Page 80 of Wolf's Whisper

"Oi!" The redhead aimed her spoon at my mate and threw her hair over her shoulder. "You teach her then!"

Catching the utensil midair, Ashleigh turned to me. "I would, if I remembered."

"Isn't it enough for me to have it? I can keep it away from Aspen?"

"No. I can still feel wisps of the magic. The tendrils are beckoning for me. My wolf wants it," Aspen weighed in, staring longingly at my chest. I hoped it was because of the necklace, but then again, you never knew with men.

"I remember some of the exercises my uncle did with me," Darren chimed in, cracking his fingers one by one. "I could try them with you? We'd need some peace and quiet for it, though."

I glanced at Ashleigh, unsure if she was okay with me spending time alone with Darren. I wondered why. It's not like I'd do anything wrong. But after my altercation with Aspen, I didn't want to mess anything up. "That alright?"

She tilted her head to the side. "Of course."

"I'm done with breakfast. We can start right now?"

"We'll break camp while you do," Regan suggested, the rest nodding in agreement.

"You sure you don't want me to help with the tents?"

Danny waved dismissively. "No, we got it. You go unlock your magic, that's more important."

"Back to the waterfall?" Darren proposed, making me nod enthusiastically. The water wasn't to blame for me jumping on Aspen, I'd love to see the waterfall again. And that place felt more magically charged than anywhere I'd been before. This seemed like the perfect place to unlock my wolf. Yes, I was ready for some action.

Except that there was no action. Back down in the valley, Darren made me sit in strange positions and kept saying weird things about my breathing. Somehow, none of his instructions made any sense.

"How can I breathe in, and both arch my back and flatten my stomach? That makes no sense?" I groaned, annoyed at his vague way of explaining things.

"You just, you know. Push your back out, and then you suck in your stomach. And then you breathe. It's not hard."

"Like this?" I asked, sucking my stomach in and pushing my behind in the air.

"You're not breathing."

I took a deep breathe, praying Darren would finally deem my downward dog acceptable, but all he said was: "You're forgot to keep your stomach flexed."

I screamed and let myself fall down on the ground. "That really doesn't help. I can't do that at the same time. Your exercises aren't working."

He pouted. "But I need you to relax and be in control of your breathing for the next step."

"The only reasons I'm stressed is cause I can't get your stupid poses right!" I yelled in frustration, ready to pull the hair from my head. This was going nowhere. What a waste of time. Downward dog? If he kept giving me vague instructions like this, there would be no downward dog. Instead, I'd show him outraged wolf. I imagined that would involve moves like me biting his arm and kicking his leg.

No, that's not nice, Akira. He was trying to help me after all.

I took a deep gulp of air and tried to push my irritation down. "Can we just move on to the next phase? Please?"

He scratched the side of his face. "Ummm... I don't know the next phase. This is all I can remember."

I clenched my jaw, refusing to let angry words come out. "Perhaps this isn't working after all."

He sighed. "Maybe not."

I stood up to stretch my limbs and tried not to feel too disappointed. After all, he had warned me that it might not work the first time around. Maybe if I tried again on my own later, it might turn out differently.

Back at the broken campsite, everyone looked expectantly at me. With a sigh, I shook my head and watched all their faces fall.

"No luck?"

"Nope..."

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