The Monster Within Me

Chapter 10

Quinn

It's been a few days since we spoke with Skald Ylva about Maya possibly being a hybrid and she's immersed herself in training. I have trained her every day since and she has been picking up on things fairly quickly considering the circumstances. In training things have been so focused that I haven't asked her how she's coping. After she trains she heads off to eat and then she meets with Ylva to read history and myths that will provide any information on what we can expect with the imminent threat of war approaching.

I have been busy trying to do what I can to find Vlad's pet. There have been no more abductions but that doesn't mean that there won't be more to come. The cryptic message that was left doesn't specify if we were running out of time to save all the werewolves or simply those within this pack. I have been filling Alpha Rhys in on what has been going on and since hearing the news about Maya, the same werewolf that I had previously described as new to this supernatural immortal lifestyle, he has asked me to bring her to The Mountain, as soon as things were handled here, so that he could meet her. Now that we know just how important and influential she is to the survival of our kind, he has already begun looking into who her parents might be.

Maya doesn't know any of this and I'm afraid to tell her because I don't want to get her hopes up. For all we know her parents could be dead. Normally wolves are immersed in their pack and have strong ties to their alphas' and pack members. To have a pup with a vampire and have not a single soul outside of themselves know is something that is nearly unheard of. There have been disappearances and normally wolves who go rogue don't last more than 10 year on their own so the puzzle seems to continue to get more complicated.

If current events are an identical repeat to what happened before, that means that Maya's parents were royalty at some point. Whether that be royalty before conception or during is the question. Rhys has been in charge for almost 100 years and I saw him rise to power, helped him attain it. Meaning that it could possibly be those who were in power before him, but that family hasn't been around for nearly as long.

Making my way to the training facility to set up for Maya's next session I thought about how prepared she would be to face that monster. How do you hunt something you can't smell, hear or see? Today we would work on channeling her wolf without shifting to enhance her senses in human form. I stopped by the kitchen and the stables to grab some items to help with training and stopped in a couple more places before finally getting to the facility. I warmed myself up, preparing to work her hard. They only had just over a week before her birthday and I wanted to prepare her for what was to come.

I hoped that she wouldn't become a vampire, but I knew better than to ignore obvious signs. I had just finished my last lap when Maya came in. Even now with her hair pulled back and a determined expression that she had been wearing since her training started she was beautiful. I felt my wolf stand at attention, intently focused on her. Why was she able to do that without even trying? He had this primal urge to protect her, which had made training even harder because he would fight me while we practiced hand to hand combat. Fighting to reach the surface because he thought I was hurting her. Now he simply sulked, knowing that we had to teach her so that she could protect herself in our absence.

We aren't going anywhere. We must stay with her and ensure her safety.

Possessive ass.

"Hey Quinn, what're we working on today?" Maya walked up and asked with a smile.

"Warm up and come sit with me. I'll explain when you're done." I tried to distance myself from her during training so that I trained her to be a warrior. She needed to be one and me coddling her wouldn't get her there.

She frowned a little but gave me a nod and went to warm up. I went to sit on the ground by one of the trees they had inside the facility to focus my own mind before I tried to teach her how to do it.

After a few minutes I felt her sit down in front of me. Her stealth had improved the most. She was just as silent on her feet now as an enforcer.

"Okay, so what is today's project?" She asked while she crossed her legs.

I opened my eyes and let her see that my eyes were the dark deep colour of my wolf, "Today, you will be learning how to use Kaia's senses without shifting. This will give you an edge in human form and allow you to be stealthier and stronger in situations where shifting isn't the best option."

"So basically you're telling me to shift without shifting. Yea, can we pick something simpler just for today? You've been kicking my ass all week and I haven't been sleeping that well." She said with an exasperated expression.

"This is important and it only trains your mind, nothing physical involved. I'm giving your body a break because tomorrow, you're training with Fen. He wants to see how you're improving." I said with an apologetic look. He was going to run her through the mud.

"Ugh, alright fine, show me how to do it." She sighed.

"Alright, close your eyes and clear your mind of everything except you and Kaia." I instructed, lowering my voice to help avoid distracting her too much.

She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to steady herself. When her breathing was slow and even, I continued, "Now, you and Kaia have a good relationship so you should be able to channel her strengths to your own body."

"How do I do that? Do I have to ask her?" She whispered and opened one eye like she was trying not to distract herself.

"In the beginning it would be a good thing to ask, as you two build on your relationship, there will be times where she will lend you strength before you need to ask for it. Go ahead and ask her." I said with a smile.

She nodded and then concentrated again. After a few brief moments I could feel it. That same power that I normally only feel when she's angry seemed to be leaching out of her. It felt think enough to touch, like a snake coiling itself around you before it constricts you. I froze and then suddenly she gasped and opened her eyes.

They were the dark brown colour of her wolf's eyes, but around the iris they glowed red. Never in my long life had I ever seen anything like that.

"Maya," I said cautiously, "How are you feeling?" I asked relaxing my body into a position that would show her that I was not a threat to her.

"This is amazing," she said with awe in her voice, "You should have showed me how to do this from day one." She was looking at herself like she could see the changes that had taken place. Turning her hands back and forth in front of her like they were foreign to her

"Now, you need to focus on maintaining control of this. You are partially shifted, but right now you have control. If you let that control shift to Kaia's depending on hers and your agitation, it could be deadly. You need to ensure you are able to keep control." I said calmly, standing up and reaching out a hand to help her stand as well. She nearly threw me over her shoulder with her strength.

"Holy crap, I'm sorry Quinn, I almost ripped your arm off," she said quickly jumping to her feet, "So how do we test to see if everything is working the way it should? I feel like I can feel everything." She said bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"That's the next part of this exercise, I've hidden various item around pack grounds and you needs to find them. I kept a small piece of what you need to find so that you can identify them, then you will hunt for them. Some of them will be with a person, and when we are closer, you need to tell me if they are guarded or not guarded. After you find everything you're done for the day." I said, moving to grab the pieces she would use to identify what she was looking for.

"Alright, let's get going, if we finish fast enough I can eat and take a nap before I go see Ylva. Show me what I'm supposed to be looking for." She was rubbing her hands together in anticipation.

"Here you go, 9 items that you need to find." I said handing the items to her. She held each individually and inhaled deeply. "I should also add, that if you're detected by any of the people holding items, you fail the exercise. You get two chances, after that, you come back here and you do more physical training until lunch." I said with a shrug.

"I've got this, don't worry." She said confidently striding out the door.

"I'll follow behind you at a distance to observe you. I won't be in your ear giving you advice, you need to control you excitement and agitation on your own. Throw your hand up to tell me if there's someone holding the item and by the end of it we'll see how well you did." I said to her as she walked through the door.

Knowing that her instincts would kick in because this was essentially a hunt, I gave her 30 seconds and then followed her out. I could see her, already on the other side of the field the surrounded the fieldhouse training facility. She was moving a lot quicker than I anticipated, but I couldn't run after a predator on the hunt or she would lose focus and defend herself by attacking me.

She found the first 6 items with relative ease, correctly identifying the items that were guarded. The last three however, were going to be bit harder to find. Once was buried, another was hidden behind a panel in a wall and the third she hadn't noticed it in her excitement, but I was holding it in my pocket.

She had just rounded up the second item and had turned around looking for the third when she cried out and collapsed to the ground holding her head.

"Maya are you okay?" I asked while running over, kneeling beside her but not touching her yet she was shaking.

"Wh-what does it l-l-look like?" she asked threw her teeth as she clenched her jaw to avoid crying out again.

"What's going on? Are you hurt?" I asked moving closer to her to try to give her a comforting touch.

"Please don't," she breathed out her voice barely over a whisper, "I can feel that freak crawling through my whole body. I'm gonna kill him as soon as I ca-can st-stand."

Who the heck was she talking about?

"Maya, what are you talking? Are you sure you don't want me to take you to the healer?" I asked cautiously, trying not to cause her to overexert herself.

"Yes I'm sure Quinn, I can hear that st-stupid psycho in m-my head." She said her voice becoming clearer and she stopped shaking.

She sat up and looked at me, the red around her irises glowing brighter and that power amplifying and becoming stronger, "Where is the vampire Quinn? It seems he would like to have a chat with me before he dies."