Chapter 17

The day started out like any other; I woke up, my mom called me down for breakfast, my dad grunted a reluctant hello, Carson picked me up and took me to school. We kissed goodbye in the car and went on our separate ways.

School even progressed like usual; I listened to Lyla and Matt bicker like an old married couple, I got through the stares Lucas gave me in class and even managed to get out so fast he didn’t even see me leave. Yup a seemingly regular day right? Nothing too exciting, no drama, just good old fashion normal right?

WRONG!

Today was the day I was to go to martial arts. My wounds had finally healed so Carson said it was time I went and damned if I wasn’t scared out of my wits. I stood outside the auditorium after school where they had training, and sighed. My palms had gone clammy so I wiped it against my track pants then took a staggering breath before pushing the door and going in.

Guys and girls milled around, some drinking water or other energy drinks, others stretching and some just standing around talking. Nobody seemed to notice me and there was no sign of Steven.

So far so good.

I dropped my bags on the bottom bench and took at seat. Placing my elbows on my knees and my chin in my hands.

‘Guess I’m early’ I thought to myself.

Everybody seemed to know each other and while I recognized a few of them from either my class or just around school, I‘d never actually spoken to them so I decided to just keep it that way and watch them do their thing. Who knows, maybe Steven fell off the face of the earth and maybe the coach would ignore me.

“You know, I’m starting to think I’m having a nightmare because in real life, a little cock sucker like you wouldn’t still be alive and certainly wouldn’t be here. So since this is a dream, maybe I’ll just try to enjoy it until I wake up.”

I jumped up when I heard his voice, heart pounding a thousand beats a second. Steven stood in front me, arms folded and a huge smirk on his face. I was surprised he wasn’t surrounded by his usual cloud of smoke and his idiotic friends.

“N-no I think maybe I’m the one having the nightmare so let’s just both decide to wake up and ignore each other?” I said, trying to get him to see that I didn’t want any trouble.

No such luck.

He grabbed me by my shirt collar and pulled me across the room. When we reached the centre of the space he let me go and I staggered.

“So you here to learn how to fight? I’ll teach you.” He grinned, the creepiest grin I’d ever seen and I took a step back then automatically raised my hands to ward him off.

“N-no just… please Steven.” I pleaded.

I hated pain. I hated getting beaten up. I felt like a coward for begging but when you were a weakling fearing for your life it was the best you could do. Well it was either that or run, so instead of waiting for his punch, which I could predict, I turned and tore through the auditorium. When I almost reached the door I wasn’t surprised to feel his hand on my arm.

Of course he was faster than me.

He pulled me from the door and threw me to the floor. I quickly surveyed the room and was a bit surprised that no one was watching. I suppose being that this was martial arts, people were used to seeing fights so this one was no different.

I let out a cry when I felt his boot connect with my side and curled up in a ball, trying to shield myself from him. His boot connected again and again and before I knew it my lip was swollen and bloody. He’d ‘accidentally’ kicked me in the face. I clutched my hands to my mouth and cried out in pain rolling on the floor like a bug that was stuck on its back.

“What’s going on here?” a voice demanded.

“Just teaching him some moves sir.” I heard Steven answer.

It took me a while to come out of my pain-filled haze, but when I did it was to see Lucas standing in front of Steven, his arms crossed. He was dressed for the gym and so I was able to see the imprint of his muscles as they bunched under his shirt.

“Is that so?” he questioned. His face was devoid of emotion so I couldn’t tell what kind of mood he was in.

I watched as he extracted a white material from the bag he carried and threw it at me. It was his shirt.

“Try to stop the bleeding.” He issued then turned and walked to the centre of the auditorium.

“As you all probably have guessed, I’m taking the place of your coach for the time being.”

My eyes widened at his words. Are you kidding me? The guy was everywhere!

Pressing the shirt to my busted lip I pushed up off the ground with a grunt. I knew I was gonna hate it here.

“A place I can beat you up and it’s legal haha…this just got a whole lot more interesting.”

I looked over at Steven with narrowed eyes. He was smirking. As usual and I suppressed a shudder.

Maybe Carson would let me quit since Lucas was the couch. It was all I could hope for because if he didn’t, I wouldn’t be alive much longer.

“…and since I’m new I want to know what you’ve been learning. So I’ll need someone to illustrate the best ways to carry out whatever techniques you’ve learned.” Lucas was still talking to the class and I made my way over to where my bag was and sat down.

“How about you…you said you were teaching Laken a few moves, how about you come up here and demonstrate.” He was pointing to Steven and I shook my head in disgust as the idiot made his way to the front of the room.

He seemed extra cocky today for some reason, as if a teacher asking him to demonstrate a few stupid techniques was some great honor.

“Just do a range of stances so I can get an idea of where you’re at.” Lucas said to him, then stepped back to watch.

The room was silent as Steven executed a series of techniques in rapid succession. His stance seemed flawless.

After a while Lucas stopped him. “Ok not bad.” then he turned to the class;

“You see class he showed us the proper way of doing it. However, sometimes students tend to discard certain principles when they go out into the real world. I don’t want this to happen so what I’ll do is to show you the type of techniques I don’t want you practicing in my class”. He enunciated, then turned back to Steven.

“Mind if I illustrate on you?” he asked him, but something wasn’t right here, his voice had gone all soft and smooth, and his eyes were narrowed and glinting as he looked at Steven who, being a complete blockhead didn’t notice the change.

Steven nodded and in an instant he was on the ground. Lucas had done some fast twisty spiny move without seeming to even touch him.

Yes ‘twisty spinny’… does it look like I know anything about fighting?

I watched with wide as Steven kneeled on the floor, holding his chest and coughing, trying to catch his breath.

“That class is one move I never want you to use on another person.” Lucas said with a smile.

He grabbed Steven’s arm pulling him from the floor.

“I definitely never want you to do this either;” then he pulled pack and punched Steven in the face, causing him to fall to the floor once more. This continued for literally five minutes. Five minutes of Steven trying to use his moves against Lucas but getting floored time and time again and it looked painful as hell.

I rose up off my seat so I could see properly. Steven was grunting, his hand covering his nose, but there was no blood.

As Lucas walked over to him once more I was surprised to hear Steven shout out “No! no I get it I get it! Stop!”

“Clearly you don’t get it, otherwise you’d be apologizing to him and not begging me to stop.” Lucas grabbed him by the front of his shirt, pulling him off the ground once more

“Ok ok I’m s-sorry Laken.” I almost fell out of my seat when I heard the words.

Steven apologizing to me?!

Well he wasn’t looking at me, he was looking up at Lucas in fear, but he’d clearly said my name.

In an instant, Lucas let him go.

“Understand this, I don’t want any student to use the skills they learn here to hurt another person. If you’re going to teach someone how to fight, do it the right way, only cowards hurt people just because they can.”

I can’t tell you how amazed I was at this. I could only gape at him in shock. He’d actually done that for me? I couldn’t believe it. He’d humiliated Steven because of what he’d done to me and while I wasn’t one for violence, I couldn’t help but be secretly pleased. Maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

…………..

“Lemme see.” Carson said holding my chin and turned my face this way and that so he could see my busted lip properly.

“Will you stop? I’m fine; jeez you’re acting like my mom.”

I joked and turned my attention back to my fries.

We were sitting in his car, which was parked in the parking lot at my favorite fast food restaurant.

“I didn’t know they’d actually allow you to get hurt, I thought it was all about safe, friendly self defense.” he said looking at my face in concern.

“Yeah well…now you know, Steven’s an ass but don’t worry, Lucas put him in his place.” I didn’t have to bring it up but I thought he deserved payback for forcing me to go to the damn thing in the first place.

“Lucas? How’d Lucas get into this?” he asked, clearly annoyed.

“When he started working as the coach.” I answered, plopping a limp fry in my mouth and looking up at him with wide innocent eyes.

“So he’s your chemistry teacher and your coach? Is he planning to take charge of every class you’re in just so you can notice him? That’s pathetic.”

He said it with a chuckle but I could tell by the way his mouth tightened that it grated on his nerves.

“Actually he had no way of knowing I’d join, so I think that was just coincidence.” I said defending him.

It really wasn’t my intention to defend him I was just stating a fact. Lucas really couldn’t have known I was going to take martial arts so him showing up had nothing to do with me but him beating the crap out of Steven had everything to do with me and I couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction as I remembered the look on Steven’s face when Lucas had made him apologize to me again after training. I had this awesome feeling that Steven would be leaving me alone for awhile.

“How’d he ‘put him in his place anyway?” Lucas asked grudgingly

“He beat him up. You should have seen him Carson, he was so fast! I’ve never seen someone fight like that!” I exclaimed, excited now.

When I noticed he was glaring at me I lost my smile.

“He sounds like such a prize, that just makes him just like Steven.” He said shaking his head. I never really thought of it that way but while Carson had a point, I really didn’t see that it was completely wrong what he did.

“At least Steven will leave me alone from now on.” I said.

“Laken the only reason I told you to go in the first place was so you could get over you fear of Steven by learning to beat him in a fight in a controlled environment. Your teacher didn’t help you in anyway by doing what he did.”

“So you’d rather I get beat up every day by some bloody bully than have someone else deal with the problem for me?” I asked incredulously.

“Of course not but there’s gonna come a time when there’ll be no one there to help you then what?”

I deflated. He had a point.”So I guess that means you don’t want me to quit then huh?” I asked.

“ As much as I wish he’d go back to wherever the hell he came from, if he can teach you to defend yourself then I guess I’ll just deal with it.”

Darn

“Why can’t you teach me?”

“Laken I’ve seen you try to fight, there’s not enough time in the world to teach you to do-“

I hit his shoulder and he started laughing. I rolled my eyes, then reached around the back seat for my bag.

When I caught it I placed it eagerly in front of me and dug my hand in. It took awhile to find it, what with all the random crap I had in there, but when I felt the familiar texture of the skittles bag I smiled and pulled it out.

Carson shook his head; “I don’t know what you see it that thing.”

“Mmmhhm.” I answered, too busy with my candy to form a coherent sentence.

We sat there for all of three minutes while I munched away at the sugary treat until it was gone.

“Any progress with your dad?” he asked.

“Well he greets me now.” I answered my shoulders slumping at the thought.

“You want me to talk to him for you?” Carson asked, his hand on my shoulder.

“No, I’ll fix this.”

It was time I stopped waiting for him to come to me. I had to go to him and somehow get him to acknowledge my presence. I’d go as soon as we left here, the quicker the better and I wouldn’t leave until he heard me out.

“Want to go to my place for a few?”

“Sure.” I answered automatically.

I’d talk to my dad later; a few more hours wouldn’t hurt anybody.

…………..

Remember when I said the day started out normal?

Yeah well… I think it’s a given that nothing could ever be normal for me. I’m a gay werewolf who can’t fight…nothing about that is normal.

I’d thought we’d just drive to camp and spend I nice evening at his place, maybe watch some TV, play some video games and maybe even have some sex ( okay definitely have some sex), but nooooo that certainly wasn’t to be because when we drove up to his place, it was to see about nine girls lined out in front of his house. They were just standing there.

I looked over at Carson to see if he knew what was going on but his expression was just as confused.

I followed as he exited the car and approached the females.

“I’m going to assume there’s a reason you’re all standing outside my house?” Carson said when we came to a stop in front of them.

One girl spoke up; she had midnight black hair and legs that seemed to go on forever.

“The council recruited us. We are to compete for the chance of being your mate.” She announced.

I watched in astonishment as they bowed in unison. Like Carson was some kind of God or something.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you Alpha we’ve heard good things. It would be an honor to stand by your side.” Another girl spoke up, her eyes glued to his face.

After this they introduced themselves one at a time. Carson looked pretty surprised as he nodded at each greeting but all I could think was…

What the fuck?

AUTHOR'S NOTES

SORRY I TOOK SO LONG TO UPLOAD GUYS..I HAVE EXAMS SO IT'S ALL ABOUT THE STUDYING FOR NOW. I ONLY HAVE THREE MORE LEFT THOUGH SO REGULAR DAILY UPLOADS WILL RESUME AS SOON AS THEY'RE DONE.

THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE....OH! I ALMOST FORGOT; ONE OF MY AWESOME READERS SAID THEY'RE TEAM DoUbLeZoNe HAHA YAY I HAVE A TEAM!! STEP ASIDE TEAM LUCAS AND CARSON, A NEW TEAM IS IN TOWN! LOL

LOVE YOU ALL..THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO EVERYONE WHO WISHED ME GOODLUCK IN MY EXAMS, EVERYONE WHO TOOK THE TIME OUT TO COMMENT ON MY STORY AND TO SEND ME MESSAGES TELLING ME HOW MUCH THEY'RE ENJOYING IT AND TO ALL MY FANS..I HAVN'T THANKED YOU ALL YET BUT I APPRECIATE THE SUPPORT.

HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS CHAPTER...MY VOTE BUTTON TOLD ME HE'S LONELY..DON'T FORGET TO GIVE HIM SOME LOOOVE!.

-DoUbLe.A

-unedited.