Amnesia - The Matlock Pack: Book One

Tuesday 8 December

~*Nat’s POV*~

“What the fuck, Cody? Seriously...?”

I looked at my best friend like she was insane. Maybe she was. All the evidence I’d seen so far in the short time I’d known her, pointed me in the direction that she was clearly unpredictable in practically every way, but nothing had quite prepared me for the reality that she was actively looking for someone to beat her until right this moment.

“Nat, this could be the key to unlocking your memory!” She bounced up and down on the spot, her hands flying around the air excitedly. “And all you need to do is to just hit me.”

“Cody, I don’t want to hit you.”

“Oh, that’s bullshit. You’ve been saying to me every morning for the past week that you want to rip my arms off and beat me to death with them. Now, here’s your chance!” She danced from side to side. “Give it your best shot.”

I growled at her. “You’re infuriating, you know that?”

“I know, I know. Now come on. Hit me.” She brought her hands up in front of her. “Or don’t you think you’ll be able to touch me again?” Her eyes sparkled as she taunted me.

I narrowed my eyes at her. If she really wanted to do this, I was going to make her come to me. There was no way she was going to get me to make the first move.

Nevertheless, I widened my stance and planted my feet. I brought my hands up in front of me and curled them into fists. “I know I can hit you again, Cody. Don’t blame me later when you’re covered in bruises.” I motioned with my fists, urging her forward.

Her ever-present grin widened at me. She looked energised, even with the red mark now sprouting on her chin from where I had knocked her flat on her back earlier. It was almost like she was thriving off the combat and the taunts.

Still skipping from one foot to the other, she advanced on me. I watched her entire body, focusing on where she was placing her feet, the setting of her shoulders, what her eyes were concentrating on. Every little thing she did told me all I needed to know about her intentions, so I could avoid any attempt she made at hitting me.

Vaguely, I was reminded of the volleyball game that we had played yesterday. I realised now that I was utilising the same procedures I had in the match then, predicting where the ball was going to land, how each of my competitors had moved, where their focus was at any given point in time. Doing that had made me predict where the ball was headed. The same thing was happening now, except this time, the ball was Cody.

Her fists were in free flow now, coming at me much faster than she had done in our previous session. She was using her height to get below my blocks, but I was finding it easy to predict her next move, which negated any benefit.

Cody kept ramping up her speed until it seemed she had finally plateaued. I figured that if I could keep her at this speed, she would eventually tire herself out. The trick was going to be how to make her continue at this pace.

Pleasingly, I noticed that this time Cody’s attacks hadn’t pushed me back. I had moved around Cody, but she hadn’t been able to shift me back at all. I watched her frown, trying to figure out how to get me to move. She was getting frustrated.

Deciding to take a chance, I took a step forward, and instead of blocking her fists like I had previously, I grabbed one, stopping it in mid-air. Cody gasped as she was now locked in place, unable to move her arm forward or back, which severely impacted the rest of her body from moving.

I held onto her fist and, without twisting her arm in any way, I used sheer strength to push her back a step. She had no choice but to co-operate, even though she tried to plant her feet. Her free hand clawed at my arm, but I swatted it away with my own free hand.

Seeing no other option, she dropped her full weight, intending to bring me down to the mat with her. As soon as I realised what she intended to do, I let her fist go, but it was too late for her to recover from her drop. She landed on the mat, backside first, to roll herself away from me to get clear, but I followed her down.

I gripped both of her shoulders, pushing her off balance, forcing her backwards. I brought my knees down on either side of her as she fell fully onto the mat, placing my entire weight on her stomach. She tried to buck me off, but I was too heavy for her to move. Releasing her shoulder, I shifted my right forearm and placed it across her neck, leaning more weight down every time she tried to move from underneath me.

Eventually, she got the message, and her squirming stopped. She tapped the mat a couple of times to let me know that she’d had enough. I immediately released my grip on her neck and rolled off her. I laid on my back, stared into the sky, and shook my head. That hadn’t quite gone the way I had wanted. I very much hoped that I hadn’t hurt Cody. I didn’t think I’d be able to forgive myself if I had.

“Well done, Nat.”

Takeshi clapped, dragging my attention from the sky to see him standing at the edge of the mat with Bells and Murph. All three looked shocked, but extraordinarily happy.

Spence, however, was standing behind Takeshi with a scowl on his face. He looked the very opposite of happy. Kadin stood next to him looking just as angry as her uncle, her hands on her hips and a menacing, narrowed look plastered on her face. Her two lackeys from yesterday, Briar and Rowan, were behind Kadin, whispering to each other and shaking their heads, suspicion dripping from their every pore.

Wonderful.

I sighed, returning my gaze to the sky for a moment before getting up. I offered a hand to Cody, who was still lying on her back, trying to catch her breath. It seemed that I had, in fact, tired her out, just as I had planned on doing. After a second or two, she grabbed my extended hand, and I pulled her up. Once on her feet, she leaned forward to get more air into her lungs.

“Cody? Are you okay?” I gently patted her back as she panted.

She waved me away with one hand, the other attached to her knee to stop her from keeling over entirely. “Yup…” she wheezed. “All…” She paused. “Good.” Another deep breath in. “Just need…” She coughed. “A sec…”

“Let’s get you over to the bench, yeah?” I nudged her slumped form forward to the nearest seat.

She nodded, then gratefully dropped onto the bench, her breathing slowly evening out. I sat next to her, still lightly rubbing circles on her back to ease her discomfort.

“That was amazing, Nat.” Bells stood in front of us both, still beaming with what looked like pride. “Do you remember how you know those moves?”

I shook my head. Takeshi and Murph now stood behind Bells, still both sporting wide smiles. Spence, Kadin, and the others had drifted away, thank goodness.

“That was all instinctual?” Takeshi asked. “You seemed to focus more on defence over offense. Was that by choice?”

This time, I nodded. “Yeah. I didn’t want to hurt her.” My voice was quiet as I leaned into Cody and jostled her shoulder with mine. “But she’s too stubborn to take a hint.”

A strangled giggle sprang from Cody. “And you’re too stubborn to notice that I was trying to help you.” She looked up at me, pursing her lips. “In case you didn’t notice, it seems you’ve had just as much offense training as defence.”

I rolled my eyes at her. “That doesn’t prove squat, Cody. You tired yourself out; it had nothing to do with me.”

“Cody’s right, in a way, Nat.” Takeshi stepped around Bells and knelt in front of Cody and me. “You showed exceptional skill in defending yourself against her, as well as the small amount of offensive moves that I saw.”

Cody laughed. “See?” She looked pointedly at me. I simply shook my head at her.

“But Nat’s right too, Cody.” He turned his attention to her. “You got frustrated and let Nat take advantage of that. You need to be aware of how much energy you spend when you’re on the attack.”

Cody let out a deep sigh. “Yeah, yeah. Okay.” She threw her hands up in the air in defeat.

Takeshi shifted his focus back to me. “I want you to sit out the rest of the night with Cody and watch how everyone else fights. Study how they balance defence with offense. You focused too much on defending yourself against Cody and didn’t put enough importance on using the occasional offensive move to get her off-balance. Fighting is just as much about pushing back your enemy as it is about defending yourself from them.”

I nodded. What he was saying made complete sense. I just didn’t know if I had enough courage to do that to my friends.

“We’re about ready to get everyone to shift into their wolf forms,” Takeshi said to us. He turned on his heel to face Bells and Murph. “I know you’re both of age, but do you mind showing Nat and Cody what I was talking about in human form? Give them a sense of what they can do in the next session?”

Murph and Bells looked at each other and shrugged.

“Sure, Takeshi,” said Murph, just as Bells said, “No problems.”

“Thanks guys.” Takeshi rose from his crouched position and went to stand in the middle of the mats. “Alright everyone, that’s it for now for human fighting. For those of you who are of age and able to shift, I want you to shift and wait for Spence to instruct you further. For those of you who haven’t turned eighteen yet, follow me over here and we’ll continue with the human sparring.” He motioned to the several mats that were closest to us.

Murph and Bells wandered back to their mat, chatting to themselves rather animatedly as they went.

Only two of the campers followed Takeshi over to join Bells and Murph. The rest remained with Spence and stripped down. I turned my head, but not in time to stop myself from being almost blinded by the glowing light of multiple wolves all shifting at the same time.

As my eyes cleared, I focused on the two campers that had joined us at the side, but I hadn’t been introduced to either of them. I turned my attention to Bells and Murph instead, silently revelling in the fact that I had been invited to watch Bells and there was not one thing Kadin could do about it.

Bells must have somehow heard my happy thoughts because he and Murph both stopped at the side of their mat and removed their shirts, still chatting away.

“Gah…” It was my turn to let out a slightly strangled gasp as Bells’ chiselled back muscles were now on full display to Cody and me.

Cody let out a chuckle, just like she always did when Bells struck me dumb. I nudged her with my elbow to get her to quieten down, which just made her giggle louder.

Although Murph had already balled up his shirt and tossed it to the side of the mat, Bells still had his shirt in his hands. He’d balled it up and was holding it in front of him when he twisted to see what we were both laughing about. A huge gleaming smile erupted onto his face when he realised where my focus was. I felt the telltale signs of my traitorous blush bloom on my cheeks and quickly searched the ground in front of me to hide my embarrassment.

Not that that was going to make my feelings obvious. Of course not. I rolled my eyes at myself, at my folly.

Sounds of snarls began off to the left of us, where the wolf training had begun. I looked on as about a dozen huge wolves all watched one enormous dusky brown wolf face off against a smaller wolf that had rich chocolate colouring. They attacked each other in a flurry of movements, jaws snapping at each other as they attacked and retreated.

“That’s Scout and Shae,” Cody said quietly to me. I turned to her and raised an eyebrow to ask her to explain further. “Scout is Spence’s wolf; Shae is Kadin’s.”

“Oh…” I turned back to watch them both. Now that I knew who they were, I could match their colourings to their hair colour. “Why is Scout so much bigger than the others?”

“He’s the pack Beta. Takeshi’s wolf, Kairu, is the biggest wolf in our pack because he’s the pack Alpha.”

“Yikes…” My eyes widened, but I nodded in understanding. If Scout was any indication, Kairu must be the size of a mountain.

It looked like they were showing the other wolves what to do as they stopped and bobbed their heads up and down. All the other wolves turned to face each other and repeated what they had just seen. They were all rather hesitant, but were at least having a go.

I returned my focus to the gorgeous body of the Adonis in front of me, now wrestling with Murph. Obviously, I had missed the bulk of their sparring, because they were both now on the ground; Bells was under Murph, but was fighting hard to get out from under his grip. Murph had hold of Bells’ hands, but was struggling to keep them contained.

I watched closely as Bells was able to break Murph’s grip on one hand and used it to punch him in the stomach. Murph leaned forward to bring air back into his body, but Bells wasn’t giving up, bucking Murph off him, then flipping them both. Now Bells was on top of Murph; his knees on Murph’s arms, pinning him in place. Murph tried to buck Bells off him, but Bells leaned forward and brought his forearm to Murph’s neck, just as I had with Cody.

Two seconds later, Murph turned his head to the side and tapped out. Bells immediately got off him, offering a hand to help Murph up. Once they did, they came over to us. I couldn’t help but marvel at the way Bells’ muscles rippled as he walked our way. Yum.

“Thanks for the tip, Nat.” Bells dropped onto the bench next to me, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. Murph sat down next to him and adopted a similar pose.

I frowned in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“He’s never pulled that move on me before,” Murph huffed. “The forearm to the neck? That was all you. Bloody difficult to get out of.”

I raised an eyebrow at Bells to see him nod in acknowledgement.

Huh. I had to say that news surprised me. I figured I was the least knowledgeable of all the campers when it came to sparring, but it seemed I was mistaken.

“We’ve got another sparring session coming up on Thursday. Did you want to train together then?” Murph asked both Cody and me. “We could work with you guys on some offensive moves and then have a spar in the hour that followed.”

Bells watched me closely, with a twinkle in his eyes. Something told me he really wanted to spar with me.

A huge smile spread over my face as I agreed to the plan. What I wouldn’t do to spar with him too.