Catalina quietly entered the dark room. The door closed slowly behind her, shutting off the last ounces of light spilling across the floor.

"Feel your surroundings. Smell the scents in the air," Emil coached from somewhere ahead of her.

Catalina heard the creak of a rope to her left she spun and sliced her sai through the bag that hung there. She took three running steps forward, jumped into the air, and slid the knife in her right hand down through another bag. She stabbed out to her right and punctured another bag, slid and twirled to her left, and sliced through the roap of another. It thudded to the floor, and the sound of it echoed through the room. She spun, jumped, sliced, and stabbed her way through the room until almost all the bags contents were leaking onto the floor. She ran forward and slid across the floor on her knees. Her knives heald out to both sides and sliced through the last two bags.

Foot steps and the swish of a sword alerted her to Emil's presence to her left. She leaned back and jumped to her feet, deflecting the sword with her sai on the way up. The twin pair of sai twirled in her hands as they danced a deadly dance around each other. It was pitch black they couldn't see one another, but they could hear and smell. They had to listen for every echo and make their strikes based on them. Metal clashed together over and over as they attacked each other. Her left cheek started to sting as his sword barely grazed it. She fealt the wet warmth of blood as it cascaded down her cheeks. She spun and struck out. She felt her knife meet flesh and gasped softly in fear. The hesitation cost her. Her feet were swept out from under her, and she felt the cold press of metal to her throat.

The light flickered on, and Emil stood up and helped her to her feet. They stood there facing each other for a minute, panting.

"You okay?" he asked, gesturing to her bloody face.

She touched her hand to her cheek. "I'm fine. Are you okay? How bad is it?" she asked, concern clear in her voice as she pointed towards the hip he was applying pressure to.

"Just a scratch," he answered, smiling. "Let's sit for a minute," he said, heading towards the closest wall.

He plopped down and leaned up against it.

"We should probably get you to medical," Catalina said before joining him.

"I'm fine. Why don't you explain to me what happened. Why did you falter?"

"I felt the knife pierce you. We don't usually make contact with each others flesh. I was afraid I'd really hurt you," she said, looking down at the floor.

"Oh, I see. You were afraid you'd killed your training partner. That's tough cause we both know you'd never find another one then," Emil said with a chuckle.

"Shut up! You know you mean more to me than that," she responded with a roll of her eyes as she bumped his shoulder with her own.

"Oh yeah? You sure? You're so hot and cold I can't tell." he said with a warm smile and a shrug.

"Just cause I don't want anything serious doesn't mean I don't care about you," Catalina answered.

She leaned forward and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

"Oh no, that's not nearly good enough! You just stabbed me!" Emil said before sliding his hand through her hair to grasp the back of her neck.

He pulled her easily towards him. Their lips pressed together, his were thin and firm, and hers were plump and soft. His tongue tasted the crease of her lips asking for entrance, and she obliged, deepening the kiss. Their tongues met in an eager dance. She placed her hand flat against his chest and pulled back.

"You need to go to medical, and I need to clean up this mess," she said, looking out at the room that was covered in burlap, rope, and rice.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, standing up.

"See you at the party later?" Catalina asked as he once again helped her to her feet.

"Of course," he responded before limping off towards medical.

Catalina went over to a closet towards the back of the room and removed a broom, dust pan, and trash can. She retreated into her mind as she started sweeping up the nearest pile of rice. Her thoughts flitted from one thing to another.

Her birthday was today, well kind of. They didn't actually know her birthday. So, they celebrated the day she'd joined the pack instead. She wasn't big on parties, but her brothers wouldn't allow her to go without one. They'd all been pretty busy lately, so while she wasn't especially looking forward to the party, she was looking forward to spending some time with them.

Her thoughts changed to Emil. She wondered if she should just revert back to only a friendship with him. They had been friends for a while now, and she did like him, but she didn't want a serious relationship with anyone. She was twenty years old now. If she chose to, she could get married and settle down. But, despite the unlikeliness of it, she was holding out.

She wanted to make sure she didn't have a lure scent and a mate first. She may not have a wolf, but she did have the eyesight and sense of smell. Maybe she also had a lure scent. It was a long shot, but she wanted to make sure first. Thinking about Emil made her think about what he'd said earlier about a training partner, and her thoughts dampened further.

Nicholas, Stephan, and William had come to a hard decision and all but banned her from the training grounds about six months ago. She understood why, but it sucked. They said she was causeing too many injuries and she'd learned all she could there. So, now she could only train with one on one partners who were able to match her skills.

Most were afraid to train with her, though, because they had already seen or heard about her ferocity. If he was somehow seriously injured, she probably would be left without someone to regularly train with. Stephan, the two betas, and her brothers would probably be the only ones willing, but they wouldn't be able to do it every day because they all had other responsibilities.

Catta dumped the last of the mess into the trash can and shoved everything back into the closet. She turned off the lights and headed towards her room for a shower, then it would be party time. Hopefully, that would put her in a better mood.

Catalina was finishing up her makeup when there was a knock at her door. She didn't wear makeup often, just for special occasions, and even then, she didn't use much. Jax's eyebrows rose in surprise when she opened the door. She was beautiful already, but the mascara and eyeliner made her eyes breathe taking. She wore a fitted forest green blouse that matched her eyes with sleeves that stopped at the elbows and a loose-fitting pair of white cargo pants. He didn't approve of what he would call a plunging neckline but kept it to himself.

"You look nice. Are you done? We don't want to be late for your own party," he said with a smile that lit up his deep blue eyes.

"I'm done. We can go," she answered, smiling back.

He held out his arm for her, and she took it.

"You look nervous. Are you nervous?" he asked as they descended the stairs to the foyer.

"No... Well, maybe a little. Yall have had me locked away in my room for an hour and a half," she answered with a nervous giggle.

"No, no. The door was unlocked," he responded seriously with raised eyebrows and a smile.

"Yeah, but I was given strict orders. I wasn't allowed to leave it or look out the window. Which is crazy considering it's dark outside," she said matter of factly.

"Oh, details, details," he said, opening the door for her.

"Where are we going exactly?" she asked, biting her bottom lip nervously.

"Shh, patients. You'll see. Just follow the yellow brick road," he answered with a mischievous laugh.

"The wha-" her mouth fell open as she saw yellow string lights lining the driveway that started at the bottom of the steps. "Um... okay. Someone went through a lot of trouble to use that line," she said with a laugh.

They followed the lights down the driveway until they turned off towards the training fields. Catta held on to Jax's arm even tighter once they left the pavement, and her green heels started sinking into the soft dirt. The lights continued past the field and into the woods. When they reached the edge of the trees, she could hear the sound of music up ahead. It had the beat of one of her favorite songs. She gave Jax a curious glance before continuing into the trees.

They continued following the string lights until they reached a beautiful clearing. The trees were wrapped in white twinkling lights that flashed off and on with the beat of the music. There were even strings of lights hanging down from the tree branches. There were so many they lit up the whole clearing. In the middle of the clearing people were dancing and laughing. Not far from the dance floor, there was a dj setup who was swaying along to the music as his hands were working at a computer, adding extra beats and rhythms to the music. Off to the right was a table almost overflowing with food, not far from it was a table with gifts on it. Catalina rolled her eyes at that, she hated opening presents.

"You wanna dance?" Jax asked, giving her an excited boyish grin.

"I-" a loud techno song started blaring from the speakers, cutting off her protests.

Jax led her to the dance floor. Amidst all the bodies jumping up and down to the music, it was hard not to join in. Catalina bumped shoulders with someone and realized with surprise that it was Emmett. She gave him a look of amazement, and he smiled and shrugged, then continued dancing. She laughed and decided to let loose too when the next song played was the chacha slide. The ground seemed to shake with all the stomping and jumping. When everyone started clapping, it echoed through the trees so loud everyone started laughing.

Five songs later, Catalina headed for the food table. Emil was there and gave her a smile and a tilt of his head as he filled his plate with food. She repeated his actions as she placed food onto her own plate. Suddenly, someone shoved sparklers into her hands, and she laughed as she saw everyone around her running around with them as if they were children. When Jax's ran past her with a pair, she chased after him giggling like a little girl, her food forgotten.

How Catta ended up back on the dance floor, she wasn't really sure, but she found herself again, leaving it for the food table. She was about halfway to it when she spotted Stephan coming towards her with something large and rectangular in his hands. The music stopped.

She looked around in confusion. The lights went out, and she sucked in a breath of suprise, then there was a flicker of lights in front of her. The light grew steady as two candles started to burn right in front of her. Her face turned bright red as people started singing happy birthday to her. She wasn't a big fan of this part either. Honestly, she wasn't a big fan of anything that drew this much attention to her.

As soon as the song ended, she leaned forward and blew out the candles. There was a loud crack quickly followed by something whizing through her hair. The lights came back on as someone hit the ground beside her.