Slain

Sticks and stones could break my bones

But anything you say will only fuel my lungs

-Sarcasm, Get Scared

My heart thumps heavily in my chest, beating against my ribs painfully. The sound of ripping flesh and vicious snarls echo in my ears despite my hands being pressed firmly against my ears. Hands grip my shoulders tightly as a distant voice calls my name. I assume it’s Zane since he was the only one with me, but it’s hard to tell around the snarls and screams that nearly drown his voice out.

I feel the hot tears drip down my face as I struggle against the hands on my shoulder, my vision too blurry to see anything but the outline of a person in front of me. I have to try to help, it’s my fault after all.

The hands remain firmly on my shoulders, not allowing me to see around Zane’s shoulder. I shout at Zane to let me go so that I can help, but he refuses. Changing my tactic, I begin hitting his chest in an attempt to force him into releasing me. He releases my shoulders only to grab my hands, pinning them to a soft surface behind me.

The blurred figure suddenly comes into focus and I realize it’s not Zane at all; it’s Fluffy. My struggling stops, leaving us in silence only broken by my heaving breaths. Once he’s sure I’m not going to start flailing again, Fluffy releases my hands, sitting back on the edge of the bed. “Are you alright?” He more demands than asks.

I wipe the remnants of tears from my face, sitting up and leaning against the headboard, pulling my knees up to my chest as I try to calm my breathing. I nod reluctantly, now embarrassed that he had to wake me up out of a nightmare.

“What happened?” He presses, his tone is ridged and his eyes stay intensely focused on me.

“It was just a bad dream,” I sigh, wiping at my face again to make sure all the tears are gone while trying to hide my shame.

Fluffy doesn’t buy it. “It was more than a bad dream. What happened?”

I shake my head, now becoming angry. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

He sighs, studying me a second longer before nodding. “Fine. Are you hungry?”

“Yeah,” I mutter, thinking more about my dream than his question.

“Get dressed and we’ll go up to the pack house. I don’t have any food here right now.” He stands and grabs a fresh set of clothes before leaving the room, closing the door behind him.

I sit motionless against the headboard for a few seconds longer wondering why now of all times this memory decides to plague me again. With a frustrated groan, I crawl out of the bed, pulling the thick comforter up and smoothing it out before going to the wardrobe and changing into my new clothes. I go into the bathroom, taking care of my business in there. Finished, I go out into the living room where Fluffy sits, staring at the ashes in the fireplace with a glazed expression.

“Ready?” I ask cautiously.

His eyes snap to me before he nods, getting to his feet quickly. “Yeah, lets go.”

Walking through the pack during the early morning is much like walking through at night. Not many places are open and the streets are mostly deserted, but through the windows of shops, I can see the shop owners preparing for a long day of work.

We walk back to the pack house in a tense silence, most likely caused by my rough start this morning. I want to forget about it completely so I pretend it never happened, hoping he will do the same. Entering the pack dining area, we head straight to the back where the kitchen is. Only a few wolves are scattered throughout the room and they pay us no mind as we pass. Upon entering the kitchen, we’re handed already made plates consisting of eggs, ham and toast.

“Coffee?” one of the women asks.

“Please,” Fluffy nods.

The woman looks over to me. “Can I have water?” She smiles and nods, turning and hurriedly preparing our drinks. Within seconds she’s handing Fluffy a ceramic mug and me a ceramic cup. Fluffy leads me to an empty table where we sit and begin to eat in silence until Fluffy breaks it.

“You’re going to spend most of the day with Luna Selah, she is going to teach you what you need to know about your position in the pack. I have duties to take care of so I can’t be with you, but I’ll stop by when I can.” I nod, mostly relieved that he didn’t bring up earlier this morning.

“Ajax,” someone says behind us. “Mind if we sit?”

“Not at all,” Fluffy says as Akira and a woman I assume to be his mate come into view. They sit across from us as Akira greets me.

“Good morning Jack, this is my mate Eris.” Eris nods at me politely, but doesn’t say anything.

I nod back, unsure what else to do as Fluffy and Akira begin talking about training. My attention is piqued at the word. “Wait, training?” I ask, interrupting them.

Akira nods. “The patrol wolves train every day they aren’t on duty.”

“I want to train,” I blurt. Fluffy instantly snaps out a firm no, making me frown up at him. “Why not? I need the practice.”

“For what?”

“So I can protect myself!” I argue lamely. I don’t actually have a reason for training other than liking it. It seems to clear my head.

He shakes his head no. “Absolutely not. I’m here to protect you.”

“What about when you’re not with me?” I argue back.

“There shouldn’t be a need for protection as long as you stay in the pack,” he counters.

I groan in annoyance. “What if I just want to train because I like it?”

“You could get hurt, no.”

“It’s funny that you think you can keep me from doing things I want to do,” I say darkly. My patience is significantly shorter after my nightmare this morning.

Fluffy shakes his head in irritation. “I said no, Jack.”

“What if I watch over her,” Akira offers, trying to diffuse the rapidly increasing tension.

“No,” Fluffy snaps. “Would you allow Eris?”

Akira shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe if she wanted to, but she’s not interested in that kind of stuff.”

“Liar,” Fluffy grumbles.

I pick at my breakfast, now too irritated to eat. “I do what I want when I want and the more you don’t want me to do something, the more I want to do it. Just for future reference.”

A deep growl rumbles in Fluffy’s chest, bringing me a bit of satisfaction from causing him such anger. Akira and Eris keep their heads down, obviously uncomfortable with the heated argument unfolding before them.

Fluffy stands up abruptly, grabbing his plate in his large hand. “Come on,” he grumbles before turning and walking swiftly to the kitchen. I follow behind him at a leisure pace, strolling towards the kitchen just slow enough that he has to stand at the kitchen door after he’s already dropped his plate off, waiting for me to even make it into the kitchen. I glance at him as I pass and he snarls at me. He actually snarls at me.

The women in the kitchen all stand with their heads down and necks bared in an attempt to appease their angry beta. Amused by his anger, I take my time carefully placing my plate into the sink and slowly turning on my heel to face Fluffy, meeting his burning gaze.

“You have got to be kidding me,” he growls.

I blink at him innocently, putting my hands in my pockets. “I don’t know what you mean.”

He snarls again, causing the poor kitchen hands to flinch at the threatening noise. I stare at him unfazed, only angering him more. With a huff, he turns and heads out of the pack dining area. Following behind, I make sure to stay a few paces behind him as he leads me back through the pack house. Every wolf we pass picks up on Fluffy’s anger as soon as he comes into sight, all of them lowering their heads and baring their necks. Some even stumble out of his way into random rooms, not wanting to anger him any more than he already is.

He comes to a stop at a door, knocking a bit too hard. Scruffy’s voice drifts through the wood, telling us to enter. Fluffy pushes the door open and walks into the tightly packed office, his jaw clenched tight in controlled anger. I step up beside him, my shoulders relaxed and my hands tucked into my pants pockets, nodding politely at the Luna and Alpha standing inside.

“Ajax, Jack,” Scruffy says, taking in our expressions. “Is everything alright?”

“Fine,” Fluffy grunts through gritted teeth.

The Alpha seems to be holding back a smile as he nods. “Alright then. Luna, you may take Jack. Ajax and I have some business to take care of.”

The Luna walks towards me, placing a gentle hand on my arm and leading me from the office. Fluffy hisses a, “behave,” at me before the door closes behind us, making me roll my eyes in irritation.

“So, what had Ajax all riled up?” she asks me as we walk down the hallway. Her tone is casual, so different from last night at dinner. It’s almost like we’re teenage girls exchanging gossip.

“I asked him if I could train and when he said no I told him I do what I want,” I say plainly.

She laughs at that. “Male wolves don’t like being blatantly ignored.”

“I noticed. He snarled at me!”

She laughs again, rolling her eyes. “I’m not surprised. Males are very possessive of their mates, especially when it comes to their well-being.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t need him looking after my well-being,” I pout. We walk out of the pack house into a lush garden, the brisk fall air nipping at my exposed flesh.

“Mm, well, like it or not, he’s going to.” She pauses and stoops down to inspect some blooming purple daisies near the edge of the stone path.

“Luna?”

“Call me Selah, please,” she says, straightening back up.

“Uh, okay. Why does he think he’s my mate?”

She looks over at me in surprise. “You still don’t believe he’s your mate?” I shake my head no and she sighs. “I guess that’s understandable when you’re raised without expecting to one day have a mate.”

“Slayers don’t have mates,” I point out.

Selah nods, beginning to walk down the path again. “That’s true, but Slayers also aren’t female.”

Well, she’s got me there. “So you’re saying, I have a werewolf mate because I’m the only known female Slayer?”

She shrugs. “It’s possible.”

I snort. “Yeah, about as possible as me sprouting a tail.”

“Hey, you never know,” she jokes.

We walk through the garden silently for a few minutes, taking in the vibrant colors and breathing in the sweet air. Once my curiosity gets the better of me, I finally break the silence. “So, what are these duties I’m supposed to learn?”

Selah waves me off. “Oh, we’ll get to those tomorrow. Right now, I want to show you something.”

Perplexed, I follow her through the garden until I pick up on the sound of voices and heavy breathing. Turning around a large hedge, the garden opens up into an open field with fifty or so wolves practicing hand-to-hand combat. I look to Selah in surprise.

She smiles coyly at me. “It can be our little secret for now. I’ll be back in an hour or so.”

“Thank you,” I say excitedly, already moving towards the field. To actually get to train with a group rather than alone with Zane and Eli has been a wish of mine for such a long time.

I spot the captain standing off to the side of the field watching the group as they spar and change my direction. Walking up behind him, I say, “Captain, nice to see you.”

He turns around, looking at me reluctantly, though his eyes stay averted from mine. “Hello Jack. What brings you out here?”

“Training.”

He turns back to face his wolves as I stop beside him. “Why does that not surprise me,” he sighs.

I watch as one wolf slams his sparring partner face first into the dirt. “Are you gonna let me?”

“Ajax would kill me,” he scoffs. I can hear the genuine fear in his voice, though he tries to hide it.

“He won’t if he doesn’t find out,” I say with a sly smile. He groans beside me and I look up at him. “I get the feeling you don’t like me very much.”

Turning to face me, he lets out a deep breath. “It’s not that I don’t like you, it’s just that I don’t trust you. And you make a lot of things harder than they need to be.”

I purse my lips in thought. “Yeah, I’ve been told I’m abrasive. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it,” I shrug. “So, can I get in there?”

“You know Ajax is going to find out right away and murder me,” he says instead of giving me an answer.

I groan. “Just one match? Please?”

I watch as he clenches his jaw. “Fine,” he hisses out. “Akira!”

Akira, who had been relentlessly bearing down on his sparring partner, calmly walks over to us, grinning as soon as he spots me. “Jack! That was fast.”

I smirk at him smuggly. “I said I do what I want, when I want.”

“You weren’t lying,” he laughs.

“Just one match,” Denim says sternly.

Akira nods, “Yes sir.” He gestures for me to follow him before turning and going to a fairly open portion of grass in the field. I begin stretching out my arms and shaking out my legs, excitement building up deep in my stomach.

“Don’t go easy on me,” I demand. Akira smirks.

“You won’t be able to handle it.”

I raise my eyebrows at that, intrigued by the challenge. “Wanna bet?”

“I’ll make you eat your words.” He crouches down in a ready position and I do the same, watching as his shoulders tense ever so slightly.

He begins to take slow steps to the right giving me the opportunity to make the first move, but I follow his lead instead, wanting him to attack first. Seeming to understand what I’m waiting for, he suddenly lunges toward me. I side step his reaching arms, hooking a foot around his leg and jerking. He wobbles, spinning around to face me and trapping my foot in place so I can’t retreat. I throw a punch at his face quickly followed by a punch to his ribs. As expected, he blocks the punch to his face, but the one to his ribs makes contact. He seems surprised by the strength of it, taking a stumbling step to the side. That’s all I need to free my foot. I throw my arms up, wrapping them around his head and hoisting myself up while thrusting my knee into his gut. He leans forward involuntarily, his hands searching for a hold so he can pry me off.

I throw my leg up over his shoulder and swing myself onto his back, now holding him in a headlock. My shifted weight jerks him back and he finally loses his balance. Just before he hits the ground, I shift my hold so that I’m off to his side, hooking my arm around his. I twist his arm up and around, throwing one of my legs across his chest and tucking my foot under his armpit for better leverage. Now in complete control, I twist onto my side, putting as much of my body weight as I dare onto his twisted arm, only letting up when he yells out.

“Okay! Okay, you got me,” he wails. Grinning, I release him and he quickly rolls away, holding his arm to his body possessively. “Geez, I didn’t expect that. You’re vicious.”

“Thank you,” I say, getting to my feet and dusting myself off. I offer Akira my hand and he accepts it, allowing me to pull him to his feet.

He begins massaging his shoulder. “What kind of training did you do in your village?”

“I didn’t get to train with my village, but my friend Zane and I would sneak out at night into the woods and play hunting games. They usually got pretty intense. Last time I broke his arm and he shot and stabbed me.”

“If Ajax knew…” he trails off, his eyes wide.

I roll my eyes in irritation. “It’s not a big deal, we heal fast.”

“Still…”

“Wanna go again? And this time actually try?” I tease.

He laughs. “I want to say yes, but you heard the captain.”

I glance over at the captain whose yelling at a pair of sparing wolves across the field, completely oblivious to us. “He’s not paying attention. He’ll just think we’re still going. Come on, you don’t want everyone to think you’re a big wimp because a girl beat you so easily, do you?”

“It’s on,” he says, crouching back into a ready stance, I eagerly follow, but an angry voice freezes me in place.

“Jack!”

I slowly turn to see Fluffy storming out of the garden Selah had brought me through, his eyes locked on me. Selah comes rushing out of the garden after him, but freezes, deciding it’s too late. I scowl, straightening up. “Here we go,” I mutter as I begin walking to meet Fluffy halfway.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he snarls at as he comes to a stop in front of me. By now, all of the wolves in the field have stopped their sparing and are watching us with bated breath.

“You’re a smart dog, you can figure it out,” I snap, already angered by his tone. This is by far the angriest I’ve seen him yet.

He growls, his eyes darkening in his anger. “I told you no.”

“And I told you I do what I want.” I step closer to him so that we’re standing toe to toe. The tension between us is so thick that it’s nearly suffocating and it only serves to make me angrier.

“I told you that’s not how we do things around here,” he snaps back. He clenches his fists at his side so tight that his knuckles turn white.

“Does it look like I care how you do things here?”

He snarls in response, turning his burning gaze away from me and pinning someone with it behind me. I turn to see the captain now standing a few feet away with his neck bared to Fluffy. “You allowed this,” Fluffy accuses.

“Yes, beta-”

“He didn’t allow anything, you stupid mutt,” I interrupt. I’m now livid and Fluffy will be lucky if he makes it out of this unscathed. Fluffy snaps his eyes back to mine, the anger rolling off of him in waves. “He’s not my boss and neither are you.” I poke my finger into his chest roughly. He snatches my hand, another growl rumbling in his chest.

“Watch yourself.”

I raise my eyebrows at him. “Is that a threat?”

“Jack,” he warns.

“Here’s a warning for you,” I jerk my hand free from his grip. “If you don’t watch yourself, I’m gonna have a nice new rug.”

He grabs my wrist and begins pulling me towards the pack house. Enraged, I swing my other fist, punching him square in the jaw. He drops my arm in surprise, turning to face me once the initial shock of my punch wears off. “Put your hands on me one more time, I dare you,” I grind out, completely serious.

He presses his lips into a firm line, clenching his teeth before stepping to the side and gesturing exaggeratedly for me to lead the way.

I stare forward with my nose turned up as I pass him, ignoring him completely. As I had hoped, he doesn’t like that at all and I’m rewarded with another angry snarl.

The rest of the day is spent with me following Fluffy around to all of his annoyingly stupid, boring meetings. He never once allows me out of his line of sight and the tension between us never dies down. By the end of the day I’m about ready to strangle him and it seems he feels the same way about me.

We eat dinner in the pack house in such tense silence that the rest of the room stays silent the entire time we’re there. Luckily, we both eat quickly, allowing me to escape the attention of nearly his entire pack. Once we get back to his house, he goes into the bathroom with a change of clothes without a word.

I take the opportunity to snoop around his house a little bit. First, wandering into the kitchen out of curiosity of what’s behind the other door there. I light a lamp in the kitchen before strolling to the back of the room where the only other door in the kitchen stands. The door opens with a gentle push from me, revealing a small dark room vaguely lit by the dim kitchen light. From what I can see, a door stands immediately to my left and another on the far wall leading outside. Large windows cover the remaining walls.

So it’s basically a sunroom.

To satisfy my remaining curiosity, I open the door on my left to peek inside, revealing an ice room. I wasn’t completely wrong with my original assumption yesterday; there is an ice room behind the door in the kitchen, it just isn’t that exact door.

“What are you doing?” Fluffy asks gruffly behind me, startling me so bad that I jump.

I turn to glare at him, closing the ice room door. “I was just curious.”

He rolls his eyes as I push past him, heading straight for the bedroom. He doesn’t complain; he simply follows behind me, blowing out lanterns as he passes.

“Good night,” he calls as I walk into the bedroom. I grunt in response before closing the door and snatching up my clothes.

“Good night. Pff,” I mutter as I change. I begrudgingly notice that he’s started the fire in the room. “Stupid dog.” After blowing out the lamps, I crawl into bed to sulk, not realising how tired I am.

Just as I’m dozing off, a soft thump at the window to the left of the bed jolts me back into consciousness. Thinking it’s nothing more than a tree outside, I brush it off and begin drifting back to sleep when I hear the window slide open. I bolt upright just in time to see a rather large man slide into the room. He lunges for me as soon as his feet touch the ground, tackling me off the bed with a heavy thud and slamming my head against the floor painfully. I struggle against him, but he’s much heavier than me so he easily flips me onto my stomach, tying my hands behind my back.

By the time I begin to yell for Fluffy, he’s already swinging the bedroom door open. Unfortunately, two other men are in the room by now, ready to keep Fluffy out of the way. As soon as he steps into the room, one of them swings a thick piece of firewood that he picked up from the pile by the fireplace and nails Fluffy in the side of the head, sending him stumbling into the other man. Fluffy is slung to the ground and the second man kicks him in the face, effectively knocking him out.

I’m hoisted to my feet as I yell in protest, staring in horror at Fluffy’s unconscious body. A rag is shoved roughly into my mouth before a bag is thrown over my head and I’m drug to the window. I’m roughly pushed through it into waiting hands which proceed to throw me over a shoulder as they turn, taking off at a sprint. I have a feeling my new captors won’t be as nice to me as Fluffy and Scruffy.