Here's some pack bonding time like I promised! Thanks for continuing to read, and please keep reviewing.
Rina woke up late the next day still feeling slightly confused. The conversation she'd had with Isaac last night erased most of the doubt she'd felt about their relationship. Yet at the same time she found herself overwhelmed by the fact that she and Isaac had bonded for life. She wished he had been able to stay with her that night, but that wasn't possible with Julie and Ben back in town. She debated weather she should try to find him that day or give him some space to think about what happened. Now more than ever she wished she had someone to guide her through this.
She got out of bed and got dressed in a pair of black shorts, a baggy old concert t-shirt, and high-top sneakers. She then made her way downstairs and out the door. She sat down in the grass that covered the front yard. Normally she wasn't much of an outdoorsy girl, but the feeling of the crisp morning air and the dewy grass against her skin made her feel more relaxed.
She sat in the grass for awhile, just letting her thoughts run free. For the first time in weeks she was able to keep her mind off of all the craziness that was happening around her. She just stayed there, letting the sun caress her fair skin as she got lost in her thoughts. Then all of a sudden she could feel a black cloud descend upon her.
A black Camaro to be exact.
"Get in," she heard a voice call from the car. Her sense of relaxation completely vanished as she recognized the voice.
"Derek," she said. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I'm picking you up," he replied, annoyed. "What does it look like?"
"If you're going to insist on following around minors you should really pick your words more carefully," she called back.
"Just get in," Derek said as he leaned over the other seat and opened the door.
"Fine," the girl said as she walked over to the flashy car and climbed into the passenger seat. "Where are we going?"
"My hideout," Derek said as he pulled away from the house and drove off.
"Ooh," Rina teased. "I get to see the infamous Hale hideout? Let me guess, it's in the sewers right?"
"Please stop talking," Derek said.
"Such a charmer," she replied. "But seriously, what is this about."
"Training," he stated.
"Training?" she said in disbelief. "For what?"
"Isaac told me about what you did to him," Derek said bluntly. "Not that I approve."
"Thanks Derek, it's not like this is hard on us or anything," she said.
"Yeah, well, you're sort of part of the pack now. If you're here to stay, then you need to train like the rest of us," Derek said. "I'm not getting killed because you don't know what you're doing."
"So what does this training involve?" Rina asked. "Am I gonna be your karate kid?"
"You're going to learn how to control your power," Derek answered. "And your're going to learn how to fight. How to survive."
"What exactly am I fighting?" Rina said. "I can take a few hunters."
"Wow, you really don't have a clue what you're into, do you?" Derek responded. "There's a lot more out there than just hunters."
"Like what?" Rina said.
"Well, the big threat that's looming is the Alpha pack that has come to town," Derek replied as he shifted his hands on the wheel. "They've yet to act in a big way, but they've certainly made their presence known. There's definitely more to come with them."
"I thought packs only had one alpha?" Rina inquired.
"Normal packs yes," Derek said. "But these alphas have banded together, making a sort of super pack."
"Great," Rina sighed.
"And there's always hunters," Derek continued. "We're never safe from them. We always have to watch our backs."
"Are there any hunters we trust?" Rina asked, thinking about the encounter she'd had with Allison the night before.
"No," Derek said authoritatively. "I don't care what the others tell you. We can never trust hunters. They may be helpful at times, but don't let that fool you. They can easily turn against us."
"Oh," the girl said quietly.
Derek turned off of the main road and into a sketchy looking alleyway. Everything began to get darker as he drove into what looked like an abandoned subway station.
"We're here," he said as he parked the car and unlocked the doors.
"Wow," Rina said under her breath as she looked around, realizing that her low expectations were still way too high. "This is how you get tetanus."
"Well lucky for us we can heal," Derek replied. He lead the way as they walked down the dark corridors. She could hear the voices of Erica and Boyd as they approached the main room of the station. They looked up at Rina as she and Derek entered the room, surprised to see her in their lair.
"What is she doing here?" Erica blurted out.
"She's here to train with us," Derek replied.
"Why?" Erica asked.
"Stop questioning me, Erica," Derek said, annoyed with the young werewolf. "Where's Jackson? He's supposed to be here."
"He said he's not coming," Boyd replied. "He's not really feeling the whole pack bonding thing."
"I swear I'm going to kill that kid," Derek said, his anger rising.
"Rina?" a voice called out from behind her. She didn't even need to turn around to know it was Isaac's. "What are you doing here?"
"Wow, warm welcomes all around," she said sarcastically as she gave him a hug. "Derek's making me train with you guys now."
"Oh, right," Isaac replied.
"You told him about us?" Rina inquired.
"Yeah, I kind of had to. He's my alpha, he knew I was hiding something," Isaac said. "He was pretty pissed, but I guess he's trying to make things work. He's probably gonna go super hard on us though."
"I think I can take him," Rina said with a smirk.
"You can't," Derek replied from across the room.
"That's code for he believes in you," Boyd joked, trying to reassure the girl.
"It's really not," Derek called out again. "Ok, were going to start by testing your basic skills. No powers, just your speed, reflexes, instincts. You think you can handle that?"
"Yeah," the girl said, never one to back down when someone challenged her.
"You sure?" Derek said. "This isn't some locker room cat fight."
"Afraid to get your hair pulled?" she teased as she felt her adrenaline rising.
"Ok," Derek said, annoyed by the girl's confidence. "Then come at me with all you've got. I want you to start over there," he said, pointing at the other side of the room. "Avoid all of the obstacles in your way, and then strike me down."
"This should be entertaining," Erica said as she watched intently. Rina heard her comment and rolled her eyes. She wished it was Erica she would be fighting.
Rina made her way to the other side of the room, trying to figure out her strategy for beating Derek. She turned around to face her opponent who was standing at the other end of the room, arms folded. She began to run toward him. She effortlessly jumped over all of the crates and obstacles that were in her way. Then she lunged forward at Derek, aiming to knock him down. All of a sudden she felt her back hit the concrete floor. She looked up to see Derek's stony face.
"Great job," Erica said sarcastically. "You really got him." Rina rolled her eyes, knowing full well that she could kick Erica's ass if she wanted to.
"At least she didn't try to slobber all over his face," Isaac retorted.
"Whatever, Lahey," the girl replied bitterly.
"Get up," Derek said. "Try again. And this time, try not to be so obvious."
"I don't understand why I can't just use my powers," the girl said, challenging him.
"Because you can't just rely on one thing," he said. "What if your enemy has used mountain ash to take away your powers? Then you're dead. Now do it again."
The girl walked back to the other side of the station, reevaluating her first attempt. She began to run again, dodging all the obstacles. Once she got nearer to Derek, she pushed herself off from the metal pole beside the wall and jumped on him. He threw her off of him with one hand and she hit the concrete floor once more.
"Still too obvious," Derek said. "You need to trust your instincts more. But at least you changed your plan. That's more than any of these half-wits did their first time. Again."
For the third time she walked back to the other side of the room. She hated feeling defeated and wanted desperately to show him up. She took a second to think about her strategy. His words rang through her head: 'trust your instincts.' So far her instincts had gotten her face down on a concrete floor. Once again she began to run. She knew that if she charged right at him again he would just strike her down. Then she had an idea. She lunged at him just like before, knowing he would use his one hand to push her down. Right when he did, she grabbed on to his arm and twisted it behind his back. Then she kicked him in the back of the knee, causing him to hit the floor. She stepped back, still in fight-mode and watched as Derek stood up in front of her.
"Nice," he said. "The knees were kind of a cheap shot though."
"I fight dirty," she said, smirking, catching Isaac's eye from the corner of the room.
"You managed to do in three tries what it took me weeks to do with these guys," he added. "See what you can do when you trust your instincts."
"Yeah," she said. "I predicted your next move so I could win."
"Good," he said. "Now be able to do that the first time."
"I want a turn," Erica said, standing up to face the girl.
"So I can kick your ass again?" Rina asked, getting up in her face.
"You did not kick my ass," Erica replied. "If you didn't try to drain the life out of me, I would have wrecked you."
"Girls," Derek shouted. "Shut up. A strong pack doesn't fight each other, they work as a team."
"What, she's pack now," Erica said, feeling a sense of disbelief at her alpha's words.
"Technically yes," Derek replied. "She's bonded with Isaac now."
"How do we undo this?" Erica asked rudely.
"Shut up, Erica," Isaac said, his eyes flashing. "You're just threatened-"
"As if I am threatened by that bitch-" Erica began, her eyes flashing as she got in his face. But she was cut off by the howl of her alpha.
"I hate kids," Derek said as he pulled the two of them apart, each landing hard on the ground. "Rina, focus. How well do you know how to control your transforming?"
"Um, I don't know," she began. "I haven't done it since the cemetery."
"Well, you should be practicing controlling it everyday until you have it down," he said.
"I've tried to make it happen again," she said. "But I can't get it to work. It's like I could only do it because I was in attack mode."
"Then go back to what you were feeling when it happened," he said.
"All I was thinking about was protecting Isaac," she explained.
"That's a good starting point," he said. "You need to figure out what makes you tick so that you can control when it happens."
"You mean an anchor," she asked. "Isaac had told me to try and find one."
"Not exactly," Derek said. "An anchor is something that connects you to your human side. We use ours to prevent transforming when we are out of control, like on the full moon. You will need an anchor, but you also need a catalyst. Something that brings your powers out of you. If you say when you changed you were only thinking about protecting Isaac, then maybe you need to make yourself feel that threat again."
Derek moved away from the girl, gesturing for her and Isaac to follow him. They followed him into an old subway car and they all sat down on the broken seats.
"I want you to start with something small," Derek began. "Like your talons."
Rina looked down at her hands, trying to make something happen.
"Now go back to that place," Derek said. "Remember what it felt like when you first transformed."
Rina closed her eyes and began to picture herself in the cemetery, replaying the events from that night in her head. She thought about how it felt to see Isaac slumped over, dripping with blood. In that moment she began to feel her hands tingling. She opened her eyes and watched as her fingernails turned to sharp talons. She rotated her hands, observing their new form from every angle.
"Now make them go away," Derek said. "Find an anchor"
She tried hard to think about something that made her feel human. She thought about her first time with Isaac, about their first kiss, how she loved the feeling of his hands in her hair. But it was no use, none of her memories of the boy worked.
"I can't," she said.
"Try harder," Derek said.
She looked up at Isaac. She looked into his eyes, hoping it would help, but it didn't. She looked down at her hands again. Black feathers began to appear, spreading up her arm.
"Just because you're bonded doesn't mean it's him," Derek said. "Think of something else. It doesn't have to be a person. It could be an emotion, anything really."
"Like what?" she said.
"I can't tell you," Derek replied. "Only you would know."
Her mind wandered back to what Ms. Morell had said the day before: "sometimes the answers you're looking for are not where you'd expect to find them." She closed her eyes again and began to flip through her memories as if they were pages in a book. After what felt like forever, she finally began to feel her hands slowly shift back to their normal form.
"What did you think of?" Isaac asked.
"My old house...Before my parents left me we use to live in this really gaudy house from the 60s with paisley wallpaper. It was the last time I had a real home though. Before my powers started, we were a real family," Rina quietly explained. "Is that insane that I thought of that after what they did?"
"No," Isaac said, reaching for the girl's hand. "My anchor is my dad...before he started beating me. You can't really get much crazier than that."
"What's your's Derek?" Rina asked.
"Anger," he stated, causing Rina to laugh. "Why is that funny?"
"I don't know," Rina said. "I actually though we were having a moment for a second but then you completely Dereked it."
"I hate kids," Derek said again as he walked out of the subway car.
My life has gotten super busy now with school and everything and writing has slowed down a bit. I will try to update as often as I can though. Please leave me a review for inspiration!