Taylor - stripes and shadows (lesbian) [on hold]

Chapter 14 - what doesn't kill us.

I woke up to Amber shouting at Joe to get up and put some cloths on, I realised that I had none on either, only after I turned around to face Joe, I could feel my face heating up, Amber rolled her eyes at Joe who was sprawled out under the covers flipping her off and smiling at me “ugh, just get dressed and get your arses downstairs, foods waiting” Amber informed us before walking out of the room.

“You look better, how are you feeling?” Joe asked “a-alright now t-thank you” I stuttered back as I felt her brush up against me before she got up out of bed and walked across the room towards the door, I tried not to pay attention to her lack of clothing as she spoke “good, can’t have you being tired for your fights, I’ll meet you downstairs” she said before shutting the door behind her as she left, alone in my new room I got up and walked over to the set of draws, I caught my reflection in the full length mirror next to it and noticed that my muscles looked a lot more defined and I had gotten a tad taller, remembering how annoyed Amber seemed I quickly got dressed and headed downstairs.

Everyone was in the kitchen when I got downstairs, I joined them at the table to be greeted with a smile from Joe, turning to look at Amber I noticed her glaring at Joe before noticing me looking at her, she smiled at me and patted the seat next to her, I wandered over and sat next to her, Joe gave her a dirty look before continuing to eat her food, Lance placed a plate in front of me piled full of food, without thinking I started devouring it and before I knew it Lance was taking an empty plate away from me, I looked up to see everyone laughing at me as I sheepishly smiled back at them, everyone started talking to each other, I leaned back in my chair as the kitchen was filled with the lull of voices, I took in the sight of them as they chatted away and thought about how at peace I felt in that moment, more calm than I had ever felt before, this was my family now, my thoughts wandered to the other’s that would be coming later, would it still feel like this with more people, would we all get along like we do now or would things change, I was brought out of my thoughts when there was a sharp knock at the front door, Lance walked over to it as we followed suit, we all stood in the foyer as he opened the door, two fully grown men and a girl about our age stood on the porch, Lance greeted them and stood aside to let them in, the larger of the two males walked up to me before reaching out for a hand shake, I took his hand as he introduced himself “my name is Abbott, these are two young ones from my pack who wish to join your pack if you would accept, if you wish to test them you may, the male is called Bartholomew, Bart for short, the female is called Dora, I would also like to talk to you about an alliance between our packs once this is all over, hence why I have accompanied them here” Joe stepped forward slightly as if to address Abbott, before she could open her mouth Lance stepped in and showed Abbott to the front room glancing over his shoulder at Joe he gave her an odd look that I didn’t understand, Dora and Bart stepped closer to me, Dora noticeably hesitant to be closer to us, Bart on the other hand was a lot more confident as he strode up to me and stuck out his hand “I hope you don’t mind me requesting a fight but I would like to test at least one of the founding members of your pack out and hopefully if I beat them to be able to test your strength in battle as well” he politely proclaimed “I wouldn’t expect anything different from a blood pack member” Deane said stepping past me to come face to face with Bart “I’ll be your opponent” I could feel the tension between the two, Dora stepped forward at this point and Bart seemed to sense her as he moved aside to let her stand in front of me “please don’t judge us on the pack we were born into, for it’s the exact reason we have chosen to ask permission to enter your pack” Dora said in almost a whisper, I impulsively wanted to comfort her as she stood awkwardly in front of me, I remembered Joe’s words though, no matter what I had to show my authority, stepping closer to her I stuck out my hand “I’m not here to judge you on where you come from but rather to judge you on whether or not you will be let into this pack” Dora smiled at me and daintily shuck my hand “that’s all we ask for, I’d also like to challenge a founding member” I think we were all slightly taken back by this request but before anyone could say anything Joe stepped forward “then it’ll be me you’ll be challenging” Joe accepted Dora’s challenge “now that you both have challengers we should make our way to the back of the house to proceed” Joe informed us, Dora and Bart nodded there understanding, we let Lance know before we headed out to the back of the house, he said he’d fetch me as soon as anyone else arrived.