Finally, it was over and Efraim let them all go back to their rooms to sleep. They all changed back to their human forms and got dressed again. William was so sore that he didn’t even worry about changing back this time and the transformation went by almost automatically. He scooped up his clothes and put them back on. His muscles felt better the more he moved. The pack bond was compensating and taking some of his fatigue and soreness away from him but he was still in pain. Nursing sore muscles all the way home he let his legs carry him back to his room. He had no trouble going to sleep that night.
Training went on like this for about three weeks. William and the rest of the human born of his pack would train together and then they would be brought back with Aceso and Achelois to train in their werewolf form. They went back to the massive jungle gym, obstacle course, and Parkour training ground several times. William always felt awkward performing some of the most basic stuff in human form. In his werewolf form however he had become a god. He could jump between buildings, scale walls that were four stories high. He leapt out of windows bouncing off of walls and other buildings. In his werewolf form everything seemed to make sense. Along with the physical training they were put through they also attended a class of sorts on survival in nature. The wolf born were excluded from these, of course, and much of what was said William already had a pretty good idea about. Still, he took them more as a time to rest and absorb some of the finer details of survival, how to read the weather and the land and what to watch out for as far as human interference and detection.
The four of them grew together as a group. Nicolas seemed to calm down a little more and William found he could look at the man and put aside his contempt, for a little while. He wouldn’t say that they were friends, but at least they tolerated each other and Nicolas had taken steps to be somewhat less odious around his pack mates. Of course, for a while there he wouldn’t stop complaining about how much weight he had lost.
“I mean look at me, I look like a scrawny kid, where the hell did my pecks go,” Nicolas complained.
William looked over at him. “You may have lost weight and mass, but you are stronger now than you were when we first met.” Charles nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, but look at me,” Nicolas almost wailed. “My clothes don’t even fit anymore.”
William reached over and punched him in the shoulder. “If I were you, I would be appreciative of the solid tight muscles you have now over those inflated gym muscles you had when you first got here.” William glanced sideways at Katherine, knowing that Nicolas would see him do it. “Besides you have a shredded six pack now, not the bloated belly of a body builder that was massing up before he cut down for a competition.”
Even Achelois seemed to be allowing her open distaste for Aceso subside a little bit. William would notice the two sparring with each other in the training building and they would be helping each other out with hand positions or were to throw their body weight to get the proper lift to do a particular throw. Of course, as soon as training was over Achelois didn’t say a word to Aceso.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Then one day as they were leaving the training building, Efraim yelled after them, “Don’t worry about meeting in the square until after lunch tomorrow, in werewolf form.”
William looked at the other five members of his pack. They mirrored his look of confusion. As they were walking home, he glanced up at Charles. “What’s going on?”
Charles shrugged his shoulders. “I have no idea. We should enjoy the break while we have it though.”
The next morning, he woke up before the cavern ceiling crystals had brightened to their usual morning glow. He tried to go back to sleep but after three weeks of waking up at the same time every day he guessed that there was no point in trying to force something his body just wasn’t used to anymore.
He got up grabbed his toiletries and went to the bathroom. After he had brushed his teeth and gave himself the smoothest shave, he had allowed himself in a long time, he decided that he was going to take a nice long hot shower. He got into the open bay shower and turned on the hot water. He was ready for the blast of liquid ice, and he stood off to the side until the water became warm. He stepped into the stream of warmth and let it permeate his whole body. He closed his eyes and just relaxed enjoying not having to be anywhere for a while. When he opened his eyes he found that he was not alone. Standing directly opposite from him taking a shower as if it was the most natural thing in the world, was a naked woman. William whipped himself around and tried to make it seem casual. He had never been so self-conscious before in his life. He turned the water off and nearly ran out of the shower.
“You can come back and finish your shower, I won’t bite.” The woman said. “At least not before I get to know you.”
William was able to muster the courage to turn around and at least look at the woman who had invaded his shower. She had pale white skin. She was in shape and her short red hair framed her angular face. Her pale green eyes had a wild untamed look in them. William now knew what a mouse felt like when cornered by a hungry cat. He wanted to move but was held in place for a moment by the movement of her hand gliding up her side approaching her breast as the hot water flowed over her well-toned, muscled body. William didn’t wait to see what she was going to do next. Instead, he turned on his heel and nearly fell flat on his face losing his balance in the puddle of water that had pooled beneath him. He caught himself and managed to move with impressive speed out of the shower area around the partial partitioning wall. Heaving a sigh, he grabbed one of the white towels and dried himself off quickly. He yanked his pants and shirt back on, threw on his shoes, grabbed his toiletries from the counter, and jumped out of the bathroom as quickly as possible. He didn’t turn back around to look if the girl was following him, he knew that she wasn’t. Still, the hairs on the back of his still damp neck were standing straight up. He felt a heat radiate in between his shoulder blades as he tried to wipe the memory of what had just happened from his mind. He had never had a girl hit on him before and he was fairly inexperienced in these sorts of things but he was pretty sure that she had made a pass at him just now. Not just a pass, she tried to run me over with a Mack truck.