MARKED | COMPLETED

Chapter 20

All this time, I scrutinized the lack of change after my Shifting. I didn't grow as much as I wanted—my eyes didn't become some beautiful, miraculous color. But in the time I'd spent being critical, I never once took the time to try out something that was detrimental to what I was: my strength.

The news that Tuaisceart was coming traveled quickly through the pack, and with that news came to the guards and security detail training harder than ever. They sparred in front of the Alpha's cabin, where the ground was free of gravel, and therefore safe for them. I watched in the background for a while, in awe of how quickly and fluidly they moved.

My old instructor, Brom, had taken down two men—much bigger in size—without hardly moving. When he asked for more, no one would actually go up against him.

The funnier sight, I'll admit, was Reece. He huffed and blocked—more exhausted than the others. But he hadn't been my guard for very long; in time, I knew he would be much better. I wasn't the only one who recognized that as the truth. I watched several girls root for Reece on the sidelines. One girl, a redhead with hazel eyes, managed to distract him.

I was itching to get a chance to fight.

But every time I tried, Shaun had his arm on my shoulder, easing me back onto the front porch and ultimately babying me.

As if he didn't know that this was in my blood—how many times had I been written up because of him? If I could take down Deering, and other people in class, then surely I could spar against a few of the wolves.

Except Brom. I wouldn't fight him in a million years.

Beneath it all, I didn't see fighting—training. I saw unity at its finest. Wolves were brutal at heart—our wolves—and to be preparing for war came so naturally to us, weak or not. To see my pack preparing like this, it brought a confidence that raged and warmed my bones. I was actually able to hold my head high.

I smiled, catching a glimpse of Reece bringing Deering to the ground. He found me watching, and howled loudly into the air.

I shot a glance to Shaun, and he shook my head.

"You can't train with them, that's not your job."

"What's my job? It's not fair that I'm not allowed to go out there and kick some ass."

He glanced down at his handy-dandy clipboard and wrote something down. "I'm under strict orders. You just watch."

"That's not fair."

I looked back to the cabin. In the sudden chaos of it all, Aisling had no choice but to return back to the cabin. It was the only place big enough so he could plan out a proper defense, lest he wanted to work in a very, very cramped place. He was inside, busy with the guards in charge. I could only imagine what was going through his mind at the moment.

In spite of all the excitement watching everyone duke it out, there was still that part that was afraid.

What if my father was right and I wound up being a weakness, and not strength?

In some ways I understood him.

We were told so often, over and over again, that the Luna was so detrimental to our survival that without her existence we would never last. It could be seen as a weakness. But I refused to do so. I refused to believe that I was a weakness.

But even now, what if Tuaisceart became before we had a change to truly strengthen ourselves?

Like Aisling had said: its law for a pack to declare war in a public setting. Through brutality we are born—but we like fair fights and no surprises. Plus, it allowed a chance for the packs to come up with a calm, peaceful solution to whatever problems they had.