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Shay Tenley
Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry.
Don’t throw up again, don’t throw up again, don’t throw up again.
My fucking God, I’d never been in so much physical pain in my life. And I’d been both shot and stabbed. Panting and gasping, I grabbed on to ferns and trunks as I climbed higher and higher up the mountain. My legs were so weak that I had to pull myself up.
I paused briefly and took small sips of water. I’d learned the hard way that I couldn’t chug anything at this point. It just came up again. Then I looked at my watch to check my heart rate. Fuck me sideways.192 bpm. I had to slow down a little. Goddamn. I swallowed dryly and considered throwing up. The nausea was right there, about to crawl up my throat.
Did they have to build a fucking training facility at the top of a mountain? I’d been running uphill for the past four hours, through terrain I never wanted to see again. Ferns the size of a truck, fallen trees you needed climbing gear to get over, rocky surface here, a mudslide waiting to happen there—
I bowled over and emptied my stomach.
Fuck.
There goes the rest of the fish I had for dinner last night.
When my heart rate was down at 170, I forced myself to move again. My head was pounding, sweat literally poured down—okay, it was rain too—and every fucking part of me either itched or ached.
The moment I finally saw the white sky up ahead, I choked on a breath and lost my fight against the tears. No words could describe my exhaustion. The only green I wanted to see was the color of River’s and Reese’s eyes. When we got home, I had half a mind to throw out every plant in the house.
We might have three.
The lush green canopy over my head parted more and more, until I broke through the tree line at the top of the mountain and laid eyes on the training center. Two weeks of muddy hell were over.Oh my God. I couldn’t take another step. I spotted Finnian on the ground, panting, and he had Elliott and Danny checking his vitals. He must’ve just come back too.
I took a page from his book and collapsed in the mud.
Seconds later, I had River and Reese sprinting over to me.
They got down on their knees on either side of me, River immediately checking my watch and feeling my pulse, and Reese cupping my face.
“Just breathe, sweetheart,” he said. “You did so great. Now you relax. You did it.”
“Hnngh.” Yeah. I did it.
“Heart rate’s going down.” River unzipped my rain jacket and began checking my arms, my legs; he lifted my shirt and felt my stomach. “Do you have any strains or fractures, baby?”
I managed to shake my head.
“His skin is red here,” he murmured, seemingly to himself. “Any bites from venomous reptiles or spiders?”
Another shake of my head. “Almost got…” Fuck. I panted some more. “Mauled by a boar the other…night.”
“We need help over here!” I heard Elliott yell.
Worry shot through me, and I pushed myself up. Was it Finnian? It couldn’t be—he was just throwing up. But then I spotted Gray breaking through the trees; he was farther away from where I’d come through, and he wasn’t alone. He was supporting that Aaron guy.
Darius and Ryan were quick to run over.
“Lie back down,” Reese urged me.
Yeah, okay.
They weren’t satisfied until I was down to my base layer and they’d checked that I could bend my knees, my arms, my fingers, the whole shebang.
Only then did Reese relax enough to unleash his sense of humor. “So, did you have a nice vacation? Work starts in a week.”
I whimpered and laughed at the same time.
