Ghost

Doubts

Elwyn's P.O.V.

It's only because he cares, Elwyn. It's what mates do. Nothing else matters.

Kaede's words kept repeating in my mind, and I would be lying if I said that they didn't affect me. The mate bond was definitely stronger now, since Nolen had withdrawn his rejection. Throughout lunch, I found myself scanning the room in search of him, trying to feel his presence.

The conversation and discussion between the Ghosts didn't seem all that important, although I had always participated actively. I just wanted to catch a glimpse of Nolen, feel that he was in the same room as me. I felt a shock of electricity shoot through me, causing me to jump and yelp.

"What was that for?!"

"Glad to know we have you back here with us," Kaede commented, removing the finger I hadn't realised he had shocked me with from my neck.

I felt my ears burn, and I knew my face had been set on fire as well.

"He's not in this room; you confirmed that about fifty times in the first three minutes we were here. Also, I saw him going in the opposite direction of the dining room with an energy bar in his mouth," Gabriel supplied.

Sometimes, I wondered how I could be considered a Ghost. One guy, and I was completely off my game. Clearly, it had been obvious what I was doing, as well as who I was looking for.

We continued to discuss the fighting ability of the Lumiere Pack in general, and I wouldn't say it was exactly the best. We planned to make them start all over from scratch and learn how to throw a punch properly, among the other basics. We discussed the individual groups' abilities, as well as the possibility of speeding up the training process.

"All right, this is it for now. Lunch ends in about an hour, why don't you go look for Nolen?" Kaede asked.

"He's not here. He must not want to be near me," I replied, sighing and shaking my head.

"Why don't you just go and let him decide that for himself? You have a really bad habit, you know?" Kaede said, and added after seeing my hesitation, "Just go. At least maybe you'd be more focused then."

I thought about it for a while more, then got up and left with Cyrus, sending a "catch y'all later" over my shoulder.

************************************************************

There wasn't much in the opposite direction of the dining room, just the gaming rooms, lounge, as well as the gym. I couldn't hear much, but I thought I'd heard something coming from the gym. Punches. Hard punches that sounded kind of sloppy. They got clearer as I got closer, and it piqued my interest.

I vaguely recalled looking into the gym once, since I never actually went in. Amongst all the gym equipment one would see in a usual gym, there was also a boxing ring and a few punching bags at the far end. I was almost at the gym when I heard a rage filled cry and the ripping of metal.

I hurriedly pushed open the door and looked. Nolen stood with his back facing me, shirtless. His fists were clenched hard and his shoulders rose and fell as he panted. A punching bag was on the floor, some distance away from him, and I noticed that the punching bags were movable. The one on the floor had been ripped right off its tracks.

"What happened?" I asked, as I slowly approached Nolen.

Cyrus nudged his head into my hand. The impression I got off him was confusing, a single word, "No." I stopped midway, simply observing Nolen.

"Nothing much," he replied, his tone detached and he sounded far away.

He walked over to pick up the fallen punching bag.