Revolting

Luna... Nina... stop, what are you doing?" Daisy rang her hands nervously as I laced up my sneakers. I was dressed in a pair of leggings and a loose fitting t-shirt.

"What does it look like I'm doing. Training starts at 10:45 am." I double checked the schedule on my phone.

"You can't, your legs..." Daisy flushed and pulled at her curls in frustration. "You will get hurt."

I double knotted my laces and stood up. "Then let me get hurt. I am the Luna, I can not be weak." I looked at myself in the mirror. My legs looked so normal to the naked eye. There was nothing to see that would indicate the pain or the weakness... it was all hidden on the inside. Until one or the other buckled and I face-planted in the floor. Or in the grass. Or in the gravel of the driveway. I sighed, "Don't worry, Daisy. I can handle it."

I hobbled down to the training grounds with my water bottle. I tried to hide my uneven gait on the way, but I knew that I was fighting a losing battle. Sooner or later, everyone was going to know. But so be it. I lifted my chin and approached the group that was stretching in the grass. Shane stood over them like a coach, holding a clipboard. He looked pleased when he saw me. "Luna," he inclined his head in a polite greeting. "Everyone limber up, then its five laps."

I gulped. I had imagined training would be all hand-to-hand combat. I hadn't thought about the aerobic conditioning. But it was what it was, right? I sat down in the grass and tried to stretch, but that is kind of a joke. My left hip was stuck in its joint and wouldn't budge. My hamstrings were too tight to bend forward. Reaching my toes? Yeah right. I watched the others with the bitter taste of envy in my mouth as they leaned and stretch gracefully while I struggled. When stretching was over I fumbled awkwardly to my feet. All the time I felt Shane's eyes on me, but I refused to look at him. I didn't want him looking down his nose at the unfit, graceless Luna. I didn't want to look at his eyes and see him laughing at me or pitying me. The others picked up a steady jog, and I fell in behind them... much much slower.

Jogging. Oh my god, the amount of mental focus it took to jog, to keep my feet under me, to keep my balance. I gritted my teeth together, trying to bite my way through the pain of every jarring footfall. By the time I had made one lap of the training field, the others had lapped me three times. "Luna!" Shane called as I was about to push my way through a second lap. "One is enough for you, for today." I was humiliated, but I had signed myself up for this embarrassment. I wiped the sweat off my upper lip and hobbled my way to the bench. Shane was staring at me with those intense dark eyes. He looked at my face, and then at my legs. "If you don't mind, Luna, may I check your hip?"

I sighed and sat on the bench. "It won't do any good, Shane. What is wrong with my legs can't be fixed."

"Perhaps not with your legs... but I might be able to release your hip. Will you allow me to try?"

I shrugged. "Okay."

"Lay on your side," he instructed, "With your left hip up."

Feeling a bit weird and uncomfortable, I stretched out on my side on the bench. His dark eyes went over my legs, and then he touched me. He kneaded at my hip, and just for a second, his eyes darted to mine in surprise. I wasn't sure what he was thinking, because he ducked his head immediately, and his dark hair fell back over his face. His strong fingers dug into my hip, massaging and feeling their way around the joint, until he came to a tendon that was rock-hard and immovable. "There it is," he murmured. He massaged the tendon gently, and followed it from my hip down toward my knee. "Do you feel how lumpy it is?" He asked as he ran his thumb down the tendon. "It should be soft and smooth." He alternated massaging the joint and then massaging that tendon until the other runners finished their laps. "Okay, see if that improved anything."

I stood slowly and tested the joint. His deeply probing fingers had made me sore, but it was a good kind of sore. When I tried to lift my leg out to the side, my range of motion was much better. Not perfect, but the hip was no longer completely frozen in place. "Its a tendonitis," Shane said quietly. "Probably a bursitis too. Your hip is over-compensating for the weakness in your legs." And with that he walked away from me, and went back to training.

Bad idea. Bad, bad bad idea, I thought as I dragged my aching body and quaking legs into the house. I prayed that no one would see me as I made my way to the back of the manor and nearly fell into the elevator. Shane might have spared me on running, but when it came to the martial arts portion and sparring, he was brutal. He had put his hands on his narrow hips and looked down at me from his great height and said, "You are a total novice. Haven't you ever trained before? You need to start from the beginning, like a pup." And so I had. Blocking. Punching. All different styles of punching. Closed fist, hammer fist, snake hands. The same movements over and over. "You have to create muscle memory," Shane had insisted, "Do it again." As a result, my arms now hurt almost as much as my legs. It was an embarrassing testimony to just how out of shape and unfit I was.

I went into my room and went straight to the bath tub for the only thing I knew would relieve my cramping legs - a soak in the hot bath. I added a few drops of peppermint oil until the whole bathroom smelled like a candy cane. I stripped out of my dirty, sweaty clothes and dropped them straight on the floor before I eased my aching body down in the tub. "Oh yes," I moaned as I sank into the water. I closed my eyes and let the wet heat work its magic on my legs. A hot bath, I thought, was better than sex any day.

I'm not sure at which point I had fallen asleep, but I nearly drowned myself when a masculine voice sing-songed, "Wakey wakey!"

I sputtered and tried to pull the shower curtain closed around the tub, but it was much too late. William was already sitting on the edge of the tub. "Oh my God William, don't you ever knock?"

"I did knock, actually."

"William, I'm naked."

He kicked my discarded clothes with his foot lazily. "I noticed. But don't worry, I'm not interested."

I sighed as I realized that I really wasn't that uncomfortable with William seeking me naked. In just a short time he had become like a brother to me. I relaxed back in the water, which was still warm. "You really should lock your doors though."

"It wouldn't do any good," I grumbled. "The only person I care to keep out has a key."

"Does he now? He must have gotten it from the maintenance crew. Its not like he would be normally walking around with keys to empty rooms." William's expression was dark. "I think, for the Luna's safety, she should install a deadbolt on the inside of the door."

"I think you are absolutely right. Would you be so kind as to contact maintenance for me and have that work order put in?" It was funny the two of us using these no-nonsense business voices while I was naked and he was perched on the side of my tub. Like it was perfectly normal to have a business meeting in the bathroom.

"How was training?" he asked seriously. "I can't believe you put yourself through that."

I groaned and considered drowning myself in the bathtub. "The best part is... I get to do it all over again tomorrow."

"You don't have to, you know." William said, his voice edged with concern. "You are the Luna, you absolutely CAN exempt yourself, and you have a legitimate medical reason to do so."

"I don't want to exempt myself," I said stubbornly. I couldn't exactly explain it, but I needed to prove to myself that I could do this, even if it was only for myself. Shane had been tough on me, but he had also been mindful of my limitations. He had never once looked at me like I was disabled and couldn't do it. That alone had given me some courage and confidence. Maybe I would have to modify. Maybe I would never be able to do a flying round-house kick. But I was determined to do what I could, with what I had. I used my toes to flip the drain open on the tub... only to find that I wasn't able to push myself up. "As long as you are here, dear brother-in-law, could you..."Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

William snorted and grabbed a towel, and then he unceremoniously grabbed me under my armpits and hauled me to my feet. I steadied myself on his arm as I stepped out. I wrapped the towel around my body and then sank back on to the closed toilet. "You are a stubborn thing, Madam Nina." William commented with a smile. I shrugged, unapologetic. If the Gold Mountain pack had wanted someone sweet and submissive, they should have actually taken some TIME to get to know me and my sisters. They would have picked my little sister Hannah. Hannah never said "no" to anyone. Maybe Nolan would have been better pleased with her, she was so beautiful and feminine. But if he handled her as roughly as he had me, he would have broken her, physically and emotionally... I couldn't imagine sweet Hannah having to endure what I had already put up with in just a few days time. I shook my head and dragged myself back to the closet. "Better stubborn than dead," I muttered.