by A. Z. Green
Edda gave her a serious look.“No.”
Jaz regarded her for a moment and stared down at her hands. Knowing humour, sarcasm and outward denial had failed her, she could only stay quiet. “So I guess that means he doesn't hate you, after all?” Edda added playfully, with a smug smile.
Jaz blinked and her wide eyes hovered over Edda's face, trying to find any falsity to what she'd just said. When she found none she looked down and gazed at her half-empty plate. “I'm not hungry anymore.”
*
“Good morning sunshine.”
Jaz groaned loudly. “Oh god, not today Carr, please. I'm really not in the mood for lugging wood.”
He grinned. “Good, 'cos you're not doing that today. You're going to the gym,” he announced, a sly smile on his face. He watched her reaction with laughter in his eyes.
Her first thought was, You have a gym? Then she shook her head, her eyes pleading. “Nooooo. I hate the gym, it's boring and everyone watches you. Judging you on how incredibly unfit you are.”
“No one's gonna judge you.” Jaz didn't budge, burying her face in her hands. “Come oooon, I'll make it fun,” Carr goaded.
“What d'ya mean you'll make it fun?” she questioned uneasily.
“As of today, I, am your personal trainer.”
Jaz glanced at Edda for confirmation. Edda nodded with a light smile tinting her face. Jaz looked back at Carr inquiringly. “Wait- what about the site, who's gonna be managing it?”
He wafted his hand carelessly. “Don't worry about that.”
Jaz watched him, thinking hard for some excuse not to go. “I'm still not- well- s-since last night I uh-”
“Yeah, I heard. Congrats, you've popped your pre-Change Attack cherry. And I think you broke the record for the longest one yet. As far as we know anyway.”
Jaz furrowed her brow, eyeing him with puzzlement. Edda gave him a sharp look. He grinned carefreely and changed the subject. “Edda told me you were feeling better, which I can see, so no excuses. Come on, get on some sweats and lets go.” He clapped his hands twice and Jaz groaned again.
“I hate the gym!” she growled and turned on her heels to her room.
*
They got to the main building at nine o'clock, walking through the main dome hall and going straight on which led down several corridors with doors either side.
Some were offices. There were names on them. Jaz saw her uncle's name on a plaque. It was on her left, no doubt facing the vegetable patches and fields, and her cabin. The door was shut and she wondered if he was there or at the site.
A few people she didn't recognize passed her down the wide corridors. They eyed her curiously but didn't appear hostile at all. One of them, a man who was very handsome in a pretty playboy sort of way, tall -of course, they all were, though he wasn't as giant as Driver or Carr- with light brown hair, even flashed her a teasing smile. She stared bewildered for a millisecond before locking her eyes strictly ahead. He'd practically undressed her with his eyes.
They got to the end of the third corridor which seemed to head towards the front of the building. The front of which she had never seen- at least while conscious. She told herself not to dwell on that any longer. Or the woman doctor's examination -on a side thought she wondered if she'd ever be properly introduced?
After all the doc has been more intimate with me than anyone has ever been, she thought darkly.
And she told herself not to resent or squirm anymore at the fact that Driver had been there too. It was hard to forget about something like that, but she hoped in time, she'd get over it.
When they reached the end of the long twisting corridor, there were two double doors with rectangular glass panels down the inside. She could make out people walking back and forth in swimming costumes. And she saw the flutter of water below, reflecting the light from the glass wall behind. From there she could make out trees and a dirt path ahead, parting them. But nothing beyond that.
They didn't head there. Instead they entered the double doors to the right just before the swimming pool entrance. There was another door opposite and Jaz could hear the familiar echoes of a ball slapping against a wall and then a racket. Squash, she suspected.
Carr led the way and because he was so big and tall, he blocked her view from the glass panels, so it wasn't until she stepped inside that she saw what was behind it.
The gym was enormous. As big as a football pitch if not bigger.
On the right hand side as she entered, there were exercise bikes, rowing machines and treadmills, each grouped together by type in three, long neat rows, stopping a quarter of the way across the far wall. On the wall behind her, by the entrance, there were lockers and metal storage cabinets. She could see yoga mats rolled up in a big metal basket in the far corner, with another smaller one holding different kinds of balls; basket, foot and a sack of tennis balls next to it. There were at least fifty lockers beside the baskets, running the full length of the wall.
On the other side of the entrance doors were benches which formed an L- shape, stopping a few feet from a closed door, with a big window next to it that was covered with blinds. They were partially open. Someone's office.
In the middle of the room was a wide mat which at that moment was being used for wrestling, or karate or some form of martial arts; she had no idea which. Frankly, it looked like the two opponents were killing each other.
A group of about fifteen people, mainly men, watched the two men punch and kick each other whilst crying out encouragements and roaring profanities. Jaz eyed them uneasily, stopping halfway, not wanting to get close to them. Carr turned and signalled her to follow with his hand. She did, but hesitantly.
Straight ahead facing the entrance and covering a quarter of the room, were weight lifting equipment. Benches and dumbbells scattered the area in a neat-ish formation. Unused weights were stacked in the corner, organized by size. Five men and two women were pumping iron. Jaz immediately thought of a scene from a prison gym. Even the women looked tough and intimidating; lifting weights that she could never imagine lifting.
To the right of the prison scene was a boxing ring, right near the back, behind the wrestling match. Up there she saw two younger men kick-boxing. They looked barely older than sixteen. They were kicking the shit out of each other. And refereeing the match, was Driver.
She tried to pretend she hadn't noticed him.
The night before, around half nine, she'd sat in bed unable to go to sleep so instead of wasting anymore time trying, she'd pulled out Lora's diary. She'd wanted to sit down and read it properly.
She'd been holding it off for a long time. But after her first attack, and her conversation with Edda about mates, she'd felt she could handle simply reading a diary. There couldn't have been anything in there that was worse than what she'd just gone through, right?
I found out today what Fraya had been itching to hurt me with.
She'd been savouring it for just the right moment.
Nik and I have been together for a long time, and I started to think maybe she'd learnt to accept it. She'd even gone out of her way to try to be civil with me. I'd been suspicious at first, and then I'd given her the benefit of the doubt. How stupid have I been? I should have trusted my instincts long ago.
I don't know how she found out but she knows I'm pregnant. So for her it was the perfect time to announce to me that she had slept with Nik.
“What!?” Jaz had blurted out loud. She clamped her hands over her mouth, waiting for Edda to come bursting in. After a minute of waiting, she unclamped her mouth and continued reading.
I don't know what to think of that. I asked him today and he gave me that same unreadable look that makes me want to smack it off his face sometimes.
“Ha, you me both,” she muttered.
But he then opened up and admitted he had. “But it was years ago. Not long after she'd lost her mate.” Then he got into the story about how that had happened.
Thor had been killed by a man cal
led Joan from a Northern Pack, who'd trespassed through Deer Creek. Things got out of hand when they'd tried to come to an agreement and a fight broke out. It turned pretty nasty but eventually they managed to fight the Northern pack off. Thor was one of the sacrifices. Ironically, the Pack Leader of their tribe, wrote a letter of apology as he hadn't been there and said it would never happen again, etc etc. And so a truce was settled. Thor basically died for nothing.
Nik told me all this to prolong the inevitable. I'd nearly blown a fuse in my brain waiting for him to just tell me why on God's green earth, even if there had only been him and Fraya left alive, would he even think of sleeping with her, let alone then!? 'Then'- being about six or seven years ago. A few weeks after Thor had died.
He'd said, “she was grieving and in a terrible mess. She'd wanted me, and rather than turn her down and make her feel worse, I'd given in to her. It happened once and we never and would never do it again. I love only you.”
Jaz scoffed. “So you were just doing Fraya a favour? Peh! Moron.”
She tried not to let herself feel how much those last words bothered her. Why should it anyway? He'd loved Lora so much and she him. So what?
She was also deeply saddened by what Lora must have gone through. It was as if she could physically feel Lora's pain and jealously. And even though it was in her own personal diary, Lora still didn't have the ability to be even remotely nasty about Fraya, or Nik. She had been very -almost too- forgiving and sweet, and Jaz wished she was even half the woman Lora had been.
Now she watched Nik, even though she was shouting at herself not to.
How could he? Of all the women?
“Jaz?” She blinked and turned to see Carr standing at the front of the mat, having to call over the cacophony of roaring spectators. “Come over here!” He pointed to a punch bag hanging near the far wall.
There were at least ten altogether all dangling on the right hand side of the mat and boxing ring. There were two other men punching the hell out of their own, a few bags down from her. They were ripped to an impossible degree. Jaz swallowed the nervous lump in her throat, the butterflies in her stomach now felt like bats. She didn't like what was coming.
Carr stopped at the nearest bag and wrapped an arm around it. In his other hand he was holding two, red boxing gloves. Jaz stared at them as if they were giant tarantulas. He held them out. “Put these on.”
Jaz looked at them, not moving. She then peered at the people around her. It was loud and she was practically choking on the sweat and testosterone and strength in the air. “You can't be serious,” she responded in a low voice.
Carr grinned, flashing his big, pearly whites. “Put them on,” he insisted. She slowly, shyly, took them and slid her hands inside the gloves. She slipped them on fully and held them up awkwardly. “How do they feel?”
“I dunno, like gloves?”
Carr chuckled. “Let me see.” He observed them, squeezing the top to feel where her fingers were and nodded his head in approval. “Yeah, these fit good. Okay take them off, I'm gonna wrap you up.” Jaz raised a brow questioningly. He grinned. “Trust me, okay?”
She bit her lip and took them off.
Five minutes later both of her hands were bandaged. Around the wrist, thumb, knuckles and between each finger until they were properly protected. She thought it was unnecessary, it wasn't like she was going to break her hand from punching too hard. She knew how to defend herself- the basics anyway- but she wasn't exactly in the same league as the beef cakes a few punch bags down.
She felt like an idiot.
After the gloves were on, his first 'amazing' tip was to punch the bag and only the bag.
“Great advice,” she commented facetiously. He gave her a sharp look and she went a little pale.
“I want you -for now- to hit the bag with your most-used hand, so that would be your...?”
“Right.”
“Okay, and when you hit it, hit it with your knuckles flush against the bag.” He gave her an example, with the knuckles hitting it straight on. He had a strong left hook. He must have been left-handed. “If you hit it like this,” he tipped his wrist down so the knuckles weren't flush to the bag, “you can sprain your wrist and hurt yourself, okay?”
Jaz nodded shakily. She peeked to her left and right. She could just see the punchbag-ers, some of the onlookers of the wrestling match that was getting pretty heated in another round, and part of the boxing ring. She didn't turn fully to see if Driver was there, and if he was watching her but to her relief none of the others were. “Okay now hit it as hard as you can.” Carr instructed as he stood on the other side holding it lightly in his garden rake-sized hands.
Jaz fixed her eyes on the bag, flickered a look at him. He told her the correct starting position and when she got it he nodded his head once. She then focused on the bag, let out a hard breath and then jabbed. It barely shifted him or the bag.
She looked up at him with upturned brows and made a face showing how much she thought that had sucked. “Again,” he encouraged. There was no sign of teasing or disappointment in his voice. She hit it again. “Again.”
She got the idea and began throwing punches with both fists, always keeping her knuckles flush against the bag. Her moves were slow at first and uncertain, and her punches weren't very strong but she was a quick learner and she listened well. She attacked the bag with focused eyes.
Then he began moving the bag around, pushing her to move her feet around and jab it from different positions. She'd punch it a few times and then move and punch it again. She did this solid for half an hour until she was panting so hard she thought she'd faint. But to her surprise, she'd really enjoyed it.
If she'd been on her own punching it, it wouldn't have been the same. He was an encouraging but vigilant trainer. He saw her weaknesses fast and showed her how she could improve. When she got angry he persevered and motivated her to challenge that anger on the bag and away from the frustration she felt for herself.
After an hour and a half of punches, resting, stretching and more punches, he announced she was done. She was so tired her legs shook and she couldn't lift her arms properly when he passed her a bottle of water.
The wrestling match had calmed down -either that or Jaz had just gotten used to the noise- and had changed challengers several times. Now it was a man and a woman and to Jaz's delight, the pretty blonde was whooping his ass. She was quicker where he was stronger and it was paying off, this round at least.
She watched the match, sipping her water -Carr told her to sip slowly- as she calmed down her heart. When she glanced at the boxing ring, Driver wasn't there. She scanned the room unable to find him, until, as she peered over at the office window, she caught sight of the inside just as the blinds were shut.
She was sure she'd seen him on the other side.
~Chapter 24- Caution~
Monday June 6th , 10:48 a.m.
Nik Driver closed the blinds to the gym office and sat down on the swivel chair. His companion who had just entered, sat down on the chair facing him.
Nik'd had a busy day.
A council meeting which had decided Fraya's punishment for her violent and abusive actions towards a fellow Pack member, a two hour shift in the gym that involved controlling overzealous teenagers, avoiding stealing glances at Jaz and failing, and now his Pack Leader duties were calling him to attention. Today's agenda; keeping his Pack alive, keeping himself alive, and finding out who the traitor was in his Pack.
And his companion had the answer.
“What can you tell me, Kerk?”
The middle-aged man, with medium- length, black hair and long, graying sideburns leant forward in his seat causing the leather to groan. “You were right. Something's going on with the Red Sword Pack. And it isn't just them. Dead Tree and Running Horse are buzzing with talk of someone overthrowing the 'Deer Creek Leader.'”
“Shit.”
“'Shit' exactly. There has been meetings between the Packs; word is that R
ed Sword is conspiring against you, trying to bring neutral Packs and those we've got patchy truces with to betray you. You'd be glad to hear, many have turned them down.”
“I'm more surprised than glad to hear it.”
Kerk raised a thick pointed brow inquisitively.“You seem to be taking this pretty well...?”
Driver's lips pricked up in a fleeting smile. “It's nothing personal on their part. If there was an opportunity to gain more land and power, I wouldn't blame them if they took it, or were at least tempted by it. The only reason I haven't allowed them to enter our land without permission first -and obviously within reason- is because it usually causes chaos and problems. I was much kinder in the past. It wasn't a fault on my part, just a mistake. I underestimated their greed. I won't make that mistake again.”
“You did the right thing keeping protection here tight. It's not like you're the only one either. They're all touchy about territory.”
“I owe it to people like Fraya and Saga who lost their loved ones because of wanker-ruled Packs like them, who want to take everything they don't have, no matter what the cost.”
“A lot of people here would agree with you. Tyra hates the Red Sword and Dead Tree Packs more than anyone. Maybe even more than Fraya. They killed her brother, and her father.”
Nik looked up in astonishment. “She never told me that.”
“When she said she had allies to help defend our land, well, she meant her family. That's why I recommended her to this Pack. When she lost them she had nowhere else to go, and gave up a lot to protect us.”
“How could I have sent her brother and father out to their deaths without knowing who they were?” Nik was mortified.
Kerk shrugged. “Don't beat yourself up. No one forced them. And apparently she told them not to say who they were. I'm not sure why. Her brother was called Tomas and her dad, Jakob.”