Betrayal - The Matlock Pack: Book Two

Chapter 7 - Nat

Monday 18 January

~*Nat*~

“Welcome to Warrior Training. I hope you slept well last night, because we’ve got a lot to get through this morning before we head out for training.”

I sat in the back corner of the classroom watching Casey read his speech. He was obviously nervous; his hands were shaking as he held the clipboard in a death-grip, and he was struggling to look up at the trainees. It made sense that he was uncomfortable; when Kennedy had accepted the role of Beta, he’d vacated the role of Gamma, which looked after the Warrior Training course. As much as Kennedy was new to being Beta, Casey was new to being Gamma.

Four other people stood at the front of the room with Casey. I recognised Emery from the Camp, but the other three were new to me. I studied each of them closely as Casey introduced them.

Tracy was the oldest of the quintet who specialised in pack politics and de-escalation and negotiation tactics. Round tortoise-shell glasses sat on his nose, but his eyes were bright and almost sparkled with mischief as he looked around the room at the trainees. His short, but tussled, hair had been black once, but was now interspersed with wire-like greys, giving me an indication of how old he actually was. His beard was trimmed but scruffy, with the same greys peeking through. He wore a thin dark grey sweater with a wide neckline that let the lighter grey t-shirt he was wearing underneath peek through. Comfortable black jeans completed his ensemble. Even though he struck me as someone who analysed everything, he gave off an air that he would be quick to laugh at any sort of joke.

Parker was the next oldest. His specialty was survival skills, and he definitely looked the part. He was lean like a long-distance runner. The clothes that he wore were ill-fitting and loose, and he looked uncomfortable in them, constantly twitching and picking at the material like it was annoying his skin. His rich brown hair was long and flowed in waves to his shoulder blades, and while his beard was thick, it was well maintained. His skin was weathered, like he spent most of his time outdoors, but free of the wrinkles that would no doubt arrive in another ten years or so. He was a handsome guy, but squirrely, always shifting his weight, unable to stand still for too long, striking me as someone who was uncomfortable in his human form.

From the reactions of my fellow trainees, both Tracy and Parker were familiar faces at the packhouse and not worthy of too much intrigue. Not like the last of the unfamiliar faces. All the trainees in the room stared at the only female teacher like they were terrified of her.

Charlie had long black corkscrew curls that sprung out from her warm brown skin almost like a 1970s-style afro. Even though her ears weren’t pierced, she wore a single silver ring through her right nostril, which strangely matched the gold-coloured bra she was wearing under a thin white tank top. Draped off one shoulder, she had tied the flimsy material in a knot at her toned waist. Ripped light-blue jeans that fell low on her hips completed her trendy but comfortable outfit. From what Casey explained, she was the lead investigator of the pack, and had been brought in temporarily to replace Kennedy, who used to teach IT and trail work. Her warm brown eyes looked out at everyone in the room, analysing us as much as we studied her. There was a seriousness to her gaze that spoke of a constantly working mind, sizing each of the trainees up before she moved her eyes to the next one.

When her eyes finally fell on me, I calmly watched her analyse me, just like she had done to everyone else. I didn’t shy away from her appraisal; this was what she had been trained to do, so it seemed ridiculous to cower under her stare. She watched me long enough that a couple of the other trainees turned around to see what she was looking at.

I raised an eyebrow at the movement, which made her grin. She winked at me and turned her attention back to Casey and the other teachers.

There was something about her that intrigued me. Maybe it was the fact that she didn’t shy away from letting everyone know she was studying them? It could also have been the fact that she obviously appreciated that I wasn’t flinching under her gaze like so many of my fellow trainees had. I didn’t know why, but I liked her immediately and knew without a doubt that I could learn a ton from her.

“Our typical schedule is to have human and wolf sparring sessions in the morning, and classes in the afternoon,” Casey was saying, his hands still trembling slightly, but not as heavily as he had when he started. It looked like he was beginning to relax. “You will be sparring alongside the second-years, but not against them. Study them. They went through the course last year, so everything that they do, you will learn how to do over the next twelve months.”

Takeshi opened the door to the classroom and stood at the side to watch the proceedings, which made Casey temporarily lose his concentration. Takeshi gave him a warm smile and nodded his head in encouragement to keep going.

Casey took a deep breath before he continued. “Although the morning sessions are restricted to the trainees, the afternoon classes will have part-time students join in. The only exception to the classes is every Wednesday afternoon, when there will be a Capture the Flag session similar to what you all did during Camp. Both first-year and second-year trainees will compete together. Once again, study the second-year techniques. Learn from them. They may do things differently to what you’re used to, but there will be reasons behind their decisions. If you don’t understand why they’re doing something in a particular way, ask them. I’m sure they will be more than happy to explain things to you.”

As Casey spoke, Takeshi worked his way up to the front of the room and stood close to Charlie and muttered something in her ear. She nodded, and they both left the briefing. As the door closed behind them, Casey stumbled briefly in his speech, but picked things up again easily enough. I think Takeshi’s presence made him more nervous than his absence.

“We will allocate each of you to a night shift to work with a warrior guard. Each night shift will comprise one trainer, two second-year trainees, and three first-year trainees. We expect you to spend from eight PM through to two AM on your designated night patrolling a selected section of the Matlock border. This is to get you used to the type of work the warrior guards do. These shifts will be conducted primarily in your wolf form.”

I tried to stifle a sigh when several of the trainees turned around to look at me again. Annoyed, I stared at each of them until they got the message that I wasn’t going to take their s**t, and they turned back around.

Way to make me feel welcome, arseholes.

“Whenever your night is, we will excuse you from the following morning’s sparring session to allow you to rest. I will now call out the groupings for each of you.”

There was a flurry of activity as each trainee scrambled for a pen to make notes. Once the noise died down, Casey read out the groupings.

“Okay. I want you all to call out ‘here’ when you hear your name called. That way, I know you’ll have heard which group you’re in. For Sunday nights, I have Charlie as the training representative, and Owen…” He paused for a moment and looked up when there wasn’t an immediate response.

“Oh, s**t. Sorry Casey. Here!” Owen flushed when he realised everyone was looking at him. He’d been writing in his notebook and hadn’t realised that his was the first name read out.

“Hm…” Casey said, grinding his teeth together slightly in annoyance, but stopping short of berating Owen for not paying attention. “Kadin…”

“Here!” Kadin’s voice rang through, clearly and quickly. Although there was an eagerness to her voice, there was also something a little off. She didn’t sound like the same person I knew from the Camp. Maybe it had something to do with her uncle having to leave Matlock?

“…Nat…”

“Here!” I wrote my name down on the page in front of me as I heard several trainees sigh in relief, and what sounded like a groan from Owen. Chewing the inside of my cheek, I looked up at the rest of the class, almost daring them to say something. I glared at Owen, who swiftly looked away, then moved my attention to Kadin. I frowned when I saw a small smile drift across her face before she looked away to say something to her red-haired friend sitting next to her.

Brilliant. She was going to give me grief the entire year, wasn’t she? Just like she had during Camp. f*****g wonderful.

I sighed dejectedly and returned my focus to the sheet of paper in front of me. Today was shaping up exactly as I had expected. I never thought that I would wish for Cody’s company, but I longed for it now. If I could have just one friendly face in class, things wouldn’t be so awful.

“Okay, you three will join two second-year trainees every Sunday night. Let’s continue.” Casey looked down at his clipboard again. “The next three names will train with Tracy on Monday nights.” A slight pause, then, “Bells…”

A shallow cough sounded before a hollow “Here” was stated plainly and completely unenthusiastically. I looked across the room to where I had seen Bells sitting somewhat uncomfortably next to Owen. Now that I was looking closer at him, I noticed how he had angled his chair as far away from Owen as he could whilst still sharing the same table. Because I was seated at the back of the room, I could only see one side of his face, but what I could see left me in no doubt that he wasn’t well. There were incredibly dark shadows under his right eye, and there was a sunken look to his right cheek where there used to be fullness. His hair had grown out a little since I had last seen it, but it was in complete disarray, as were the clothes that he was wearing. He had always looked slightly scruffy, but with an orderliness to offset it.

Now, the organised chaos was gone, and only disarray remained. He looked lost and utterly exhausted.

“…Skye…”

“Here!”

An aching pang trembled through my heart at Bells’ appearance, which my brain automatically tried to shut down. As much as my heart ached for him, my brain hadn’t forgiven him for dumping me on New Year's Eve. All because of my wolf, Alex.

“…Nolan…”

“Here!”

“f**k him,” I muttered to myself as I kept scribbling names down in my notebook and doodling when there was a pause, each line getting deeper as my anger rose to the surface. No matter what my heart was trying to convince me of, my brain kept screaming at me that he deserved it.

“All right. You three will be on every Monday night with a different lot of two second-years.” Casey paused to interrupt the momentum. “I’ll be doing the training on Tuesday nights. The three trainees joining me will be Tatum…”

Silence fell throughout the room. My hand slowed its attack on the notepaper while I waited to hear Tatum’s voice.

But it never came.

“…Tatum…?”

I raised my head and looked around the room, noticing that everyone else in the room was doing the same. I frowned when I realised Bells’ twin wasn’t in the room.

And neither was Zelda, his girlfriend.

Casey shrugged, made a note on his clipboard, and continued. “Dylan…”

“Here!”

I chewed on the end of my pen as I thought about the missing pair. I counted the trainees in the room, and sure enough, there were thirteen attendees instead of the expected fifteen. How had I not noticed that before? I mean, I knew I had arrived earlier than everyone else and parked myself in the back corner so I would be out of the way, but I was still astonished that I hadn’t noticed the lack of psychotic sociopaths in the room before Casey called one of their names.

“…Jordan…”

“Here!”

Well, at least today would be somewhat calmer for Bells without his brother around. My eyes drifted unbidden over to Bells to see if his posture had relaxed at all, knowing that his tormentor wasn’t present.

“Okay, Parker has the Wednesday night group, starting with Zelda…”

Again, a silence fell over the room as Casey waited for the ‘here’ that would never come. Surely, he knew Zelda wasn’t in the room. Maybe he had to go through the motions?

“…Zelda…?”

Whispers started carrying through the room as the trainees realised we were two down and our classes hadn’t even properly started.

“…Robin…”

“Here!”

Bells shifted slightly, but he remained slumped sadly in his chair. The news didn’t seem to bother him one way or the other. It was like he was numb to the entire experience.

“…Cole…”

“Here!”

I felt my brow furrow as I watched Bells. The effervescent spark I remembered seeing in him six weeks ago for the first time was gone. I felt my heart twitch again at the thought, but I ripped my eyes away from him and growled softly at myself for my weakness.

“All right, the last three of you all.” Casey paused as he looked down at his clipboard one last time. “Rowan…?”

“Here!”

“…Lennon…”

“Here!”

He left me. If anyone should be looking flat and lifeless, it should be me. Not him. f**k him.

“…Reagan…”

“Here!”

“You’re all Thursday night with Emery. We’re going to have a half-hour break now. If anyone has any questions, come and see me. Otherwise, we’ll meet you all outside on the mats in thirty minutes for our first sparring session.”

Noise filled the room as everyone collected their things and headed out the door. I watched Owen approach Casey, speaking low, but his hands gesticulating ever wilder as Casey shook his head.

I sighed as I rose from my seat. Three guesses about what he was asking Casey to do. My eyes flicked towards Bells one last time to see him focused entirely on me. His shoulders sagged as waves of despair and longing flowed from him, wrapping its tendrils around my heart tightly and making me feel nauseous. I dropped my eyes so I could gather my things from my desk, but it was mostly to hide the incredible hurt I felt.

I shoved everything in my bag with a shaking hand, my hurt flaring into anger. Flinging the bag over my shoulder, I fled the classroom as quickly as I could.

Fuck him.