Page 24 of Spatially UnawareWolf

“You did the best you could,” I said, “and for a first try, it was pretty good. And when we do it again tomorrow morning, it’ll be even better, okay?”

His shoulders unhunched, and he gave me a watery smile. “Okay.”

We arranged to meet in the park again that night, and Luke gave me a wave as he jogged across the parking lot and into the slowly brightening daylight. I waved back, but the smile dropped from my face once he was out of sight.

Because I’d lied.

Luke wasn’t doing great. He was barely improving at all. At this rate, he’d be walking up the stairs sometime around his eightieth birthday.

If I was going to get his legs working in less than two weeks, I was going to have to find a new training method, something I hadn’t tried before.

But what?

CHAPTER 7

LUKE

I was pretty sure Hunter had been lying when he said I was doing great.

I wasn’t stupid. I didn’t expect an instant recovery of all my reflexes in a couple of training sessions.

But we’d been working out for five days straight now, training morning and night, and I was still struggling to get control of my reflexes in human form.

Like, I wasn’t blind to the fact that there’d been barely any improvement. There had been some, sure—walking in the hydrotherapy tank had made me more aware of my legs and ass, in a way that I’d been missing—but I still couldn’t jump rope or climb a ramp unassisted. And here I was, once again standing at the foot of the stairs in my apartment building, frozen in place. I’d already tried to get to the top and failed, tumbling down the stairs like a cut-rate stunt double and almost braining myself on the bottom step.

I considered trying again, but just the thought of it was exhausting. I decided I’d go visit my mom and dad instead. There were only two steps on their front porch, and at least I knew I could manage to get up those.

Plus I really needed my mom to reassure me. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust that Hunter’s process would work. It was more that I didn’t trust it would work for me, specifically.

Like, what if I was the first ever werewolf who couldn’t get his shit together? I hadn’t even known I could shift until I was twenty-seven, so let’s be real, my body was hardly the poster boy for fast learning, was it?

I left the building and stopped at the local bakery, Bear Claw—and yes, it was run by exactly who you’d expect. I picked up some coffee and croissants. If I was going to turn up on my parents’ doorstep first thing in the morning, the least I could do was bring them breakfast. I walked the few streets to their house, my breath making clouds in the chilly morning air, and tried to drag myself out of the funk I was in.

When I reached the house it took me a hot minute to get up the porch steps, and I ended up kind of bunny-hopping to reach the front door. My mom was still in her robe and slippers, and her brow creased with worry when she opened the door to find me standing there. “Luke? What’s wrong, baby?"

“Nothing!” I said, far too brightly to be convincing.

My mother fixed me with a stern look.

“Fine. The elevator’s broken in my building and I didn’t want to deal with crawling up to my apartment.”

She shook her head fondly. “Come on in. I’ll make coffee.”

I sat down at the kitchen table. “Where’s Dad?”

“He had to go into work,” she said. “What are you doing out so early?”

Mom set a cup in front of me and I sipped it gratefully. “I had a training session with Hunter.”

“How’s that going?” she asked.

I waggled a hand back and forth. “He says we’re making progress, but I don’t know. My brain’s still getting caught on whether I have legs or paws.” I took another sip and asked her the question I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer to. “Mom, what if it doesn’t work?”

She sat down opposite me, grabbing a croissant from the bag and chewing a corner before saying, “Hunter has a one hundred percent success rate, Luke. And you’re not that special.”

“Thanks, that makes me feel better,” I said, grimacing.

She waved a hand. “I just mean that there’s no reason to think his methods won’t work for you, that’s all.”