"I'm gonna die if we stay here. I'm really gonna die. I'm not kiddi- Ow!" King yelped when Pandora suddenly pressed the ice pack on his busted cheek.
"Shut up," she said.
King pouted. "I did nothing wrong," he said, and silently mumbled gibberish afterward.
"Just getting food, huh?"
"I was!" King fought. A knot built into his throat, and he swallowed as Pandora's cold eyes glinted. He averted his gaze and went back to mumbling sorcery.
Pandora continued applying the cold compress on his cheek as she asked: "Who started?"
King's thought pulled between Gian and Vance. Well, Gian technically started first, but Vance was the one who poured oil into the fire. So who was it?
"It's you, isn't it?"
King gasped and stared at her in disbelief. "I told you, it's not fucking m-! Ow!"
"Mouth," Pandora threatened, digging the ice pack on his face.
King silently sobbed, remaining silent as he tried to contain the decimal left in Pandora's patience bar before she explodes, even though he knew he wasn't at any fault at all for the first time.
Pandora caught a glance at the time on the nightstand and finally called it a day. King blinked, head tilting to look up as she placed his hand on the ice pack and stood.
"Get some rest already," she said as she patted herself before walking towards the door. Halfway from stepping out of the room, Pandora looked back at King. "And please, don't make any trouble while you're sleeping, would you?"
King narrowed his eyes at the figure that had stepped out of his room, leaving him sitting on the carpeted floor, leaning in his bed in his own company around his large sleeping chamber. His brows knitted. He wanted to shout that he wouldn't get into trouble back at her, but he had doubts about it now. So he gulped, muffled a scream as he messed up his damp hair in annoyance instead.
Out of a sudden, he sneezed, followed by a chill that ran down his spine. King rubbed his nose, sniffing. "Ack. Now my nose is itchy," he said and thought that it must be because he still hadn't dried off his hair and was wetting the thin fabric that clothed him on this chilly night. Afterward, he rose and crawled into his bed, extinguishing all the tiring events into the back of his head without even bothering to close the lights.
---
The night expired, and King saw himself flying onto lalaland until his wings were pulled back, and he was choke slammed by a muscular smiling blonde-haired fairy(?) out from wonderland.
"-ing."
King moaned, thrown back into the dark realm between his dream and reality.
"Wake up," said the familiar voice.
King grumbled, weakly scratching his head and fluttering his night-glued eyes open as he forced his head to look at the other side and at the figure who was weakly shaking him awake. After he saw Bryce, he closed his eyes again, laid his head back, and pulled on his comforter.
"Whut?" King's word was smushed against the pillow.
"They're waking us up," Bryce sluggishly replied, still sleepy.
"... For what?"
"I don't know."
"Nn," was King's reply as his brain made it's' way back to sleep mode.
"King." Bryce softly shook him. "Wake up."
One missing response was all it took for Bryce to use the excuse to plop crosshatch on top of the free-falling King and get his fair share of beauty sleep. The two boys snored.
After what seemed like a blink of an eye, a loud slam jolted King awake this time. He looked at the door, narrowed his eyes as the devil welcomed himself in. He croaked, "Did you just break the d-"
"You..." Kain stopped in his tracks, eyes widening and lips pulling apart as he saw the dead log on top of King. Scandalous thoughts sprang into his mind.
King looked at him in confusion before he heard the loud snore that rumbled behind him. He snapped his head beside him, struggling to tilt his body due to the heavyweight that laid on top of him.
What the?
King kicked Bryce off of him, and he gasped, springing to sit up from the bed as his younger cousin fell out of bed and landed with a loud thud. He crawled to the end of the bed and looked worriedly at Bryce on the floor, who just groaned and scratched his stomach before snoring again.
Kain placed a hand on his waist. "Wake him up, and get to the combat area before 9:30," he ordered, glaring and snorting at King before he turned to leave.
King narrowed his eyes, confused, as the door slammed close. "... Where's Where's the combat area?" he lately reacted.
___
"What's happening?" Constantine whispered to King, though the latter shrugged, not knowing the answer as well.
King scratched his shoulder, narrowing his eyes against the glare of the sun. He stared to his left, seeing all the distinct looks on the faces of the enormous group of werecats who looked just around his age, and then glanced to the far left, where the own group of werewolves of the same generation lined up. Most of them looked rebellious, bronze-skinned, pierced with dark, hateful eyes that were thrown back at them.
Suddenly, his eyes popped, and he unconsciously straightened up when Kain and several other large-bulked, menacing, tattooed adults passed by. They headed to the front and took root in their spot.
Kain coldly stared at the bunch. "Now, you all might be wondering why you're here-"
"Just get to the point," King silently grumbled, already feeling his sweat coat his skin.
"-early in the morning, under the sun like grilling slabs of fats."
King scoffed, trying to think of a comeback but failed as his eyes slowly trailed Kain's physique, up from his biceps, down to the undeniably rock-hard abs visible under the top of the older man. King's nostrils flared. He crossed his arm, and he kept his displeasure to himself.
"And thank you to three little pigs last night, we'll be spending the month training together, building teamwork together," Kain gestured his hands at them and wasn't at all reassuring with that smile that showed he'll screw them all instead. "Sounds fun?"
There was a look of reluctance and intimidation on the youngsters" faces, and everyone held their tongue back from responding to the alpha.
"Well, guess what?" Kain dropped his smile. "Fuck to whoever thought yes, cause it fucking doesn't."
Kain moved out of his spot and slowly marched around them, causing stiffness at all those in his proximity. "We'll be training starting today. We'll work on your strength, your endurance, agility, and," Kain finger quoted, "teamwork. Now that we got everything clear, then fall in, you pathetic lots."
Low mutterings of objections and other sorts were heard, but everyone, however, still shuffled into a confused position, afraid of going against the man of the house.
"Ack, stingy bastard," Constantine spat as he and Donna made their way into the line.
"Are we supposed to be in here?" Bryce asked, looking around.
Where the hell is Pandora, King mentally sobbed. He looked around, having trouble and deciding whether he should say that they weren't really an official part of the pride to the werewolves, and maybe save their asses from all of this supposed training. He didn't have trouble with training. If ever, he was used to it. He just knew he would have trouble with the administration, where Kain was surely included. He had his fair share of bad supervising from work experience, and that was one thing he hated. Plus, they weren't even supposed to be here. Biting his lower lip and exhausting all the courage he could gather, he finally said:
"'Scuse me." King mentally cursed himself as Kain's eyes shifted to him. Lightly scratching his temple with a finger, he said, "Umm, w-we're not really an official member of the Tierra Madre."
Kain sauntered towards him, and another layer of saliva built its way into his throat. King stiffened when the werewolf stopped just in front of him. He pursed his lips, twitching now and then as he forced his rigid body to stand straight and steadfast in front of the intimidating man.
"... You're too close," King said, eyes stuck away from the man.
Where's the spider when he needed it?
"Oh, I'm too close?" Kain tilted his head, tone of mocking remark. "Am I scaring you, Mr. Stefan?
King snapped. "At least I'm not the one who's scared of a spide-."
The werecat gasped when his frail shirt got pulled by the man's tight grip in front of him.
"Listen here, punk. How 'bout we make a deal? If you make it throughout the whole month, then I'm handing you back your stuff. I'll even gladly pay for that car wreck," Kain spat. "So how 'bout that, can you do it, puss?"
King huffed a laugh. He firmly pushed Kain's hand away with the back of his forearm and refused to withdraw his hazel eyes apart from the other man's blue eyes. Excitement coursed into the alpha and an ardent grin locked onto one corner of his lips as King's eyes blazed with fiery.
"... Deal."