Tangled

104 Ava: Training (I)

The best way to deal with all the confusion involving feelings?

Exercise.

Jericho watches in approval as I push myself past my limits, determined to grow stronger. New bruises appear and disappear each day as my supernatural healing kicks in. Lisa, on the other hand, is covered with them, in various stages of healing.

I’m determined to ignore everything about Lucas and Clayton for as long as I can. It’s easier to just… not deal with it all.

Healthy? Probably not.

But hell, I’m just going to settle for making it through each day for now.

An odd, itchy feeling doesn’t stop all day. Lisa smacks at my hands every time I begin scratching at my neck and shoulders. My belly looks as if it’s been clawed by a raccoon, though the marks fade within half an hour each time.

IN Ave Taning (0)

“You have to stop that, Ave. You’re driving yourself insane. The more you scratch, the more you’ll itch. Just take some Benadryl.”

“Fast healing means a fast metabolism. Benadryl won’t even touch it, and I don’t know wolf dosing. I’d have to go to a healer to figure it out.” I’ve explained this to Lisa before, but her exasperation over my scratching overcomes minor details like that.

It doesn’t bother me. I repeat myself as often as I need to. I just worry that other wolves in the pack might

bother her.

So far, Lisa hasn’t gone anywhere without me. Between the guards always nearby and Kellan’s presence every morning before training and every afternoon after, we haven’t done anything outside of our apartment. Even our food gets delivered.

Lisa’s company is amazing, but we’re both going a little stir–crazy.

That might be what’s wrong with me.

“Full moon’s coming up,” Jericho announces out of nowhere, and I almost jump ten feet in the air.

That’re you doing? Dun!”

Training

around the track. The itching across my skin intensifies with each stride, a maddening

with their significance. As a shifter who has never experienced a shift, the concept of the full moon’s power remains foreign to me. Yet, an inexplicable sense

since that day in the forest, running almost as fast as wolves, I’ve been desperate to

hint of it since that

gasps. Lisa falls into step beside me, her face flushed with exertion. “What do you think he means by that?” she pants, her words punctuated by labored

my head, unable to form a coherent response. My breath is too short and my brain too confused by how I feel about a

15:22

Training

like my body is yearning

the moon is nothing more than an enhancement. An aphrodisiac for some, and a hair trigger on anger for the others. They’re a little more volatile,

bathing in the silver moonlight of a full, round moon?

Everything lately is just bizarre. That’s the problem. Where the fuck is normal,

voice booms across the track once more. “Faster! You think you can outrun your enemies at this

The relentless itching beneath my skin

the full five miles. She’s so sore that I spend an hour every night massaging

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Ava: Training

lived in one all

of late are

fact that I yearn for the moon so fiercely worries me, even as excitement thrums through my veins.

I finish my fifth mile, Jericho’s right there in front of me,

entire track.” His voice cracks like a whip, making me flinch. “Lisa,

Why can’t I do lunges too?” Lisa protests, her face flushed from exertion. She still hasn’t finished

steely gaze on her. “Life isn’t fair.

I set my hands on my hips, ready to argue, but think better of it. Jericho

I begin my lunges, feeling the burn in my thighs almost immediately. Each step is a challenge, my

Training

out. Dip my body down. Hold it. Back up with another wide stride. Dip down.

burn.

Breathe

myself in this than it was to keep my mind from

assessing my form. “Lower.