“Well, thank you for the absolute destruction of our fragile egos, but we have a date after all of that and Oliver has some lunch to buy us.” Sam walks up and puts his arm around my shoulder. “Actually there’s another class.” I say biting my lip, looking as apologetic as I can. “But you guys can go, I’ll catch up later.” I have no intention of chasing them down at all. I feel like this little friend bubble we have been in for the last 12 hours is about to break.
“How many more classes are we talking?” Sam leans back to look at me. “I am slowly dying from lack of food here.”
“You should have eaten before we came, like a normal person.” Sierra laughs at him.
“I was unaware of the team breakfast at the beta house to satisfy the ridiculous amount of exercise I would be subjected to today. How many more Little Bit? If you’re here, then we’re here so you can stop making us look pathetic.” He laughs.
“The next class is a basics class for beginners and non-warriors just to stay sharp and in shape. It’s less intense than the rest of the training, but I think it’s super important. It runs for 2 hours. Then we’re done for the day.”
“Remind me to never, ever, ever rise to your challenge again. I’m going to die.” Sam walks off to grab his water bottle as the rest of the guys, the Luna and Sierra all laugh at him.
“I’m pretty sure I didn’t challenge anyone.” I say to no one in particular.
Basic training goes better and as we all walk through correcting form and technique, I can see the current leaders watching us again with curious and hopeful expressions on their faces. They even come down to do some of the exercises with us, which is a rare thing. They don’t normally have time to intermingle casually like this. I think it’s great for the pack members that are here. If anything the looks on the pack members faces is totally worth the full interruption of having all of them here.
The slow stretching and body weight exercises are great for our newer, younger fighters and our older fighters who want to stay in shape. We work on dynamic and functional movement, building up muscle memory so they don’t hesitate in an unfriendly situation.
Even though the training is light for us we are all still a sweaty mess when we are walking out of the arena. “Should we go home and change before we eat?” I ask noting I probably look something close to a drowned rat that’s been run over a couple times.
“Not a chance Little Bit, get your sweaty ass in the truck and for the love of my sanity somebody feed me!” Sam growls out. “Martha won’t care, when she hands Oliver the bill. I’m going to eat one of everything on that menu. You guys are going to have to roll me out the door.” Everyone is laughing now.
Mateo, Oliver and Sam jump in the back. Sam basically hauls Sierra in and on his lap with a lot of protesting on her part. Dakota picks me up from behind and slides me into the center of the front seat like I weigh nothing as Cameron jumps in and fires up the truck. Is it weird that after all of that working out and sweating, I am not at all bothered by the smell of these boys? Collectively, it’s a musky scent that is all male, but not bad by any means. I, however, am sure that I wreak.
Another five minutes later and we are pulling into the local diner. The guys must be regulars because they didn’t even wait to be seated, they walked straight back to an extra large corner booth. I somehow ended up between Cameron and Oliver making me notice my small size. I look like a toddler next to all these guys and I can’t help but laugh.
“What?” Cameron asks.
“Some situations make my lack of size very apparent.” I laugh again pointedly turning my natural line of sight to the middle of his bicep then looking up at his face, then doing the same to Oliver. Everyone else joins in.
“Would you like a booster seat, I’m sure they have one around here somewhere?” Sam asks. “Nope, I’m good. It would be my luck to fall out of it.” I blush. Everyone chuckles at me again.
