Heat

III.

"So we are going to be working out together?" I ask him very unsure of what exactly we are doing. I rock on my heels a bit to ease the tension in the air. I felt awkward. Ethan, someone I knew about in school but never interacted with is now expecting us to work out and "train" together.

"In a way yes" he still hadn't taken his eyes off the open field in front of the house. It was gorgeous. The grass had slight hills that rolled off into the thicket of trees, it wasn't the vibrant green that very moist grass had, it was on the drier side and kept short like someone was maintaining it. This field was probably for big events for a small community, judging by the fact he said pack house and my limited fantasy knowledge of werewolves suggest that this is like a community center for other werewolves to use. Werewolves. Playing with the word in my head still didn't make me fully believe that this is what was going on.

"Why can't this begin tomorrow? I don't have work out clothes" I make the excuse just to get out of this. I wasn't too comfortable suddenly becoming chummy with someone I haven't even had more than an hour or two of conversation with.

"You are too dangerous on your own and with no control" this time he was looking at me, slightly worried but serious. He was claiming responsibility on me now for being a "rogue".

"Dangerous?" I scrunch my nose at the thought and chortle.

"You are beast. You are stronger and bigger than a normal wild wolf, adding teenage hormones into that and there are going to be a lot of issues. Come on" he didn't let me input my two cents before breaking out into a jog and heading towards the middle of the field. I jog to catch up to him and easily fall in step.

"So are we just going to run it out?" I didn't know why I was keeping up with this whole charade, nothing logical has really happened since last night and maybe I wanted answers?

"Not exactly, we need to get to the tree line so we don't scare the young ones or maybe some humans that happen to stop by" his breathing was even like this jog was nothing to him.

"So we're lifting logs?" I push a little hard to catch up to him as I had fallen behind a bit.

"We are going to meditate" we reached the tree line now and he stopped to look back at me and gave me a small smile.

"Meditate? Why?"

"You have no idea you are you and what you are doing when you shift, your instincts are taking over and you are wild" Ethan motioned with a nod for me to follow, we walked silently into the woods. The sounds around me took us into a new world. The breeze lightly danced between the trees and rattled the branches on the pine trees. Light peaked through the needles and lit the loose ground. Birds could be heard echoing to each other in complete blissful ignorance from the outside world. 

"So we go deep into the woods and meditate?" I couldn't see his face with the distance he had ahead of him but he didn't spare a glance either. We made it a less debris filled part of the forest where it was mostly moss and grass on the floor. Ethan got to the center and sat down. He pat the ground next to him but I chose to take a seat across from him still skeptical.

"You need to connect with your body. Think of yourself right now as two peas in a pod. You have yourself and then your wolf all inside you. Your issue is that you are operating separately. Does this make any sense?" Ethan ran a hand through his hair, it was naturally slicked up with his length and volume. The light reflected off his hair making it look fluffier and lighter than it does normally. A sandy brown that complimented the light shade of blue in his eyes. He was sitting laid back with one leg crossed and the other extended out towards me. I nodded my head slowly at him. It didn't exactly make sense because how can two beings live inside one shell of a body. I sighed and closed my eyes to focus on my breathing. But breathe in and releasing it. I wasn't sure what I should be looking for within myself.