Chapter 47: Pitiful

Chapter 47: Pitiful
Calina

I hated initiation camp. Freya had both myself and Erin up early in the morning to get ready. The only upside was that she’d prepared us some breakfast. Nothing too heavy, just some muesli, fruit and yoghurt. But she seemed weird. Almost as though she were avoiding us. She didn’t even really look us in the eye. It gave me an eery feeling that tugged at the bottom of my stomach and made me feel nauseous. Was this going to be a bad experience? Was initiation camp really that bad? It couldn’t have been worse than hunter training.

Nonetheless, Erin and I walked in silence towards the training groups. It was located in a little clearing a little further down from the healing centre. Despite the grass having cold, frosted tips, the air felt nice and cool. My body had felt so warm all the time, and so the cool air was welcomed on my skin.

When we got there, I was surprised by how many wolves there were in initiation camp training. Though most were teenagers. It was clear, however that there was a divide between the age groups and we were apparently being led by a young woman with long, straight dark hair, icy blue eyes and striking red lipstick. She was beautiful, standing in stark contrast to all of our lifeless and tired faces. As we walked towards her, I could almost swear her eyes were on me. But I brushed it off, focused more on the nervousness radiating from me. I’d also realised that Mason wasn’t here as yet. Perhaps he’d only be joining us tomorrow.

“Good morning initiates!” the beautiful woman began, “today we’ll begin your initiation training. My name is—“

“Shaylen! And I will be your instructor!” Shaylen yelled breathlessly from the corner of the field, cutting the woman off. She turned towards him, a confused look on her face.

“I’m scheduled to take the initiates today, Shaylen, not you,” she said, a sense of annoyance in her tone.

Shaylen sighed and shook his head, “Unfortunately higher ups got the schedule all mixed up. You won’t be taking them anytime soon.”

The woman’s eyes narrowed and then lit up almost as though she’d realised something.

“Higher ups huh…” her eyes then landed on mine and she smiled. It was the type of smile that made my blood turn cold. It was as though I could feel her hate radiating from just her eyes alone. Those cold, icy blue eyes. I had never met this woman before, but my gut was telling me that the woman staring at me as though she wished I were dead, was Lorraine.

I smiled back, catching her off guard. Then, she shook her head and began to walk away. Shaylen let out a sigh of relief and turned to the rest of us, smiling nervously, especially when he caught my eye.

So that was Lorraine. She was beautiful. I could understand why he’d made a fuss about her. It didn’t make me forgive him though. What I couldn’t understand though, was why they weren’t seeing each other anymore. She was clearly jealous of me and no doubt wanted him back. So why did Vander seem so… disinterested. Or perhaps I hadn’t been around for long enough. Perhaps he was interested and just slightly distracted by me. Whatever it was, none of it was my business.

“Right! Apologies for the delay. My name is Shaylen, I am one of the pack guards, and I’ll be taking you for quite a few days. The first task is a bit of cadio. I’d like you all to do a few laps around the field so we can get a gauge your speed and control. Please try to remain in your human form for as long as possible.”

This first task seemed almost too easy. I had extremely good stamina and I didn’t have the issue of accidentally turning into a werewolf.

I started off confident, just taking it as another day of hunter training. I had to say, I did quite well. I was near the front. I kept a good pace and didn’t even break a sweat. Erin, on the other hand fell somewhere in the middle. She seemed to be doing okay, but I could tell, she’d rather be in bed.

I thought we’d only do a few laps, but as the early morning hours became late morning hours, there didn’t seem to be any sign of stopping us. I’d ended up lagging behind, owing to my own human shortcomings. Even though hunters were trained to keep up with wolves, we did so for short chases. We had the convenience of cars for longer chases. Nonetheless, I pushed forward, ignoring the burning feeling in my lungs and the metallic taste at the back of my throat. Even breathing felt painful. But I wouldn’t be defeated so quickly.

A few of the initiates had transformed already, and they were immediately dealt with by Shaylen who grabbed them and attempted to subdue him. Soon, however, there were so many transformations that they had to call other pack members to help. I thought perhaps that Lorraine would be called back, but she was nowhere to be seen. Once the pack members had calmed down, they were given pairs of old clothing to wear and set to the side.

I was one of the last few left and I was exhausted. I’d pushed myself further than I’d ever gone before as a hunter and now, I was reaching a breaking point. Erin had joined the others by tapping herself out of the race. She sat drinking a nice cool bottle of water. I was so thirsty and so hot. I was covered in sweat, practically showering in it. My feet hurt so badly and felt swollen in my shoes. But still, some part of me just couldn’t give up.

About ten minutes later, I couldn’t push any further. I was so exhausted that I tripped over my feet and face planted into the ground, feeling sand and rock scratch at my face. I was too tired to protect it with my arms.

I stayed there for a moment, blood pooling in my mouth. I could hear a few calls. Very few using my name, most calling me Luna. How embarrassing. It must have been embarrassing for them to watch their Luna push so hard and fall to the floor. To have her not even be able to turn into a werewolf. How pitiful I was.