Taken by my mate

Evadiene

After Covyn left I went to get two cloths and run them under cold water to place on my neck, sighing with the small amount of relief that gave me. Spencer stood watching me questionably as I draped them over the red and swollen areas.

“Why didn’t you ask him to help?”

I tried to avoid shrugging. “They don’t get much better, no matter how much he tries, and it only reminds him of how he hasn’t claimed me yet.”

“Erase that guilt from your face, he would never pressure you into anything, and I know he doesn’t think of it like that. A lot has happened for you.” I know he meant every word but my mind was too busy to take it to heart.

“Yea… speaking of which, I need to go to the room with broken doors and a hole through the wall, to get dressed.” I saw the change in his face and laughed as I said, “erase that guilt from your face.”

He smirked and ushered me to lead the way. Once we got there I noticed the new doors had arrived, along with the tools but the workers were no where to be seen. I went into the closet and found a razorback tank top and a pair of spandex capri pants but as I was leaving I caught myself in the mirror. My breasts looked fuller with the cold morning air, and my nipples were well visible. I dare say I looked hot, but that was very much not the day I was going for and grabbed another of Covyn’s shirts and sweaters.

When I emerged the workers hadn’t returned and I was feeling motivated. I raided their bags for a flat head screw driver, much to Spencer’s confusion, and started popping the pins out of the old doors.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to set the new doors,” I replied, letting the door fall so I could catch it and lay it down.

Spencer dashed over to help and, as its weight landed on me, I was very grateful. We lowered it together, but honestly I was more moral support. I observed the door and the two new ones.

“I would have been an adorable pancake, but thanks for not letting it crush me,” I chuckled. “Think you could lift the new ones alone if I said I was determined to finish this?”

He rotated his shoulders and looked at them before shrugging. “Yea, I could do that for you, Luna.”

I spent the next twenty minutes popping the other door off, adding the new hinges onto the new doors and the frame, and then setting the doors. He sat in one of the chairs in the room while I added the hardware, noticing Covyn had added spaces for additional locks.

As we were leaving the workers returned through the balcony with some of the replacement windows. I handed one of them the room key, and told them to lock up and take it to Covyn when they were through. They nodded and bowed to me, despite all of their confusion, and I knew they assume Spencer had done everything alone, but I didn’t do it for credit. I wanted a part in making this room feel secure and safe again.

Our tour began from the front of the house, taking me passed the library and offices for all the department leads in the pack house. He showed me the halls and levels of rooms that housed the rest of the pack, apart from the Alpha, Betas, and any guests, and then the hall that the visitors who came to train used. I cringed to realize the man who attacked me had been in one of those rooms, with my underwear and a memory of me dancing.

At the end near the back were the gyms, pools, and most of the training rooms. Spencer reminded me of some people’s names, and he showed me where the women worked out to be away from all the guys. On our way through, they were delivering the new gym equipment Covyn had ordered.

“Luna, do you mind waiting here while they offload? Since we’re here, I’d like to supervise the delivery and make sure everything arrived okay.” Spencer asked, eyeing the many boxes.

I had been hanging from a set of rings, skinning the cat and doing pull ups. “Yea, that’s fine with me. Not like I have anywhere else to be or anywhere else I can go.”

He chuckled, counting the boxes and checking them off on a list. A box near me had been torn and I could see the instructions sticking out the side. Curiosity about the blank box gripped me and I pulled it out.

They had got an electric boxing panel. It counted punches, registered their strength, stamina,… it had a screen and an app to log it all.

Pretty cool.

I read the instructions and knew I could do it, so I dumped the first box out. Starting with step one I began assembling the solid components quickly. Spencer heard me and walked back over to where I sat on the floor.

I waited for him to snap at me, to tell me to leave it to the professionals and not to risk hurting myself, but he looked over my area and said, “if you need any help I’m right here.”

I didn’t need permission before, but I was glad he didn’t make me feel like I did. Or worse, that I didn’t have it. I would do it anyway, but it was more enjoyable without my thoughts grumbling behind my ears about how I would show him a thing or two.

While I worked I could hear the odd comment from those in the gym around me. It pissed me off to no end that I’m sure everyone could hear what everyone else was saying while I only caught snippets. Words like ‘the Luna?’, ‘should she?’, ‘did you know?’, ‘did you hear?’, ‘stupid’, ‘stripper’, ‘human’, ‘library’, were all I could pick up before everything was a mumble of hushed judgement. Screw them, I enjoyed making things.

Spencer helped me stand it up when I was through, and we pushed it against a wall to plug it in. Everything booted up correctly and I bypassed some set up requirements to make it more multi user friendly and work better with their greater strength. Finally, it was ready and it wanted a test punch.

My comparably pathetic punch, as the only punch, got the high score light and I laughed. “That will last all of a minute I’m sure.”

“It’s not terrible, decent form,” Spencer returned. “You just don’t have the weight to put behind it. A lot of us here are heavy enough to concuss someone just falling on them.”

I smirked. “I used to be stronger. I’m not particularly happy with what it is now, but it was a choice.”

Spencer looked skeptically at me. “Too strenuous to maintain? I know you work out regularly.”

I smirked at his chosen phrasing but loved the ease in which he said it. “More like… permanent injury.”

He looked more concerned with that but didn’t ask. Instead he wound up to punch the machine, but flicked it instead to register the second highest score. “Two minutes,” he smirked proudly. “It lasted longer than you thought.”

I rolled my eyes. “Thought this was the strongest pack, but I guess I can protect you.”

One of the guys had started to assemble another of the new pieces, and a quick look over his progress was all I needed to know he was doing it wrong. As if feeling my eyes over his shoulder he turned around slowly and looked to me. Our eyes locked and I didn’t flinch away, but I couldn’t help but feel like he would never act this way if Covyn were around.

“Is there an issue Luna?” He sneered and I decided if this is how he was going to start a conversation I would match his energy.

I scrunched my face up slightly as I shook my head. “No, no issue. I generally believe that if you want to do it once, do it right the first time, but if you want to fly by the seat of your pants I won’t deprive you of the learning experience.”

“What?” He stood up and snarled, but halted when I felt Spencer behind me.

I didn’t bock at his volume and didn’t move even as he stood. “You-are-doing-it-wrong,” I replied more slowly, “but don’t worry, I don’t believe you’re any less strong because you can’t build the machines you train on.” He continued to stare at me and I stared back. “Do you want to hit something? I correctly built a punching machine over there, but I wouldn’t want you to feel emasculated, I hear the high score has held strong for a few minutes now.”

He continued to stare at me, before stalking over to the punching machine and doing the same thing Spencer had. Now I bocked, watching him turn back to me and then a booming laugh shook the air between us. Others began laughing as well and I was very concerned they were at me for a hot minute, however when Spencer relaxed so did I.

“Very wise Luna, I feel better already, though you were right about that high score. It may hold the top slot for a while.” The man was stocky, with broad shoulders and looking at him closer now I recalled him being called Lucas when we came in.

I wasn’t about to let my guard down though. “We’ll see,” I said softly, watching him.

“You assembled that quite quickly, you made it look easy,” Lucas returned, bowing his head towards me.

“I have a lot of experience building things to order. This isn’t the most difficult,” I informed him, looking over his piles of pieces. “Just like a man, trying to get to the end so fast you opened all of the boxes at once, didn’t you?”

Again he laughed. “Would you like to show me where I went wrong?”

I smirked, “there is honestly nothing I’d like more.”