In the Alpha’s Arms

Routines, Running, and Realizations

Our week later

Lita could barely get out of bed, her muscles barking a protest that was impossible to ignore. Snatching the bottle of water off the nightstand, Lita chugged some with two pain killers and the dull hopes that the pain would become more manageable soon. Training with Ace was agony, brutal and unforgiving, so vastly different from the techniques Stace had taught her or the drills Alex had given her. It was like his sole mission was to make her hurt. She’d spend the first half of the session beating her in human form and then he’d make her shift and let his wolf, Phoenix, kick Nyx’s ass too,

And when he was finished shredding her body inside and out, Mark took over to teach her boxing technique. Followed by Brody who finished her with submission technique and cardio. She’d never have thought a body could endure that kind of beating every day but it could. Much to her displeasure, it could. Today, she was due to fight Stace in an assessment. They would be fighting for real, no kid gloves or pulled punches, especially now that she had a wolf. This was all inevitably because she said she would attend the showcase. Cole was taking precautions about her safety and most of that centered around her never being allowed to leave his side once they got to New York but on the off chance she did, he’d do his damnedest to ensure she could hold her own. It was hard to begrudge the harder training when she looked at it from his perspective.

What her training lacked in painlessness, it made up for tenfold in effectiveness. She’d never felt stronger, never slept better and never eaten quite so much as she had over this last week. All thanks to Cole. Lita reached a hand backwards to Cole’s side of the bed, sighing when her hand hit the cooled empty space as she reminded herself that he was out for training by sunrise. That was certainly an adjustment she hadn’t expected after what happened last week. Cole had kissed every place she described her pain and massaged her, soothed her in places she hadn’t known she needed to be soothed. And when she was finished telling him all of her pain, she’d asked him to take her to bed and help her remember that she wasn’t ever going to go through that again. He’d worshipped every inch of her and they hadn’t stopped until the sun slipped out of the clouds.

But it was his motivations for that little getaway must have bordered between opening her up, solidifying their bond, and apologizing in advance because the second they’d returned to the complex, Cole had been thrown into a training schedule she could only describe as torturous. They maybe had an hour together each day, if they were lucky. He spent the first half of the day supervising the training of new pack members who had begun to flock after the last tournament. Lita could always hear the reprimands from across the gym as he schooled them into suitable fighting condition.

Apparently he’d shown some serious skill in defeating Bedlam because it had become the talk of all the fighting circles. She’d catch whispered side talk at the dinner table or as she passed from one area of the gym to another. Some part of Lita glowed, knowing he hadn’t spared a second to beat bedlam and follow her into the hall. Whether it was fear or love, or some combination of both, she was grateful. Always grateful. It was such a novel feeling. knowing she never had to worry about him. He was always going to be in her corner.

Cole often spent the second half of the day doing one on one sessions with the more advanced fighters and he always finished with his own training followed by a pack work out. He fit food in there somewhere even though she didn’t know how he found the time. She guessed he found it the same way be found time for her. In stolen touches under the table, on the way to the locker room, quickies in the shower before bed. It was all so fleeting and she tried not to let it chafe but she missed him.

off with a punch earlier that week. But in others, like the maddening stiffness she felt everywhere and the constant ache of her worn muscles, it wasn’t. And while she did feel stronger, she also felt worried about what she could do with that strength. What kind of closure would

shadow of worry to be found anywhere. Nyx loved the fighting, loved to bite and scratch at Ace all for the chance to make things more even between them. Her

to be, but she certainly favored violence to mercy, inflicting pain to discussing compromise, and killing first. asking questions later. That was what Lita could glean from behind the scenes at least. Nyx’s mind was so

of people who weren’t yet off to their assigned duties or training. She snagged another water bottle and headed out into the crisp morning. The first few

the hardest. Her body was exhausted like every ounce of energy had drained from her. Her mind was a fuzzy, half sleep half dazed thing that could barely remind her of the proper form when she can. Her muscle mass was up a hundred percent from where it was when the first joined the gym and that at least

Routes Running and Realizations

come to consider herself as not human? When had she finally accepted that her human life had never really been human at all and that everything she thought she understood was lie? It had been a gradual change she realized, pushing controlled breaths in and out as she rounded her third lap.

at her, smiling in a cautious way. She hadn’t seen Cole yet but that wasn’t abnormal, he usually had training in

at sunrise. Lita shivered then quickened her pace. Being

running fast, nearly sprinting, her head so full of the outside air she didn’t see

of her run, she almost didn t notice Dr. Morgan waving at her from

his head, “Alpha said he wanted me to talk to you about the