Chapter 4: Knew of its magnifying quality

Luca’s POV

Reasons why sleeping in late would be wonderful:

I hardly slept last night due to a few reasons:

1. Apart from being a tractor – Ethan talks in his sleep and had a proper conversation with – what I assumed – was a snowman. He said something about a carrot nose being gone and that he had NOT eaten it.

2. I had left at two AM to see the two wolves. 

3. My brain had completely filled with thoughts of those two wolves upon my return.

Reasons why I couldn’t sleep in:

1. My dad came in this morning and had commanded our cabin to do morning run. It was 4:30. I swear Ethan sleep-ran.

The reason for morning run was still vague to me. The reason was – according to my father – was that we had to check the perimeter for any signs of intruders. But we were in human form and didn’t really go into the woods. Just casually jogged in the bristling cold around the camp before being rewarded with icicle corn flakes.

I sat across from Ethan, clicking my fingers as I see his eyes having been closed for a minute too long. He jumped away, his spoon falling with a splash into his corn flakes.

“Why goodness hell did we get stuck with morning run duty?” Ethan groaned, taking hold of his half-cold coffee cup.

“Because my dad loves me” I sighed, drinking up my milk that was leftover in my bowl.

“Wish he’d only love you and leave our cabin out of it” he said, cringing as he sipped his coffee, “This stuff is freezing” he groaned, putting his cup back down.

I nodded, eyeing my empty cup. I had learned by now to drink fast or face the consequences. Behind Ethan I saw my dad walking up to the small podium. He looked tired, probably having not slept last night. My mom always said that Dad couldn’t sleep without her. I didn’t question it.

I glanced at Ethan, signalling that he had to prepare himself. Just as he nodded, my father spoke – command washing over the room. My body felt rigid as command after command was projected into our brains. The thing about being commanded was, it didn’t feel quite right. Every instinct in your body tries to sway from it but you have to follow it. Or that’s at least how I felt.

My dad finally finished, me all too eager to turn my attention back to Ethan. We had another ten minutes before training started.

“Courses, jay” he said, holding up his spoon and twirling it around.

“Better than combat” I smirked, knowing Ethan completely loathed that part of training.

He grunted, getting up from the table. We took our dirty dishes to the kitchen before heading to the training field, talking and joking continuously. Ethan and I had been stuck with each other since birth. Our parents were childhood friends so we had shared a crib various times. I think in kindergarten we attempted to find other friends but they just didn’t get me like Ethan did. So we had just decided to be best friends and stick with each other. And it was pretty nice of my dad to put us in the same cabin. He wasn’t usually that lenient.

We headed to Course 3, Ethan cringing at the high platform. Course 3 was placed above everyone else, about twelve metres tall and you did everything in the air. Don’t know what the purpose of it was but for someone with a fear of heights, I highly do not recommend it. Except you know, if you were into wetting your pants. A harness was thrown into my hands, me quickly putting it on.

“Matthews, Baby Chief – you two start” someone said, me growling at our instructor as we stepped towards the climbing wall. We started climbing me kind of wanting to just let go and fall onto the instructor. I hated when people called me Baby Chief, associating me with my dad. I was my own person wasn’t I? We climbed up, Ethan like a billy-goat and moving a lot faster than me. For someone who hated courses, he was a natural.

When I finally made it to the top, he was already on the second part of the top, busy holding onto a rope and trying to swing to the next one. I ignored him, focusing on my own obstacle. Loose planks suspended in the air by thinning ropes stood in front of me. I jumped on the one, knowing by now how to manoeuvre through this. A person had to jump with both feet, ensuring you landed on both. The planks were thin so you had to jump accurately. Using only foot would ensure a split and no direction but to fall. I clicked the harness onto the rope above me before jumping and praying that the planks weren’t too slippery. Sadly, they were as ice. I nearly slipped off the first one, me ending up on my tippy toes to ensure I didn’t pummel down and ensure myself a shouting match with my dad. It took longer than I hoped to jump those eight planks but I finally made it.

The ropes always made me feel like Tarzan and I hated that movie for giving the idea to whoever cookoo bird had created the obstacles. Ethan was by the fourth obstacle by now. One more and he’d be heading down. Lucky fish.

I pretended to be Tarzan to the best of my ability, clinging to those ropes like nothing else. The skin on my hands would probably be off if I wasn’t a werewolf. Thank you speed-healing!

I finished the ropes, stretching my fingers for a second before moving onto the next challenge. The first one practiced your legs, second one practised your arms, third one – balance. It was a small rope – swear a mouse would struggle to stay on balance and the harness rope was looser, ensuring that you wouldn’t be able to use it for aid. I started, trying to not look down at the people underneath me and keeping my eyes on the pole in front of me.

My dad always said you need to imagine a person there; it helps you to stay focused. I think he meant – someone you liked – but I always just imagined him. Growling and shouting at me. My goal was to just pass him and get to the next obstacle.

I finally made it, slipping past the pole towards the fourth obstacle. This one required swift ness. Giant poles swung back and forth, their intention to hit you and make you fall off the obstacle. That thing packed a proper punch if it got you. Worst part was – you didn’t have time to strategize. Once you start, you had to hurry. There were no breaks for pause and reflect. You reflected when you got hit in the side by one of those things.

I counted to three, starting the torture. It was quick but felt like a lifetime as I jumped to every slippery platform until I got to victory. Fifth and final – finally. It was another moving one but this time it came to you from the front. Helps you learn how to duck and jump really fast. It was nearly impossible if you hadn’t figured out the trick.

My dad had once shown me when I was younger how to do this one. He had taken me up here last year at like 2 AM after I fell off fifty times. Probably did it so I wouldn’t embarrass him anymore. I stood on the platform, waiting for the giant log to come towards me.

Three… two… one, I jumped up, landing on the log and gripping it for dear life before slowly getting up, moving along the swinging platform. It kept swinging backwards and forward, me trying to stay on it the best I could. I came to the halfway mark, looking towards the end. Five steps forward and then you jump off. Or you’d jump into the air and go nowhere. I took those five steps, finally jumping off, onto the platform. Taking another step away from the log I looked down at the netting that ended the challenge.

I smirked as I saw Ethan dangling to the ground. His foot had gotten stuck into one of the blocks and obviously he hadn’t kept his balance. I watched as my dad approached him, rolling my eyes as my Dad got Ethan off of the obstacle shouting at him to go do laps.

He looked up, glaring at me.

“Luca! Get down!” he yelled.

“On my way Chief!” I shouted, starting to make my way down, careful to not get stuck. I finally got down, my dad still waiting for me.

“You need to hurry up with this challenge, you can’t be so slow” he instructed, me gritting my teeth.

“Yes Chief” I said, trying to not growl.

“Go do laps with your friend. Two human, two wolf and then go help the newbies shift”

I nodded, deciding to not fight him. I started to jog, getting the jittery feeling out of me. I saw Luca slowing down, me able to catch up to him.

“Can’t believe I messed up” he sighed, “Almost beat the record”

“Next time” I laughed, “Don’t you already have the record though?”

“Some newbie beat me” he growled, “What did your dad tell you?”

“Just to speed up” I sighed, “Wish he’d just lay off”

Ethan kept quiet, we running in silence for a moment before starting a conversation again about random stuff.

XXX

Lacy’s POV

“He’s being ridiculous” I said, my hands balling into fists. I glared at my husband through the video call, where I actually just wanted to send him air kisses and make him smile.

“Baby, it’s part of the job” he said, trying to console me but it just made me roll my eyes.

“I don’t care if it’s part of the job, it’s stupid” I said, folding my arms.

“Lace” he whispered, leaning closer to the screen, “It’s going to be okay”

I just continued to glare at him, biting my lip in frustration.

“Lace” he whispered again, my anger slowly melting away as I placed focus on his eyes. He looked tired, the weight of the world on his shoulders.

“I wish I could be there now” I said, giving him a faint smile, “Have you even slept?”

A guilty frown appeared on his face, him scratching the back of his neck.

“No Macy! You need to sleep!” I chided, “Can’t we tell him that? That you are going to collapse from sleep-deprivation because I can’t be there?”

He rolled his eyes this time, “I’ll be fine. And it’s for the safety of everything”

“It’s so that no one gets ‘distracted’” I sighed, “Like he is one to talk”

Mason smiled, “Without his little distraction we wouldn’t have met babe” he smirked, me just smiling at him. My anger completely faded, being able to see my mate’s light smile. I sat back, ruffling my hair with my hands and breathing out.

“He should be happy he is your friend or I will personally kill him”

He nodded, “You know how it goes baby, it’s his way of dealing with things”

Things… we never said exactly what those things were. It brought reality in and then we started to stress too much. Those ‘things’ were just something that we accepted and when it was mentioned, we had to move on.

“How is he doing?” I said, recalling how Hayley was dealing with everything. She had completely pushed the whole werewolf-world out of her system and was challenging her best nothing-is-wrong façade. Our weekly chats till 2 AM showed that she was doing fine but there was still that hitch in her voice when certain topics came up, still that quiver of her chin. She was broken. A broken best friend that we couldn’t help.

“Okay, body-guarding keeps him busy”

“And ordering my mate around obviously helps too” I smiled lightly, trying to make the conversation light-hearted.

“Yeah, seems it does” Mason said, scratching his chin, “I love you my angel”

“I love you too, maybe I can sneak into camp?” I said, disliking Liam’s decree of No-mates-at-training-camp a little bit too much. I was actually tempted to email him and tune him properly but he would just lash out at me. We had made a pack when Hayley and him had split. Mason and Chris dealt with him. Kira and I helped Hayley. We were all shit in our jobs.

“Don’t think you can my love” he said, “How’s it going at home?”

We continued our conversation, him letting out frustration over everyone and how he wished I was there. It made me smile and laugh more than anything. When we had completed our conversation I sent an email to Kira, she answering almost immediately. Usually I would send the emails to Hailstorm as well but when it came to Liam as subject, we avoided adding her to the conversation. She wasn’t ready yet.

XXX

Luca’s POV

When I say training is brutal – that’s an understatement. After doing the course and running ourselves silly we had a quick lunch that consisted out of sloppy joes before we got hauled to help out the newbies shift. That was the worst part of training. I was a newbie last year but couldn’t imagine having been this annoying. They kept snapping at Ethan and I or groaning and moaning that it hurt too much.

But Ethan at least helped. He had a habit of being ridiculous. If this was a movie or something dramatic, he’d be characterised as the comedy relief character. One of the newbies literally mid shifted and then fell onto him and wouldn’t get off until he had turned back into human. Something about struggling too much to be an actual wolf.

“Just go run around the training ground and then come back. Get some relief before we start off again” I finally sighed after one of them snapped at my leg. The boys sighed with relief before running off. I can’t imagine running being better than shifting but I was probably like that the previous year too.

“You think if we snuck off your dad will notice?” Ethan asked, sitting down on the ground and checking the bite mark one of them had left on his elbow. It was healing slowly.

“Even thinking that would get us kitchen duty” I said, taking a swig of water from my water bottle.

“Don’t know how you deal” Ethan said, glancing over behind me. I turned around, seeing my dad busy showing combat skills to some people. He looked ruthless, his strikes effortless. He was in his element. As if sensing I was looking at him, he stopped and looked over at me.

“Dammit” I mumbled as I saw his hand gesture me to go to him.

“Enjoy” Ethan smirked, me fighting the urge to smack my friend as I walked over to my dad.

It hadn’t gone too badly. My dad had simply just showed them how to cause a massive amount of pain into someone’s spine. He didn’t actually do it to me but the gestures left little to the imagination. After training that day I was glad to actually have dinner – even how badly it tasted. Everyone stunk of sweat and was breathing heavily. I think there was a collective agreement that my dad was a savage as everyone made their way to the food lines. I took a plate of something resembling macaroni and cheese and went to sit by one of the tables where people wouldn’t curse me because I was the chief’s son.

People were weird that way. Always making snide comments about my father and directing it at me. The only good thing was those people usually got in trouble from my dad. He didn’t enjoy people being rude to his son, that was his job.

“Your dad is insane” Ethan said as he fell down on the bench.

“No arguing that” I groaned, stuffing my face with a forkful of noodles.

We finished our dinner, Ethan telling embarrassing stories of school whilst chewing mouthfuls of pasta. It was a miracle he didn’t choke. As we headed outside, relaxed and in a much happier mood, I caught glimpses of those ruby eyes.

“…so I got detention. Mum nearly had a heart attack when she found out but Dad couldn’t stop laughing. Mum was not impressed but-“

“Hey man, I think I forgot my jacket in the mess hall, I’ll be right back” Damn I was a bad lair. Ethan’s eyebrows furrowed, him folding his arms.

“You didn’t wear a jacket” he announced, making my heart speed up.

“Okay fine, truth is my dad wants to see me again” I sighed, “He’s been on my back a lot lately”

“And that’s worth the excuse huh?” my friend frowned.

“It’s embarrassing” I said, scratching the back of my neck to make it more believable. Ethan nodded, unfolding his arms. He still looked at me sceptically but then his name was called further away. My attention was briefly turned to Ross who was waving over at my friend. He gave me a glance before saying goodbye, heading to the cabin.

Thank goodness…

I rushed towards where I had seen the white wolf, taking off my clothes as I ran. Once I had stripped, I quickly shifted, running onwards until I found the white wolf just sitting in front of me.

“Hey”

“Luca” she was hesitant, my name coming out like a bell.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing” she shrugged

“What were you doing by the camp? It’s dangerous. If they catch you-“

“They won’t catch me” she said sternly, “You guys… you guys have no fur”

“Yeah, we’re humans” I shrugged as we started to walk deeper into the woods once more.

“Humans” she tested out the word, it sounding foreign to her. She was about to say something when something zipped towards us. The smaller wolf let out a series of snarls as it glared at me. The wolf that had spoken to me immediately directed its attention to it, giving off a series of barks.

“Sorry” the wolf said, her attention back on me. The smaller wolf gave me another growl before moving back into the woods.

“Are you leaving too?”

She nodded, starting to follow the smaller one but then a noise erupted through the trees that made my heart stop for a moment. It was yelling, clearly a man’s, clearly an idiot. I rushed to the direction of the sound, stopping dead in my tracks as Small pinned Ethan. O fluff nugget…