Finding Happily Ever After

Chapter 9

The next day during free time, I asked Ashton to teach me some of his combat skills. The conversation that his friends had been having the day before about serial killers got me thinking about how utterly defenseless I was, and I figured that if I ever did decide to run, a little bit of fighting experience might come in handy. It would honestly probably do nothing against a soldier who had trained their whole life, but something is always better than nothing.

When I asked Ashton to teach me, he just laughed. "What, are you planning on going to battle anytime soon? I'm sorry, but I think that you're probably beyond help."

I glared at him before replying, "Come on, it will be fun. Unless you actually stink at combat and you're afraid that you'll get beaten by a female? Is that why you're avoiding it?"

"Babe, I was at the top of my class. Only most skilled males get to become breeders. I'm just afraid that I'll hurt you."

I never thought that I'd be one to enjoy endearments, but I had to fight myself hard not to swoon when Ashton called me babe. Instead, I flashed him a sultry, crooked smile, raised one eyebrow, and challenged him, "Bring it on."

A few hours later, I had had my ass handed to me more times than I could count. We were in the gym, on the large matts. Ashton had tried to teach me basic skills like hitting, blocking, parrying, and more, but almost none of it stuck. 

Then, we started to do some practice rounds. At first, Ashton went easy on me and even kindly let me land a few hits on him. Soon, though, he brought the intensity up and showed me just how inadequate my skills were.

 Every time he knocked me to the floor, he would panic, worried and guilty that he had hurt me. It took a lot of persuasion after each match to convince him to continue with our training.

This time would be different, though. This time I would gain the upper hand. Somehow.

We began to circle each other, both waiting for the other to make the first move. Eventually, I rushed toward Ashton and raised my right fist to attempt to hit him in the face, like I had done in every single match so far. He lifted his hands to protect his face, anticipating the hit. However, I deviated from my normal routine and instead of throwing a punch, I swung my other elbow hard into his side.

Ashton hunched over a bit, and let out a small gasp. Inside my mind, I did a little celebratory dance. I had actually landed another hit on Ashton! But, I celebrated too soon, which allowed him to land a punch on my shoulder, knocking me off balance and making me fall to the floor.

He was always kind with his hits, putting as little force behind them as possible. Still, somehow they always managed to send me crashing to the ground with a groan. The aching throb in my shoulder made me wonder just what it would be like to receive the full brunt of his punch.

Crouching near me, Ashton gasped out, "Olivia, are you okay?"

Frustrated at having lost again, I lashed out clumsily with my leg and swept his feet from under him. He landed on his back with a grunt and I quickly got up and straddled his waist. We were both breathing heavily, and I even had some sweat forming on my forehead.

Leaning down and placing a chaste kiss on his chin, I whispered, "I think I won that round, Mr. Big Bad Soldier Man." So, technically I hadn't played fair, but I had to take what I could get!

Ashton chuckled and replied, "Do you want to know what your prize is?" before placing his hands around my hips and pulling me down towards him. I gasped when I felt his hard length poking up through the fabric of his gym shorts and pressing into my bottom. A little pool of my own arousal started to dampen my panties before I wiggled my butt down on his groin, making him grunt. Then, I looked around the gym, took note of the few other people working out, and gave Ashton a chastising glare.

"Relax," he said, grinning, "We'll save that for tonight."

I couldn't help the smile that spread across my face, as I was already anticipating his nightly visit to my room. I let my body collapse onto his chest, feeling utterly pooped.

"Ugh, you were right. I am completely hopeless!" I exclaimed.

"Hey, you actually weren't that bad. Especially considering that this was your first time. You catch on fast, and you are really quick. You just don't have the strength or experience to back that speed up." He said after wrapping his arms around me.

"That's very kind of you to say, considering that I spent more time on my ass than on my feet today."

Ashton just laughed and held me close to him.

The rest of the week went by quickly. I ate with Ashton and his friends every day. We got to know each other pretty well and I actually really liked most of them, especially Hannah. She was very kind but also smart as a whip. I still got the feeling that Eve didn't like me. I would catch her glaring every now and then and it made me feel uneasy. Marcus was annoyingly arrogant, but I was beginning to find it endearing. He liked to flirt with all of the girls, and it took me a while to get used to his winks and innuendos.

One day, during free time, Ashton taught me how to swim in the indoor pool. Okay, so I didn't really learn how to swim, considering that the water never went deeper than 5 feet, but we did spend hours splashing around, jumping on each other, and playing in the water.

 Most days, though, we would curl up on the couches in one of the theater rooms and watch movies with the rest of Ashton's friends. They loved horror films, much to my dismay. I quickly learned that I hated scary movies. Every time there was a suspenseful moment, my heart would practically stop, and I screamed at every jump scare. Ashton loved it, though. It gave him an excuse to wrap his arm around my shoulder in a gesture of comfort. 

My favorites were the Disney movies that Hannah would put on. The guys always groaned and pouted when we watched them, but they were amazing to me and reminded me of the fairytales that I loved to read as a kid.

Every day, I would pick up a new book from the library to bring to my room and read before going to bed. Through books, I was able to travel the world, discover magic, marry a prince, and basically do all of the things that I knew I would never be able to do in reality.

And, every night, Ashton would come into my room for an hour. Our pretend love making sessions were getting more and more heated, and it was getting harder to stop at just heavy petting.

 Afterwards, we would lay next to each other (sometimes on top of each other), and talk for the remainder of our time. I was really beginning to see who Ashton was past the almost childish, happy go lucky front he put up for everyone. He was such a warm hearted guy who I could tell cared greatly for his friends. He was also very creative, and we spent a lot of time imagining a world where we were humans who met in college, fell in love, got married, moved to the suburbs and had a family. It was such a novel idea to us, being able to decide the course of your own life and choosing to spend it with someone you loved.

I had allowed myself to become content here. It truly wasn't a bad place to live, and if I wasn't careful, I would surely allude myself into believing that I could spend the rest of my days here.

On Friday, I went back to the doctor. He did a quick physical, then asked me a bunch of questions about how the sex was going. My stomach was crawling with how awkward I felt as I tried my best to make it seem like I actually was having sex. 

He had my lab results, and everything was telling him that I was a healthy, fertile girl. I hoped that this wouldn't interfere with my plan. Surely there could still be some reason as to why I wasn't getting pregnant and they wouldn't just assume that I wasn't fulfilling my obligation to the pack. I really couldn't stand it if my actions caused Ashton to be punished.

I would have to figure it out. Ashton deserved to live a happy life, even though I would eventually be forced to leave him.

Thank you guys for reading! Hope you like it :)