I bet Delta Osvald credited himself for the sudden fight match Valente and I were in.

We went from staring at each other indefinitely to trying to literally kill each other.

It wasn't until the Delta got everyone's attention to signal the end of training for the day, did we actually stop.

I could tell my body was in pain, but I could barely feel it over the slight ringing in my ears. I couldn't believe that just happened. Every second that passed now made it feel even more unreal.

Valente, the boy I had a major crush on, then didn't. The boy who had literally been ignoring me for all these years, is now in front of me, sweating, bending a little in pain, his pale golden skin now pink, and there was something about the way he kept looking at me that made me feel like I was something worth looking at.

Maybe the crush was coming back, because at that point in time, I couldn't think of anyone else who I'd seen look better than he did.

"Careful. Someone might eavesdrop on your thoughts," he said to me, sending me a discrete wink that I'm sure only I saw, before turning away from me to join his friends.

If I was was pink from the sweating, I'm sure I'd turned red now. I still don't know when I'll learn to shut off the mindlink. I barely ever do, and for anyone who cares to listen, my thoughts are free real estate.

"Well someone's caught the Alpha's interest," said Glo, wiggling her eyes suggestively. She was being followed by Irmelin and Dilja who looked way too exhausted to function.

Regardless, Irmelin fussed over my bleeding lip that I hadn't realized was there. But I didn't expect any less coming out of a sparring session with the pack's Alpha.

As we walked into the girl's locker room of our school, I could tell the girls were looking at me weirder than usual. But nobody said anything or did anything, it was just the stares.

I took a shower stall closest to my locker, taking my clothes and towel with me inside. There's no way I was going to let anyone steal my clothes.

Once in, I tried taking my clothes off, but it caused a lot of pain. As my body cooled down, my muscles began to seize up, causing even slight movement to hurt like hell.

I had no idea how much it'd hurt to feel the water on my skin with cuts and bruises.

I was still in the middle of trying my best to rub the soap down my legs when I heard Glo's voice from outside.

"You okay Ray-ray? How much longer do you need?" she asked me. I never liked that nickname, but didn't mind it too much.

"A little bit. What's up?"

"We're going to get some lunch, if you need a bit of time, tell us what you want so we'll order it okay?"

I told her to go ahead and that I'd catch up with them in ten minutes.

It took a lot of effort to finally change, and I owed this to the fact that Gramma and I hadn't trained in a while, and I went all out today with Valente.

As I turned the knob on the door to open the bathroom stall, I realized it was locked from the outside.

Shit.

"Hello?" I called out, only to be met by silence.

"Did I really take that long to shower?" I asked Ima.

"You always take really long showers Rayne," she replied.

I sighed, looking up at the door edge.

I guess I could climb that.

"Or just call out to one of your friends, they'll let you out," said Ima.

"No I think I can do it. No need to bother them."

"Rayne, you're hurt. It's pretty high for you."

"Why thank you for reminding me I'm short again."

"Well as long as it's not my body go ahead."

I threw my sweaty clothes over the door edge and now it was my turn.

I jumped up, held on to the door edge and lifted myself up with my feet.

As I tried to get over the stall door, I realized I had overestimated how easy this would be, as the edge of the door was so small, I couldn't stay on to balance myself and had no chance to fix my footing before falling face down on the cold bathroom floor.

If my body hurt before, it hurt a lot more now.

"Am I alive Ima?" I asked her.

"I'd say you're a dumbass," she said.

I tried getting up but the pain in my head was throbbing. I saw blood on my floor and the metallic taste on my tongue indicated my cut lip was open again.

My legs were fine, but I felt a lot of pain when trying to straighten my elbow.

A great warrior I'll ever be.

I stayed on the ground trying to collect myself for a second, coming to terms with the pain exploding in different parts of my body.

I heard the sound of the locker room open and heard footsteps rushing in.

I quickly, but painfully, tried to gather my clothes and started to get up, schooling my features to hide the pain.

As the footsteps came closer, I saw the last person I expected to see after falling off a door edge in the girls' locker room.

"How loud did you fall?" asked Ima.

Valente seemed a little surprised to see me on the floor this way, and I was surprised to see him standing there.

"What are you doing?" he asked me, his face a little concerned.

"Nothing. Just dropped my clothes," I lied.

"Are you sure? I felt you were in pain," he said.

"Stop stalking me Val," I told him, immediately regretting it. My eyes went wide at my own words.

Only his friends called him 'Val' and I was not his friend.

As I got up, doing my best impression of a stand, I saw his smug look again, the concern now gone.

"I'm the Alpha. It's my job to make sure my pack members are okay," he said, now walking towards me.

"I'm fine Valente," I said, making sure to say his full name.

"You can call me anything you like," he said through the link.

When he was close enough to be at the edge of my personal space, he stopped.

He reached his hand out, placing his hand on my face, rubbing my bleeding lip with his thumb.

"I beat you up pretty bad huh," he said, looking at my lips. His simple, soft touch felt welcome.

"I think I beat you up pretty bad too," I said, defensively.

"You barely touched me Rayne," he said, now looking at my face.

I had to step back, because Valente's presence around me is most definitely going to give me breathing problems.

As I took a deep breath, I held my clothes closer to me, as if that would shield me from his intense gaze.

"Thank you for asking, but I'm fine, Alpha," I told him, trying to walk past him, but he stopped me.

"Rayne," he said. It seemed he was trying to find the right words.

"Frida," he said, and then stopped again.

"Frida?" I said, raising an eyebrow. The mention of another girl's name from his mouth, oddly hurt different.

I hope he didn't catch my ever-so-slight jealous tone.

"Frida, umm, is celebrating her eighteenth birthday this weekend. I was hoping you'd want to come with me?" he asked.

I was beyond shocked.

Where is this coming from?

"Where is this coming from?" I asked him.

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

"I've been a jerk to you. You didn't deserve it. I wanted to apologize," he said.

I nodded my head slightly.

"Okay. Apology accepted," I said, now walking past him.

I was stopped by his voice yet again.

"So is that a yes?" he asked me.

I knew what I was going to say. I didn't need to rethink it.

"I don't think so," I said and walked out of the locker room.

...