Brody and Kayden spoke for a while, mostly getting off topic as they didn’t have much to talk about when it came to that other than the mystery money. Brody had been trying to convince Kayden that there was actual value in their history classes, a fact which Kayden amusingly refused to believe, when Brody glanced at the clock sitting against the wall of the library.

He realised that dinner would be soon and he didn’t want to make Nate worry about him if he was late.

‘We should get going to dinner,’ he told Kayden.

‘Yeah,’ Kayden nodded in agreement, standing from his seat.

They walked out of the library and into the open air. Brody and Kayden walked slowly down the footpath, apparently most people were already at dinner as the gardens were vacant of people, only beautifully coloured flowers and the wood of tree’s occupying the green grass. The sun was low in the sky, it’s fading light guiding them along the path as the warmth of it’s gaze hit their skin.

They walked slowly in silence, and Brody wasn’t sure what to say. He wasn’t exactly great at small talk, especially considering the weight of the information clouding his mind at that current moment in time.

In fact, it was Kayden who broke the silence first, ‘How’s your wrist feeling?’ he asked.

‘It’s alright,’ Brody responded, the pain in his wrist had dulled quite significantly from earlier that morning and he was sure that the break was already healing. The pain may have dulled, but it was still there, a dull ache which radiated through his wrist and arm, creating an uncomfortable feeling that he hoped would go away within a day or two. ‘It doesn’t hurt that much,’ he told Kayden.

Kayden suddenly smiled at Brody, and Brody quirked an eyebrow.

‘What?’ he asked.

Kayden laughed, ‘Nothing, you just reminded me of something.’

‘What was it?’ Brody asked, quite curious.

‘Well,’ Kayden explained, ‘Last camp, I remember Hunter stopped a fight between two guys on one of the first days, and everyone asked him if he was alright and he kept telling everyone that he was fine, and then a few days later he told everyone he had actually broken three ribs but didn’t see the need to tell anyone.’

Brody smiled at that, and he didn’t doubt the story for a second. He wondered why Hunter had never told him about that and thinking about it, Hunter would have probably just not wanted anyone at home to worry about him.

Brody looked over at Kayden, ‘That sounds a lot like my brother. He never wanted people to worry about him; he always had to be the strong one.’ 

Brody looked down then, loving memories of his brother slowly slipping away into sad ones. He figured that Kayden had sensed this shift in mood and silence gathered over them again like a dark cloud.

‘I shouldn’t have brought up your brother,’ Kayden apologised quietly after a few moments.

Brody slowed his steps, his eyes moving to Kayden’s. ‘I have been at camp for weeks with people who have known my brother for years, and yet only Nate has had the courage to talk about him. I don’t want you to walk on eggshells around me, I like hearing this stuff.’

Kayden smiled slightly but he didn’t speak. Instead, his large hand coming up to pat against Brody’s back supportively a couple of times before dropping back to the side.

The action meant a lot to Brody. He got the feeling that this guy wasn’t much into showing emotions, and his support really did mean a lot to him.

They were approaching the main building when Brody heard voices. They weren’t just quiet voices, these were loud voices with angry words.

Brody looked over at Kayden who had obviously heard them too.

‘Someone’s having a bad day,’ Kayden laughed. He then started walking towards the entrance. Brody was just about to follow him when he heard Kayden’s name being mentioned in the few of  the words he could make out.

‘Kayden!’ he called out to him in a hushed tone. ‘I think they are arguing about you.’

‘What?’ Kayden quirked an eyebrow. ‘Why?’

Brody didn’t answer him, instead he listened to the voices to figure out where they were coming from. He walked off of the path, following the voices as if this was a game of very one sided marco-polo. He walked along the edge of the building, making his way towards the end of the large wall.

He kept his footsteps light, Kayden on the other hand didn’t get the message and stomped his way up to Brody, his large shoes crunching against leaves and twigs in his haste.

Brody saw that Kayden was about to say something, but he pushed his index finger to his lips to shush him.

‘We could have gotten that guy kicked out of school!’ someone was saying, their voice dripping with tangible frustration.

Brody and Kayden slowly and much more quietly walked up to the edge of the wall, where they could hear the words clearly.

‘If you had done what we asked you to do then you wouldn’t have!’ someone else said, and Brody felt a shock of surprise because he recognised that voice. The person speaking was almost certainly Jace.

Brody looked back at Kayden, who motioned for him to look around the corner.

Brody slowly peaked his head out around the corner, relieved to see that the people were far enough away that they didn’t notice them. He noticed Jace and Tye first, the two of them were facing two other guys that Brody had seen once before.

Tye and Jace were talking to Hulk Jr. and the elevator guy.

Brody kept his eyes just past the edge of the wall so that he could see them.

Hulk Jr stepped up close to Jace, getting in his face as he spoke. ‘We did exactly what you asked. The mistake wasn’t ours, it was yours!’

Brody didn’t understand what they were talking about. He wondered what shit Tye and Jace had gotten themselves into this time.

Elevator guy’s hand shot out and grabbed Hulk Jr.’s wrist, ‘Bruce.’

Bruce seemed to listen to elevator guy and stepped back a few steps, but he still looked full of anger.

Elevator guy stepped up to Tye and Jace. ‘We aren’t giving you the money back. We did what you asked,’ he told them harshly.

Brody wondered what Tye and Jace had asked them to do that seemed to be so important.

Tye rolled his eyes and growled out; ‘Look Mitchel, we asked you to get Brody Lewis kicked out of camp, but all you did was get one of our friends in trouble.’ He said the words 'our friends' harshly with his finger pointing into his own chest, as if the mistake was personal and awful.

Brody had to forcibly stop an audible gasp from leaving his mouth. Tye and Jace had been trying to get him kicked out of camp? He felt a spark of anger in his chest and cursed even meeting the two idiots. What had he done to them that was so bad that they wanted him kicked out of camp? He had been nothing but nice to them, and they went and did this.

Jace nodded in agreement, ‘You two were the ones who made the mistake, and we want our money back.’

Elevator guy, well Mitchel, stepped forwards, ‘This is not target. You can’t just get a refund. A deal was a deal and you specifically said that Brody was Nate’s wolf combat partner, and you wanted the combat partner to get kicked out, and we did what we could.’  

‘Fine,’ Tye huffed out as if the word was physically painful as it made its way past his lips.  

Jace looked at Tye with a half betrayed, half angry expression. ‘What are you doing?’ he demanded of his friend.

‘It’s not like we personally need the money anyway,’ Tye huffed with a forced shrug.

Jace rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything.

Brody watched as Bruce and Mitchel walked away, but Tye and Jace stayed where they were.

Brody stepped back and turned towards Kayden, ‘Well, it looks like they weren’t trying to kick you out at all,’ he whispered. ‘They thought that I was going to be Nate’s combat partner because they overheard Nate and I talking at breakfast this morning.’

‘They must have offered Bruce and Mitchel money to do something that would have gotten you kicked out, and with the camps anti-violence rules they must have assumed it was enough to kick you out,’ Kayden connected the dots. ‘I can’t believe that they would do this. What do we do? Do we tell Mr. Woods?’

Anger filled Brody’s body and going off and telling Mr. Woods was at the bottom of the list of things he wanted to do in that moment.

Perhaps he should have been smart about his actions, but instead he stepped out from behind the corner and walked over towards Tye and Jace with a determined stride. He could tell that Kayden didn’t follow him, and he wasn’t sure why. He had figured that Kayden would want to confront them just as much as he had wanted to, even more so considering that the three of them had been friends for years.

The two guys were very obviously not expecting for Brody to be there, and when they saw him both of their expressions turned hard, but their bodies forcibly relaxed.

‘What do you want?’ Jace huffed out, leaning back against the back wall of the building casually.

‘Where’s your best bud? I thought you and Nate didn’t go more than two feet from each other?’ Tye joked, his arms nonchalantly crossing in front of his chest.

Brody walked straight up to them, ‘Why are you trying to get me kicked out of camp?’ he asked in the harshest voice that he had in him. He had no patience to beat around the bush. He wanted answers and he wanted them right then.

The two boys shared an unreadable look.

‘I don’t know what you are talking about,’ Jace responded.

Brody could feel his eye’s turning more golden with every second, ‘I heard what you said. Don’t lie to me again!’ he growled out.

‘Or what?’ Tye laughed, obviously not intimidated by Brody’s threat. ‘You have a broken arm, not that you could throw a punch before that thought, I’m sure.’

Suddenly a harsher voice came from behind them, ‘Tell us everything otherwise I will beat the shit out of both of you.’

Brody smiled slightly knowing that Kayden hadn’t completely abandoned him. A few moments later Kayden was standing next to Brody, his tall stature and animalistic expression a thousand times more intimidating than Brody’s own.

Jace just rolled his eyes, but Brody could smell the underlying fear coming off of each of them. They were friends with Kayden, but they knew that he had the brute strength to beat them to a pulp if he had the right motivation.

Jace looked at Brody, ‘All you have done is cause trouble from the moment that you got here.’

Brody laughed at that, ‘I think that it’s you two who have been causing this trouble.’

Kayden’s eyes were trained on his former friends, ‘I knew that you two weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed, but I never thought that you could be this moronic. Paying two meatheads to attack me? Smart move,’ he said sarcastically.

Tye huffed, ‘We didn’t pay them to attack you. We just wanted this one,’ he nodded towards Brody. ‘kicked out of camp, which those idiots apparently couldn’t deliver.’

‘And so I ask again, why do you want me out of camp?’ Brody demanded to know.

‘What did he ever do to you?’ Kayden asked them.

Jace looked at Tye and then at Brody, ‘If you don’t tell Nate about all of this, then we will stop trying to get you kicked out. Deal?’

Brody laughed. He actually laughed in their face, and they looked stunned, they had expected him to take the deal. ‘I wouldn’t bet one penny on your word. I don’t trust either of you and neither will Nate when he finds out about this,’ Brody told them sternly.

Jace rolled his eyes, ‘We have been friends with Nate for years, he isn’t going to believe a thing that you say.’

Brody knew that Nate would believe his words over theirs. He did, didn’t he? Nate believed the best in people, but that could only go to such an extent. Nate would believe him if Brody told him everything, right? There was the tiniest stab of uncertainty in Brody's gut and he hated it. He hated that any such doubt existed in his mind and yet it did.

‘We will tell him that you are making it up and he will believe us, just like he always does,’ Tye chimed in and Brody couldn’t help but growl at the malevolence in his words.

Something came over Brody then and he couldn’t put it into rational lines of thought. Tye’s words were the last straw, something about the way that he said those terrible, deceiving words just pushed Brody straight over the edge and into a white rage that was so intense that he couldn’t see anything but Tye. He threw the first punch, pulling back and throwing his fist out as hard as he could without remorse.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion, Brody’s uninjured hand forming a fist, while his arm raised. He clocked Tye right in the nose, his head flinging to the side at the impact. In the same second Jace launched himself at Brody from another angle, and Kayden shoved himself between them, the blow hitting Kayden’s chest instead of Brody’s head.

Brody’s eyes shone bright gold, and now so did the other three. Tye’s head whipped back in less than a second and those cold, golden eyes were now viciously trained on Brody.   

‘You little rat!’ Tye spat out, his large hand forming a fist in the air that was suddenly coming towards Brody’s head. Brody was better at combat than he had thought, as he easily missed the punch. Brody smiled to himself, thinking about the fact that he wouldn’t have dreamed of being able to pull these moves only a few weeks ago.

Tye took advantage of the second that Brody was unfocused, and it was too late before he saw that there was a fist flying at his face, and there was no way that he would be able to dodge this one.  

Sorry about the longer wait for this update, I have been on holiday and haven't had access to wattpad on my laptop. Remember to comment and vote! Also - one of my other stories 'The Price of Popularity' is now current and off of Hold status. It's just been updated so check it out!