Hell Hound

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

Kiara was making her way down to the dinning room for dinner when she bumped into the twins in the hallway. They were dressed like they were going out. “Where the hell were you today?” Sienna demanded. “Dad almost broke shifter law coming to find you.”

“It wasn’t a big deal.” Kiara shrugged. “I just forgot my phone.” Sienna reached out and slapped her. It had happened so fast that neither Kiara nor Helena could stop her.

“You are so pathetic.” She spat.

“Come on Sei.” Helena started moving her sister around her cousin. “I’m glad you’re okay Kiara. But that was a s**t thing to do to everybody.” Kiara felt like s**t. She wasn’t convinced that the everybody included the twins. They wouldn’t care if she was gone. But she was feeling guilty as hell that she had caused so much distress. The fact that Silver had almost breached Marcus’s Territory without permission was the biggest concern. That was a major show of hostility and disrespect. Pack wars had been started over far less. She wanted Nick. And she hated the fact that she suddenly needed him so much in her life. But he was off attending to pack business somewhere.

After constructing a hamburger with way more lettuce than a normal person would be comfortable with, Kiara sat down next to Terra. “How are you feeling?” The spider asked in her smooth, deep voice, coloured with her faint Korean accent.

“I’m okay. I took a leaf out of your book. Built a nest and rested for the full moon. It really helped me heal.” Terr’s nose twitched and Kiara got the feeling she was trying not to frown. “How was your full moon?” She asked.

“Terrible.” Terra answered. “I missed my sisters.”

“That’s right. I heard all spiders are female.” To be honest, Kiara didn’t know much about the spiders. They were just so rare and secretive. Just like her.

“Yes.” Terra confirmed. “We mate exclusively with humans.” She hadn’t expected that.

“Not other shifters?” Terra shook her head.

“Most shifters don’t like us spiders. Too creepy.” She sounded sad about that.

“Well, I like you Terra. In a friend way.” Terra smiled a sly little smile.

“I know. You like wolf men. A certain trainer, in particular.” Kiara paled.

“Is it that obvious?” She whispered in alarm.

“Only to anyone who is paying attention. So, I’m sure no one else has noticed.” Terra gracefully shrugged one slender shoulder. Kiara sighed in frustration.

“I was supposed to be laying low here.” She complained.

“Then why are you hanging out with a spider?” Terra teased. It was odd to hear her tone so light.

“Because I genuinely like your company.” Kiara told her honestly. Terra hadn’t expected that. “And I know what it’s like to be different.”

“Because of your wolf?” Terra asked. She still believed Kiara’s animal was trapped. Unable to break through her skin and change their form. Kiara nodded.

“I think I genuinely like you too Kiara.” They both smiled. Glad to have found a friend.

Sienna, Helena, and most of the Rising Moon juveniles had skipped dinner downstairs in favour for a party that Hugo, a bear shifter, was throwing. Since bears were larger and more rambunctious than wolves, their rooms were larger too. It was still a little crowded, but most of the attendees had spilled into the courtyard just below. A one floor drop wasn’t much of a problem for most shifters. Sienna immediately started scoping the crowd. They were all dominants and she intended to find the strongest one to spend the night with. Helena on the other hand wasn’t interested in any of the boys at the party. She only had eyes for her boyfriend back home, Luca. Which meant she had a lot more time for socialising. Helena spotted a couple making out on the sofa. One gorgeously dark skinned and the other with bright red hair. “Hey Hugo?” Helena caught the arm of their host. “I thought this was a dominant only party?” She nodded her head towards the couple. Hugo’s eyes followed hers.

“Oh, Lilly’s cool. Plus Oscar has been trying to get into her pants for years.”

“So, Lilly didn’t invite any other submissives? Not even Kiara?”

“Who’s Kiara?” Hugo asked.

“Never mind.” Helena looked around the crowd of drinking shifters but didn’t spot her cousin. Helena was relieved. Sienna would probably have gone nuts again and caused a scene. Thinking of her sister, Helena spotted her down in the courtyard flirting with a female leopard shifter. Sienna may have preferred males, but in the end, she was always attracted to the most powerful, regardless of gender.

They were back to training the next day. Kiara was excited to try out the obstacle course that Scarlett River had set up in the field. The cursed log Bridge had been secured back into place. Kiara wasn’t so thrilled about that part of the course. “Okay, listen up!” Their trainer for the day, a short muscular man, called out to them. “You will be running in threes. This is a race.” He turned to Terra. “You won’t fit like that.” He gestured to her spider body.

“I will be fine.” She told him. “Spider’s can squeeze into some rather tight spaces.” Not to mention that she could climb fairly well. The Guy looked sceptical, but let it go.

“Okay then.” He counted them out into groups of three. Kiara’s group was going fourth which gave her plenty of opportunity to watch how the others navigated the course. It was somewhere her speed and agility would come in handy. She was running with Terra. The spider promised to be an interesting challenge for her.

“How is your arm? I heard you broke it.” Terra asked.

“I’ll be okay.” Kiara said. It was still a little sore. But as long as she didn’t put all her weight on the bone, she would be fine.

They watched the group before them run the obstacle course. There were the basics, like the rope climb, the wall climb, the log jump. Plenty of balance beams. But there was also monkey bars. And as the previous groups had discovered, some of them came free. There was also a door knob wall where they had to make their way across using sporadically placed door knobs. And something she had heard someone call a salmon run, which involved hopping up a ladder using a single bar to jump rungs. At the end were two vertical tunnels. First to reach the top and ring the bell won. Kiara’s arm was going to hate that course.

Someone reached the top and rung the bell. It was their turn. Kiara and Terra both took their place at the starting line with another wolf Kiara hadn’t met yet. “No webs.” Their trainer said. Kiara saw Terra pout. “Ready? Set? Go!” they took off. Terra was fast, but Kiara caught up with her on the first obstacle. Kiara was a lot faster at climbing the rope than Terra because she was smaller and used her arm strength a lot more than the spider did. Her right arm protested, but it was mild and she kept going. Reaching the top, they then had to make their way down again by jumping from one vertical log to the next. Then it was back up a rock-climbing wall and across the swinging log Bridge. Terra had a little trouble navigating with so many legs to keep track of. Then she didn’t quiet fit on the bridge so she went underneath it and hung upside-down as she made her way across. That got some cheers from the watching crowd. Rope ladder, monkey bars, more log hopping, door knobs, swinging logs, spinning logs. It went on. Kiara got battered a little by the moving obstacles and her arms were really starting to kill her by the time she got to the salmon run. “f**k!” She breathed out. With an exhausted sign she grabbed hold of the bar and swung her body upwards. It was tricker than she had expected and she nearly fell. But luckily she only had to go up five rungs. Then it was down a slide of all things. Next was a bunch of small trampolines. She easily bounced across them, but her legs were really starting to burn by the time she’d sprung across. She’d reached the last obstacle. The vertical climb. It was three smooth walls heading straight up twelve feet. Her muscles were all burning.

“Quickly!” Terra hissed as she caught up. The other shifter was right behind them. There were only two vertical climbs. Terra took one and Kiara reluctantly took the other. She braced her hands on either side of her and jumped up to brace her feet too. Hands, feet, hands, feet. Kiara slowly made her way upwards, gasping with the effort to move her abused body. She was about two thirds of the way up when she heard the bell ring. Terra had beaten her. Kiara paused for a few seconds debating if she should let go and slide back down the wall, or if she should keep going. With only about four feet to go, she decided to keep going. Relief flooded her when she finally reached the top. Terra was there beaming down at her. “I win.” She sung. It seemed like such an odd thing for her to do. Kiara laughed.

“I’m just glad I actually finished it.”

“Me too.” The other wolf said. He looked wrecked. He was clearly puffed out. The way back down from the platform were large steps. They still had to jump down, but it was easy compared to what they had just accomplished.

“That was awesome!” Exclaimed Lilly when she met them at the bottom. Then she frowned “I fell off the monkey bars.” Lilly had discovered one of the falling rungs and hadn’t managed to save herself.

“Don’t worry.” Kiara told her in between big gulps of water. “I’m sure you’ll get to try it again.”

“So, I need to tell you girls something.” Lilly said excitedly, bouncing up and down. Her bright red hair dancing in the sunlight. “I got together with Oscar last night!” Lilly launched into a big, long story about how it had all happened. Kiara chimed in with ohs and ahhs where appropriate, but her mind kept wanting to drift back to Nick. Should she tell them about her new relationship the way Lilly was telling them about hers? Kiara honestly didn’t know. She had never had friends to discuss this kind of thing with before. Her wolf wasn’t any help. She didn’t understand why they weren’t publicly declaring that he was theirs and warning off every female in the area. “We should go shopping!” Lilly’s excited tone cut through Kiara’s inner debate.

“Huh? Shopping?”

“Yeah, for my date tomorrow.” Lilly looked at her like it should be obvious. “Oscar’s already seen me everything I’ve brought with me. Want to knock him off his feet with how gorgeous and sexy I am.”

“And your sports bra probably won’t cut it.” Terra pointed out. Like Kiara, Lilly had mostly packed work-out gear.

“Oh, you know we’re going lingerie shopping too.” Lilly agreed. “Kiara, are you in?” Lingerie shopping? Kiara had never done that before in her life. She usually just got whatever bra was on sale when she brought new underwear. As long as it fit, she didn’t care what it looked like, and they never matched. But she started thinking about Nick and what he might like to see her wear.

“I’m in.” She said