Heartless Angels

Chapter 30 – Oakley

Chapter 30 – Oakley

I wake th

wake the next morning, moaning in pain at the beating that Head Trainer Sophia gave me. When the rules were expressed, I was told that to win the fight, I just had to hit Sophia once. It didn’t have to be hard or debilitating, just a strike that got past her guard. I had one hour to accomplish it.

Sophia was amazing. I’ve never seen anyone fight like that. I kind of wish that I had been one of the bystanding trainers to watch her move. It was as beautiful and graceful as a dance, as mesmerizing as ballet. I couldn’t believe how easily she moved.

And how ruthlessly she struck. Within the first five minutes, I was stag gering with bruises on my ribs, thighs, arms, and calves already starting to form. Even so, she didn’t let up, kept coming after me, continuing to attack. All I could do was block, moving around the circle. They wanted me to be able to do this for an entire hour? How the f uck was I supposed to do that?

But the longer that I fought her, the more that I saw patterns in the way that she moved. How she stepped before striking to the left or the flick of her wrist before she thrust forward. I began to anticipate her moves and a smirk came over her face. She was either doing some of this on purpose or she knew that she had the tells but never fought with someone long enough for them to notice the pattern.

That’s when the fight began in earnest. Because I finally had an advantage over Sophia. At this point, the fight was less of her beating the sh it out of me and more trading blows with our staffs. A five minute warning was called and the trainers on the side were praising me, shouting out encouragement, and spurring me on. They wanted me to land that one blow so that I could

win.

It was great to hear, but I had to block them out because it’s more distracting than helpful. Sophia is the only place that my attention could focus. And that’s when it happened. There was a rock dug deep into the sand. It wasn’t big or particularly dangerous. But it stuck out of the ground enough that it made her wobble. She didn’t fall and she didn’t stumble, but it was enough that her guard went down just the tiniest bit. And that’s when I struck, flinging out my staff and hitting her upper arm. Just then, the bell rang, signaling the end of the round

I’d done it! I won the round.

I had been elated with my win when I walked back to my dorm, though the dark bruises all over my b*dy did dampen that a bit. My wolf healing was a bit depleted from my injury earlier in the day, so the pain and bruises were taking longer to heal than they should. My shower took forever because lifting my arms over my head was so painful that I had to bite back screams.

When I finally came out, dried and dressed, Mary and Cassie were sitting on my bed with food and pain meds.

“Goddess, you two are angels. May the Goddess bless you above all other she-wolves,” I exclaimed.

They giggled, helping me sit down and eat. Mary left to get ice packs while Cassie helped me rub liniment into my bruises. Ice packs were added to the worst affected parts of my b*dy, the girls making me stay awake to have the ice packs on for 30 minutes before taking off the ice packs and switching them out with heating pads.

So when I woke up this morning, the vast majority of the bruises were gone or at that sickly greenish-yellow stage of the nearly healed. It’s just that my b*dy is stiff as f uck. But this is one of those stiffs that I feel like if I move around and loosen up, it will go away quickly. Actually, I think that would be a good plan.

I still have about 40 minutes before I have to get to roll call. A quick jog would be a good thing. So, still in the clothes that I slept in last night, a pair of jogging shorts and a tank, I let Mary and Cassie know what I’m doing and head out to run the inner perimeter of the castle. It should be about a 20 minute jog, giving me plenty of time to shower and make it out to roll call.

As Jagspected, the jog loosens up my joints and by about 10 minutes in I am completely limbered up. I’m debating taking a

15 yǝgspected,

Chapter 30 – Oakley

shortcut through the campus so that I can get to the dorms faster when I smell it at the entrance gate. Jack’s scent. I turn to see my brother standing across the street, watching me through the gate bars.

I stand there, watching him. I see his face light up, even from across the street, when he sees me. His stance is alert and he makes a move to come towards me, but I shake my head no.

No. I don’t want him here. I don’t want any of them here.

Jack nods, his head lowering so that he looks at the ground in front of him before looking back up. He leans back against his car and nods again, still staring at me. I keep eye contact with him for one more breath before turning on my heels and

running back to my dorm.

I push the encounter with Jack to the back of my mind. I can’t I just can’t deal with it right now. I have to get ready for the first test. I have to prepare for training today.

I will figure out what to do about Jack and James, and Levi, and my dad, and Ray when I hear back from the council. I will

think about my feelings then. But right now…right now, I can’t.

I put myself through the motions of showering and getting ready for roll call. I stand in my spot and respond when my name is called. The entire time, I’m almost physically pushing away my feelings and thoughts about my family to the point that I don’t really know what’s going on around me. I’m just doing what I need to do to get through the next minute. The next step. The

next task. Because that’s all I can do right now with the explosion of feelings that are flying through me right now.

It’s only when we are dismissed for breakfast and Cassie tackles me in a bear hug, screaming my name.

“What?” I say, confused.

“What do you mean ‘what? Dakley, you’re at the top of the leaderboard!”

Once we get out on the field, Trainer Ethan addresses us. “Today is the sixth day of weapons training. Tomorrow, you’ll be

given a choice of two weapons and go against each other in a round robin, tournament style. Highest seed against the lowest

seed, second highest with second lowest, etc. Today, I want you practicing with your choice weapons, obviously in more

hand-to-hand fighting style, so no guns, no bow and arrows. You get to pick the two weapons that you will use, but we’ll make

recommendations for you. There are weapons that you’re going to feel most comfortable using and then there are going to be weapons that you actually performed best with. Sometimes, those are one and the same. Sometimes they are completely different. In the end, you are the one that gets to pick your weapon, we can only make recommendations. So, in your groups, take your weapons and your partners and have at it.”

Everything is going as normal in the sparring rings. We rotate through our groups, fighting each person, seeing which weapons feel best in our hands. Honestly, I feel comfortable with every single weapon I picked up, but I still have a special

affinity for the swords and the knives.

My best bud, Lisa, and I were fighting each other with swords when we hear an extremely loud roar two sparring circles away from us. It’s Harry and the trainer, Bard that had stepped in to help us since our group had an odd number of fighters.

“She’s mine! My mate, not yours!” Bard is screaming, attacking Harry with all of the considerable skill that he has. Harry. who is a very good fighter, is struggling to keep up.

“What are you talking about? Lisa’s my mate!” Harry screams back.

It’s then that I see Lisa stiffen, her nostrils flare as she picks up the scent of both mates.

Sh it! She’s got two, just like I do. Does that mean that everyone of us here does?

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Chapter 30 – Oakley

“Lisa!” I say, snapping my fingers in front of her face to get her attention. “We’ve got to stop them from fighting. One of them is going to kill the other one.”

Lisa nods and we both dash towards Bard and Harry just as some of the trainers start to descend on them. We both bust Into the sparring circle at the same time and both Harry’s and Bard’s faces whip to her.

“Tell him you are my mate and that you don’t need him!” Bard insists, his face nearly purple in his rage.

“She’s my mate! Tell him, Lisa!” Harry cries.

Lisa seems overwhelmed by seeing both of her mates together, a feeling that I fully understand. “-” she starts, but she doesn’t get to continue.

Bard uses Harry’s attention toward Lisa and away from him to attack. Bard hits him hard with the num-chuks in his hands and Harry falls to the ground, unconscious and bleeding profusely from his head.

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