The Mating Rules

Light was just peeking through the curtains of the pack house, and I g***n as I sit up, rubbing my eyes before glancing at the clock on the table beside me that told me I had fifteen minutes to get to morning training.

Yelping loudly, I jump out of bed, throwing on some lycra shorts and a sports bra before pulling my hair up into a messy bun and spraying some deodorant under my arms.

High tailing it into the bathroom, I brush my teeth, using the facilities before running out of my room, my trainers in my hand, down the stairs and out into the morning sunshine.

I race over to the group of people already stretching, muttering an apology to our lead trainer as I pass, earning myself a disapproving look. Yeah, Dorian does not like tardiness and I wince at the thought of how many extra laps we will all be running because of me.

‘If I get extra laps Lee, I’m going to spit in your coffee’ comes Ashleigh’s disgruntled voice beside me. She’s almost as exercise adverse as Bailee, but with the head warrior as her father, she doesn’t get a choice in whether to train or not.

‘I’m sorry, I overslept’ I hiss back, stretching my arms above my head before bending at the waist, pressing my palms to the ground between my legs.

Loud shouts to our right distract me and as I straighten up, I find that most of our group has abandoned their warm ups to try and see whatever it is that is happening at the side of the pack house.

‘Everyone, concentrate’ Dorian calls out, clapping his hands together, but the entire group is already moving toward the ruckus, me moving with them, curious to know what is going on with what looks to be the Elite training class.

As we approach the edge of the building, a large group of warriors form a wall between us and whatever the hell was going on in the centre of the makeshift circle of fighters. Our group splits, moving around the barrier whilst my best friend merely used her elbows to shove the high ranking warriors out of her way, me trailing closely behind her so I can get to the front of the crowd.

As we inch our way through the crowd, I notice the people around us giving me coveted looks from the corners of their eyes, and I frown in confusion, moving faster toward the front, as grunts can be heard over the sounds of the crowd.

‘Holy s**t’ Ashleigh hisses as she breaks through the inner ring, blocking my view for a split second before she steps to the side and I’m faced with the sight of my two mates grappling on the ground, claws out as they attack each other with force.

Hadley has a huge gash to his cheek and is favouring his left side making me suspect his ribs are fractured. Caden on the other hand has b***d dripping from four deep claw marks to his right side and at least two of his fingers look broken, which isn’t stopping him from smashing his fist into the warrior’s face with everything he has.

‘What the hell?’ I scream, glaring around at everyone who actively avoid my gaze, ‘stop them!’ I add when no one moves.

‘We can’t’ one of the she wolves mutters beside me uncomfortably, ‘Alpha order.’

I huff loudly, Caden can bugger off if he thinks an Alpha order is going to hold me back.

‘Stop it’ I shout, moving around the fighting pair who seem oblivious to my appearance. Caden rolling Hadley over and trying to pin his arms to his sides with his thighs, the warrior, bucking underneath him and forcing him over his head.

‘I said stop!’ I tried again, dancing closer, trying to avoid the flying limbs of both my mates, looking for a break between them where I can pull them apart.

Hadley growls loudly, swiping his leg round, taking out the Alpha’s feet as he tries to stand, dropping him onto his back again. Scrambling on top of him, he begins to slam his fists into the Alpha’s face, the c***k of bones telling me that the hits have force.

Caden holds his arms in front of his face protectively, grunting from the hits before moving his hand quickly, grabbing Hadley’s arm, hooking a leg around the warrior’s lower leg and rolling them so he was back on top.

Barely being missed by Caden’s foot as he straddles Hadley, my temper breaks. ‘What ARE you two doing?’ I roar at the top of my voice, both men stilling as I break through the haze that seems to have wrapped around them both.

Slowly, the pair turned their heads, focusing on me as I cross my arms over my chest, glaring at them.

‘Hey Leeway’ Caden said through his busted l*p, causing me to snarl furiously.

‘Don’t you Hey me, you a*****e’ I snap, ‘what the hell do you think you are doing?’

Caden pushes off Hadley, who clambers to his feet, his hand on his ribs, ‘we’re just sparring babe’ the Alpha replies soothingly, as if that’s going to work.

I turn to the crowd, ‘all right’ I yell, ‘shows over, get lost.’

The crowd give Caden furtive looks as he nods imperceptibly, before they disperse.

Glowering at my mates, I find Caden giving me a sheepish grin whilst Hadley isn’t even looking at me, which somehow irritates me more than their ridiculous fight.

‘Are your ribs broken?’ I demand, moving toward the warrior and reaching out to touch the area that already has a deep purple bruise. Hadley flinches away from me, and I try not to show any hurt at the rejection.

‘I’m fine’ he replies haughtily, taking a step back, ‘we were just practicing.’

My eyes narrow at his words, ‘you were kicking the sh*t out of each other’ I snapped angrily, ‘you need to see the doctor.’

Hadley’s gaze flicks to me, something swirling in the depths before he shores up his features, his face becoming blank. ‘I’m fine’ he repeats, ‘don’t worry about me.’

Before I can reply, he turns on his heel and walks away toward his parents’ house, leaving me standing there staring after him.

‘I’m fine too, just in case you were wondering’ comes Caden’s voice from behind me, a slight edge to his tone. Turning back to him, I take in his injuries, my heart hurting at the marks on his skin, stupid mate bond, I think to myself bitterly.

‘Why were you fighting?’ I growl out as I grab hold of his hand and start dragging him toward the clinic. My other mate might be refusing to let me help him, but Goddess damn it, the other one was going to do as I tell him and get checked.

‘We were just messing around Leeway’ Caden sighed, following behind me as I haul his a*s into the medical building, mind linking with the doctor as I push the Alpha into an empty room.

‘Yeah, I look like this when I play fight all the time’ I grumble under my breath, shoving his shoulders so he would sit on the examination table in the centre of the room.

The doctor walks in, breaking up our conversation, and I turn to him worriedly as he frowns at the Alpha. ‘What happened?’ he asked curtly, moving toward my mate who waves a hand dismissively.

‘I’m fine, just a little scrap at training’ Caden replied making me snarl.

‘He and Hadley went at it like two egotistical idiots who are ruled by their damn wolves’ I huffed. ‘Hadley wouldn’t come in to be checked but I’m pretty sure he has fractured ribs’ I add, worry eating at me.

I can feel as the room fills with tension, looking up at my mate who is glaring out of the window whilst Doctor Meadows checks his wounds.

‘You’ll heal’ the doctor mutters, ‘but we’ll need to splint your fingers for the afternoon so Cobalt can fix them properly.’

Caden nods, making to push himself off the bed to his feet as I press a hand to his chest, stopping him, fighting against the sparks flying through my palm and up my arm.

‘He said he needs to wrap your fingers’ I growl, ‘so sit.’

Surprisingly, the Alpha does as I say, sitting back down heavily, a tortured sigh leaving his lips.

I look back at the doctor, silently nodding at him to fix my mate up before moving back, my hand falling from Caden’s skin, his fingers on his good hand twitching as if he was about to move them, but decided against it.

Ten minutes later, the doctor steps back, moving to the sink to wash his hands as Caden lifts his splinted fingers up. ‘Keep it dry Alpha,’ Doctor Meadows orders sternly, ‘and do not take that splint off until bed time, I do not want to have to rebreak your fingers because they healed wrong.’

Caden grunts his acknowledgement, heaving his huge muscular body from the bed and this time I let him.

Turning to me, Doctor Meadows lowers his voice, ‘keep a damn eye on him Lee’ he mutters in my ear. ‘He’s a stubborn bastard and I wouldn’t put it past him to pull that off as soon as he leaves my sight.’

I nod quickly, falling into step beside Caden as he walks out of the room, not giving me a backward glance. Stomping along behind him, we step out into the sunshine, me hurrying my steps to keep up with the young Alpha’s large strides.

‘You need to do as the doctor says’ I remind my mate, peeking up at him as he steadfastly glares ahead of him, heading toward the pack house.

Caden storms into the building, heading for the stairs, taking them two at a time.

‘Caden’ I growl, irritated, ‘did you hear me?’

The Alpha spun around on the stairs, as I stumble to a halt, grabbing the stair rail to stop myself falling. ‘I heard you’ he snarls bitterly, startling me, ‘and I’ll do as I’m told, so you don’t need to waste any more time being around me.’

Not waiting for my reply, he turns around again and stomps his way to the Alpha floor, a slamming door the last sound I hear before the sound of things smashing echoes above me.

I go to move, my wolf clawing at me to go to him, but a roar of fury stills me, I hear his bedroom door open and close quietly, the sound of breaking dying away as I swallow the lump in my throat and turn my feet toward my own room instead.

‘Gamma’ I call through the mind link, ‘I think I’ll need to take the day off today.’

Our Gamma’s voice echoes in my head, ‘I heard Lee, I’ll see you tomorrow, don’t be late.’

The mind link closes and I’m left to my own thoughts swirling around my head as I drag myself into my room to get changed.