Page 44 of A Twist of Luck (Shifter City Fated Mates #2)

CHAPTER 44

EMME

I t took all my focus to pull on sneakers and grab my phone before leaving my room. Slade waited at the end of the hall, a giant, intimidating shadow, expressionless and with his arms crossed, allowing no way for me judge his mood.

“So,” I chirped, forcing a smile, “training, hey? I don’t think we discussed that. Or did I zone out in the middle of a conversation again?”

The babbling filled the silence nicely while also making me look guilty. Might as well admit what I’d done in his room and get it out of the way.

Before sheer panic had me confessing, Slade turned toward the stairs, calling over his shoulder, “I always planned to teach you to protect yourself and manage your reading, but only one of those is essential while our enemies linger in shadows. Defense skills are non-negotiable.”

Hurrying to keep up with his long-ass legs, I huffed, “But I’m really not that athletically inclined. I mean, you’ve seen me swim.”

Slade almost cracked a smile. “And run. I’m fully aware of what I’m up against.”

“Rude,” I groused, though he had a point. “Wait, when did you see me run?”

He wore no smile this time. “I gathered footage through our street’s security to follow your trajectory the day you were attacked at the guard hut. Additional cameras have been installed now, to ensure that nothing is out of my view.”

Had I scrambled all the streets cameras yesterday during my prank? How was Slade not ripping me a new one, especially with the Rogers pack still out there and apparently gunning for me?

I wasn’t even sure if he was angry, his emotions concealed behind the stoic expression. If Slade’s plan was to freak me out by not leveling accusations at me in the hopes that I’d inadvertently reveal my own crimes… well, it was absolutely working.

Not quite ready to give in yet, I forced a smile onto my face, and chatted my ass off all the way into the garage. Slade chose the reinforced Range Rover today, and held my door open for me and everything. I continued my random babbling about the weather, Luxuria, how many drinks I’d had last night, and the trouble I went to organizing my wardrobe into colors and material. “By season, really,” I continued, plastering the fakest smile on my face. “Because it’s important to be seasonal, you know? What if someone met me for the first time and couldn’t for the life of them figure out my season. Disaster, am I right?”

For a second, I caught a glimpse of him clenching his teeth, but he smoothed that movement just as quickly. “A true disaster,” he replied, going as far as nodding along like he was in complete agreement.

On the way to the training facility, he listened to and even replied to my inane chatter, driving so sedately it was almost as if he wanted to hear the ridiculous shit coming out of my mouth. This little game we played would eventually run its course, but for right now neither of us wanted to break. Mentally sparring with Slade had my blood buzzing with adrenaline, and despite my lack of sleep, I felt alive and awake in ways I hadn’t for a long time.

When Slade pulled up at the large training facility, he was out of the car and opening my door before I could suck in a few fortifying breaths. “Out, Snow,” he commanded. “We’ve already wasted too much time.”

“Keep your panties on,” I griped, swinging my legs out the door.

“I don’t wear underwear,” he shot back, and my mouth was bone dry at the mental image of a naked, pierced Slade. It was permanently branded in my brain. “Now move your scrawny ass.”

Oh, okay, then. He’d gone too far now; my ass was perfectly… I glanced behind me to find my rather scrawny butt clad in black gym pants. It wasn’t my fault that food had come second to shelter and survival for most of my years. “For a taller female, I have plenty of curves,” I called out in false confidence, Slade already heading for the front doors. “Asshole.”

“I heard that,” he growled back, and I gulped down my next insult. “And if you want to keep those curves, you’ll eat full meals rather than picking at your food like a fucking bird shifter.”

I stumbled a little, feeling hurt that he’d criticized my looks. “I’ve been trying,” I whispered, and once again he heard what he shouldn’t have.

Slade slowed, giving me a second to catch up to his long-legged stride. “You need to be healthy,” he said to me, looking less like a sociopathic asshole. There was even a sliver of compassion on his face. “You need to be strong.”

I nodded, feeling tired again for no reason at all. My energy shouldn’t be so tied to these alphas and their moods, but here we were, the scent match once again driving me past the brink of sanity.

The rest of our journey was silent as we moved past empty reception desks and through the halls. When we reached the training field, Slade said, “Today, I’m going to assess your skill and ability level in relation to strength, endurance, reflexes, and natural fighting.”

The field looked massive without all the squads filling it, and I wondered how long we’d have the place to ourselves. “I’m not sure an assessment is necessary,” I mused, ignoring the frustrated stare and stiff shoulders from the dragon shifter. “I can easily rate myself in all of those categories.”

Slade didn’t disagree with me. “Be that as it may, I will be conducting my own set of drills. Now, let’s start with a warmup.” He dropped his arms and jogged away, gesturing for me to follow. Fuck . Was it too late to have Hunter deal with this?

Not wanting to disappoint our resident scary shifter, I put all my effort into keeping up with his long legs as we jogged around the stadium. Twenty minutes later, he was done with the initial warmup, and I was done with living.

My stomach heaved as I fought to stay on my feet, and I was fairly sure that I’d broken all the bones in my legs. There was no other reason for them to hurt this much.

“Stretching now,” Slade barked, and I coughed and wheezed, leaning forward in the hopes it would ease the sharp cramp in my side.

“You’re cranky,” I coughed, too wrecked to care about sassing him. “Didn’t get a lot of sleep last night? What kept you up?”

At this point, I was past waiting for this bastard to confront me about my prank. I needed him to yell, for me to yell back, and then we’d move on. The prank had not had my intended effect, and I wondered why I’d ever thought I could get one over on him.

This shifter was the master of concealing his emotions and torturing me through prolonged silences.

“I slept perfectly fine,” he said simply. “My room is my sanctuary, and no one would dare mess with my place of refuge. Now, let’s stretch.”

Internally I screamed, but externally I dragged my broken ass closer to him and followed his movement as we stretched our limbs.

“How are you so bendy with all those muscles?” I grumbled. “It’s not normal. You know that, right?”

Slade shook his head. “You have the flexibility of an octogenarian. That’s not normal for a shifter.”

I narrowed my eyes on him. “What in the world is an octogenarian?”

Whatever it was, it didn’t sound good.

Slade smiled, and I swear my heart stopped. It wasn’t anything ground-shattering, just a slight tilt of his lips, but for this shifter it was practically a beam. “A human between the ages of eighty and eighty-nine.”

Oh, excellent . I wasn’t even as flexible as an elderly shifter. Nope. I was an elderly human, close to death.

“Possibly true, but rude to point it out,” I muttered, before raising my voice. “I will admit, my wolf and I have a bit of catching up to do.”

Slade didn’t disagree, and was it too late to change my opinion about enjoying his honesty? “With my help,” he said, “you will catch up. Now that you’ve warmed up, we can head into the first obstacle course.”

“Okay… wait , did you say obstacle course ?”

Slade ignored me, already halfway across the field, and once again I followed like a little lost duckling. On the way I debated my odds of murdering him in his sleep, and came to the unfortunate conclusion that there were exactly zero chance that I’d even get close enough to touch him, let alone kill him. Bet he slept with one eye open and a weapon in hand. Wait, he was the weapon in hand. Fucker.

As I grumbled under my breath, Slade led me to a large set of roller doors, which opened via a red button on the wall. This part of the training area was almost as large as their outdoor facility, and from where I stood I saw a range of obstacles with ropes, tires, ladders, and so much freaking pain .

It was a kid’s paradise, and my worst nightmare. “Let me tell you, trainer,” I said, trying to keep the hysteria from my voice, “no octogenarian would be able to make it through this. You might have to take your assessment back.”

This time I got a laugh out of him, and I almost flew over the first obstacle via butterflies in my tummy and sparks in my veins. “You haven’t made it yet either,” he said with one final amused stare, “so I wouldn’t start subtracting years yet.”

Oh yeah. Good point.

He led me farther into the building, stopping before a row of white and black tires spread out across the ground. “It starts here. You’ll need to move between these obstacles without touching the ground. Jump from tire to tire and flip the ones that aren’t close enough.”

“Just flip the tire,” I said, sarcasm rearing up to aid me in my disbelief. “Easy. What if I just carry one on my back through the whole obstacle to use when needed?”

Slade didn’t even bat an eye. “You can take anything you can carry with you.”

I threw my hands in the air and conceded another point to him. “I was obviously kidding. Those things must weigh a ton.”

“One point two actually. How heavy can you lift?”

Oh goddess. He was going to make me lift weights too? Nope. No .

Without another word crossing my lips, I raced toward the tires, relieved not to fall or trip over the first few. The second section, where the tires were farther apart, I had to flip them to move along. Only I couldn’t budge the heavy rubber circle. Not even one inch off the ground. “Put your back into it,” Slade bellowed—the smug prick.

“I’m putting my entire fucking body into it,” I shouted back, and I heard a whispered curse on the breeze, which I maturely chose to ignore.

Deciding this was stupid, I gave up fast, hopping on the fake grass between the tires, while secretly flipping Slade the middle finger every time I jumped. There was no way for him to see the gesture, but it made me feel marginally better.

The next obstacle after the tires was a vertical wall with a rope dangling to assist in scaling it. It looked easy enough as I grabbed the rope, hoping that for once, my lighter stature would come in handy. Only it turned out pulling one’s body weight up a wall was not as easy as it looked. Who’d have guessed it…

Through sheer force of will, I made it halfway before my arms started to shake. Shit . Shit, shit.

Risking a glance below, I started to debate the safest way to fall and land with minimal injuries.

Eventually, Slade called out, “Push through the pain and fatigue, Emmeline.”

His voice was closer, as if he’d crossed to stand near me. The thought of falling in front of him had a surge of energy propelling me forward, and after forcing myself to take one step at a time, closing my eyes and chanting through the pain, I actually reached the freakin’ top .

Hanging over the narrow ledge, I huffed in air, internally fist-pumping at my ability to do the hard things today. All ruined by Slade fucking Riverson.

“Any time today, Snow,” he called.

My arms refused to obey me when I attempted to release the wall, and with great reluctance I called, “I might be stuck.”

The rope burns on my hands were already healing, so surely if I hung around here for a few more minutes, the strength would also return to my arms. There was a low rasping laugh from below, and I almost fell off the wall when a huge body landed beside me.

Landed beside me… “What in the Olympic high jumper was that?” I glanced down for sign of another rope, but there was nothing. “Did… did you leap up here?”

He shook his head like I was ridiculous. You’re ridiculous, buddy.

“You’re a shifter,” he told me, nostrils flaring. “You should be able to out-Olympic any human in the world. Are you not concerned by your weaknesses? Even the smallest vulnerability can be used against you.”

Adjusting my body on the wall to ease the ache in my ribs, I said, “I probably should be concerned, but honestly, I’ve managed to keep myself alive without any special muscles or skills for years. I wasn’t raised with shifters. I’ve never let my wolf out much, and I’m weaker for it. I won’t apologize for what it took to survive.”

He tilted his head, and I ignored the jolt in my gut that happened whenever his probing stare dissected me. “That’s fair,” he finally said, sounding softer. “But it doesn’t mean we rest there. I will make you stronger, and I will teach you how to harness your reading difficulties. These two areas of your life will improve through me. This is a promise.”

He pressed his hand to his chest, and I had no doubt that on the rare occasions this dragon made a vow, he followed through with it. No matter the personal cost.

“Just—” I huffed, “—try not to kill me along the way.”

His response to that was strolling across the top of the wall like it was flat ground, plucking me up from my precarious position, and dropping both of us off the side of the thirty-foot drop.

“ Ahhhh! ” I screamed all the way down, bracing myself for impact.

Not that I needed to bother.

Slade absorbed the impact and landed like he’d stepped off a two-foot wall.

When he placed me on my feet, I caught the tightening around his eyes, the touch aversion striking him hard enough to leave a visible strain. “Time to assess your fighting skills,” he said abruptly, already striding away.

“I have no fight skills,” I shouted after him, my legs protesting as I hobbled along.

Stubborn dragon. He was going to learn the hard way.

Or… I was.