Chapter 5 : Training Begins

*Alice's POV*

Everything was going black…

I grabbed at Simon's hand, which was still wrapped tightly around my thin neck in a final attempt to save myself.

Maybe I shouldn't stop him.

Then that familiar sharp pain shot through my hands, and I felt the wolf claws emerge. Simon's hand released, and I gasped. Air flooded my lungs, easing my lightheadedness. My vision started to come back as well, and I blinked as I saw Simon's hand covered in blood.

My claws had sliced into him.

Simon stood there, staring at his hand in shock.

In disgust, I started the repeated process of grabbing the claws and painfully ripping them out. The pain was almost a comfort at this point, a punishment for having this nasty wolf blood taint my body.

Just as before, my hands slowly returned to normal. They turned back into fingers. Little by little, they slowly healed, but the blood still covered my hands while my breathing started to get back under control.

Simon still stood there, watching me carefully the entire time.

I wondered what he was thinking as I watched his eyes stare at me in new consideration. The wild fire that had been in them mere minutes ago was slowly ebbing.

My mutation was not something I was proud of, and therefore, not many people knew of it. Now this man of unknown origins knew my secret.

But I knew his too.

"You come from another continent," I said, trying to break the silence, but Simon must have had the same idea.

"What are you?" he asked at the same time.

We both stared at each other, debating who should talk. I started to think. How could I work this out to my advantage and get him to finally agree to teach me?

"I will tell the Alpha King that you are from the United States," I said quickly before he could ask any more questions about me. "I will tell everyone."

At the mention of me touching his things, his eyes darkened again, and I watched as he clenched his fists. Although his hand was healed, he still stood a couple of feet away from me. He took one step closer, and I naturally took one away.

"Unless you agree to teach me," I continued, causing him to pause.

I watched as he stood there and had an internal battle with himself. On one hand, he was livid at the idea that I had found out his secret and that I had touched his stuff.

But on the other hand, I watched as he continued to look down at my body. For probably the first time in my life, I noticed that it wasn't in lust but it was in curiosity. He was obviously still wondering what my mutation meant.

I could use that to my advantage as well.

"I can tell you about me if you teach me also," I told him.

He raised an eyebrow at me, and I knew that I had piqued his interest. I might not be able to use my acting ways to get away with stuff around him, but at least I could still read his expressions.

Well, some of them.

He looked me up and down once more.

For the first time, I found myself disappointed at the lack of sexual interest he was showing. Was he immune to my beauty? I had never met anyone that was before…

"Fine," Simon finally said, sharply interrupting my thoughts.

"Okay, fine, as in yes?" I asked for clarification.

He turned away from me and walked over to the desk.

"Yes." He kept his back to me. "We will start tonight when there will be fewer eyes."

"That's fine by me," I said in a relieved tone.

I hated everyone here anyway. Everyone except Joan, of course. Maybe if I trained and got strong enough, I could finally leave this palace forever and take Joan with me.

Simon finally turned back around to face me and looked confused at why I was still there.

"You may leave now."

Dismissed.

I thought about saying something snarky back to him, but since I had already gotten my win, I decided not to push my luck. With one last look at this odd, handsome man, I turned and walked out of his door.

The rest of the day went by in a blur.

For the first time in a long time, I actually had something to look forward to. So I pushed through all of my maid chores for the day in a much better mood than normal.

It also helped that most of the guests were still gone as well. There were fewer people to care for and fewer people to annoy me.

The halt in training would also make it easier for Simon to train me, so James being ill was really the most beneficial thing. I secretly plotted ways that I could keep him sick and keep the other awful beings away.

Too bad I didn't have access to poison.

As soon as the sun set, I headed to my small room and changed out of my maid's dress and into something that might be more suitable for training. I wasn't sure what Simon did in his lessons, but I was sure that a dress would not be effective.

Feeling restless, I hurried back over to Simon's separate living area, making sure to duck behind a wall or hide when I saw anybody else around. After years of taking their abuse, I had become pretty efficient at evading them.

However, the great thing about where Simon was staying was that we would have no interruptions. There was nobody else staying in that section, and he had made it very clear to the staff that he liked to be left alone.

By the time I showed up, he was already standing by his door, waiting for me.

"Come with me," his calculated voice said.

I wondered to myself if he ever showed emotion. The glimpse of his rage earlier was the only time I had seen behind this calm exterior, and it made me curious as to what truly lies beneath.

Simon turned to walk away, and I followed. I stared at him as we walked.

He was still wearing a nice full black suit that complimented his tall, slender body perfectly, and his hair was as neatly slicked back as every other time I had seen it.

This instantly pissed me off. The way that he was dressed showed me that he was not going to be involved with training me, at least for tonight. And even though I had to admit that he looked good, I didn't want him to just use words to teach me.

I needed to remind myself that Simon was the most respected and sought-after teacher in the wolf packs. Maybe he knew better than me.

Simon continued to walk silently, and I followed behind, trying to match the pace of his long legs. As a maid, I was used to physical labor, but it wasn't like I walked constantly.

Not paying attention, I bumped into Simon as he came to a stop. He reached out and caught my hand as I lost my balance, keeping me upright. As soon as I was alright, though, he instantly dropped it.

I looked up at him, but he was looking away. This was new for me. I thought he might have been playing about not falling for my act, but now I could see he wasn't. He didn't look at me like any other wolf ever had.

He looked at the real me.

It pissed me off again.

I looked around and saw that he had led me to the small lake that was in this section of the property. It wasn't as large as the other lake, but it was still a fairly good size. And deep.

For a moment, I wondered if he planned to do to me what I had done to James. My heart skipped, and my neck throbbed where it was still tender from this morning.

However, Simon looked down at me, and I didn't see any emotion in his calm, soothing eyes. I stared back into them, watching as the moonlight bounced off of the lake and reflected in his eyes.

"Start running," Simon said, breaking me from my thoughts once more.

"Wait, what?" I asked as I looked around.

Simon sighed, seemingly annoyed with having to explain himself.

I felt my anger spark again. It was one thing to know that he thought I was weak, I didn't need him thinking that I was stupid too.

"Run laps around the lake." He continued to look at me.

"Why?" I asked, watching as his jaw clenched slightly.

"First," he started, and I sadly noticed that he was speaking in his normal voice. I liked getting a rise out of him. "First, I am the teacher, you do not question me."

I bit my tongue. Yeah, that would be hard for me.

"Second," he continued. "Just this once, I will explain. Fighting requires endurance. You are weak. You don't have any. We must fix this."

"You did not just call me weak again!" My blood was boiling, and my voice came out in a near growl. "I'll show you weak…"

My rage got the best of me, and I swung out my foot, aiming between his legs.

Without so much as a flinch, Simon batted my foot away like a fly. Even more irritated, I whipped around, aiming for a spinning kick straight to his kidney.

This time he grabbed my leg and hoisted it up, causing me to lose my balance and fall back. He took advantage of my imbalance to quickly pin me to the ground.

His body pressed against mine, and his face was mere inches away. I could feel his breath wash over me as his eyes stayed indifferent.

"You aren't ready for this," he said in a low husky voice.

Maybe I am, I thought as his muscles pressed me even harder into the earth.

With a quick mental slap, I shook my head. What on earth was with me today? I never had this sort of reaction with any man in my entire life. They usually wanted me.

I usually didn't want them.

Simon seemed to think that I had understood his point because he stood up off of me and gave me space to get myself up.

"Run," he repeated and turned his back to walk away.

Deciding I should blow off some steam anyway, I began to jog around the lake.

As I ran, I watched as Simon walked over to a nearby tree, bent down for a few minutes and then proceeded to climb up it and sit on the lower branch.

The fact that he had just managed to climb up a tree with a full suit on had me impressed. That feeling didn't last long, though, as something hard ricocheted off of my right shoulder.

"Ow!" I couldn't help but react. "What was that?"

"I'm testing your reflexes," I heard Simon's voice drift down from the tree as I passed it.

Another small pebble came flying through the air, and I tried and failed to avoid it. It bounced squarely off my thigh. I only winced this time.

The pain was nothing compared to what I usually felt. But I also just didn't want to show Simon any other things that he might deem as 'weak.' So I continued to run and held back the cries each time a pebble struck me.

I didn't escape a single one.

I couldn't tell if my reflexes were really that awful or if Simon just had extremely good aim. I would have to have him teach me that next.

The rest of the week followed the same training style, though. I would meet Simon every night after dark; we would go to the lake, I would run, he would hit me with rocks, and I wouldn't say a word.

On the third night, however, when we were reaching quitting time, I watched as Simon wound up his hand more than normal. He was throwing this one harder than any before, I could already tell.

I continued to run, watching his movements closely. Just as he released, I jumped up, determined to evade at least one rock he threw. I felt confident.

The rock smashed into my raised leg, right on the ankle bone, and I heard a crack of bone, sending me flying to the ground.

I tried to stand back up, but my ankle gave way beneath me. I panted in pain, still set on not showing any weakness.

Simon walked up, unconcerned, and examined my ankle.

"It's broken," he stated the obvious.

I just nodded, worried that I would give away the pain I was in if I opened my mouth. As long as I didn't stand on it, then I was fine. But how was I supposed to get back to my room…

Suddenly, without forewarning, Simon slid his hands around my back and under my legs and picked me up bridal-style. My arms instinctively hooked around his neck, ensuring that I wouldn't fall or that he wouldn't drop me.

My ankle throbbed in pain as it hung, but I was more focused on Simon.

"What are you doing?" I asked incredulously.

"You won't make it back to your room like this, and I don't want you staying here all night." Man, he had a way with words, I thought sarcastically.

"Oh, alright," I responded, wondering if I should be offended that he didn't want me to spend the night but shaking it off.

He got me back to my room and into my bed before silently slipping back out without a word. I laid in bed, thinking about how I was going to hide my ankle from Joan in the morning and how I was going to be able to work on it all day.

And as I lay there, I thought about how it had felt to have my arms wrapped around Simon…

No. I wouldn't even dare to go there. I was not some maiden. I was a survivor, and he was just another device to help me get free.

Suddenly, I heard a knock on my door, jolting me from my thoughts. Before I could answer, Simon's voice rang out.

"Can I come in?" His voice was deep and clear.

I blinked, remembering what I was thinking about mere minutes before, and a wave of heat rushed up to my cheeks.

"I'm asleep," I replied in a panic. And I immediately regretted it.

How could I reply to him when I'm asleep?

Without waiting for me to say more, he opened the door and walked in. Great. It was still unlocked. The first training session was so exhausting that I let my guard down and not only let Simon into my room but also almost fell asleep without checking the door.

"What're you doing back here?" I asked, sounding somewhat accusatory.

He ignored my question. "How do you feel?"

His gaze was focused on me. I crossed my hands and hugged my quilt automatically out of nervousness.

It was like I had no control over my movements. It was almost subconscious. I thought back to Simon's embrace, and then it dawned on me how I must've been presenting

Hell no! I can't let Simon find out I'm unconsciously fantasizing about him.

I quickly flicked my hands away, hiding them under the quilt, clutching at the sheets.

"Fine," I replied curtly.

"Fine?" He pouted as he walked to the bedside and rechecked me with his eyes.

My face burned, but I tried to hide it, so I questioned him as a counterattack.

"I thought you left." I looked at him and found he was still in his suit. There was no need for him to return. Unless…maybe I'd changed his mind about me.

I eyed him, waiting for the inevitable confession of lust when he reached into his pocket.

"Hold your hand out," he ordered.

"What?" I subconsciously asked.

"I said give me your hand," he repeated.

My room was so dark that I could barely see the outline of his body.

I wiped the sweat from my hands on the sheets and hesitantly reached out.

A cold item landed in the palm of my hand. I closed it and found that it was a small porcelain bottle.

What?

"This is the last lesson I will teach you today. Take it, or I may reconsider whether accept you as my student."

Simon pulled out the chair in front of the desk and sat down.

"What? You can't…" I retorted, but he interrupted.

"Alice, why do you want me to teach you?" he asked. I could feel his gaze land on me even though I couldn't see him.

Because I needed to leave. I hated my life here, and I hated shifters even more.

I bit my lip, stopping myself from speaking my true thoughts. The less he knew, the better.

"You said I was weak, and I don't want to be weak forever. I'm longing to be better. I may not be as strong as you, but I want to protect myself and the people I care about." I took a deep breath after confessing.

He was silent for a long time. Had he left? Just when I was sure I was alone, he answered.

"I get it. Going forward, don't repeat what you did today," he continued before I could ask. "I understand that you think you need to prove yourself, but you need to be smart. I can't train you if you are hurt. Disobedient students are instantly terminated with me. Do you understand?"

I widened my eyes and was stunned. I couldn't help but nod.

"Don't be so anxious to prove yourself, and you won't get hurt. Believe it or not, that's not what I want to see. In the bottle is a potion that should aid in rapid healing and get your ankle, to heal faster than you would normally. I hope you won't let me down tomorrow."

And with that, he stood up and left my room. My mind was completely disturbed by his words.

I clenched the small bottle in my hand, and it was already warm to the temperature of my palm.

Its hard exterior pressed against my skin, but I didn't feel cold anymore.

Despite all of this, I had countless questions in my head, flying around.

He wasn't scolding me or threatening me. And he still wanted to be my teacher.

Why? Was it possible…he actually cared for me?

No. No one cared for me. No one except Joan.

I took the potion Simon gave me and laid back down. It wasn't long after my head hit the pillow that I fell fast asleep.