an Everlasting Pursuit

thirty four

"So, I heard you did well in the training yesterday..." Piper began.

I hummed, shrugging. "I only did one fight."

"Well... I heard about how you got kicked in the face and still stood up..." She quirked an eyebrow at me, glancing at the bruising I tried to so hard to hide.

Sighing, I glanced down at my empty cup. "I didn't want to fight."

"So why did you?"

I rolled my eyes to look at her. "I... felt like if I said no, everyone would judge me even harder than they already do."

Her lips pulled down into a grimace. "Ailia..."

"Don't say they're not judging me because they are." I snorted. "I am a human in a wolf den. I only wonder how many know of my so-called importance here."

"Not a lot," she shrugged.

Giving her a deadpanned look, I pulled myself to stand. "I'm going to always be judged here, and the Alpha is the leading cause of it."

She rose with me; her face still crinkled with sad confusion. "I won't judge you."

I laughed lightly. "Thank you."

Not the first time I've heard that...

***

The rest of the day I spent being mostly idle.

After speaking to Piper that morning, I made my way back to my room. I lazily lounged around, picking at the room and moving my bed to be next to the window. It didn't take long, moving things around, since I had so little. But I had more than I ever had growing up with my mother, so I appreciated the simplicity. Darius always had too much, and it was always white, but the soft-looking wood soothed me. Pair it with the white bed linen and it looked perfectly cosy.

A knock on the door startled me and I breathed a slight greeting as I smoothed down the top sheet of my bed. Spinning around, expecting Eve, it surprised me when I found it was Mya. She paused in the entryway, taking in my new room layout.

"Get bored?" She grinned lazily.

I shrugged, sitting on my bed as she made herself comfortable in the armchair. "I suppose. There isn't a lot to do around here."

"You can always come back to training," she smirked, eyeing the black bruise on my jaw.

Rolling my eyes, I remembered I had tied my hair up whilst working. Mya didn't seem to judge, so despite my agitation, I left it exposed.

"I don't see why I need to train with wolves when knowing self-defence is fine enough."

"You never really went into detail on your training," she raised an eyebrow. "How did you do it?"

Frowning, I shrugged. "Just runs at night when everyone slept paired with some defence. My village slept early, being so high in the mountains we were up early to catch most of the sunlight."

"What else?" She urged.

Damn, she was a nosey parker.

"Usually cardio... and a lot of stretching and push ups and stuff." I shrugged. "I just wanted to build my cardio abilities, in case I ever had to..."

I fell silent, a frown marring my lips.

"Had to what? Run?" she asked.

I nodded solemnly. "The book I used was good at detail and pictures. I just followed it."

"I bet you're sad you had to leave all your possessions behind, huh?"

Shaking my head, it was my turn to smile. "I had nothing worth the trip."