Surprise

Chapter 24: Headaches gal lour

I'd been the first one to training again, Stella chaperoning still.  I was in my usual basketball shorts and t-shirt (which Luna Maya had bought for me so I could stop borrowing Stella's clothes) and I hopped right onto the treadmill and set it for the highest setting I could find that didn't make me want to pass out just by seeing it on the little screen.

After five minutes, a few people had joined us, and Brandon walked in to welcome us.

"We're going to be doing things a little differently today," he announced.  "Only wolves today!  Everyone come with me outside."

I clicked a few buttons on the machine and stepped off, my legs feeling slightly like jello.  No, actually, like something floating in jello.  The only thing holding it together is the gelatin.

I followed him up the stairs and out the door at the top, curious and confused, leaving Stella behind.  Jack and Tyler were heading toward us, until they saw the direction we were headed in (towards them) and turned around, and remained at the front of the group.  I walked faster to join up with them.

"Hey, boys," I greeted.  I hadn't spoken to them much, and hadn't joined them for lunch.  For some unknown reason, I wasn't hungry and would have rather been a loner in the library.

"Hey, where've you been all day?" Tyler asked.

I shrugged.  "I've been around.  Not very talkative, though.  I blame last night's headache."  Actually, I blamed Connor for freaking me out as much as he had.

"Right.  So where are we going," Jack questioned.

"Backyard," Brandon answered before I could shrug.  "We need to shift.  I'm going to show you guys something and we're going to work on your wolf fighting."

The boys grinned and high fived, promising to spar with each other.  (Well, actually promising to brutally murder each other.  Something I didn't find funny.)

I hadn't been in the pack house backyard.  In fact, if wolves weren't so big on having land, I probably wouldn't have even known there was one.

We walked through the kitchen, down a hall, turned left, and there was a big glass sliding door.

Brandon led us outside and immediately people around me began to shift.  It was a hilarious sight.  Their clothes stretched and remained covering their wolf forms.

I followed after them, transforming into my wolf.

Brandon was in the middle of the huge yard.  There was a wooden fence surrounding the property of the pack house, but it hadn't been noticeable from the front of the building.  There were hills and three colossal pine trees at the edge.

Through the pack mind link, I heard a voice very similar to Brandon's regular voice.  "As most of you know by now, there's a shape shifter in town.  I'm sure you're all aware of the attack against the Alpha and myself.

"We hope to bring multiple teams with us to search for her.  We're going to be focusing for a while on wolf fighting."

His tone was very authoritative, echoing in my mind.

Suddenly, as though it were my own memory, a flashback playing in my mind, I saw a beautiful woman, no more than twenty-five, turning a corner onto a street off of an alley, away from the eyes who'd seen this.  "This is her human form.  Only two people here have seen her wolf form, myself and Maya."

I was shocked to hear my own name through this form of communication.  I suddenly saw the wolf I'd help fight off Saturday night flashing through my mind.

"So we're going to be working on wolf fighting.  Everyone find a partner.  Yes, Maya, even you."

Again, I was shocked, but not just that my name had been spoken like this.  I had started backing away, assuming I wasn't included.