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I sat up and put my hand on my chest. “Really?” I asked.
“Yeah. Odette bit the shit out of me the first time,” River said with a chuckle.
Odette giggled and wiggled her fingers at us innocently. “I started training after fighting off my shitty dad when he tried to get handsy with my mom,” she called. “We got lucky when some other shifters outside our house heard the hubbub, but he still did a number on me. After that, I decided I was tired of being vulnerable.”
I rested my elbows on my knees and dropped my head. The group wandered over and sat down around us.
“My ex tried to abduct me a few weeks ago and almost choked me to death,” I said, then I looked at River. “Not that I thought you were going to do that.”
“I know you didn’t,” he said. “That was a trauma response, and truth be told, if I’d known that happened only a few weeks ago, I wouldn’t have started with so much intensity.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to overshare,” I said.
“Your experiences aren’t a burden,” Meiko said calmly. “If your pack and your friends are going to be able to help you, you’ll have to be vulnerable with them.”
Odette nodded emphatically. “We can’t support you if we don’t know what’s going on in your head. And, I mean, I just dumped my whole thing on you, so it’s only fair.”
“Only if you want to share, though,” one of the other participants added, someone whose name I didn’t know. “What’s important with this whole thing is that you own your experience. You’ll never feel safe and confident if you’re keeping someone else’s pace, you know?”
I nodded, finally able to exhale fully, the tension seeping out of my body. “Yeah, you’re right. Thank you.” After a moment, I added, “I think I would like to tell you guys what happened. If you don’t mind taking time out of class for it.”
“We’d all love to get to know you better,” River said with his signature kind smile.
We shared our experiences and what had brought us to wanting to protect ourselves, even if it felt impossible at times. When we were feeling more comfortable with each other, we resumed the lesson, but River and the other shifters took things a lot slower, staying mindful of the fear and trauma I hadn’t yet processed.
When the training session finally ended, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment and camaraderie with my fellow humans. I was almost sad that I wouldn’t be able to stay and train more with them, but I was excited to bring the idea of this training up with Cole. If I was really going to be a part of the leadership structure in the pack, I wanted something like this training in the pack.
Soon enough, though, Cole appeared at the warehouse entrance and the group started to say goodbye and disperse. I said my goodbyes to River and jogged over to Cole’s open arms.
“How’d it go?” he asked eagerly, pulling me into a warm embrace.
“It was great! I feel like I’m making progress. You should see the way the other humans go up against the shifters. It’s incredible.”
“Yeah? They hold their own?”
I nodded. “Yeah, even better than I would have thought. Did you see the really short girl leaving?”
“Oh, yeah. The talkative one?”
“Yeah,” I said. “She was leaping around like a little ninja. The only person who seemed to be able to get a hold of her was another girl named Meiko. It was amazing to watch. And River said he’d meet up with me during our remaining time here so I can learn a little more and bring it into our pack when we get things started up in earnest.”
“That sounds like a great idea,” he said. “What time do you think you’ll be meeting up with him?”
“He recommended the morning,” I said. “But I wanted to talk to you about your plans first.”
“That should work,” Cole said, leaning down to kiss me. His eyes sparkled with pride as he pulled back, and I felt a surge of care and appreciation toward him. “I knew you could do it,” he said, planting another kiss in the center of my forehead. “I’m so proud of you.”
I smiled, my heart squeezing. “I missed you, even though it was only a few hours.”
“I missed you, too, sweetheart,” he said. “And the good news is, since I had a few hours to myself, I was able to finish what I wanted to get done today. So, if you’d like, we can spend the rest of the day together. What do you think?”
“I think…” I said, stepping onto my toes and giving him a deep, lingering kiss. “I think that sounds perfect.”
He laughed and brushed his hands down my back to the curve of my ass before finally picking me up and hitching my legs around him. “Let’s get the hell out of here,” he said. “Let’s massage all those sore muscles.”
“I have a feeling you have only one sore muscle in mind, judging by where you’re putting your hands,” I teased.
“I can neither confirm nor deny my intention of giving you a nice little booty rub when I get you back home,” he said. “But more than that, I want to talk to you about something.”
