Beauty in the Beast

I should have called Nick the minute Emmett left the café, but I didn’t. I was tired of the way he was treating me; I understood the way he was treating me, but I couldn’t take it anymore. I needed to get back to my old life. I walked down the street until I came to the training center. Emmett said Nick was there, but I wasn’t there for him. I walked in to see a handful of Omegas still taking Nick’s beatings as he sparred with them; four to one. Luckily, none of them were the ones I wanted, but he was there.

“Alan,” I grabbed his attention. “Let’s go.” I lead him over to the opposite side of the center to another mat. I took my stance on the mat and waited for him to follow suit. “What are you going, lets go.” He was staring behind me with a terrified look on his face, so I turned only to meet my mate’s eyes.

“Emma, what are you doing here?” He asked me.

“I finished early, so I wanted to get some training in.”

“You walked all the way here from the hospital?”

“No, I walked all the way here from the café.”

“What were you doing at the café? You were supposed to call me when you were done with your appointment.”

“I was going to, but Emmett asked me to go have coffee with him.”

“Emmett? You went to have coffee with your ex?” Alan turned and began inching away from us.

“You stay, I’m not done with you yet.” I warned the Omega before turning back to Nick.

“He wanted to apologize to me, he feels guilty about the way things went down when I got shot. So, I’m here to train. I’ve been taking it easy; I’ve been doing things your way now let me do things my way.”

“Emma—”

“I know your scared, I died, I get that. But you have to trust me. Doc said I was fine. The only reason she keeps making me do these stupid appointments is to test my blood, but if there wasn’t wolfsbane in my blood last week there won’t be this week. It’s a poison, not magic. It’s not going to just come back one day. Nick, I’m cured.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?” I was surprised he didn’t argue his point more.

“I trust you.” He pulled me into a quick kiss before pulling back away. “Now what are you doing with my Omega?”

“Alan and I are going to train.” Alan turned to Nick for permission.

“Why Alan?” He asked. “I have a new batch of trainees that want to take position as Omegas, you can have your go with them.”

“No,” I was set. “I want Alan.”

“Alright, I’ll be right over there if you need me.”

“I won’t.” I assured him.

“I was talking to Alan.” He slapped Alan’s shoulder and he let out a scared chuckle. Nick went back to join his so-called trainees and I turned to Alan, ready to go.

“Why me?” He asked.

“You know why, Alan.”

“Because I got Jimmy killed?’

“You didn’t get Jimmy killed.” I stated. “Jimmy got Jimmy killed.” I stepped off the mat so that I was in front of Alan. “Jimmy wasn’t well trained. He didn’t know how to protect himself and he made a fatal accident that left his neck wide open for that rogue.”

“How do you know that?” Details of Jimmy’s death weren’t released, only his passing.

“Because I remember what happened.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “So now, we’re going to train until you can take me down.” Alan and I stepped up to the mat and got into stance. He came at me prematurely; he didn’t take any of his surroundings into consideration. Just came in swinging, much like the rogues we fought that day. I grabbed his wrist and swung him around, my foot connecting with the back of his knee until he was on the ground. “You’re holding back.” I noticed.

“I don’t want to hurt you.” He admitted.

“It’s only going to hurt you, Alan, not me.” I released him and stepped back into my position on the mat. “Get up.” He followed instructions and took his stance across from me again. This time was better, but it still wasn’t good. I had him on his back before he could even get a punch in on me. “Again.” I went back to my stance. He got up and went back to his. He was getting better each time, but he was nowhere near where he should be. Back to the ground he went. “Again.” We repeated this process until sweat was pouring from the both of us. Alan was taking longer and longer to get off the floor to start over.

“Emma!” Nick called me as Alan was heaving his body off the floor. “We have to go.” I had no idea what time it was, or how long we were sparring, but I wasn’t going to argue Alpha’s orders. I put my hand down to Alan and he took it, I pulled his body up on his feet and he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand.

“Don’t give up, Alan. If we keep working on this, you’ll be better than Emmett.” He laughed at me and headed for the locker room, probably to wash the workout off himself. Nick’s hand found mine and pulled me off the mat.

“You smell awful.” He said with a smile.

“Thanks, you’re so romantic.”

“May I take you home with me, ma’am?” He wrapped his arm around me despite my smell and lead me out the door.

Once home, the shower was my first stop. Nick showered at the training center to give me more time with Alan, so he went straight to bed. I pulled on a pair of panties and a t-shirt before crawling into bed with my Alpha. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close to him.

“Nick?”

“Hm?” I could tell he was exhausted, but I had to let him know.

“I remember.” I whispered.

“What do you remember?”

“Getting shot.” Nick opened his eyes and turned to me. “Emmett was talking about it, and I just remembered.”

“Are you okay?” I nodded.

“I need to find out who did this.”

“We will, little wolf, I promise.”