Chapter 40

Rosalind's POV

“four Days Later®

Clayton is desperate for Nicole to still be alive - he won't sleep, won't

eat, he continues searching the woods for Nicole, he won't talk to me,

he isn't taking care of his pack. These past few days I've been taking

care of Clayton's alpha duties and taking care of the pack.

It pains me to see how this has all affected him.

"Rose," I hear my mom's voice say. I put down the letter I was reading

about the largest pack in the world, the VanishedEdge Pack, inviting our

pack to their son's Becoming Alpha Party next week.

"Yea?" I answer as she walks into the office. I lean back in Clayton's

large chair and eat a bag of chips that I had on the desk.

My mom looks at me, "Rose you need to stop eating so much, it's not

healthy.”

"I haven't been eating to much.” I argue back as she raises an eyebrow

at me like any other mom does when they think they're right.

"Ever since.." She starts out, but pauses as we both think of Nicole's

heart being ripped right out of her chest.

She sighs, "You can't eat the pain and stress away, darling.”

I bite my lip as I think on it, am I over doing it on the eating? I look at

the bag in my hands and set it back on top of the desk.

My mom walks over to me behind the desk before adding on, "I came

to tell you that your dad wants to start your fight training session for

today in half an hour.”

Ever since what happened to Cole, my dad has been training me how to

fight and control my wolf better so I can be a stronger Luna. Normally

the best fighter would train others, but Hunter is currently busy being

an Alpha to the SnowMoon pack and the best fighter from their pack

just left this morning to join Clayton and I's pack.

"I still need to finish this paperwork though, maybe in an hour or so?" I

tell my mom as I look over at the large stack of papers sitting on the

left side of the desk. My mom nods and leaves the office as I start

getting busy with the hell work.

"Finally, ready to start?" My dad says as I walk over to him and Ace.

"Sorry, I didn't think it would take three hours.” I say sheepishly while I

stand in front of the two.

I have to admit, I'm slightly nervous for today's training because

yesterday I had to run 20 miles, the day before that I had to run my

wolf for 6 hours straight without breaks, and so today we start the

training that isn't based on speed or running.

I look at my dad and he says, "Punch me in the chest, I want to see your

strength.”

"Punch you?" I ask as Ace moves to the side of us so it's just my dad

and I face to face.

My dad nods and says, "Just do it."

I shrug and make a fist with my hand before I punch him in the chest as

hard as I can.

My dad breathes out loud quick from the hit before he walks away and

grabs few hand protectors and attaches them to his palms.

He stands back in front of me and says, "When I raise one of my hands,

I want you to hit directly in the middle of my palm with your opposite

hand. For example, I raise my left hand so you hit it with your right.”

He then puts his left hand up and I make a fist before I hit his palm with

my right hand. He drops his left hand and Ace comes to my side,

adjusting my stance.

"The power comes from your core, so keep it tight."

I do as Ace says before my dad raises his right hand and I hit it with my

left. This is so easy, I think to myself as we keep doing this for a minute.

My dad smiles and drops his hands down, "Good so far. Now let's try

this a little faster.”

"Alright." I tell him before he raises his right hand and I punch it, but

soon he starts to raise each hand faster and faster so I can barely keep

up. I guess it is based on speed still.

Ace stops us and tells me, "Don’t swing your arms when you punch, it

makes the punch slower and less powerful. Swing your arms straight

instead.”

I huff and Ace steps back to the side as my dad raises his hands up and

we go again. At first, I had trouble keeping a good pace, but after a

minute I caught on and hit each hand perfectly.

My dad drops his hands down once more and says, "okay, now I'm

going to attempt to punch you so you have to either block my fist from

your face, or dodge it."

He pauses and raises his eyebrows, "you know how to block and dodge,

right?"

I shake my head no and so him and Ace show me how to block a punch

and how to dodge a punch to my face.

My dad then starts with the hand punching as he raises his left hand

and I punch it with my right. He drops that hand and raises his left and

swings it towards my face. I quickly duck under it and he raises his right

again before I punch it.

Just when I thought I had this down, he raised his left hand, but when I

punched it, he had swung his right hand and hit me, not to hard, in the

cheek.

He sighs and says, "Keep focused on both hands at the same time, not

just one.”

I nod my head okay and we continue doing the hand punching for

about three hours longer - which is stupid to just do that for so long,

but my dad says it's important to throw a good punch, hit at the right

spot, and have good timing.

After training I felt sick so I decided to take a 30 minute nap - which

turned into a four hour nap. I woke when I heard the bedroom door

open and Clayton's wonderful scent hit me.

I sit up quickly and smile at him, "Hey,"

He waves his hand slightly before he walks into the bathroom and shuts

the door. I frown; he won't talk to me and I barely see him anymore,

which is making this whole problem of Cole's death worse because

right now, I feel all his pain and he needs his mate to help him through

this but all he is doing is pushing me away.

I sigh and lay back down waiting for him to come out of the shower so I

can talk to him.

After 15 minutes he came out of the bathroom. I watched him as he

walked over to his dresser and opened a drawer.

After a few minutes of silence I speak, "Clay,"

He turns to me, "what?" He asks. His chocolate eyes are now

surrounded by dark bags from him not sleeping. He has a problem with

sleeping when he is trying to figure something out.

".I.uh." I pause to think of the right words before I continue again. "I

think that you should stop obsessing over your sister's death, I know

you are her brother and it sounds rude of me to say, but-" he cuts me

off.

"She's not dead. I know she is alive."

I sigh and look down at the blankets while he continues, "None of you

care about Nicole clearly.”

I look up at him and get out of the bed. "She was my friend Clayton. I

care about her!"

He pushes past me to walk out the door but I hurry and get infront of

him so he can't leave.

He gives me a deadpan look and says, "move."

"No, you need sleep.”

"I can't sleep knowing Nicole is in pain somewhere! Besides I need to

know why the hell rogues attacked her and wrote that message on the

wall in my mother's blood!"

He then growls, "So I need you to move."

I stand there for a second and he growls again. I remain in the same

spot; between him and the door. Before I know it he pushes me out of

the way — harder than he probably thought he did — and into the wall

before he storms out the door.

I hurry out of the door behind him and run over to him, "Clay, stop

pushing me and everyone away, listen to me-"

He turns around and cuts me off by yelling, "I AM THE ALPHA SO YOU

LISTEN TO ME AND STOP FUCKING TELLING ME WHAT TO DO."

I flinch at the tone in his voice and stand still as he turns around. Before

he leaves I say, "You haven't been a very good alpha.”

He pauses and turns around and pins me against the wall. "What did

you just say?!"

"You haven't been taking care of your pack.” I tell him as I feel his warm

breath hit my face.

He growls but calms down as he looks into my blue eyes with his brown

ones. He then let's his grip on me go and he turns before walking away,

leaving me standing in the long dark hall by myself.