We had been at the gym for nearly two hours when there came a sound by the door and Rodger entered with Bella. With a start she ran over to me and hugged me as I lent on the roman chair. She glanced to Oscar and frowned then looked back to me.
"I was so worried about you. I thought Rodger did something stupid again." I shifted as I untangled myself from the weights I had on and the gym equipment.
"No, it was something else…" I still felt weird about talking about this stuff. Rodger approached and rubbed his neck.
"Look Bella brought it to my attention I should have told you some things I knew…" I frowned and he held his hands up. "Not about the mark I was oblivious to how strong I …" He cleared his throat. "No, it's about what you are." I gave him a death glare.
"Did everyone know except me?" I looked to Bella then to Rodger and he frowned.
"You know you're an alpha?" I pointed to Oscar.
"He kind of filled me in this morning." Rodger turned to look at Oscar and froze as they locked eyes. Oscar smirked.
"Joined the club too." Bella frowned as Rodger licked his lips nervously and weighed up the situation.
"What's going on here?" Oscar grinned and waved a hand.
"Come on over little lady and I'll tell all. We should let Danica get some more training in before tomorrow." She nodded and went to where Oscar sat working on his arms.
I had worked on a verity of gym equipment for an hour by myself a combination of gentle stretching and reps. When I came off the leg stretcher, I could see the three of them talking on the far side of the gym. It seemed a little conspirative over there. I gave a few stretches and looked to the ring. If I had someone to spar with.
There was a sound by the high windows. I turned to see Enoch watching me from above. Slowly he began to climb down the sheer wall, like I would a ladder and nodded. He went to the ring and bounced up then held his hands out and gave me a look. I hesitantly grabbed my hand wrappings and entered the ring.
I took up my position and raised my arms, Enoch through a volley of easy punches my way and I blocked them. He nodded and began to toss out a few more punches and a couple of kicks. His movements were slow and deliberate giving me time to block and maneuver to block the next hit. After a few rounds of blocking he pulled away and waved his hands at me to attack. I frowned.
"Don't talk much do you?" He narrowed his eyes and held his hands up to block with a small shake on his head. I tossed a volley of punches his way and he blocked and dodged. Soon we were throwing punches and kicks back and forth and hitting out hard.
Someone cleared their throat and we both looked around as Rodger looked up at us, Bella and Oscar by his side.
"Try not to go all out now… Danica has a match tomorrow and I can't have her injured." Enoch nodded and pulled back on his strength as we continued our sparring match. However, he had sped up making it harder to land a punch. I began to speed up and he seemed surprised that I was still able to land a few punches on him.
Two hours later we were both covered in sweat and a few bruises. We circled each other in the ring and began to charge. With a shout Rodger was there in the ring holding up his hands.
"I must insist the two of you stop now." He looked to Oscar as he jumped into the ring and pulled me away.
"He's right. If you keep going like this, you won't be able to fight properly tonight." I frowned.
"Tonight?" He nodded.
"It's just passed one." Enoch grinned as he turned and walked away. He stopped next to Rodger and pointed back.
"I want a fun match with this one." He walked towards the changing rooms. Oscar narrowed his eyes.
"What's a fun match?" Rodger grinned.
"When two fighters on the same team fight each other for fun." He sighed. "It's basically an inhouse money match." I grinned.
"That would be fun…" I winced and stretched out my arms. "As long as he doesn't eat me…" Rodger sighed.
"He won't. I'll feed him first. But now you need to relax and get ready for tomorrow." I nodded and he rubbed his neck. "I know a hot tub you could use and a spare room." I nodded slightly and glanced to Oscar then to Rodger.
"Ok… but I need to go to the mall and buy some clothes." They both nodded and we left the gym.
Derick's POV
I had left the city and was about fifteen minutes away from the pack house. My wolf, Murphy, was still whining as I pulled over into the parking spot. I frowned as I came to a stop. This was Lookout point. I got out the car and sat on the bonnet and looked out over the twinkling lights of the city. A few tears filled my eyes.
'Why was I so upset about Oscar marking Danica. It's not like we have anything…' I heard my wolf whine.
'We don't have anything with Lisa either.' I frowned. As I thought about it, he was right. I realized that the sparks didn't come this time. She had been in my arms and had kissed me, but I had felt nothing. It was like holding any other woman. My brow furrowed.
"Fuck!" I lay back over the bonnet and covered my face. I looked up at the sky and stared at the stars. My phone rang and I ignored it then I heard a sound and looked around as Mathew and Dean walked out from the trees in wolf form. Mathew stood up and shifted.
"What's the matter with your face?" I frowned and looked back up at the sky.
"Nothing I want to talk about with you." He nodded and pulled himself onto the roof of the jeep and lay back.
"Nothing you want to talk about… so it's something you need to talk about?" I grumbled in annoyance.
"Go away... What are you doing out here anyway? And with him?" My voice was angry towards the end as I glanced at Dean. Dean shifted and looked around in annoyance and confusion.
"What did I do?" Mathew giggled.
"We're on patrol. The rest of the group went on ahead of us. We came to check on why you were up here?" I let an annoyed grunt leave my lips. "I'm not going anywhere until you spill it." Mathew grinned as he peeked down at me from the roof.
"Fuck you're annoying…" He smirked. "Like that fucker Oscar…" He nodded.
"Ok, getting somewhere… what did he do to piss you off?" He waved his hand for me to continue. I rolled my eyes and took a breath.
"He marked Danica." Mathew frowned and nodded as Dean let out a surprised snarl.
"How'd you know that?" I grunted.
"Lisa and her friend said they were mind linked…" he nodded and shrugged.
"If, Oscar is as annoying as me can you be sure he wasn't trying to wind you up the wrong way? I mean how long has he known Danica?" He grinned. "I don't need to mind link you to know half of what you're thinking most of the time." Dean cleared his throat.
"I don't know why this is important, but Danica doesn't have any marks." I looked over to him and nodded.
"She seemed to know Oscar very well. Can adopted people mind link with the family?" Mathew nodded.
"Yeah, it's difficult and you need to be around them for a long time but if you're basically family then a link will develop. Some humans even develop a link too." I felt a little better.
"Tell me… have you ever not felt something when Jenny touches you?" Mathew frowned.
"What do you mean?" He sighed.
"Can you lose the sparks?" Mathew seemed shocked as he shook his head.
"That doesn't sound right. Which one…" He stopped himself but Dean already seemed to guess what we were talking about.
"Wait… are you saying Danica and someone else gives you mate sparks and now neither do?" I gave Mathew a glare that made him shrink away over the roof of the car.
"Yes… sort of. I still feel sparks for Danica but nothing tonight for Lisa." I muttered and heard the uneasy growl Dean made. I know he had strong feelings for Danica, but it seemed he really was going to try and fight me for her. "Oh back down Fido, I have no clue what's going on and besides it would be very one sided, you'd just get hurt." Dean turned and sulked away to the picknick bench.
"And don't tell anyone!" Mathew yelled from the top of the jeep.
"Like you can talk Mr. Secrets." He sighed.
"Well, there is one thing you can do." I frowned.
"Fine… Make a date with the doctor for next week…" Mathew grinned and nodded.
"Will do… Have you actually talked to Danica about this?" I went silent before getting up off the car.
"Don't you have a patrol to do?" Mathew nodded and jumped down from the car.
"That's a no." He grinned and pointed from his head to mine. "See no mind link involved." He gave a stretch and took a few steps away. "What are you going to do?" I shrugged and got into the car.
"Get home and survive this weekend… Fuck knows after that." I started the engine as Mathew gave another funny look.
"You were in the city and met Lisa?" I nodded.
"What of it?" He frowned.
"Wasn't she nursing her sick grandfather back to health this morning and couldn't leave his side?" I frowned as he shrugged. "Just saying... her pack was six or so hours from the city." He transformed back to his wolf and darted off with Dean.
Murphy began to growl in my head and I nodded as I thought. She had said at the BBQ she needed to go home then called and told me her grandfather was really sick. Even this morning there had apparently been no change in his condition. With a sigh I began to drive home things were getting way to complicated.