The Delta's Daughter

Chapter 7 - Torture Prevention

LAMIA

Ten minutes later, the four of us, I had grabbed Kira on the way, sat in my room. Mike and Kel were looking a little more than awkward. I assumed they thought we were going to have a “talk” about what happened Friday night.

“Here,” I said and tossed the old leather book to Kellen who was propped on the end of my bed, “Turn to page 123. And read it out loud so everyone can hear.”

He flipped the pages until he came to the right one and then began to read aloud the same passage I had read. There was an eerie silence in the room when he had finished until Mike broke it.

“Well, that explains a lot. About you anyway and where your strength comes from.” Mike sat back in the chair he had taken residence in and rubbed his hand over his face.

Kellen was staring off into space outside my window and Kira was the only one who looked excited and had a smile plastered across her face.

“So what does this mean?” Kira asked.

I licked my lips, glancing at Mike before I looked at Kellen. “Inanna: said she was mated to Conri hundreds of years ago. He had awoken her the night we were born. The night he chose you and she chose me.”

“It says your wolf is a Queen, which means you are born to be Queen.” Kellen didn’t even avert his gaze from the window as he spoke. His blank expression made it hard to tell what he was feeling or thinking.

“Kellen,” I called to him, “She told me Conri was born a King and chose you. He was a powerful king in his day, and Inanna chose me because she could not leave his side.”

He finally turned his gaze to me, his eyes emotionless. “Are we mates Lamia?”

I sighed heavily. I didn’t know, and neither did my wolf. Mike adjusted himself, looking even more uneasy when the word mate was mentioned. I would never hide anything from either of the guys.

“I don’t know, my wolf doesn’t know, she said: only time can tell when we become of age. What does Conri say?” I anticipated his reply as he had a brief conversation with his wolf.

“He doesn’t know either. He said just because they were paired long ago, it doesn’t mean the moon goddess paired them this time.” His words were indifferent, a blank gaze still held in his eyes, not giving anything away.

“I guess you guys will have to wait until you turn eighteen to find out!” Kira piped up.

I shook my thoughts of our wolves away; there was another pressing matter I needed to discuss with my friends. The choice Wilson gave me.

“So, anyway, that’s what I wanted to show you. Now I have something else to tell you.”

I ran through everything Wilson had discussed with me, the early graduation, the choice to stay to do advanced weapon training, and torture prevention for our final months here. We would break for winter before we came back for our final months in the academy.

When I got to the part about what that would entail, both Mike and Kellen let out a low growl, they disapproved of me intentionally being hurt and giving consent to people torturing me. I could understand their lack of enthusiasm and anger at the thought of someone hurting me, or me hurting myself. After all, they were both very protective of me, despite me being stronger than both of them put together.

“No way!” Kellen shouted.

“Absolutely not!” Mike objected after I had finished explaining.

“I think it’s a great idea, Lamia,” Kira smiled. “What does your wolf say about it?”

“She said we were strong enough and it would be tough, but we could handle it.”

“Hmm, well, if your wolf says she can handle it, then I think it would be a great opportunity for you both to strengthen. And if the King and your Dad have given permission for this “training”, then they obviously think you are strong enough.”

“Seriously Kira! You support this insane training?” Mike got up from the chair, pacing now.

“Well, if it makes anyone feel better, Wilson said Kel would have to go through some of this too.” I looked at Kellen, whose eyes were wide as f**k now and mouth hanging open. “Definitely weapons training and I think a tolerance build-up to some poisons; you would have to ask Wilson for more info though.”

“We will go through this together,” Kel spoke with finality. If I was going to do it, he would be right there with me.

“So… “ Kira broke the tension after the four of us sat there for a few minutes in silence, each one of us mulling over the information bomb I had dropped, “I think we should all go down and get some dinner, I don’t know about anyone else here but I’m as hungry as a wolf!” We all laughed at her and agreed it was time to eat.

As everyone started to get up, I looked over to Mike and caught his eyes. “Can you stay for a minute, Mike?” I asked hesitantly, we needed to have this conversation, just the two of us. To clear the air.

He nodded and sat back down in the chair. I saw Kellen give him a warning glare, and Kira waggled her eyebrows at us. I responded with an eye roll. After they left, closing the door behind them, I turned to Mike, damn he looked so good! His white tee looked like a second skin and hugged him in all the right places. I licked my lips at the gorgeous sight of him.

“So…” I started

“So…” he said, “I made a promise to Kellen.”

“I’m sure you did, and I’m guessing that it was along the lines of you wouldn’t touch me?” I truly hoped this wasn’t what he promised, but I also knew in the back of my mind, that if Mike and I were ever going to happen, it wasn’t our time yet.

That thought brought me sadness and made my heart ache. But in light of everything that came out today and the bond mine and Kellen’s wolf have, it would make sense to wait and see, and waiting would cause the three of us a lot less drama and potential heartache down the road.

“My birthday is in a few months and you both turn eighteen a few months later, I told Kel I wouldn’t do anything with you until we knew for sure…” He trailed off letting his head drop so I couldn’t see his beautiful hazel eyes. “I don’t want to hurt you, and I don’t want to hurt Kel either. I don’t know what to do, Lamia! I want you but, it’s selfish to say that.”

He lifted his head, his hazel eyes meeting my green ones. I felt for him. I could see the desire for me in his eyes. I understood because we had had a little taste of each other and both knew that we wanted to taste more. But his friendship was more important to me than messing it up and I hoped he felt that way too. So I told him as much.

“Mike, you are special to me. And you always will be. Your friendship and loyalty mean as much to me as Kellen’s does. I would hate to have anything drive a wedge between us and that includes ourselves.” He looked at me with hope. “What I’m trying to say is…I won’t sleep with you until I have turned eighteen. Let’s wait until then and see where our adventure takes us. Our stories are only just beginning and who knows, maybe you will find your mate when you turn eighteen!”

I felt more at ease after saying this and I could visibly see Mike’s body relax with my words. He stood from the chair and came to sit next to me, pulling me into a hug and kissing my forehead. When he pulled back he gazed into my eyes, his only held love and admiration for me.

“I told you, you were born to be a Queen.” Repeating his words from Friday night, a small smile played across his face.

“Yah no s**t dude! My wolf is a queen!” I smirked. He grabbed my hand, pulled me up from the bed, and pulled me into his embrace again, enveloping my body with his strong arms, holding me tight for a good few minutes, until he broke away and held me at arm’s length.

As much as I still craved Mike and my wolf didn’t protest, I knew waiting was the right thing to do. I felt relieved from our conversation and hoped that we would be back to normal and the tension of the situation would now be gone.

“I love you, Lamia, I always have and always will, but right now I’m hungry and Kel is waiting for us, probably worried we're doing something he won’t like.” He winked and grinned at me. Always so mischievous. But I wouldn’t have him any other way.

And as if on cue, my tummy grumbled, letting us both know I too, was hungry, so hand in hand we walked out of the room and went to meet our friends in the dining hall for dinner. I smiled, knowing everything was right with the world again; everything was as it should be with me and my best friends.

After dinner, I would call my parents and talk to them about the advanced training program and early graduation. After all, I trusted my Dad more than anyone, he was my role model.

*****

LAMIA

A FEW MONTHS LATER

It had been a couple of weeks now since I had called my Dad and asked for his advice on the advanced training course. Of course, he was in full support of any decision I made, saying “I want you to reach your full potential, but only you can decide what that potential is. As it is, you have already exceeded all expectations, above and beyond, and it’s up to you if you want to take this next step.”

He didn’t, per se encourage me, but he also didn’t discourage me either. That’s what I loved about my dad. Since I was 14 and on my first shift, he would let me decide what mine and my wolf's limitations were, and, truly, beforehand, we really didn’t know what our limitations were. Now, with knowing Inanna’s strength and a lot of her history, I felt like we could conquer the world and nothing was beyond our grasp.

So, against my mother’s better judgment, of course, she always worried about her baby girl, and didn’t like the idea of me ‘self-harming’, I decided to not only do extensive weapons training but also give the torture prevention class a go. I was pretty sure I would be kicking myself later on for doing it. She did tell me how proud she was that I was graduating with honors in all classes and that I, of course, got my smarts from her and my bad mouth from my father.

It was wonderful to spend the Winter Solstice with my parents and family and I really hated having to come back to the Academy. Kellen and Mike were all for it, saying it was better than having to be at a regular high school. Even though I could have stayed back home, I wasn’t one to give up and had already committed to the advanced training and, of course, wherever Kellen went I would be sure to follow.

However, as the weeks went by, I realized how awesome the advanced weapons training was. We worked with daggers, long swords, samurai, battle axes, fencing, and countless other blades. I think I have found my calling. Wilson told me I was a natural and was extremely impressed with my throwing skills and accuracy.

Each day started with sparing. Sometimes I would spar with Kellen or any other cadet that was in this class. Once a week, Wilson would make me spar with Hunji, a sword expert who was from Asiarian. The man was a beast and fast! He helped to teach me how to calm myself and my wolf when we would become frustrated and angry and he taught us how to balance our emotions through meditation.

He had these quirky sayings or inspirational quotes like: ‘When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves or 'enjoy the little things in life, for one day you'll look back and realize they were big things.'

One of my personal favorites was: Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

This was something he told me a lot, especially at the beginning of my torture prevention. Which I have to say is rough as f**k! I knew it would be hard but I had no idea how much pain it would cause.

The first week was hell. I was sick, throwing up, fevers, chills, bad stomach, you name it, I had it.

Kellen, Mike, and Kira had been worried about me and tried to talk me into quitting, especially Kellen. I think it almost killed him seeing what I was going through. I thought they would slowly inject me, topping up levels each time. But NO, they didn’t gently ease me into it like they did Kel. f**k, they shocked my body so badly that even Inanna hid deep in my mind for almost two weeks.

Wilson had told me my body and wolf could handle higher doses. However, I wasn’t supposed to receive both poisons at once. I’m not sure of all the details as no one has told me. It was to my understanding that a nurse had messed up my dosage and Kellen had almost killed her. Of course, the nurse lost her job. Those are mistakes you just don’t make. She was adamant that she had got the dosages correct and couldn’t understand how that mount had gotten into my system, but she took responsibility, it was her job and on her watch.

After that initial shock and finally recovering after knocking on death's door, the doses became less and Inanna came back. According to Kellen, when my fever first broke I went crazy and attacked Wilson for putting me through that. I personally don’t remember, but Wilson does have a newfound respect for me and a little fear in his eyes when talking to me.

He no longer orders me but always asks. Kellen also said aside from throwing Wilson across the hospital room I was being monitored in, I also scared the s**t out of other staff members when I ripped my IV out and threw my bed at them. I had gained another black streak in my hair those two weeks. I now had one on each side.

Mike and Kira both told me that I could never go through something like that again because of the pain I was in. Kellen could feel it and it just about killed him to see and feel what my body was going through. For Kellen, they had hooked him up to an IV of wolfsbane and timed how long he could sit there and take the burning before tapping out. Times were kept private, but I was told he never tapped out. The only reason he was released was that the bag had emptied and no other wolf to this day had lasted a whole bag. I was proud of Kellen for not tapping out. Now I can definitely say Nightshade was not a walk in the park. A nasty poison that grips your lungs burns your skin from the inside out and causes hallucinations. Unlike wolfsbane, which causes increased heart rate, abdominal pain, and numbness, to name a few.

The last part of this torture would be at the end of the month when we get to be shackled with silver. Silver weakens our wolf and can cause burning as well as weaken our human form. My Wolf said she was not worried about this and was confident in our ability to withstand the trials. Me, I wasn’t so sure. I was sure they would throw us a curve ball somewhere along the line; it was never as simple as they made it out to be.

It was a beautiful spring day and right now I was heading to weapons training. This was our last week of long sword training and sparing.

This made me sad; I truly enjoyed it and hoped once we returned to the royal palace I would be able to carry on, maybe even start a training class of my own for other warriors.

I loved that Hunji didn’t just teach us how to use and kill, with the weapons, but also gave us a history of each one, where they came from, why they were the preferred weapon of choice and their purpose. This was the history I was interested in.