You would think being a were has made it so seeing another human in the nude isn't that big a deal. In my home pack, the other foxes walked around in the nude all the time, either on their way to shift or just coming back from shifting. It was no big deal to see a nude couple walk by. I'm sure any outsiders looking in thought we were a nudist colony. But to have someone so close when they are unclothed, close enough to touch...it just set something off inside me. And to know it's Frost, the one I've come to loathe more than anything else. He's the last one I want to see in the nude. He only seems amused by my reaction though and that makes my skin crawl even more. He walks inside and seems content about something. I can smell traces of Claire and I wonder how she's been doing since the last time I saw her. I hope her injury healed up okay.

He tells me to close the door and after some deep glaring, I do finally close ti, but only after he has turned his back to walk into the next room, seemingly giving up on making me mind. He seems almost surprised that I would still defy him despite seeing what he did to Raven and Tetradore but really the more I see of his power, the more I feel only hatred for how he uses it. As we walk into the next room though, I am distracted by all the books on the shelves. There are just so many. I can't believe my eyes. I guess I figured he would have a dark smelly lair somewhere or something but I never expected there to be books. At his comment though I scowl and glare at him again. "And why's that? Am I too stupid to read them?" I feel offended by the comment, my hunger for knowledge something I've always been confident about but his comment cuts me like making a tree into a stump.

I know he is trying to get under my skin and it irks me that it's working. He could probably say I look nice and I would still be continually irritated by it because it's him saying it. He just has that effect on me. I know he's still trying to break me but instead only the opposite seems to be happening. For every barb he throws at me, my anger starts to overwhelm my fear and only makes me want to seek vengeance for what he's done to my friends. I don't know why he still insists on me coming with him and being in his pack but maybe I'll figure out what he wants from me soon enough. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right? Am I just entertainment to him? I can't possibly be a weapon or something like that. I don't even know how to fight, not completely anyway. Raven never finished my training. I move toward him and I think I manage to surprise him again when I shift to sit on his lap. Believe me, it's the last thing I really want to do but I'm so tired of him getting under my skin. I know he hates to be touched as he proved on the docks in front of the ark. I want to get under his skin too.

His question has a flicker of triumph in my eyes because I can tell he's suspicious and off put by my gesture as I touch his leg. I try to make my voice as nonchalant as possible. "Healing your leg. Now shut up and let me work." I say in a soft but irritated voice. I'm glad that he doesn't try to touch me for that would surely break the weak spell of confidence I'm feeling right now to do this. I would probably jump from my seat and probably fall on the floor or something as ungraceful. But I catch his simper in my peripheral vision and my body tenses automatically, knowing that if he's pleased about something then it's not right. His words make me cringe inwardly, especially his use of the name Baby. "I'm only going to finish healing your leg if you can stop talking for two seconds." I say through gritted teeth in my ploy to keep from shaking at the thought of what he might be planning to do next.

The moment I feel the warmth slide up my side though, I leap to my feet and stumble away from him, my mouth agape as I stare at him in shock and horror. "How dare you!" I yell in anger as I swipe at my side like shooing away a fly. I feel the heat in my cheeks before it moves back down and I gasp at the sensation, hating that a small part of me finds the heat almost pleasant. But I won't let any of that show. I do note that when I turn on him to tell him he's wrong, he cringes away from me, the first time I've been able to get a reaction out of him anywhere near as badly as the reactions he seems ready to get out of me all the time. He did it as a stallion at my touch but now he does it at words. I feel a flicker of triumph at this. As I go on about how wrong he is though he seems almost bored and I feel the flames of triumph burning low. I turn to the book before turning back and he shrugs as if he could care less, my arms shaking a little in anger. He glances down at his leg as if to make sure I did my job right but I might have stopped before it was completely healed after that whole heat thing he did. I don't care though; I'm not finishing now.

I scowl at his words as he calls Raven a burden. I don't think Tetradore would see it that way. He really seems to care about his pack at least. He seems okay with me saying he only cares about himself, trying to make it sound like it's more complex like that but at least it makes it seem like he has no weaknesses to other opponents. My brows furrow. His last words do manage to draw my curiosity though. I cross my arms. "What power? My ability to heal cuts and scrapes? My ability to shield myself when I feel weak? Or the one where I can run away like a coward without you hearing me? I don't have power...not real power anyway." I say the last words almost as a confession, the fire dulling in me as my shoulders slouch a little in defeat. I don't feel powerful at all. He speaks again and I cringe again. "You don't know what you're talking about." I say softly as I turn my back to him.

I hear him stand behind me and walk toward me and I tense again, unsure. Then I see him reach his hand over my shoulder and I recoil some instinctively, watching him grab the book. As he offers it to me, I stare at him and then the book until he speaks. Slowly he explains and I start to connect it to what he said earlier about me not being able to read the others. My brows furrow in suspicion but slowly I reach out to take the book. "Oh." Is all I can think of to say. But as I grab the book, he holds on just a minute longer so that I have to look at him again, my eyes wary. His words only make me harden again and I snatch the book and step back. "You can threaten all you like but you pretty much destroyed all that in one day so you should be proud of yourself. Raven and Tobias WAS all I had. Congratulations, you already made them hate me. Raven thinks I'm a traitor and Tobias shot a bolt at me. I'm pretty sure that counts as loathing."

His smirk only makes me wish I did have a power that could hurt him, something, anything. I'd even take a paper cut with the book I just snatched, if only to see a flicker of the pain I saw in Raven's eyes earlier in his own now. I turn my back on him again, holding the book close to my chest as I walk quickly away from him, heading to any other room but where he is so I can curl up and cry somewhere quiet so no one can find me. Only once I've quieted down and can't cry anymore do I curl up and shift, using my tail to wipe at my wet eyes before I fall into a deep exhausted sleep.

alexis wilde