Transparent by Soccerluv4 (: (100 books to read in a lifetime .txt) 📖

the rest of his clothes off and take him right then and there.

His growl shook me out of my reverie, and I turned around with lightning speed, closing my eyes as a deep blush rose to my cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” I shouted behind my back, hoping he heard how sincere I was being.

All I heard back was a grunt, and the sound of footsteps walking further away from me.

I turned around hastily, and watched as he went over to his bag to toss the shirt in and grab a water bottle.

He then proceeded to walk over to the empty field we’d just ran laps around.

“Coming?” He called out mockingly.

I bit my tongue back from retorting anything and followed obediently. Once we were situated on the field, he turned to me and began rattling off the instructions for this lesson, which was to do a bit of one on one combat fighting. Apparently, today we’d be fighting in human form since it’s a bit harder to take an opponent this way than our wolf form. I wanted to roll my eyes, this meant we’d be doing a lot of human combat fighting.

As if I needed more of a distraction. Looking at his abs while he fought against me was seriously not gonna help if I wanted to get better at human combat.

I shrugged my shoulders. Hey, this would give me an excuse to let all my anger out and beat him.

Smiling, I nodded and assumed the fighting stance.

A little taken aback by my sudden enthusiasm, Reece just nodded and mirrored me.

I assessed his form, and saw that he had an open spot on his right lower portion of his torso. Taking the chance, I tried an under hook punch using my left hand, but he blocked me with a quick extension of his hand.

I tried again with my right hand to his left side, now that it was open, but he blocked me again with his hand.

Now, he had both my fists in his hands, so I tried swooping my hands out to the sides, hoping this extension would twist his arms the wrong way, forcing him to let go. Fortunately, this worked, and a smirk appeared on my face.

I took the stance again and raised my knee to his chest, pushing hard. He hardly shook, much to my disappointment, the smirk on my face slowly fading.

I tried another tactic, spinning around and doing a roundhouse kick to his face, but he dodged effortlessly.

This went on for the next hour: me punching and kicking him relentlessly, only for him to easily block them all without batting an eye.

Exasperated and exhausted, I held up my hands in surrender and backed away from him.

Putting my hands akimbo, I walked around, breathing deeply. No matter how hard I worked to beat him, it just left me tired and no closer to winning.

“Clearly you need to work more on your choice of moves. Oh, and the strength too,” I heard him chuckle out, walking away from me and back to his gym bag.

“Wait!” I yelled after him. Jogging over to his side, I forced him to turn and look at me.

“What did I do wrong? My moves were good, well calculated, and precise. And my timing was accurate. Well okay, maybe the strength could use a bit of a boost, but hey, I’m a girl fighting an Alpha, okay? It wasn’t gonna be easy, so why the harsh criticism? I didn’t completely suck you know,” I retorted, crossing my arms in a huff.

“Well sorry to be blunt Cassandra, but I am your trainer. So I can say whatever the hell I want and you have to listen. I’m only doing this for your benefit, not mine. Besides, all those moves were obvious and the timing was subpar at best,” he answered back snidely, turning away from me and grabbing his bag. He tossed it over his shoulder and walked away.

All I could do was stand there completely dumbfounded. Tears blurred my vision and I wanted to scream at myself. Never in my life have I let myself be subjected to that kind of emotional backlash, except for that night. I vowed that I’d never let any man talk to me like trash. I just never expected my mate to be the first one after the incident that I let myself slip up on.

Normally, I wouldn’t react like this. For the last four years, I lived in New York for Christ’s sake! Telling someone to take a hike was said at least four times a day for me. But for my own mate to say that to me was low, especially in such a condescending tone.

I wiped away the stupid tears quickly, and clenched my fists. I couldn’t let myself stoop to his level. I couldn’t let him win.

Running over to my house, I slipped inside and grabbed my phone off the counter, texting Sage and Ellie. A night out was much needed right now.

They texted back quickly with agreements, and told me they’d meet me at my place at 5.

I looked over at the clock to see that it was 12. Starving, I ruffled through the fridge and grabbed everything I needed to make a sandwich.

As I ate the ingredients while making the sandwich, I listened for any sounds of Reece in the house. His scent was faint, but still there, so I assumed he was probably in his room. Using my werewolf hearing, I heard the sound of running water.

Looking down at my sandwich, I grumbled, cursing my hospitality, and grabbed two more slices of bread.

I grabbed both my plates and proceeded upstairs. Turning over to Reece’s room, I listened for the sound of running water, but was met with silence. Satisfied, I knocked the door and left the plate on the ground in front of it, and quickly slipped into my room.

Dropping my own plate down on my dresser, I grabbed my towel and headed in the shower to wash off the remnants of that training lesson: sweat, dirt, and hopefully, Reece’s touch.

********

I ran downstairs quickly, hearing the front door ring. Thankfully, both Sage and Ellie were at the door, and I grabbed them both and rushed back upstairs to my room. They obediently followed.

“Guys, help me choose something hot to wear,” I whined, standing in front of my closet.

“Why? Is your you-know-who gonna be there?” Ellie asked, whispering the “you-know-who” part and glancing at my door.

“No,” I grumbled, looking quickly at my door and back to her, with a ‘way to be obvious’ look on my face, “thank god. No, I just wanna look good tonight. Besides, maybe I’ll meet a few cute guys that’ll take my mind off him.”

I proceeded to spill all the details about our training session, making sure to be as quiet as possible.

“So are you guys in?” I asked them, after explaining that I wanted to cut loose from this mate stress and have some fun.

“Hell yeah!” Sage quipped, pumping a fist in the air. I could always count on her to be ready for a party.

“Of course!” Ellie joined in.

For the next two hours, we tried on outfits and did our makeup and hair. Satisfied with everything, we decided to head out.

Surprisingly, when we walked out of my room, the plate on the floor was gone. I could hear someone inside the room, so I walked as quietly as my heels would let me.

We all piled up in my car and sped off to town. It was time to forget Reece and have a little fun.

Chapter 7

 

 

 

I switched the gear into park and looked to my right. The bar was thumping music and hordes of wolves, males and females alike, were heading in and out.

“Are we ready to do this or what?” Sage interrupted my thoughts. She glanced at me from the passenger seat, sensing my hesitation.

I looked at Ellie sitting in the backseat, who was questioning me with curious eyes.

“Let’s go,” I prompted, stepping out of the car. Pulling my dress down slightly, I slammed the car door closed and locked it.

All three of us strode to the front of the bar, handing out IDs to the bouncers, before they promptly let us in.

I surveyed the room slowly when we got inside. The bar stood to the left, where the bartender was busy making drinks for a few people propped up on the barstools. The center of the room was filled to the brim with dancing people, holding their drinks up high. They sloshed slightly, spilling onto others, but people were too drunk to care. The music thumped loudly and the air was heavy with sticky heat, the smell of the alcohol mixed in wafting into my nose.

Although it wasn’t exactly the best scene, it made me feel exhilarated. I needed to unwind from the week I’ve been having with a certain mate of mine, and a night filled with intoxication would definitely help.

Heading over to the bar, I slipped into one of the barstools and ordered us a few drinks. Sage and I began talking, well yelling actually over the loud noise. Ellie seemed quiet for a while, greedily accepting her drink when the bartender handed it to her. She sat on the seat next to me, sipping her drink cautiously, avoiding my gaze.

“Ellie, what’s wrong?” I yelled into her ear.

“Nothing, why?” She answered back, but I could immediately tell that something was up.

“Don’t lie Ellie. You know you can’t hide a lie for your life,” I chuckled, bumping her slightly with my arm, “What’s up?”

She sighed, putting her drink down.

“I probably should’ve mentioned this earlier, but when you texted about going out tonight, it reminded me of something. Your brother told me that he was going out too, and he said that he might be bringing some friends along,” she hesitated, watching me cautiously.

I squinted at her, confused, till my gut told me this wasn’t going to be good.

“You don’t mean…”

“I’m just assuming, but it might be possible that-“

She was interrupted when something behind me caught her attention.

I turned around in my seat to see what she was looking at, and immediately wished I hadn’t.

My brother walked in, a few guys behind him. My breath caught in my throat. They were his old high school buddies.

My face grew hot, as I swiveled back around, trying to control my breathing.

I felt Sage pat my back soothingly, while Ellie held my hands, whispering calming words. I was able to calm down slightly, but I still felt quite jittery.

Relax, I prompted myself. Keep it together. I doubt they even remember you. That was over 6 years ago. You’ll be fine.

Ellie continued to calm me down, until she stopped talking all of a sudden, and muttered a quiet, “oh no.”

I looked back over to the bar’s entrance and saw Reece walk in, joined by two guys I knew too well. I groaned, as if this night wasn’t starting out as horribly as ever.

They were looking around the bar until they spotted me staring at them, and broke out into huge grins. Their grins only lasted for a second before their faces turned apologetic, looking away from me and at the guys Alex was talking with. They looked back over in my direction,