Rejected Mate and Following Fate novel Chapter 23

I bend double, stomach twisting itself inside out, and dry wretch as my body tries to vomit out the contents of my earlier breakfast. A washing machine motion making me spasm as I gag once or twice. Sweating profusely, limbs shaking with exertion, and heart working so hard I think I'm having a heart attack, and it's about to explode through my chest. I can feel my own pulse inside my ears and in my throat while I use my hands on my knees to brace my body and gasp for breath to fill my laboring lungs. I feel like I'm on the verge of dying.

"Here, drink some water and it'll pass. Take a breather." Colton holds out a cold bottle towards me, foggy with condensation and straight from the ice bucket, at eye level and I can't even muster up the ability to reach out and take it. I cough up phlegm, my throat burning painfully, and exhale wheezily in some sort of response. I can't believe how unfit I am.

"It'll get easier, you're just at the start of building stamina." He carries on, placing the bottle on the grass below me near my feet within my eyeline, and sinks down on his haunches to gaze up at me, tilting his face and smiling handsomely. A bead of sweat runs from my messy ponytail down past my ear and somehow travels across my cheek to drip off the tip of my nose. I can feel more running down the center of my spine, between my shoulder blades, and I shudder.

"If I... make it… that …far." It's an effort and a half to get the words out and he grins at me, amused with my uselessness. We've been out here for hours. Stretching, running, exercising, jumping boards, climbing obstacles. I never knew physical training could inflict so much agony.

"You're doing fine. First time my father put me through this, I blacked out and woke up covered in my own vomit, at his feet." He shrugs with that cute boy smirk as though it's some sort of proud memory and I squint at him. Not sure why that's a helpful or encouraging thing to say, and he chuckles, that sexy half smile of his bringing out his dimples and pats me on the back firmly. I feel like he's being more condescending than sympathetic and inhale with effort, sure my lungs might no longer be working to full capacity, and then blow out a long hot exhale. Trying to recover enough to take the damn drink I sorely need.

The noise of a field full of various aged people, all in different stages of training is all around us, voices echoing among the rumble of vehicles, and building works in the further distance. It feels like a school sports day, only with more shouting and yelling, and much older people. Also, a lot fitter, because I don't remember my class ever taking on a course like this and doing it without dying.

The whole valley is in movement, orders being carried out, and there's been an ongoing stream of trucks all day so far. Bringing supplies, materials, and wolves from further down the valley outskirts of its furthest point. They started construction further down and there's been rumbling and thudding noises coming from that direction on the wind. They were quick to assemble and start to put things in motion at the crack of dawn and its humbling to see the force that is Santo, in the flesh.

The worst of the internal burn inside of me calms down with the non-movement of my limbs and the three minutes of rest. I grab at the bottle and manage to straighten up, if somewhat painfully. My body trembling, and my legs weak, I can't take it anymore slumping down on my butt ungracefully, accepting fate. I'm done. It doesn't help that we're moving from spring to summer and the sun is hitting its high point of the day and slow roasting us all to a crisp. Not the best time to take your unfit self and put it through military style athletics.

Colton looks up and towards a podium where senior wolves stand issuing orders at the masses, and nods silently. I guess someone is talking to him and he flashes me back a sympathetic smile.

"You'll be pleased to know you have a two-hour rest and refresh session to go easy and lay face down on your bed." He extends a hand to me, straightening up to stand up himself and I bat it away with another frown. 

"I'm going to lay right here, thank you very much, and hope to god I wake up and this was all a bad dream." It's a better attempt at verbal conversation but I still sound like an asthmatic dying pig. If only that was a strong possibility.

I let myself slump back into the short prickly terrain cushioning my ungraceful fall, and stare up at the cloudless blue sky, so utterly relieved to be able to let my body finally stop. It would be a beautiful day if I could appreciate it.

The fatigue washes over me and highlights how done my limbs are, and how unlikely it is they're going to cooperate or recover anytime soon. I can't take anymore even if I wanted to and hours of physical exertion have highlighted how unfit I am, while Colton barely broke a sweat.

"Do you need me to go get a wheelchair, or give you a piggyback?" He's mocking me now, his tone light, that air of cheeky and I can tell his dimples will be on show. I shove at his foot weakly as he gets up, comes close and toe digs me softly. Trying to push me into action. He towers over me offering a little shade from the direct light and I take a second to admire the formidable build of my Adonis. He's in a gray tracksuit that molds to his perfect muscular body and even in this heat, he has it zipped up to the top of the stand-up collar. No hint of being overheated, or sweaty or even reddening and I wonder what's up with that.

"Nope. Go away and leave me here to become one with the daisies. I've decided this isn't the life for me." It's humor on my part, the atmosphere between us today a lot less strained than last night. He seems brighter, more like his usual self today, working, and training in the sub pack, I could tell he is back on normal form. Carmen even managed to irritate him less as we were all so focused on what we had to do.

This morning, at dawn, started with a twenty-minute yoga type bunch of stretches, a warmup, followed by a two-mile run that was a major shock to my system. I've now added sadist to his list of less desirable traits, because he's a bossy asshole who kept running behind me and pushing me along by my butt when I lagged behind, refusing to let me stop no matter how much I begged him. Or maybe it was just an excuse to put his hands on my ass. Either way, it wasn't appreciated while I was panting like an old person trying to climb a stair.

"Can't, the grass cutters come out at noon and I don't think you would look good shredded and decorating the field. Come on, lazy, we need to go shower, eat, and head out this afternoon. We have things to do."

That brings me back to reality and hits me with a note of seriousness. I know what it is we have to do and whether I want to or not, I'm being dragged along, as he has this idea that from yesterday, I became part of his sub pack. Luckily, his father hasn't been around today to see me among his best, because I know he isn't going to like this slow integration Colton has me doing.

The plan this afternoon is to split into trucks to start visiting the villages around the mountain. Juan wants us to issue notices, and orders, to 'deal' with disobeyers. Colton managed to convince him that force wasn't needed, or advisable, in the end. I guess Juan slept on it, and this morning new orders were issued among the pack leaders. We've to deliver face to face written notice that might give them time to come around to having them up and move the few miles to the Santo domain. I know it's because of Colton standing up to him.

Colton has a good heart, and despite years of thinking him arrogant and careless of people below him, looking back, I realize he just stuck to his own kind, and in the old mindset that the packs were rivals. He had his close-knit circle and he didn't like entertaining anyone new. He saw me as everyone else did, as one of the cast asides, and he made no attempt to interact with me. His defense of the people around the whole mountain tell me I had him all wrong.

I reluctantly roll over onto my belly and lay my cheek on the grass, enjoying the cool feeling on my previous overly warm skin. It's a little stabby but a welcome relief to climbing nets, sprinting, and jumping hurdles again. The rest of the pack are still off in the distance, carrying on, and I keep hearing Meadow issuing commanding directions to them as they tackle a huge wall they're climbing. As wolves it would be easy, but today's training was human only. Stamina building, apparently.

"Just five more minutes." I moan softly, truly giving up on any form of movement as my body shuts down completely, deflating with a heavy, dramatic sigh. I yelp when his strong hands slide under me at speed, around the waist, him jumping over me and planting a foot either side of my hips as he lifts me up in one short sharp maneuver.

My arms flail, my legs curl and swing under him before he pulls me fully with him and drops me on my own feet. Clinging to his upper arms, making all sorts of desperate sounds and end up with the back of my head in the crook of his neck, my butt imbedded in his groin intimately. He doesn't let me go straight away, just pulls me in tight with a sneaky hug, and lowers his own face so his mouth comes level with my ear. As always, my body reacts even when I don't want it to and I goosebumps all over, internal explosions and tingles going off inside my stomach so easily.