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“How did you know I was going for a run?” I ask, looking straight ahead as we walk swiftly past the pool area and out to the white promenade running the length of the beach. Ross attracts admiring glances from the Lycra-clad ladies doing early morning yoga as he stretches his arms while we walk, his muscles bulging and flexing as he shows off for the crowd. Even though there isn’t one in the group that would catch his eye.
I breathe in a lungful of air and taste the hint of salt it carries. I’ve heard people talk about the smell of the ocean. I wish I could've experienced it, but one particularly crushing blow from my father to my face didn’t heal properly and left me without my sense of smell. It would be a devastating loss to any wolf, but especially to me, living every day surrounded by a pack of warriors. I was a teenager when it happened; I had lived and trained with all my senses long enough to understand what I lost. The pack constantly reminded me how vulnerable it made me by sneaking up on me, just as Ross had done twice in the last few days.
“Nathan called," he admits with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Of course he did. Because I can’t look after myself.”
Ross presses his lips into a thin line but stays silent for a moment, contemplating his words before he responds.
“Because he made a promise to Dean, and he intends to keep it. And because he treasures your safety above all else.”
I grunt, struggling to rid myself of the feeling that they all think I'm weak, which has followed me around since my injury. A quick look at Ross tells me he means what he’s saying.
“I shouldn’t have snuck up on you like that. I’m sorry. Old habits die hard.”
Some of my annoyance fades away as I look at my old friend, who is shamelessly giving me the best puppy dog eyes he can manage. I roll my eyes and shoot him a fake scowl as he nudges my shoulder with his and we push forward into a jog. We fall into step with one another, like we’ve done countless times over the years.
I love the way the morning sun is already enough to heat my skin and my muscles, and how the warm breeze brushes over my skin as I move. Running in the forest at home is beautiful, but the trails are uneven and, often, damp, and mucky. Branches and rocks create a maze of obstacles I need to avoid without making a sound. Here, there is no need to be quiet. It’s wide-open spaces and splendid sunshine. It’s freeing.
“Do you know why we always sneak up on you? When we can?”
I pick up the pace, trying to force Ross to concentrate on breathing rather than talking, but he’s determined to ruin my attempts to just enjoy this and pretend I’m alone. He keeps up and once he's comfortable at the more punishing pace, he looks at me again, expecting me to answer.
“Because you’re dicks and like to remind me that even though I’m the alpha’s sister, I’m less than?”
As I give him my honest appraisal, he stops dead in his tracks and looks stunned, like I've slapped him. I’m tempted to keep going and make him catch up to me. I'm faster and have better endurance, but he'll try out of duty. Instead, I take pity and stop, turning twenty feet ahead and jogging on the spot to let him know I want to keep going.
“No, Maya.” He shakes his head and looks sad. “At first, it was because Dean told us to.”
It doesn’t even surprise me. My brother just can't help himself, trying to control everything around him.
“He wanted you to train harder, to learn how to protect yourself without your sense of smell."
“Well, it clearly didn’t work-”
I'm still bitter.
“And then we kept doing it because it was so damn hard. We were testing our own skills.” A nostalgic smile passes over his features as he watches me closely, hands on his hips, as I bounce from one foot to the other. “You probably caught us 99 times out of 100. Whoever got past those supersensitive bat ears of yours didn’t have to clean up the gym or cook for the week.”
“It was a running bet?”
My mind races through every time they tackled me in the woods or tried to creep up on me as I sat out on my porch. I thought it was about me, but they were just trying to best each other.
“You were like our little sister, too, Maya. We all let you and Dean down that night when we weren’t able to protect you. So, we goaded you into getting stronger and having more situational awareness. We pushed ourselves to all be better, so we'd never feel helpless like that again. And look at you now. You’re fitter than any of us.”
Ross is breathing a little harder than normal, and a bead of sweat trickles down his temple. His bulkier size is making it harder for him to run in this heat, especially at the fast pace I set. I feel fresh as a daisy, a warm buzzing feeling inside making me feel full of energy.
“You could have just told me," I chastise softly.
“You’re too stubborn. If Dean told you to practice more, you’d have locked yourself in your room just to spite him. And if we told you what we were doing, you would have just let us catch you, so we’d get bored and go away.”
Hmm. That sounds about right.
“I’m not stubborn. I’m here, aren’t I? Going along with Dean and Nathan’s master plan to keep me safe?”
Ross scoffs and runs again, catching up to me quickly, and once more we run shoulder to shoulder. It’s surreal to even be here, somewhere so exotic compared to our small life back home, staying within the confines of our territory and sticking with who and what we know.
“I know you, Maya. You’re humouring them because you wanted to see the sea. Don’t pretend you have any intention of going back to our pack when we get home from here.”
