Amnesia - The Matlock Pack: Book One

Thursday 10 December

~*Nat’s POV*~

“Oof!”

Cody slammed into me, and I went flying, landing on my back in the middle of the mat.

“You’re really not on your game at all today, are you Nat?” Cody offered her hand to me to bring me to my feet.

“To be fair, my ankle is still not back to normal.” I brushed off my clothes and sighed. It was loads better than yesterday thanks to the water sports we had taken part in earlier in the day, but now and then it twinged. That Cody had targeted me on that side did not go unnoticed.

“Mum said it’ll be fine by tomorrow, so dancing at The Gap is going to be a-okay!”

“Cody…” I groaned. Dancing meant people looking. I was very much not a-okay with people looking at me. Why couldn’t she see that?

“No arguments! You and I have a date on the dance floor tomorrow night, missy.” Cody boogied her way across the mat, then set herself up in her usual ‘I’m ready for fighting’ stance.

“You’ve enjoyed your birthday today, yeah?”

“Of course,” said Cody. She beckoned me forward with her fists. I obliged.

“Then why do we have to go dancing tomorrow?” I threw a lacklustre punch at her midsection. My heart just wasn’t into going after her tonight.

“Because it’s my birthday today, and that’s my birthday wish.” She easily parried my punch away and sent a retaliatory thump my way.

“Couldn’t you just be like everyone else and wish for a pony or something?” I dodged out of the way, then brought a backhand across to meet her chin.

“I ask my parents every year for a unicorn that shits rainbows. They have yet to deliver.” She narrowly evaded my backhand and threw an uppercut at my jaw.

“Well, that’s just rude.” I spun away from her attack, throwing my uninjured leg out to see if I could sweep her legs. I wobbled a little on my injured ankle, but it seemed to hold up okay.

“I know! You’d think they would be able to get one down at the local pet store, but no, no, no.” She jumped my leg easily and athletically tumbled away from me.

“Maybe they’re waiting to gift one to you as a wedding present or something.” I trailed her as she shifted across the mat.

“They better not be. I want one now, damn it.” She stepped forward again, swinging a backhand at my midsection this time.

“I’ll talk to Auden on Saturday, see if I can convince her.” I blocked her backhand and went to elbow her in the chin. It seemed to work last time, may as well try it again.

“Oh, would you? I honestly think she tunes me out half the time.” She dodged my elbow this time. She tried a one-two-three sequence on my midsection again, with the third punch aimed at my breast.

“What?” I feigned deafness as I avoided the one-two but caught the three. “Shit, Cody. Watch the goods.” I rubbed my boob, and stepped back from her, indicating a time out.

“Don’t you start tuning me out.” She stepped back, relaxed her stance, and headed over to our drink-bottles. “Sorry about your tit, but it was right there asking for it. Taunting me.”

I glared at her, squatting down to grab my drink-bottle. “I’ll have you know my boobs don’t ‘taunt’.” Standing up again, I gave the item in question one last massage to ease the sting Cody’s punch had left me with before squirting water into my mouth.

“They may not taunt, but they’re certainly eye-catching and drool-worthy.” Bells dropped down next to the mat, with Murph following soon after. They both held their own drink-bottles in hand, Murph squirting water into his open mouth as he settled. “Especially when you manhandle them.”

“Don’t you start,” I said. I pointed my finger at him, but all he did was wink at me and laugh in response. “Don’t you ever tire of turning me into a lobster?” This was the closest I had come yet to bantering with him, but it still didn’t stop the blush I could already feel appearing on my cheeks, like it always did when he talked like that to me.

“Not in the slightest. It’s adorable how easily I can embarrass you.” He chuckled as he squirted more water into his mouth. I pursed my lips. I knew this wasn’t an argument I was going to win.

“So, Cody…” Murph started. I mouthed a silent ‘thank-you’ at him for the change of topic. He nodded at me. “What’s it like being eighteen?”

Cody collapsed onto the ground next to Murph, lying on her back. She threw her hands up in the air and created some sort of pseudo-shrug with them. “It feels remarkably like it did yesterday.” She let her hands drop to her stomach and let them rest there as she sighed.

Murph twisted as he turned to look at her. He realised how she was lying on the ground and shifted back to his original position. I could see the faintest pink blush appearing on his cheeks but realised that I was the only one who could see it, as Bells was still focused somewhere in the general vicinity of my chest. Murph looked up at me, widened his eyes at my raised eyebrow, then shook his head ever so slightly.

Huh.

I waved my hand in front of Bells’ eyes and snapped my fingers. “Eyes up here, buddy.” I pointed to my face, but softened the harshness of my words with a grin. Bells coughed and at least had the decency to look guilty that I had caught him staring.

“What? You were expecting some tremendous change?” I asked Cody. Bells turned his attention to Cody, but I could see that he was still trying to play catch up in the conversation.

“Kind of,” she replied. “I thought Roux would give me more information about my wolf status or something, but she’s been incredibly quiet today. I wasn’t expecting it. Normally she talks the hind leg of a donkey, but today… almost nothing.”

I raised both of my eyebrows. Cody thinks her wolf talks more than she does? Bloody hell. Roux must never shut up because Cody is a downright chatterbox.

“Don’t worry about it, Cody.” Bells had finally cottoned on to what the current conversation was. “Your first shift doesn’t happen until later this month on the full moon. Nothing will really change until then.”

Cody sighed. “Yeah, yeah. I know. But I thought…” she trailed off, as she bit her lip nervously.

“You thought what?” Bells asked.

“I don’t know,” she responded with another sigh. “I guess I figured that Roux would have explained more to me or something. But she’s been so quiet today. It’s weird.”

“Cody, are you nervous about your first shift?” Murph asked, half turning towards her.

She sat up. “A little. Everyone keeps telling me it’ll hurt like a motherfucker the first time, but that I’ll get used to it.” Her brows furrowed with concern. She brought her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, hugging her legs to her chest. “I guess it’s the fear of the unknown? Does that make sense?” She looked up at us all, resting her chin on her knees.

“Makes perfect sense,” Bells said as he leaned back on his hands, stretching his legs out in front of him. “I was the same way, but at least I had Tatum to go through it with. Having him there helped a lot.”

“Your folks were there too, yeah?” Cody asked, still nervous.

“Yup.” Bells nodded. “So were your mum and Takeshi. They’ll be there for yours to help you through it. You’ll be fine.”

Cody still looked incredibly worried, but she nodded slowly. “It hurts, doesn’t it?” she asked quietly.

Murph looked at her properly and put his hand on her back comfortingly. “It definitely doesn’t tickle the first time, but it does get easier every shift thereafter,” he murmured to her, his palm rubbing circles on her back.

She let out a deep sigh. “I wish they’d let us take painkillers for the first time. So annoying.”

“I asked about that,” Bells said. “Apparently, the ingredients impede the shift process. Something to do with slowing it down and making it worse?” He shrugged.

“Ugh.” Cody’s eyes widened at the thought. “Yeah, definitely don’t want to do that then.” She shivered.

“I can help if you want me to, Cody,” I said. “Not that I know how I could help, but I could be there for moral support.”

She looked up at me with a grin. “Returning the favour, huh?”

I laughed and shrugged. “Someone’s gotta keep you out of trouble.”

Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears, but she continued smiling at me. “Hey! That’s my line.” Her voice held her typical joking manner, but her eyes told a different story. She truly did want me there to help.

She must be even more nervous than she’d let on.

Grinning back at her, I continued the charade. “I only learn from the best.” I winked at her, making her laugh.

“Want to get back to it?” I asked, tilting my head at the mats.

“Sure!” Cody was quick to take advantage of the change of topic. She jumped up and offered her hand to Murph to get him to his feet. I offered my own to Bells.

Both men gratefully took our hands, and we hauled them up from their seated positions. Murph got up easily, but Bells must have lost his balance or misjudged his trajectory because he barrelled into me, making me stumble backwards. He easily caught me before I fell over, wrapping his right arm around my waist and drawing me into him.

My hands drifted up his upper arms and rested there as my wide eyes took him in. My mouth made an ‘O’ shape, my breath catching in my throat at how close he held me.

“Sorry about that,” he murmured. “You took me off guard…” His eyes darkened, eyelids drooping, as he returned my unflinching gaze. His hand drifted from around my waist to brush against my backside, before coming to rest at the point where my thigh met my cheek. Squeezing ever so slightly, he grinned at the gasp that escaped my lips.

He pulled me closer until I was pressed right against him. I felt myself heat, my face flushing as it always did, but this time, the heat also travelled south.

Oh… this was new. And I liked it.

I liked it a lot.

The tighter he pulled me to him, the more I could feel him. The same bulge that I had felt only a few days prior at the archery field when he held me from behind was now pressing into me from the front. And boy, oh boy, was there a lot to feel. My insides felt like molten lava; all the warmth headed in one direction, coalescing into a maelstrom of desire deep within me.

Bells leaned forward and held his mouth against my ear. “See what you do to me?” he breathed. I shuddered against him. “Every time I’m near you, this…” he trailed off as he gently thrust his firm cock against me so I couldn’t ignore what he was talking about, “… is how you make me feel.”

Closing my eyes, I leaned my head against his, letting out a soft sigh that only he could hear. He squeezed my behind one last time before releasing me. I swayed slightly as I felt him take a step back from me, the cool afternoon air like pinpricks on my now heated skin. Opening my eyes, I watched as he grinned at me, gave me a wink, then turned to Murph, who was lost in conversation with Cody.

Bells coughed to grab Murph’s attention, then tilted his head at their mat. They both slowly wandered back, chatting quietly between themselves. I watched Bells walk away, taking several deep breaths to settle my nerves. It helped that the view I had was delectable.

Once I calmed down, I joined Cody on our mat to see that she was already bouncing up and down on the spot, ready to go. I planted my feet opposite her and motioned for her to start.

She immediately flew at me, wasting no time at all in trying to use my stomach as a punching bag. I sidestepped her flying fists and tried a sweep to see if that would slow her down.

She jumped over my leg, cartwheeling in an attempt to hit my jaw with her foot. I lurched back to avoid it, then barrelled into her when she was trying to regain her stance, not letting her recover. We both went flying towards the mat, Cody landing first underneath me with an audible “oomph”.

That didn’t stop her from throwing her arms around me and wrestling me from where I had landed. I could feel her legs bracing against the mat, as she threw everything she had at trying to get me to roll over so she could reverse our positions.

I struggled to get out of her grip, but she had me held fast. She had pinned my arms to my side. The only leverage I had was my legs, so I tried to bring my knees up to get some way of getting off her.

She held onto me like her life depended on it, lifting herself up with me, when I was able to slowly rise to my knees.

Hmm… Think Nat. How can I get out of this grip she has me in? There’s got to be a way…

An idea flashed through my mind, but did I dare try it? Takeshi told me the other day to use both offensive and defensive moves. Maybe it could work, but Cody was not going to be happy.

I widened my knees on the mat to brace myself as well as I could, then used my thighs to jump up and fling myself forward to wind her when I landed on her again.

My idea worked a little as Cody’s grip loosened slightly, but not enough to let go of me entirely, so I planted my hands on either side of her…

… and proceeded to headbutt her.

Just like the last time I had hit her, I heard an audible crack before her head flung back towards the mat. Blood streamed down her face, and she immediately brought a hand to her nose.

“Oh God, Cody! I’m so sorry!” I jumped up in a panic, not knowing what to do. I honestly hadn’t meant to hit her that hard.

To my utter astonishment, she started to laugh. “Damn Nat. That was a good one! You’ll have to show me how you did it.” She pinched the bridge of her nose to stem the blood flow.

My eyes widened. “You’re not mad?”

“Of course not. Why would I be?”

“Because I just broke your face!”

“This?” She waved her free hand to her nose. “This is nothing. I’ve been hit in the face with a volleyball harder than this. It’ll stop bleeding soon enough.” She lifted the hem of her shirt to wipe the blood from her face.

I turned around on the spot, wondering whether I should get Bells, Murph, Takeshi, basically anyone, to help.

“Relax, Nat. It’s fine.”

I stopped my spinning and focused on her.

Cody was still sitting on the mat, but now she had crossed her legs, giggling to herself as I heard another crack as she re-set her own nose. I flinched at the noise but could see that the flow of blood pouring from her nose was now slowing. She kept her pinch grip on the bridge of her nose, however.

“I feel like I should still get someone,” I muttered to her. She waved me off.

“Honestly, Nat, don’t worry about it. It’s nothing.”

I looked around again, but this time I focused on my immediate surroundings. Once again, we seemed to have drawn several spectators. Bells and Murph had stopped their own sparring and were watching us, chatting away to each other. Neither looked at all concerned that Cody had been harmed, more simply interested in their discussion as they replayed our spar with their hands.

Two other men stood off to the side, unobtrusively watching us both from a distance. I didn’t recognise either of them, but just like Murph and Bells, neither of them looked too worried about Cody’s injury. In fact, the shorter and stockier of the two turned his back to us and faced his colleague with his hands on his hips. He shrugged his shoulders and was saying something to his friend, who shook his head. He didn’t take his eyes off us at all as he responded to his colleague.

I tilted my head in curiosity at the pair of them. I narrowed my eyes as I contemplated what to do. They didn’t look menacing at all, just intrigued, though by what, I had no idea.

I took a step towards them, and the man that was focused on us shifted his gaze from Cody to me. He widened his eyes at the way I was looking at him, said something to his colleague, before he turned away from us and they both walked away.

I contemplated going after them, but decided against it. I turned back to Cody to see that she had managed to stop the bleeding entirely and had finished using her t-shirt hem to wipe the blood from her nose. She got up and joined me as I stood on the mat with my hands on my hips.

“What’s up, Nat?” She looked in the direction that I had focused on. “Who are they?”

“No idea.”

“Tall one’s cute.”

“You think?”

“Yeah. He’s got that rugged mountain man look going for him.”

“Hmm.” My eyes followed them as they walked across the field towards the forest. I shrugged, then swivelled back to face Cody. “Are you sure that you’re okay?”

“Never better. Ready for me to knock you on your arse this time?”

I rolled my eyes at her. “Bring it on, kid.”