***

I hammered the last few nails on Sam’s coffin, then could only sit back and stare at the four wooden boxes. A void filled my chest and it was all I could do to keep from tearing everything apart. With my friends dead, Two possibly compromised, and an unpredictable Hunter in my rooms, there was no peace.

I made my way through the twisted red rock halls to the training rooms. The rooms were empty. I picked up a pair of knives and attacked the first dummy with a smooth efficiency and mindless effort brought by years of practice. I had killed the ten dummies in the room so many times I was almost fond of the wood and cloth forms. I went to the next room and reviewed martial arts with the wooden practice posts. Sweat dripped from my skin and my heart pounded with each hit. My muscles flowed smoothly from one exercise to the next as I had done a million times. I lost myself in the motion. My healing shoulder and back throbbed, but it was a healing ache and I reveled in the pain that crowded the other thoughts from my mind.

“Vance?”

Traer’s voice eventually broke through the numb fog of battle exhaustion that chased away all thoughts but my pretend opponents. I gave him a weary smile and tossed the pair of sticks I had been using back in a pile.

Traer’s eyes tightened with concern. “What happened there?”

I glanced down at my chest and saw that the strain of practice made the bullet wound start bleeding again. My white shirt had a big red tell-tale circle along the front of my left shoulder. I met my friend’s eyes. “Just a scratch from the fight, that’s all.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “It should have started healing by now.” His expression said he suspected something different.

I held his eyes. “If I say it’s a scratch, it’s a scratch.”

He hesitated, then lowered his eyes to the ground and nodded. “Very well. We need to check the Hunter’s wounds and probably change the bandages.”

“Fine.”

He led the way from the room, my Alpha instincts more comfortable with following instead of having someone at my back. Even all the years we had lived together couldn't dampen the survival instincts.