Chapter 64

Everything had been packed and we were ready to leave early in the morning for Falj- Darya's hometown. It was still very early when we began our journey to the mountains. The sun wasn't completely out yet. The sky was orange as we made our way through the dense forest, going up hills, and passing next to lakes and small rivers. The air around us slowly became thinner as the latitude increased, the sun's intensity decreased and goosebumps emerged all over my skin. I was the only one that seemed to be noticing how cold it had gotten.

Soon, they announced we had made it, pointing at a small grouping of cabin houses just at the foot of a huge mountain. As I was then educated by Arsen, Falj was the equivalence of the foot of a mountain in their Nordic language. Faljketijn being a smart play of words on the small town that they had nearby. As we made our way there a few of the soldiers guarding the town came our way making sure we weren't any attackers.

By the time we got to the town, the sun was all the way on the opposite edge from where it was when we had departed. Arsen managed to get the four of us free from having to greet everyone in very little time. We got to the cabin were the four of us would be staying over these next two days, yet would end up living only three of us. I loved the place, it was big yet small giving it a sense of home.

Arsen and I made our way up the stairs with our luggage and quickly entered our room. We set it out on the floor and after showering and changing into our pyjamas we made our way down into the kitchen to make our dinner. We got to the kitchen before Darya and Ulises, so we had more freedom over what we wanted to eat. We decided to go with something easy some rice, chicken and some veggies. We made extra, that way if Darya and Ulises wanted some they could, and if they didn't fancy it, we could save it for tomorrow.

I leaned against the kitchen counter, resting y head sideways on my forearms as I faced Arsen. I could picture my entire life with him, getting married, getting pregnant, having pups around that slowly grow older and start taking more care of us than we do of them. I could see us cooking for them together as they told us what the best trends were and how my jeans were no longer in. After a long day we would laugh about it and later Arsen and I would return to bed and laugh some more over our kids' ridiculousness.

"What are you looking at me so intent for?" He asked, pulling me away from my thoughts. It seemed I had been staring at him for a good while.

My cheeks flushed, "oh. Daydreaming, sorry," I quickly replied.

However, Arsen could always see through my hesitation, "what role did I play in it?" He wondered.

"That's a bold assumption to make," I replied, trying to deflect his question.

"Tell me what you were daydreaming about and I'll judge whether it was bold or not," he proposed. As always Arsen knew me too well, something that while it may be a turn off to some people, I always liked. It only meant Arsen understood me, sometimes even better than I understood myself. Yet, he never weaponised that skill with me, he only used it to help me.

I rolled my eyes playfully and then smiled innocently to him, "I was picturing my life with you and how it would be if instead of cooking for the two of us, we were cooking for our kids."

"Boys or girls?"

"Both," I answered sincerely, "a few of them too. I always liked the number four."

"Four is a beautiful number," he agreed. "But if there's four pups in the house, I hope you help me out a bit more in the kitchen," he protested.

I quickly rushed to his side, "oh, shut up. You're only stirring," I complained. I had cut up all the vegetables and had made the rice.

*

We fell asleep quickly after enjoying dinner alone. Darya and Ulises coming down the stairs as we were making our way up. We enterchanged a quick "goodnight," and never saw each other again until the next day.

I realised how difficult the situation had gotten when I woke up and Arsen was already out of bed. He had made me breakfast and had placed a carefully written note just beside it. 'Good morning, gorgeous. I have some errands to run today, remember you still have to train today. I love you, Arsen.'

I smiled at the note, only wanting to kiss him. Tomorrow, I would make sure to wake up extra early to make him breakfast and then to have it with him. I made myself down to the kitchen to eat it there hoping to see Darya there, thankfully we thought quite alike. We had breakfast together and while we had different training times as Darya had to train as a wolf and I had to train as a human, we made sure to have lunch together as well.

Darya came back from training that morning with a huge smile on her red face. She was breathing heavily and was quite sweaty yet she looked so alive.

"Wow, I had forgotten how good training in Fajl was," she commented.

"Yeah, I can smell it," I joked, making the two of us laugh.

Darya and I were growing closer and closer. We were very similar in many aspects, so it was easy to relate to each other despite having lived such different lifes. It's like we knew how we wouldn't judged each other, we understood how we felt in every stage of the way and while our similarities made it difficult for us to actually give each other advice. It did make for a great confidential and well, a great friend too.

Later was my time to shine, I was up to a huge challenge, traininng with the Falj. A town known to be filled with soldiers and not any type of soldier either. Faljketijn soldiers.

I walked to the facility and found myself at the end of the group, pushed into a corner as we did our warm-ups. I had come early yet the people here, all they did was train, that was their job and the others who weren't they had friends, mates, or a fixed location within the mat. The warm-up started to pick up. My wolf wasn't as agile as everyone else's was, so I began falling back. Panting and breathing too heavy as the beasts surrounding me seem to manage just fine. I wasn't slow for a human, but any human was slow for a werewolf.

"I think Arsen has to exercise you a bit more," one of the instructors joked, yet the joke seemed to be funny for everyone except for me. I smiled innocently and continued. I was already anxious enough to be working out with such skilled werewolves for people to start mocking me.

The warm-up was reaching its end, but their warm up had a fun twist at the end, it was what they called a finisher, it was meant to push the fittest people here too their maximum and as I had expected, I couldn't. As soon as we stopped, I hunged over, feeling the vomit making its way up my esophagus and then swallowing it away. An instructor began slow clapping and soon a few other joined, I looked up noticing that it was directed towards me.

They stopped once they realized they had gotten my attention after mocking me, "after such a low performance, I'm sure you're fine to show everyone how to defend yourself from an attacker," the instructor left no room for me as everyone was looking to me.

The instructor lead me to the ring slightly elevated, in front of the mat where everyone was. I still felt like puking from the exercise, but now I only felt like crying. However, I knew I shouldn't. They were worried about their Alpha being with someone weak, if I showed I didn't break then I would have their respect.

I stepped onto the ring, took a shaky deep breath and then exhaled.

"Who would like to try their luck with Aelin?" The instructor asked, most of the arms that shot up seemed to come fromm the exact same place. I decided not to give it another thought.

"Alexi," the instructor chose one of the girls. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. Her weight alone wouldn't be enough to crash me, she wasn't too far off my height. It could've been much worse.

Alexi walked up to the ring with a triumphant smirk on her face. She had strong, defined arms and legs and she wore exactly what Lia had told me to wear after my first training, tight clothes to net get gripped. The instructor grabbed Alexi momentarily and quickly reminded her, "remember she's Arsen's."

"Oh, I know," Alexi said in a hoarse voice. The instructor gave her a pointed look and then let go of her.

Alexi enterred into the ring and the instructor quickly began walking us through what he wanted Alexi and I to do, starting with Alexi trying to grab me from the front to spin me around and into a chokehold.

"Alexi, you know what to do," the instructor said then turned to me, "Aelin, try your best, if you fail, it's fine. We'll break down your mistakes that way."

I nodded my head and narrowed my eyes, knowing after his words what I had been thinking all this time, I had been brought up to fail. What better way to learn than this, right?

Right?