Caleb ran to her room, but there was no answer. He caught hold of her scent, following it until he was overlooking the training fields.

He smiled with appreciation as he remembered their sparring session the day before. Ashleigh was a skilled and determined fighter. It was no wonder she

had made it to the rank of berserker.

Caleb slowed his pace; he watched the fields trying to see where she was. He knew she wasn’t in a sparring room by how strong her scent was.

He saw his wolves in the weapons course, the basic training field was empty. The only other field in use was the obstacle course.

Deciding it might be fun to watch her, he went into the observation deck rather than out onto the field.

Ashleigh was running a simple course, a maze. It started easy, the only challenge was finding the way out. However, once she made it to the center of the maze, that was when the fun began.

She ran into the center, and he found himself practically pressed against the window watching as she made her next decision.

There were three paths open to her, all three led towards the exit, but each with their challenge.

The first would take her through a quick but difficult game of dodging projectiles across a jumping chasm.

The second led to a den of monsters, she would have to fight her way through twenty monsters of various skills and levels.

The third door would force her to swim across a body of water to the exit. But within the waters were aggressive monsters that would pull her under fast and deep.

He sat back down in his chair to watch as she made her choice when suddenly a thought struck him. Did she know how to swim?

Caleb was relieved when, after careful consideration, Ashleigh chose the first door._.

He was on the edge of his seat as he watched her evade the projectiles as she jumped from post to post. Once or twice, he stood up with a cheer when it looked like she might fall but instead landed safely.

“Come on baby, you got this… Yes!” he murmured to himself as she cleared yet another jump.

Ashleigh was three jumps away from completing the course. She jumped; just clearing a spear that flew at her, she landed hard on the next post.

She jumped a little too late when the next projectile came. It caught her foot, sending her crashing down. Her hands caught the edge of the final platform, struggling to hold on. She managed to pull herself up just as a missile exploded, the shockwave sent her flying back and down into the chasm.

“Damn it!” she shouted as she landed in the safety net.

Ashleigh cursed several more times as the net lowered her safely to the ground.

“That was pretty impressive,” Caleb said as he approached from the entrance of the field.

She felt her heart leap into her throat, she swallowed before answering.

“Failure isn’t very impressive to me,” she grumbled.

“Every failure is an opportunity to learn,” he replied with a smile that made her turn away quickly.

The field around them reset itself to basic grass and grey walls.

“This place is insane,” she commented as she watched the last of the maze walls retracting into the ground.

Caleb looked around the field, he was used to it, but to see it from her perspective, made him happy to see her so pleased.

He turned back to her as she was gathering her gear.

“So, Galen said you wanted to talk to me,” he said softly.

Ashleigh froze.

“Come on,” she thought to herself, “it’s not like you didn’t know this was going to happen. You literally asked for this.”

“Yea, we should talk about what happened,” she replied without turning around.

Caleb walked around her, she stared down at his shoes now.

“Maybe we could start with you telling me what happened?” he chuckled.

Her eyes sprang up, surprised by his question. Seeing the honest smile on his face made her turn away.

“Isn’t this the best option?” she asked herself. “If he doesn’t remember, do we need to tell him everything?”

“What do you remember?” she asked.

“Maybe we should talk about this somewhere else?” Caleb suggested looking around as a group was entering the field.

Ashleigh agreed when she saw the others.

They left the training field and agreed to meet at a different location once Ashleigh had taken a shower and changed. Caleb gave her some basic

directions to follow and told her he would meet her there.

***

About a mile away from the main campus of the Summer wolves, Ashleigh was wandering through a patch of forest.

“Where is he?” she asked out loud as she looked back towards the main campus, hoping she could spot him.

She had followed his directions of how to leave the campus without being noticed, she had walked in the direction he told her for a mile. This had to be

the spot, yet she didn’t see him anywhere.

“Hey.”

A whisper behind her ear was such a surprise she didn’t have a chance to think before she turned her body, knee aimed to connect with the body that had

snuck up behind her.

Caleb caught her movement and jumped back out of her reach. He laughed playfully when she caught herself and corrected her stance to face him.

“Not cool!” she shouted.

“It was pretty funny,” he laughed.

“Wouldn’t it be funny if I broke your rib,” she muttered.

“You’d have to land the hit to do that,” he said with a smirk.

Ashleigh sighed and then looked around.

“So, you wanted to meet here? Just in the middle of a patch of trees?” she asked.

Caleb smiled before grabbing her hand and pulling her towards him, she started to panic before she realized he wasn’t trying to hug her. He was leading her somewhere else.

They zigzagged between several trees, finally, they reached a patch of trees that were older than the rest of the trees around them. Caleb turned around and smiled at her as he spoke.

“When I was little, I used to hate how I was always surrounded by people everywhere I went. Tutors, bodyguards, more tutors, my dad’s groupies. The list goes on,” he laughed. “One day my mom surprised me with my secret hideaway. She didn’t even tell my dad about it.”

Ashleigh returned his smile, she understood what he meant. Being the child of an alpha always carried more responsibility than anyone realized.

“Mom told me that I could sneak off here anytime I needed. Of course, she’d installed a phone so she could always reach me if I needed to come back.”

He chuckled. “Still, it was my escape. My freedom.”

Ashleigh looked around at the trees. It was beautiful of course, but she didn’t see any structures, where was this place he was talking about?

“To this day, only my mother, myself, and Galen know about this place,” Caleb said before squeezed her hand and added, “and now you do too.”

Caleb stepped away from her to the elder tree closest to him, he ran his hand along the bark until she heard a clicking sound. Suddenly the bark separated, revealing a hidden door within the tree. She couldn’t help the excited laugh she let out.

“Oh, my Goddess!” she squealed.

“It’s cool, right? Go on up!” he told her as he moved out of the way.

Ashleigh walked into the tree; a ladder led straight up. She climbed until she reached a small hatch, pushing it open she stepped up into a large open room. There was a full-size bed, a door she assumed led to a bathroom, a desk with a rather impressive computer setup, a two-seat sofa, and a lounge chair. But the most impressive feature was a huge window that looked over a valley, the river, and the mountains in the distance.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Caleb asked as he closed the hatch.

“Breathtaking.” she replied softly.

She stepped closer to the window and realized that you could only see a small part of the main campus from here.

“But why can’t you see the campus? What if something is happening while you are here?” she asked.

“My mom built this for me to get away from my responsibilities, but also to remind me of the beauty of it,” he replied. “My father taught me to be cold, so the people of Summer could enjoy the warmth.”

“That’s a bit extreme,” Ashleigh replied as she looked over at Caleb, wondering what his life had been like.

“It was his motto, but my mom didn’t exactly agree with it,” Caleb smiled, “she said she knew I needed to be cold, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t have a place to warm up.”

Ashleigh watched the smile on his face as he spoke of his mother, she thought she would like to meet her.

“Of course, when I became Alpha, I installed all the monitors and alarms into my computer so if anything does happen, I will know immediately,” he laughed.

She joined him in his laugh, truthfully, she would have done the same. He looked out the window a bit longer, but she kept looking at him.

“Stop!” she shouted in her mind, immediately looking away.

Ashleigh stepped away from the window, he followed her and directed her to have a seat.

“So,” he finally said and Ashleigh knew she could procrastinate no longer. It was time to face her demons. “You were going to tell me what happened last night?”