" He yelled. Cass and Kale could hardly hold themselves together. Doubled over in laughter once they realized what had happened.

I saw Jayson look toward the arena. I squinted my eyes and hit another ball. It bounced off the wall just above his head.

I hit another, this bounced just short in front of him.

Kale yells "Dude! It's a fucking baseball sniper!" He grabs Cass and ducks out the way.

I bounce another ball a few times. My eyes lock with Jayson's and, as if time slowed down, I tossed the ball in the air. I hit it with everything I had.

It screamed through the air. Straight at Jayson. I watched as it was about to hit him in the chest. But he reached out and caught it with one hand.

Kale jumped up. "Whoa, dude! I can't believe you caught that!"

I walked to the edge and put the tip of the bat on the roof. Leaning on it.

Jayson looked at the ball and looked at me. "Sarah! My office! Right now!" His voice echoed through the complex.

I dropped the bat and headed down to the ground level.

I don't know why I was so agitated. I said I wasn't mad. But when I saw him. All I wanted to do was pummel him with tennis balls.

I came out of the arena and Jayson stomped up to me. Both of us with anger on our faces. He grabbed my arm. "Let's go."

We walk past the other three. Luke is rubbing his stomach. "You better hope I don't get you on the field." He growls at me as Jayson drags me away.

We get to his office. He practically throws me in. He shuts the door. He pulls out a chair. "Sit." He barks.

I sit and cross my legs and arms. He leans on his desk in front of me. Instantly the image of him and Wren flood my brain and I look away. Ticking my jaw.

He crosses his thick arms. His chest muscle flexing in his shirt. "What the hell was that?"

I don't say a word.

"Sarah!" He yells making me flinch.

"Just relieving some stress." I mumble.

"Relieving stress. By endangering the members of this camp? Are you serious?" He glared at me.

"Please. They were tennis balls, not bullets." I narrow my eyes at him.

He steps forward. "It's doesn't matter, Sarah. That was reckless behaviour and you assaulted someone."

"Who, Luke? I never assaulted him. It was an accident." I slowly turn my head. "I wasn't meaning to hit him."

He got really close, bending down a bit "Oh? What about the ones at me? Was that an accident?"

I look him dead in the eye, narrowing mine. "No. I was aiming for you."

His jaw ticked as he studied my face. He pulls in his top lip. Nodding slowly and walking back to his desk. "This is about the other day, isn't it?"

"No." I say quietly. It's a total lie, but I wasn't giving him the satisfaction of knowing he hurt me.

"You know that's none of your business, right?" He crossed his arms again.

"Yeah." I play with my t shirt.

"But it bugged you. Didn't it?" His eyes bore holes into me.

"No. I don't care." I mumble. It's almost inaudible.

"Really. Well, I have a practice field covered with tennis balls that says different." He continues to stare.

I don't bother responding. He can say all he wants, but I'm not admitting that seeing him with Wren upset me enough to do this.

"Fine. First, you'll clean up your mess and put everything back. Second, you'll clean every inch of the arena after you leave this office. You'll have one hour of extra circuit laps after practice for the next week and you'll apologize to Luke. Do I make myself clear?"

I just stare at my shirt.

"Sarah!" He yells.

"Yes, sir." I mumble.

"Ok. Go wait outside, you'll report to Cass."

I look at him and then get up and walk into the hallway to wait for Cass.

I'll take the punishment. It's better than admitting to Jayson and myself that he broke something in me. Something that I thought was special. He hurt me and I won't let him enjoy it.