Glancing among the warriors training on a cleared field in the forest, I looked for Callum. I hadn't seen him since this morning when the chancellor pulled him away to talk. From the moment I saw the chancellor standing at the door, I knew something wasn't right.

And now that Callum hadn't even tried to contact me since class, I was worried.

What if something had happened to him? What if the chancellor found out about Professor Lee's and my little sexcapades in the classroom, in his office, and even in his bed? What if he had spent all day clearing his office because the chancellor fired him?

My stomach twisted and turned.

But then Callum would've come back to his pack, wouldn't he? He wasn't here.

"We're going to start with a run around the property," Milo said, gaze focused on me. Though he hadn't said merely a couple words to me after Callum marked me, Milo actually gave me a warm-ish smile—if I could even call it that—and nodded to the woods. "Try to keep up, pup."

The entire pack began at a quick pace, sprinting through the thick brush that surrounded Callum Lee's packhouse. My wolf stirred inside me, pushing me faster than even I expected, faster than I had even run before.

"Run faster than him," my wolf said through my mind.

I ignored her and kept a steady pace beside Jasmine and Levi, scanning the woods to check if Callum was here somewhere, watching us. Yet still, there was no sign of him. Jasmine told me not to worry about him, but how could I not?

He wore my mark.

Our mark.

He was mine now, as I was his.

And this whole wolf thing was screwing with my head. I had never once felt the strength of the connection that I had with Callum with anyone else in my life. Not my brother. Not my parents. Not even Adan when we were together.

It was surreal what being mated did to someone.

After our run around the property, I slowed to a jog once we made it to the field and placed my hands on my knees to try to catch my breath. Callum wasn't kidding when he said that this whole training thing would be hard.

We had barely even warmed up yet, and I was already dying.

"You know the drill," Milo said to the rest of the warriors, walking over to me. "Callum has given me orders to teach you how to fight, Bria. If you're going to be our luna and fight The Council, then you're going to know not only how to protect yourself, but how to kill."

Levi chuckled. "She already kills that dic—"

Jasmine punched Levi square in the jaw to shut him up and pulled him to the side. "I'll take care of Levi while you teach Bria, unless you need us to help you, Beta Milo."

"Go ahead," Milo said to her.

Once Jasmine dragged Levi to the corner of the training field where warriors were throwing, tossing, slamming into each other with their entire mights, Milo turned to me and nodded. "Callum said you're stronger than other humans-turned-wolves. Can you shift yet?"

Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I shook my head. "No."

"Why don't you try it?" he asked me, lowering down onto his hands and knees and expecting me to do the same.

Reluctantly, I knelt before him and placed my palms on the solid ground, mirroring his steps. When he slowly started to shift into his giant brown wolf, I watched in amazement. I had seen it before, but I didn't know how my body would ever do something like that.

"Shift," my wolf said, "now."

After taking a steady breath, I squeezed my eyes closed and tried hard to imagine myself turning into a wolf, my nose lengthening into a snout, my teeth growing into canines, my bones breaking and forming into longer, thicker ones of a wolf.

I spent five minutes desperately trying to shift to come up with nothing.

When Milo had enough of me screwing around, he stood and nodded for me to follow him. "It looks like you still need some work. Let's focus on getting you stronger and fighting in your human form. It will help you once you can shift."

Letting out a sigh of disappointment, I stood to my feet and stared up at him. "Okay." I glanced around again to check if Callum was back, but still nothing. My stomach twisted into knots. "Do you know when Callum will be back? I haven't spoken to him all day."

"He should be back shortly," Milo said. "Now, why don't we start with a fighting stance."

Scratching the back of my neck, I slowly got down into the best fighting stance I could muster. Truth was that I sucked at this, yet somehow my body seemed to react the way I needed it to when there was danger around.

Like it had when Callum and Adan were fighting ruthlessly with each other.

Like it had when Holden threatened me.

I hadn't thought. I reacted.

Milo took one look at me and chuckled. "Oh, Bria, this is going to be a long night."