3 months later
The hot summer sun beat down upon my bare back as I walked back to the pack house, desperately needing a cool shower to wash my training session away. Ever since that dinner, three months ago, Hayes had kept his distance from me. He glared flaming holes into my skull every chance he got, but that was the extent. He seemed unwilling to want to add to the five healed-over silver lashes on his back.
The other unexpected turn of events was that, since that night, my father had eased up slightly on, well, everything. I was still pushed to exhaustion in our training, but it was as though he wasn’t out for death and blood in each bout. My patrol routes and shifts no longer extended to eternity. However, the demands of my time on doing other Alpha duties increased. I had driven my
