11 Chapter 11

Catherine was the last to walk in, the rest of the alphas following her as the woman stripped off her jacket and shifted while walking. Shera threw the last woman down at her feet, stopping Catherine from coming closer. "Didn't expect you to last this long," Catherine snickered. Shera was tired of the animosity. She wanted to give up and curl into a corner after everything that was said. The physical attacks she knew how to take, how to handle so many in succession, but the verbal wasn't necessary.

"Shut up and come at me," Shera ordered bluntly. Catherine snickered and jumped over the other woman who was struggling to catch her breath. Shera went to move, something binding her feet to the floor. Catherine collided with her as a human, the two rolling to the side as someone groaned from across the gym.

"I came for a nice little work out and there's blood on everything," a voice whined. Shera glanced over at a man in gym clothes, an irritated expression on his face. "Seriously, you guys are disgusting. What is this? One of those jello pool fights on a porn site? Or are you guys seriously getting off to girls fighting in here?"

"As vulgar as ever," Gerard snickered. "It's a right of passage Bernard."

"So who's going through the right," Bernard was a man with a lean build, short hair, and a sharp gaze of amber. His eyes landed on Shera and he choked on air, "Holy hell, you guys are idiots."

"Switch us back, witch," Catherine snapped, "We weren't finished."

"By the looks of it, you are almost half way, Catherine," Bernard drawled her name, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "And the girl looks so done. What? We're you throwing a tantrum again? Seriously, grow up." Shera stared at Catherine and Bernard before taking a breath.

Shera was from under Catherine, putting the woman in a headlock under her arm and squeezing. Bernard just watched quietly as Catherine struggled and then passed out, a snicker escaping him, "Who brought this one? She's like curry; spicy."

"I think that's enough," Gerard sighed. "Shera won't go through the men."

"If you're going to condone something, let it finish," Shera said. He stared and crossed his arms, a smirk on his face.

"Maybe tomorrow. You need to come eat. You haven't had anything since breakfast," he hummed. She dropped Catherine, walking past the platinum man without a word. What was she supposed to say? They hurt her feelings by calling her a mutt? By calling her a runt- or even, better yet, calling her a bitten bimbo?

It was silly she let it get to her. At least her own pack kept quiet about what they thought of her and only said anything when both parties were already angry. Gerard was quietly following and she would have seen the concern on his face if she turned around to speak. "Shera, the men don't want to fight, they have nothing for you to prove," Gerard stated.

"Cowards," she mumbled. Gerard grabbed her arm as they made it through the apartment door, shutting it behind him. She didn't bother to turn around as he just held her arm there.

"What's wrong," he asked.

"I'm fine," she pulled her arm away and started walking for her room. She stopped suddenly, looking back at him, "What did they have for you?"

"For starters? Nothing we didn't already know besides the numbers," Gerard sighed. He stared for a bit longer before pulling her closer, "You have to breath."

"I am breathing," she replied. He smirked and crushed her to his chest, kissing her forehead repeatedly. "Stop it!"

"No," he huffed. She slapped her hands over his mouth and glared up at him, blinking at the grin that reached his eyes. He knew she enjoyed it and she regretted the conversation they had. It was touching though; to know that he wanted to kiss her repeatedly on his own accord. She hated that her mood was lifted by that single fact.

"I'm fine," she muttered. "I just want to go to bed." He moved her hands and kissed her one last time on the nose, grinning at the disgruntled expression she wore.

"Then go to bed," he hummed. "We have a lot of work to do tomorrow morning anyways. And Bernard wanted to meet you, something about not getting an introduction worthy of his persona."

"Was that your witch," Shera asked.

"He's a bit eccentric but yes, that's him. He's good at what he does," Gerard nodded. Shera thought for a moment before blinking. Gerard has tightened his grip around her waist, his smirk mischievous.

"Let go of me you geek," she pushed his arms away, stepping back and sighing. "I wanted to meet him to. It wasn't really the best situation though since I was dealing with your prejudice females."

"Hey, they're not mine and it was going to happen sooner or later," he crossed his arms as she stared at him in disbelief. "What? It's normal in this pack."

"This is absolutely ridiculous," Shera cried. "I get that fighting is in lycan nature but Gerard, every day? How do you afford that? Why would you put up with that?"

"Because your system was any better," he asked.

"Once a week," she held up a finger and he scowled. "If you had beef with someone or you wanted to see how much better you got against your peers; we duked it out once a week."

"There's no freedom in that. Errors need to be corrected right away," Gerard stated. "It's a wonderful you're even good at it if you only fought once a week."

"What is that supposed to mean," she yelled and Gerard smiled brightly at her.

"It means you could have been better than me," he chuckled. Her eyes widened and he held her cheeks, "Man, why were you in that pack? I don't agree with belittling other systems but you would have been so much better here. I wouldn't have had to look too far for such a woman."

"Stop trying to butter me up," Shera snorted. "I'm not some slice of toast."

"You're right, you're like a ghost pepper," he snickered. "Innocent looking until someone eats the seeds."

"You're about to be-"

"Let's go on a date," Gerard suggested. Shera pulled her head back, her eyebrows rising as he chuckled. "It'll be fun. We can just relax and not have to deal with pack things for a little while."

"I've never been on one," Shera felt her face go red and she looked away, Gerard raisin his eyebrows now.

"Well I'll be," he smirked. "Go change, I'll take you on a good one."

"Isn't it late for it," Shera looked out the window, scowling at the sun setting. "If you wanted that then we should have gone earlier."

"It's the perfect time for what I have in mind," Gerard walked past her, his arm wrapping around her waist and pulling her along. "Get in something comfy."

"Where are we going," she asked quickly. He didn't answer and instead left her at her bedroom door. He shut his behind him and Shera was stuck staring into wood. She shook her head and walked in, sifting through her things until she had on a pair of sweatpants and a crop top. She grabbed a hoodie before stepping out, Gerard standing there. "I don't think-"

"Stop thinking for this," he sighed. "It's for fun. You've at least had fun right?"

"What is that supposed to mean," she snapped. While he was endearing in his sprits of childishness, the frequency didn't have a pattern and his unpredictable nature was starting to annoy her.

"That you can be uptight sometimes," he shrugged. She sniffed and crossed her arms and he put his arm over her shoulders. "Don't worry, I still like you."

"Oh thanks. That's so much better," she mumbled. He chuckled and stopped at the window, opening it. "What are we doing? I thought we were-"

"It's on the roof," he smiled. She didn't know how he was smiling like that, they were officially ten stories up. If they slipped and fell, being lycan wouldn't save them from the clutches of gravity.

"No way," she sniffed. "I'm not crawling up there with you. It's too high."

"You have a fear of heights," he asked in shock.

"No. I just feel like staying alive, thank you," she huffed.

He tapped his chin a bit and walked down the hall, coming back with a long rope, "Okay then."

"What is that- no," Shera tried moving his hands from around her, the rope being tied securely to her waist.

"There," Gerard gave a proud nod, starting to crawl from the window and pulling her along with him. "Now we won't fall."

"Are you insane," she cried. "Gerard, this is stupid!"

"It's a date," he laughed. Shera cautiously followed behind him, gulping as she tried to avoid looking down. He pulled her up into the roof, chuckling as Shera's hands latched onto the rope. It was a bit windier than down on the ground and her hair got in her eyes, making her try to blink past it. Gerard was the one to move her hair, smiling as he tucked it behind her ears.

He pulled her to sit next to him, securing her to the spot with his arm wrapped around her waist, "See? It isn't so bad."

"You're crazy," she sniffed. Shera blinked at what was in front of her though. Forget the skies, the city from where they sat was beginning to light up. She couldn't pull her gaze away from the bright colors and the many signs hanging from shops and in windows. "Whoa."

"You haven't even looked up," Gerard chuckled lightly.

"I didn't know this place had so many colors," Shera marveled. "Are people really this active at night?"

"You never looked out the window in your room? Yours faces the busiest street," he hummed.

"It does," she looked up at him and his smirk turned into a full smile.

"Yeah," he nodded. "You can see a lot of different people from your room too, not just the lights. The apartment complexes close by tend to have a lot of interesting things going on." He fell back, staring up at the sky with a small smile, "That's not the most interesting thing here though."

Shera followed his gaze, "What are you talking about?"

"The stars, foxy. Just look up at the stars," he chuckled. She stared for a while, unable to see what he saw. The lights from the city were so bright they blocked out most of what she used to look at.

"There's nothing impressive in this lighting," she sighed. He gasped and stared at her, his hands having moved under his head.

"How could you," he cried. "They're trying their twinkling little hearts out and you want to tell me it's not impressive?"

"You can't see the arms," Shera looked over at him and he blinked, sitting up.

"You really believe the pictures on the internet," he asked.

"No," she laughed and pointed to the sky, "Gerard, have you seen them outside of the city?"

He frowned a bit and looked back up, "I haven't."

"Then you haven't seen the stars," Shera hummed. "It's a lot prettier than what you're seeing now. There's so many other colors, you'd be surprised." She laid next to him, closing her eyes to see them from memories past. When her mother was well, the two would sneak out of the house, leaving her brother and sister to pester their father for the two.

It was one of her mother's special things; a term she used for those little escapades she'd take the three of them on separately. It was a fun little game to play. The siblings wouldn't tell each other what mother's special thing was no matter how many time the other two tried to guess. For Shera it had been star gazing. Just her, the sky, and her mother; it was the recipe that made Shera's worst days better.

She'd gaze at all the purpled and blues, the millions of tiny balls of light in the sky, and all the while listen to her mother's stories about the constellations. Some days they would even bring snack and soda. Shera blinked her eyes open as something rubbed the corners of her eyes. Gerard has leaned over her, his hand jerking back as if he had done something wrong and angered his parents. Or guardians?

"You started crying," he mumbled. He sat up and looked back up at the sky, letting out a long breath.

"People do that, you know," she chuckled. "It just has a lot of memories. I haven't looked up in a long time."

"Why not," he asked. "There's a lot to see up there. Sometimes I wish I was an astronomer instead of a doctor. Even being an astronaut sounds better. There's just so much out there and it's all- it's untouched."

Shera watched him start talking enthusiastically about space, his eyes bright with a childish wonder lust. He could go on for hours like that and in that moment, Shera would let him. He seemed more humane, more alive and fragile this way. She chuckled to herself; he was really like this talking about any form of science. That was her conclusion about him.

She started thinking about him as a human; what would he be? Where would he have gone? Would he have been the alpha anywhere he went or would he have just followed his dreams and not have dealt with anything like he did now? There were so many questions about him. There hadn't been much explained and while yes, the butterflies in Shera's stomach went wild in moments like this with him, she couldn't get past how violent he could turn. How violent he really was.

Yet that had stopped bothering her at some point. She started to feel safe with him, to feel like he'd be there. It hadn't been long between the two of them but he had confirmed he had her beat interests at heart in his own way. She was fond of it. His patience seemed endless and he thought well in spur of the moment problems. If she was human, she'd have thrown herself at his feet; she'd have willingly gone along with the arranged marriage in a heartbeat just to get to know the mysterious Gerard.