Chapter 23

                                    

                                          
I'd found myself going to the gutted out building in the outskirts of town. It was the place Jared and I had found when we were new to town. It had been perfect for training, not much else other than that though. 
                          
We'd managed to get some equipment, or recycled pieces of trash that could be used as equipment. 
                          
I wrapped my hands in a gauze tape and punched at the foam wrapped pole in the center of the room. 
                          
I'd started training Jared in that room. We'd both healed, and he'd been adamant on learning how to defend himself. three weeks straight of nothing but training. I'd worked with him on hand to hand combat, what he should do if he found himself up against a hunter. He'd done fairly well. After those three weeks though, we hadn't done much in the way of training. 
                          
I wasn't sure why I'd come back. I had access to much better equipment at The Torch, but I just needed to be somewhere Jared and I had shared, other than the house. We'd only been there a few days before he left, but we'd practically lived in the gutted out room those three weeks. 
                          
I could see those three weeks playing over again, like a movie. Every kick I landed on the post in front of me as I taught him the proper technique. I saw him mirror what I did, landing a kick almost identical. 
                          
There was no doubt in my mind that he could handle a lone hunter. He knew the basics, and against one hunter, that was all he really needed to know with the werewolf abilities he had. 
                          
Sweat slid down my face, and I was hot and cold at the same time. My heart pounded in my chest and I stretched my arms above my head before resting them, folded, across the top of my head. I walked around the post in the center of the room, finding the grungy mat in one of the corners. We had worked there as well.
                          
It was where we had sparred. He'd been reluctant to actually fight against me, even though he fully knew I could take care of myself. 
                          
It was the first time I was feeling the full emotional weight of Jared being gone. How he hadn't been back once. Everywhere I looked was a reminder of him, and a reminder of how I'd messed up completely. 
                          
I'd done what I did for us. I knew he hadn't liked the idea, but I'd thought that what I was doing could really, truly help. Now there was nothing to help. He'd been gone four days. In a few hours it would be Monday, and I hadn't heard a word from him since he walked out that night.
                          
How could he just walk out like that and say nothing? How could he just completely drop me like that after everything? He'd taken a bullet for me, and I'd risked my life to save him. If we were supposedly meant to be together, then how could it have been so easy for him to just walk out like that without looking back?
                          
My hand lashed out, punching the wall. My fist went straight through the drywall and I retracted it quickly, yelling in pain, cradling the hand to my chest. Pain shot from my knuckles to my wrist and up my arm. 
                          
That hadn't been smart of me. 
                          
Gingerly, I unwrapped my hand, flinching at the pain still radiating throughout. 
                          
There were no cuts thanks to the gauze wrapping, but it was red from the impact. Most likely a sprain, possibly some fractured knuckles. I was likely to see bruising before the morning. Broken and damaged on the outside, just as I felt it within. 
                          
I wrapped my hand back up, tighter this time to keep everything still to counteract possible swelling and to stabilize the hand and wrist. 
                          
Calculating the distance between where I was and the house, I decided to run it. I hadn't run in a while, and it was about what I'd been used to running at home.