Animals ✔

Chapter 16

The plan is set in motion almost immediately.

The days following the attack on Jenna, I train tirelessly with Nora, filled with a singular purpose. Revenge.

Tiberius works with Colin and Sampson to rally the pack and come up with a plan of attack. I leave them to it, having no experience waging a war, with the stipulation that they include me in their plans.

I go several days without seeing Jon, and assume he's still shaken by what happened to Jenna. It can't have been easy to find her that way.

Jenna has refused to see anyone but her parents and Tiberius, holing up in her hospital room. The poor girl is completely petrified by the thought of leaving the hospital, and the more I learn about her state of mind, the guiltier I feel.

And angrier.

I've started a new practice of translating my fear, guilt and sadness into anger. I feel the fire all the time now, just a breath away.

I've never felt so powerful.

I used to consider myself something of a pacifist. I hated violence, I'd rather run than fight. But that's the girl I was. Like I can feel the fire in my veins, I can feel the change in myself. I'm different now.

When Jenna panicked in the hospital room, I saw myself in her. I couldn't get the image out of my head. But that isn't who I am now, I won't let them scare me anymore. I can't.

I can't be that girl anymore.

Now, when my training ends, I go from Nora's place to the pack's training grounds, a big field surrounded by a track a few miles from Tiberius's cabin in the woods. It's impressively large, nestled in the trees to hide from prying eyes.

The pack gathers there most days, training and going over battle plans.

We have the element of surprise on our side. Ira's pack, the Black River pack, don't know that we know where they are. We've had someone watching them since the day we found them.

But even despite that, the attack on Jenna was a surprise. It's the reason we haven't attacked yet. On the off chance they know we're watching, we need to be as prepared as possible.

I walk across the training field, having finished up with Nora earlier in the day. "Hey, Colin! You ready?"

He turns to me from where he stands across the field, chatting with a couple pack members I haven't been introduced to yet. He shifts back to them, I assume saying goodbye, before he runs over to me.

"Ready to get your ass whooped?" Colin asks.

"More like ready to kick yours," I grin. Colin has been teaching me to fight.

I thought it was unnecessary at first. After all, the only person who's going to get close enough to fight me is the one I let get close enough.

But Tiberius insisted, and as it turns out, fighting can actually be pretty fun.

Colin laughs at me, falling back into a crouch as we circle each other. I don't wait for him to make the first move, leaping forward with my fist aimed at his jaw. He sidesteps the blow, returning with one of his own.

I throw up my arms to block it, but while I'm distracted his foot swipes mine out from underneath me and I fall onto my back. I feel a nagging frustration in the back of my mind, annoyed by the fact that he's capable of moving so much faster than I am.