Winter: A time for love and revenge

The day after a full moon was always rough, especially on the days I had class and was barely able to get any sleep—it was why I tried to avoid taking early classes. But since we were in lockdown, we were all able to sleep in.

Sebastian hadn’t shown up while we were asleep, and from the sound of it, he wouldn’t be able to make it until tomorrow. Waiting was one of the most annoying things in my mind, especially after the night we just had. I wanted to do something, preferably punch and claw some shapeshifter fuckers. We’d yet to hear about the interrogations. Did they manage to get one of the shapeshifters to speak and were simply waiting for Sebastian, or were the prisoners stubborn bastards?

I ended up in the training room—as were many others—needing to work off my anger and frustration. It was a good thing these punching bags were made for supernaturals, because I was hitting and kicking the shit out of it, picturing it a shapeshifting fucker in its place.

Aspen found me here later on. I couldn’t say how long I’d been here, but strands of my blonde hair had fallen from my ponytail and stuck to my neck and face. Aspen tossed a towel my way that I used to mop the sweat from my face.

“Want to go up against something that can fight back?”

I raised an eyebrow as I grabbed my water bottle and took a healthy gulp. Aspen was dressed to train, and his hair was already damp with sweat. I hadn’t been too lost in my anger that I hadn’t noticed him in here, so I figured he must’ve gone for a run.

“Are you sure you can handle me?” As soon as the words came out, I silently cursed myself at how that sounded.

A slow grin curled his lips as his gaze swept over my body. Such a simple action had me nearly squirming, my body reacting as if he were touching me. “I think I’ll be able to manage.”

“Alright,” I said, fighting a grin as I stepped onto one of the free mats.

Despite my flirtatious words, I had no plans of fighting fair or taking it easy on him. I knew that in an equal fight, he’d most likely win since he had height and strength on his side, but I was faster, more nimble, and I wasn’t afraid to fight dirty. A fact he should’ve remembered as he came onto the mat, looking back at Finn and listening to whatever he was telling him.

I kicked his feet out from under him, unable to hide my laugh of delight as he fell. Even though he’d been distracted, he was easily able to roll to his feet before I could take advantage.

“You’re an asshole,” Finn said with a chuckle, but I didn’t turn to face him, keeping my focus on Aspen.

“Yes, and?”

Where other guys might be pissed when a girl knocked them on their ass—especially after “cheating”—Aspen was amused, his grin now full-blown and was way too fucking distracting. “Alright, so that’s how you want to play?”

Before I could react, he lunged, using my momentary distraction to flip me to the ground. As soon as my back hit, the contact stinging despite the mats, I rolled to the side, just barely able to avoid getting pinned by him. While I wouldn’t normally be opposed to having him on top of me, I was a competitive bitch. My relatively new feelings for him wouldn’t stop me from kicking his ass or cheating. If I had a chance to punch him in the face, I’d take it. We were fast healers: it wouldn’t cause any lasting damage.

Aspen and I went back and forth, trading blows. Based on the strength he hit me with, he was holding back, annoying the fuck out of me. The only move I wasn’t willing to attempt was hitting him in the junk because I didn’t have to resort to a low blow in training.

Unlike him, I didn’t hold back when I kicked him and managed to catch him in his side. The only indication he gave that it hurt was a small hiss as he sucked in a sharp breath, but he was still able to miss my punch, using my momentum to knock me to the mats. Before I could roll out or hit him, he was covering my body with his, grabbing my wrists, and pinning them to the mat. Even though I knew he had me pinned, both with his weight and the way he held me, I kept squirming, hoping to get lucky. My stubbornness was probably one of my fatal flaws.

I only stopped when I realized my squirming had put me in a compromising position, with my legs wrapped around his waist—I’d been trying to flip him over—and my body pressed against him.

“I give up,” I whispered before my body could give me away, relaxing against the mat so he didn’t think it was a trap. I’d pulled that move way too many times to be able to pull it off again. I was no longer in the mood to fight anymore, especially with his scent enveloping me as he held me immobile.

Aspen’s brows pulled together as he scanned my face, looking for any hint of deception. He was slow to pull away, cautious in case this was a ruse, and I was about to attack him, but I didn’t. Once his weight was off of me, I rolled out from under him, feeling both relieved to be able to move but also sad to lose contact with him.

Wow, that was fucking pathetic. I needed to get my shit together.

Aspen continued carefully watching me as I gulped down my water, trying to cool my body and get my hormones under control. “Is everything okay?” His tone was careful, holding notes of concern and confusion, mirroring his expression.

“Yeah, I’m just tired, that’s all.” I fought to keep still and not fidget. This was why I didn’t keep shit to myself: I was fucking terrible at it. I pulled at my shirt, which clung to me from my sweat. “I need a shower; I’ll see you later.”

Before I could say or do anything else that would give me away, I headed toward the women’s locker room.

If he hadn’t been suspicious before, he was now. Why couldn’t I be a better liar?

Sebastian finally arrived at two in the morning, but rather than call for a meeting at that ungodly hour, he let us sleep in until six. I still wasn’t thrilled to get woken up that early, but it was still four extra hours of sleep. Many other alphas wouldn’t have done so, especially young alphas, wanting to assert their dominance right away.

We had a quick breakfast, where Haden announced we were to meet Sebastian in the training room in a half hour. Whispers ran through the kitchen as anticipation buzzed through the air. We all knew what a meeting with the new Alpha in the training room meant.

Whenever an heir—or any werewolf—was about to take the mantle of Alpha, they had to prove themselves to the pack. Just because your parent was Alpha didn’t mean you automatically had the right. It used to be that way until the eighteenth century when the werewolf civil war occurred, back when the councils didn’t exist. The councils were formed almost a decade after the werewolf civil war ended, and they were the ones to create the rule. It was a way to prevent those unworthy of holding the mantle from becoming Alpha and was meant to meant to prevent abuse of power. For the most part, it worked, but there were still some outlier packs that all of us were wary of, but they never technically broke the rules, so the councils couldn’t touch them.

Today in the training room, any high-ranking member of the pack who was of age could challenge Sebastian for his role. There would only be ten challenges allowed. If we allowed anyone who wanted to challenge him to try, there would be way more than ten. It wouldn’t be fair to ask Sebastian to fight that many back-to-back and chances were he’d end up failing. Even ten seemed like a lot to ask him to fight, one right after another, but the role of Alpha was an important one, and we needed someone strong to lead our pack.

In some packs—particularly a pack up in Alaska and another in Oregon—they would punish anyone who challenged the future alpha and failed, resulting in hardly anyone challenging them. But that wasn’t how we did things here. We welcomed the show of strength from our alpha and for him to prove he deserved the position.

Aspen kept watching me throughout breakfast and during our walk to the training facility. Even when our friends Finn and Leon tried talking to him, he kept watching me, halfheartedly joining in on the conversation.

Ignoring Aspen’s weighted stares, I listened in on the nearby conversations, particularly the group of girls around my age. It was no surprise they were talking about Sebastian. He’d always been good-looking, there was no denying it, and he had good genetics on his side. I had little doubt he’d only grown more attractive over the years. No doubt there’d be many girls throwing themselves at him, both because of his looks and because they wanted to be with the Alpha.

The Alpha’s mate didn’t have any power or a leadership role. They weren’t higher ranked over the beta or the others, but many had it in their mind they’d be able to influence Sebastian. If Sebastian was anything like I remembered, they were in for a rude wake-up call if they thought they could manipulate him.

Sebastian stood in the middle of the training room, his muscular frame accentuated by the athletic clothes he wore. He looked the part of an alpha, with his build and his height that I’d put at around six and a half feet. He took after his mom, with his blonde hair that was several inches long and dark green eyes that carefully took in the crowd.

From what I remembered about him, which wasn’t too much since he was five years older than me, he’d always been on the more stoic side—and based on what he was displaying, it seemed to have intensified over the years. It was most likely a side effect of witnessing his mother’s death when he was a child. After her death, he, his younger brother, and his father had only grown closer. His brother wasn’t here, having gone to college on the West Coast, and I wondered if he’d been told about his father. I would’ve thought he’d have wanted to be here for his brother’s big moment.

Any possible grief Sebastian might’ve felt was hidden away, showing no emotions as he patiently waited for everyone to get situated.

I didn’t even attempt to stand on the bottom floor, surrounding the mat in the middle where Sebastian stood. Instead, I chose to go up to the balcony overlooking the training room, but even so, it was packed up here. If it weren’t for Aspen, I probably would’ve been shoved back from the railing.

“So that’s Sebastian?” Aspen asked, resting his forearms on the railing. He, like Cass and Finn, hadn’t lived on pack lands when Sebastian was here. This would be theirs and several other’s first impressions of him.

Once it seemed like everyone was here, Haden stepped onto the mats and came to stand beside Sebastian. He was dressed in a way that suggested he wouldn’t be challenging him, which would be his right if he wanted. I scanned the crowd surrounding the mats—where those who wanted to challenge Sebastian stood—but I didn’t see his son there either.

“Welcome.” Haden’s booming voice filled the room, silencing the hushed whispers. “Today, Sebastian will prove his worth in front of the pack. Let the first challenger take their place and see if they can defeat the heir!”