HERS

10. Personal Trainer

Danica walked through the corridors blocking out the noise that was the student body buzzing about the return of the Golden Boy Bruce Cain. People either wanted to be him or know him. The school was buzzing with the news of his return to the Blue Moon pack, much to Danica's dismay it was all anyone was talking about. At every turn she could catch bits and pieces of conversation where he was the subject. There were some truths in the stories that were being shared some of the things they spoke of Danica had been a part of while others were bogus. Bruce while he was here, he had a celebrity status almost equivalent to the packs' Alpha and Luna and anybody who knew Bruce was a somebody, and Danica was once up there with that status.

Danica walked out into the quad where no one was, especially in this weather. Even if they were their own personal central heating the wolves didn't particularly like the cold either, they preferred the warmth. It was mid October and everyone had their warm coats and mittens out. Autumn had arrived and the leaves were losing their vibrant green in the quad and starting to fall out.

Danica sat on the benches in the quad digging into her sandwich. Half way through her meal, James joined her sitting down opposite her.

"I'd figured I would find you out here on your own." James said. "Why are you eating out here when it's freezing?"

"It's not freezing," Danica huffed.

Danica, it is freezing and since I'm freezing my butt off and I'm a werewolf."

"Then go inside," she told him. "I'm out here because I want to avoid all that talk about him it's been what a week and news already travelled so fast and it's been a week for crying out loud you'd think they'd all be over it." She bit into her baguette. "You know what's funny none of them having actually seen him, since his return."

The bell rang signally the end of the lunch. Danica binned her trash and made her was up to the first floor where their form was. Registration went by quickly, Mason was still covering for Mr. Allen who hadn't returned yet, read some notices out and then dismissed the students.

"Nic, whatchu got now?"

"Chris altered my time tale, so I have extra training; usually I have a free period."

"How often do you have training now?"

"Every Monday, third period and most of my free periods are filled up with extra training."

"Do you know who your trainer is?"

"Nope," she shrugged,

"I bet you a cheese burger it's Mr. Michelson over there."

"Bullshit," Danica called not believing him.

"Well, if I'm wrong I owe you a cheese burger," he tempted her.

"You're on, now I got to get changed." She waged going in the opposite direction, towards the stairs. She prayed that Mason wasn't her teacher mainly because of the last time they were alone, they almost ended up kissing and not only that, the kiss with James Mason had been a witness to that as well. Danica sorted her belongings away in her locker and took out Avery's spare kit.

On the kit there as a note attached;

I knew you wouldn't have your kit Dani, have fun wearing mine =D

~Avery

Danica smirked knowing Avery probably put the worst item of clothing in there to teach her a lesson and to Danica's surprise it wasn't all too revealing, expect the shorts, they were short shots. Danica slipped out of her own clothing and into Avery's. She packed her a tight fitting black tee and a pair of black shorts. Danica slipped on her converses and left the changing room. Cutting across the field she made her way over to the sports hall on the other side.

"Danica," a bitterly familiar voice grabbed her attention.

Slowly Danica turned to face the girl who had shifted on her, "what?" She spat out.

Lucy smiled at Danica. "Did Bruce tell you that he was returning to the pack?" You guys are good friends after all." She continued in a patronising tone. "Oh wait, you used to be friends that were before he upped and left without a word. I mean, why Bruce would tell you, after all you are the reason he almost died and the reason he left."

"Listen here," Danica spat, she cannot believe she stopped to hear this girl out, Danica pinned her to the wall in one swift movement, and held her there by the throat. "He was shot by a f*****g hunter you dumb slag, why can't you get that into your thick head?" We used to be friends but you remember very well why we're no longer friends don't you, you went and ruined that. You had this weird little obsession with him and he simply didn't want you so you went my life a living hell. What more do you want from me, to gloat that I'm not friends with Bruce? Or do you want me dead? Because that is simple to acquire just shift and be done with me, seize the opportunity right now because there's literally no one around and no one will know. But otherwise I suggest for your safety to sit the f**k away from me because I will end you, if it isn't through a silver dagger it will be through exile. You don't want to mess with me." Danica let go of her with a shove.

Lucy seized that moment to land a hit on Danica while she had her back turned; she came up to her with her first ready only to be counter acted. Danica moved swiftly without hesitation, dodging Lucy and threw a punch which landed on Lucy and another to her gut.

A Growl echoed throughout the grounds, drawing their attention, they stopped mid fight looking towards where the growl had come from, their eyes zoned in on the bushes where another howl emitted from. Lucy froze in her spot where as Danica didn't care as to whom the wolf was, that was until she saw the face of the wolf, camouflaged within the bushes, she froze. It was familiar but it wasn't the same one she had seen on Chris's birthday. She knew who it was; this one was the one that had supposedly returned.

Mason came out of the sports hall picking up on the howl. She scanned the area for any possible threat, finding none, his eyes landed on Danica, and then Lucy. Danica's eyes were red as if she had just been crying and Lucy was sporting a brand new bruise. "You're late," he said eyes zeroing on Danica.

Lucy took that opportunity to leave. "Well, it's not my fault some slag can't leave me alone," she snapped back wiping her eyes, she was in fact crying but what had the emotions running high was seeing the wolf in the bushes. The wolf who growled when she was in danger of getting harmed, protecting her after all this time.

Mason winced looking at the sight of her, he didn't like seeing her like that, it was almost physically painful seeing her like that, all teary eyed, red nosed and in her voice you could hear it was slightly broken. "Get in," he order clearing his throat, "Since your late I want you to run about the perimeter of this hall twice and do it properly don't cut corners."

She glared at him before setting off. She started off slow with a steady jog around the perimeter of the hall, on her second lap she sped up getting it over and done with without breaking much of a sweat. Danica stood waiting for him, impatiently tapping her foot.

"I want you to fight me, with everything you got come at me." Mason told her.

"What?" She asked surprised, it wasn't that she hadn't heard him, oh she heard him loud and clear, it was that she was taken back at his direct approach.

"You heard me, fight me like you would fight James, during training."

Danica grinned at his suggestion an opportunity to hurt a member of staff, oh how so many people would be first in queue for an opportunity as such. "You do know I could do some pretty bad damage?"

"You do know I'm a pretty good fighter in human form as well as wolf?"

"Touché." She agreed getting ready to fight him. Mason smirked at her knowing that she wouldn't be able to land a hit on him, as he had predicted she had missed everyone. Mason turned his back on her for a split second which had her diving for him trying to land at least one blow on him, to her disappointment, he had turned around and avoided her blow by millimetres causing Danica to trip over the empty space where Mason once stood, falling onto the floor head first scraping her head against the floor.

Danica hissed out in pain as the skin broke spilling blood, the blood trickled down her forehead. Danica pushed herself up, automatically her hand went to her forehead where she touched the thick blood, came off on her hand.

"Mason, how's it going?" Chris asked entering the hall, smiling, immediately his the smile fell off his face as the strong smell of blood hit his nose with the look of guilt on Mason's face didn't help the assumptions that were going through Chris's mind. "What happened?"

"I just tripped and fell which resulted in this," Danica said casually as if it were nothing.

"Danica!" Chris rushed over to her, taking her face in his hands examining the cut.

"Don't worry; stuff like this happens in practice."

Chris sighed, pushing her hair back, "let's take you to the medical office and get that cleaned up before it gets infected." He escorted her out of the hall, sparing one last look at Mason as if to say, I thought you'd take better care of her.

Chris escorted Danica to the nurse where he stayed with her throughout the whole procedure as the wound was cleaned up and placed a plaster over the cut. Then the nurse filled out the medical report and the incident report. The nurse gave the all clear for Danica to leave which was when Chris left Danica's side.

Danica took that opportunity to clear out her P.E locker taking her clothes out of it and dumping them in her bag, rather than change.

"Danica?" Mason called after her as she exited the changing rooms; she paused as she waited for him to catch up. "How's your head? Is it that bad?"

"My head's fine, the cut wasn't that bad, just got it cleaned up to prevent it from getting infected. You know how Chris is he's being over protective and dramatic. It's no big deal." She pushed her fringe back showing the square plaster on her forehead. Her eyes piercing into him, he had came to check up on her, that small gesture touched her, making her heart expand as butterflies erupted in her stomach.

**

The end of the month had come around, the pack meeting was being held today and as Avery and Danica had struck a deal with Chris they had to attend. This pack meeting was to go over a few issues but most importantly to celebrate the welcoming of the future Alpha's mate.

The meeting was kept short and brief; covering the most important points. This allowed the girls to get ready for the party before the guest started to arrive.

"You nervous?" Danica asked Avery as she curled her hair.

"Nope," she said with all the confidence in the world, she had known the pack well enough not to be nervous, but to be known as the mate of the soon to be Alpha would be a different experience since everything would change and most likely to be treated differently.

"That's my girl!" Danica finished curling her hair, the Anderson's where holding a house party welcoming the newly founded mate.

Downstairs the wolves slowly came to the pack house; Danica had left Avery upstairs as she would be coming down with Chris by her side later when her father would introduce them. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts were chatting away to the Anderson in their own little world. It had turned out that the whole pack had turned out to the welcoming of Avery to the family, even some of the newer members of the pack like Mason.

Danica could tell the crowd apart, the mated from the unmated and the couples from the singles. The mated couples tend to keep to themselves with other mated couple where the unmated and single tended to mingle and drink more than the others. Danica pushed her way to the crowd to where James was surrounded by a flock of girls. Danica caught James's eyes, smiling menacingly as a plan formed in her head to ruin his fun for the night.

"James," Danica called out to him as she neared the group. "There you are Honey," she said draping an arm around him, "I've been looking all over for you." She pecked him on the cheek. The flock of girls understood what was being said, he was taken, their hopes fell as did their flirtatious smiles, turning around they began to walk away knowing not to start a fight over a guy with another wolf since they were very territorial.

"Danica, what did you just do?" James spoke slowly.

"Having a bit of fun."

"Having a bit of fun?" He mocked.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Alpha Anderson called getting everyone's attention. Danica knew it was time to join her family she did so pulling James along standing next to her mother. "I would like to introduce to you the mate of Christopher, Avery Belle Roberts a new edition to our family." Alpha Anderson gestured towards the couple then towards his family where James and Danica stood smiling sweetly. Alpha Anderson did a double take as he realised James was with them. "And of course, James Sullivan." The pack chuckled seeing him there, as it was a little joke of theirs, James was like family to the Anderson, and vice versa. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson were like second parents to him.

"To my brother Christopher and my best friend and my new sister Avery," Danica raised her glass full of coke as her parents weren't too happy with her drinking to permit some to her.

"To Christopher and Avery," The pack echoed raising their glass.

The house was live and in full swing as the music played and drinks flowed throughout the whole house into the sunset and late night.