Untamed

C H A P T E R 9

I felt my shoulders sag in relief as my grandmother walked into the room. The markings on Auroras arms had the room tinted a ghostly silver color, despite the fact that the markings themselves were almost transparent by now. It was almost as if they were… Disappearing.

My grandmother was the oldest elder in the Pack and I watched as she smiled when she saw Aurora on the bed, but I also noticed the slump to her shoulders. She walked to the other side of the bed and started massaging the markings. It seemed as if she was reading them and I moved backwards, sitting down on the chair again.

“I hate to be the one to tell you this, but your mother would have been very disappointed in you if she found out how you've been treating your mate. She's probably turning over in her grave at this very moment.”

I tensed as I took in my grandmother’s knowing look. As if sensing my question of how she knew something I had not mentioned, she answered.

“The moment she stepped into the arena, I knew. It's hard to explain how I knew, because there was a lot of things contributing to it. Something in her scent, something in her eyes. But the dead give away was how she got on your nerves without trying. And since we're being completely honest here, if Ciara was truly the Luna then she wouldn't have lost that battle.”

I clenched my jaw as I leaned backwards in the chair, making sure that my face was devoid of any emotion.

“Well, then I guess it's a good thing that mum isn’t here to judge me.”

She turned to me with a look could have left me six feet under.

“You're forgetting that I’m still your grandmother-there’s nothing stopping me from giving you a good s******g on behalf of your mother. And yes, she’s not here, but that doesn't change the fact that she raised you to be better. How long do you think it will take before Aurora rejects you?”

She glared down at her hands-which were still busy massaging her arms-and I decided that it would be better if I didn't inform her of the fact that Aurora had already tried to do so.

“She's a Royal. I have no doubt about it, any more. It's only a matter of time before the King and Queen sense that their daughter is alive and well. She's officially 18. Meaning that her wolf can distinguish itself now and she doesn’t need the markings as proof.”

I watched as my gran stepped back. The markings had lost all of their previous black color and now looked like tender scars on her skin. I knew that it would only be a matter of time before her wolf healed them and she looked like any other she-wolf I knew.

“What do you mean that she's officially 18?”

My grandmother sent me a rather sad smile as she started walking towards the door. She pulled open the door and turned to me with her hand still on the doorknob.

“It means that today was her birthday. And that she was most likely not even aware of it. But the most important thing… Is that you need to live with the knowledge that you were trying to discipline her during that time.”

Aurora

I groaned as I willed my aching muscles to move so that I could turn around to block out the sunlight trying to fight through my closed eyelids. Once I was laying comfortably on my stomach, I let out a sigh of content.

“How much longer are you going to f*****g sleep?”

My muscles gave a startled jolt as the voice boomed and I hurriedly opened my eyes and I let them dart from side to side, only to have them settle on Ryder who looked as annoyed as ever.

I dropped my gaze to the blankets, thankful that they had covered my body as I moved, since instinct told me that I wasn't modest beneath the blankets.

“You better be ready in an hour or else you're going to be late for training.”

I looked up and watched as he yanked open the door and let it swing shut behind him with a bang. I groaned as the sound seemed to cause an insistent pounding in my temples and I fell back on the bed. I was in my room. The one in his house.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed, summoning all of my strength to push myself upright. I grabbed a hold of the bed frame as my legs threatened to buckle beneath my weight.

Time seemed to stop for a second. Or two. Or three.

I stared at my arms trying to comprehend what I was seeing. Gone were the dark swirls that I had grown accustomed to seeing every minute of every day, replaced by perfectly tanned skin with no flaws or blemishes whatsoever.

I ran my fingers over the skin, pinching it and scratching it in disbelief, trying to see if the skin would peel off. It didn't. I don't know how long I stood there trying to think of logical explanations for their sudden disappearance, but I jumped into action as I remembered Ryder’s warning.

Not to be late.

I left the bed unmade and dragged on various items of clothing that were suitable for training. I pulled my hair into a bun and then raced out of my room, only to find Xander staring up at me from the bottom of the staircase.

“You're a sight for sore eyes.”

He pulled me into a hug at the bottom of the stairs and I did my best to hide the way I flinched. My eyes landed on a man who was standing rather awkwardly to the side and I sent him a smile before I pulled away from Xander.

“And who might this be?”

I felt my own mouth tug upwards as I noticed the faint blotches of color that appeared on Xanders cheeks before he slid his arm around the man’s waist in a possessive manner.

“This is Adam. He's my mate.”

I smiled as I pulled Adam into a hug. Hid features were rather baby-like, leading me to assume that he was a lot younger than Xander. He had blue eyes and blond hair-the ultimate combination for a heart breaker. I felt myself tense as a cough echoed through the air and I pulled away from Adam as if he had burnt me. My eyes immediately fell to the floor as Ryder appeared in my proverbial vision.

“We should get going.”

Despite the fact that it had been a suggestion and not an outright order, Ryder's voice was still as cold and monotone as ever. His feet thumped loudly on the floor, along with Adam and Xanders as the followed suit.

“The first part of training is running. You need to trust yourself and know that even if your strength does not match your opponents, your speed will.”

I barely caught the shirt he threw at me, feeling my mouth pull downwards in disgust as the stench of sweat and blood clouded my senses, causing an almost uncontrollable wave of nausea to wash over my body.

“But since we're running on a right schedule, we're going to test your tracking skills at the same.”

I closed my eyes once I had stepped safely off of the porch and started taking slow steps and I shifted through the different scents that seemed to be clouding the air. I had no memory of ever smelling so many scents here during the past weeks and I instinctively knew that Ryder had purposely arranged for it to be done this way.

The scent I was looking for seemed to wash over me like a cold bucket of water and I took off sprinting, determined to prove that I was as good as any other wolf in the Pack. I could hear their footsteps behind me, since they were clearing trying to maintain a distance safe enough to observe me but not lose sight of me.

I ignored the trees scraping against my arms, along with the rather painful protestations that my calves and thighs were determined to make as I pushed myself to go faster. My breathing was already coming in frantic, uneven gasps and if anything, my struggle for oxygen drove me to push myself even harder.

A building came into view that reeked of the scent I had been tracking and as I tried to stop, my body skid to a halt and I felt my foot slip before I skid and bumped into the door in the process. I groaned as I pushed myself off of the ground, letting out a low muttering of curse words in the process.

I turned around in time to see Ryder break through the tree line and I watched as he stopped once his eyes settled in me and bent over with his hands on his knees-an obvious giveaway that he was trying to get his breathing under control.

I watched as Xander and Adam broke through the tree line and collapsed onto the ground not far from where I was now standing.

“Remind me why we ran after you…”

I couldn’t help but smile at his words, but as a dark shadow fell across Xanders face as he lay on the ground. I didn't have to look up to see Ryder there, because his scent was a clear giveaway. I could feel his glare drilling to my features and I silently asked myself for all the ways I have sinned.

Despite the amount of recovery time that he had had, his breathing was still uneven and his scent now marched the one emitting from the building.

“Let's go.”

I felt the air leave my chest as he bumped against my shoulder when I passed, causing me to almost fall. My eyes darted up and I glared at his back as he walked. There was a part of me that wanted nothing more than to give him a piece of my mind.

Xander and Adam waiting for me to follow Ryder and I let out a sigh and looked at the training equipment that surrounded me. The air was humid and stale and the stench of sweat had multiplied by a tenfold. Ryder walked to a wrestling ring in the middle of the room and Xander jogged ahead and jumped into the ring. The apologetic look he sent me had me frowning as various scenarios-that didn't end well for me-darted through my mind.

I let out a yelp of air as I felt my body being hoisted into the air and my arms moved around wildly as I felt the air whoosh past me. I let out a rather loud groan as my body made contact with the hard ground of the ring. I opened my eyes and sent Adam a threatening look.

“The second part of your training is hand to hand combat. It is common for enemies to team up against you, so that it how you will train. It is better to be over prepared.”

Ryder voice rang through the air rather mockingly and I let out a growl as I rolled over and pushed myself off of the ground.

They wanted a fight?

They should have just asked.