~Layla~
Watching the children train was like observing chaos unfold in merciless ways, as the teacher held onto her last shreds of sanity and patience. They were laughing so hard that they fell to the ground, and clutched their stomachs as clay was thrown left and right. One of the boys had his eyes closed and tried to focus, but he was shoved to the ground by his friend and laughed as he grabbed a handful of grass, pressing it against the boy’s face. “Eat it, you jerk!”
“Children, this is no way to behave during practice!” The teacher frustratingly screeched, but it did little to bring the pups’ focus back.
They had the attention spans of goldfish; how on earth could they be expected to focus on a three-hour-long training session where unwavering focus was key?
“Layla, let’s go.” Percy came down from the hill and I walked after him. The woman teaching threw him a glare and growled silently as she looked back at her handful.
“Are you ready to step it up?”
I had already learned how to see memories with ease and how to put my own into inanimate objects. That second one was still a little tricky, but i was getting the hang of it. I looked at Nathaniel, who got ready. We had walked far enough for the pups’ noise to be drowned out.
Never in my life had I felt as alone as I did now. Justin wasn’t talking to me; I had barely seen him in the last week. And though everyone else in this pack went back to their polite ways, I couldn’t shake the feeling of their eyes burning into my skull. They were nice because they wanted something from me, and if I stopped giving it to them, they would all go back to acting as though I was a parasite. But despite all of this, the absolute worst was that I hadn’t seen Kade in what felt like forever. I didn’t know where he was, if he was okay, or if he had any plans on coming here.
I saw his face so clearly in my head that it was projecting onto the only other male around. Nathaniel was looking at me, his eyes boring into mine, but all I saw was how his eyes took on the fox shape of Kade, and his whole body shifted into that of my mate. He stepped up, and leaned his head down, and his eyes held mine captive as his hand rested against my neck. I reached out, inhaled, and cupped his cheek.
“Layla,” his voice was low and dark with a raspy edge to the question in his tone.
I snapped back to reality and saw my hand stretched out in the middle of the air and Nahtnaiel’s questioning gaze.
“Is everything alright?” I nodded my head and pulled my hand back to my side.
“Yes, of course.”
“Good, let’s start practicing.” Though we moved on, I could see the furrow in his brows and his eyes following me as I moved down.
He couldn’t find out that I had been seeing Kade or that I even thought about him. The longing to see Kade again was growing stronger for each day that we were apart. It was odd; usually, being away from your mate would begin in longing and severe pain over being away from each other, but then it would transition into distance and the mate bond growing weaker. For me, it was the opposite. I missed him more than ever before, but then again, I didn’t know what it was like for him. Maybe the mate bond was weakening on his side, and now with Danielle being there, perhaps his heart was pulling in another direction.
“Let’s go,” Nathaniel said, and I bowed my head.
I closed the door and tossed my bag down on the floor. The keys jingled as I put them in a bowl, and then I stopped in the middle of the room and just stared mindlessly into the kitchen. Today’s practice was weird; it was nothing I had practiced before and nothing I had heard anyone else practicing either.
Nathaniel was adamant about me learning the skills as quickly as possible, and he was supervising every little move I made with a strange look in his eyes.
I didn’t know what to think, but I did know who to talk to.
Can you smell him?
’Sure, down by river’
The soggy grass sank under my steps as I walked down to the stones by the river. I stopped behind a tree and poked my head out. He was sitting on the rocks all alone; his back was hunched, and he was staring at the water.
The lights were starting to dim down, and the little patch that lit up from the sun rays pushing through was getting darker and darker as it began to set.
“Justin,” I was standing behind him, unsure of what I should do next.
“What’s up?” He asked without turning around. He threw a pebble into the water, and I furrowed my brows as I followed his uncaring movements.
“Did I do something?” His shoulders visibly stiffened. Justin placed his hands on the rock and pushed off. He stood and walked towards me without making eye contact.
“No.”
As he was about to pass me, I reached out and grabbed his arm.
His shoulders relaxed in a sigh, and he turned his heavy head and looked at me with sorrow in his eyes.
“Then why are you ignoring me?” He didn’t answer. Justin scanned my eyes and my face. He clenched his jaw and flexed his fingers.
“What did I do? First, everyone ignores me, then you tell me to listen to Nathaniel, and when I do, you disappear. What is going on?” His eyes hardened, and his fingers rolled up into fists.
“Are you doing that? Are you listening to him?”
“Yes, because you asked me to.”
“And how is that going?” He asked through clenched teeth.
“It’s honestly getting a little weird. He wants me to do these new things and has me tapping into other powers that he thinks I have.”
“Did you?” I furrowed my brows and shrugged my shoulders.
“Almost, yeah.” Justin swallowed and stepped closer. His eyes glistened like a million stars in a dark sky, and it was hard to look away. Being close to him again and talking to him made me feel a little less alone.
“I have no one else, Justin. Why don’t you want to be friend anymore?” His jaw dropped, and his shoulders sagged.
“Layla, it’s not—”
“The Walkers are having an open dinner. I was coming to check if you were hungry.” We jumped and turned around. In the dark corner between the trees and the waterfall stood Nathaniel.
He walked out and smiled with an ominous shadow cast over me and J
