Wunderhein Academy: Book 1- Awakening

“Hey over here!”

Catai eyed the laughing boy that was signalling his friend to the spot he had saved in the mess hall.

She was watching all of them now, not trusting them after what had happened.

Luckily no one would think it was strange that she sat alone by the wall. She had been sitting here ever since she had first arrived.

Only this time she had hidden the knife that had come with her meal next to her on the bench.

She wouldn’t be caught again.

“Who the idiot that stole the mustard?”

Catai frowned; looking towards the mustard guy, then went back to trying to cut her sausage with the side of her fork.

Suddenly she found herself being lifted up by back of her shirt to be displayed to everyone in the mess hall.

Her heart was beating so quickly she was sure it was going to explode.

She flung her foot back, connecting it with some part of her assailant’s body. A shin she guessed. A spew of colourful words flew over her head, drowned out by a husky laughter.

“She got ya there Lexie.”

“Shut up Dmitri.” She was jerked up higher to be paraded before the other boys.

“ ZATK’NIS!” The voice above her yelled.

Silence soon filled the hall as Catai felt every pair of eyes on her. She took a chance to peer through the strands of her hair to see who was holding her, instantly recognizing the guy from the bathroom.

“This kid belongs to me.” The announcement was made clearly in a cold yet confident voice. “Anyone who hurts her will answer to me. Anyone who wants her is welcome to challenge me for her. Is that understood?”

There were a few nods and grunted responses but it was obvious that all the others understood the message loud and clear.

He put her down.

Now it was painfully obvious he was taller than her. He would maybe be good looking if he wasn’t scowling like that. He looked at her and his eyes froze her to the bone. They were so cold. Like a deceptive lake covered in ice waiting for you to step on it so you can fall through.

His companion behind him, a skinny creature of skin, bones and teeth was even taller. Dmitri, if she heard right, was digging a finger in his ear and looked bored to tears.

“From now on, you will not leave any room without me. Is that understood?” The boy with the Ice-eyes ordered.

She barely managed a nod. Her hand began sliding for her knife.

“Finish your food. And don’t sit here. It makes you an easy target. Sit further on the bench.” He turned and walked away to join his team-mates where they were sitting, leaving her speechless. The skinny creature followed him, looking back to smirk at her.

Shivering, she took the advice and moved closer inwards the bench. However, she clutched onto the knife as if it was a life-saver. Fear gripping her tightly.

The noise level in the mess hall rose again once the two were seated. Whoever they were, they were important, Catai decided. Which meant they were bad news.

“What was that about? You keeping the only girl here for yourself?” Boris was practically bouncing around in feverish excitement at the idea. “Think anyone will be dumb enough to challenge you, Captain?”

“Shut up Boris.” Dmitri pushed the smaller youth who ended up falling onto the floor making the group laugh. “Off-limits, eh Lexie?”

“You said we didn’t have to talk about it.” Aleksei grumbled as he attempted to eat.

“I said I didn’t want to know.” Dmitri corrected, playing idly with a fork, using it to pick at his fingernails. “I had a good guess though. Ya were really mad when ya came back from the toilets yesterday.”

“You saw her in the toilets?” Boris looked at Aleksei in awe. “What did she look like?”

“She looks like a person Boris.” Aleksei snapped at the youth. “Now eat your food.”

Ivan looked up surprised but as usual, kept his opinion to himself. At this moment Aleksei was thankful for the Giants silence. He didn’t need someone else to explain his decision to.

“She survived longer than I thought.” Dmitri glanced her way with that evil grin he had that made him look like he planned on killing someone. “Pasha’s gonna be jealous.”

“Pasha’s not my boyfriend,” Aleksei responded irritably. “And all of you remember just because she is joining us doesn’t mean you all can pamper her. She’ll earn her cuts the way we all did. She’s just falling in with us. She’s also off limits Dmitri. She’s Alpha Pack.”

Aleksei looked up at his 2nd in command with his last words. Dmitri pouted.

“Do...do we have to call her meat sack? I mean...” Boris tilted to look at her before lowering his voice. “It is a girl....”

Aleksei didn’t need to be reminded.

Every time he closed his eyes all he saw was her on the floor in her torn shirt, bruises showing while Balco hovered above her. Not that it wasn’t a rare position for a meat-bag to be in if he was weak. That was the system. Only this was a girl. The system didn’t cover girls. Aleksei closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose to fight off a headache that was threatening. A mistake since frightened eyes flashed in the back of his mind. Balco’s leering face vanished to one that was laughing. The laugh was silent but not pleasant. Aleksei quickly opened his eyes, coldness gripping him as he recalled the same look on the previous Alpha Pack captain.

“Ya ok Lexie?”

Aleksei turned to meet Dmitri’s eyes. The Shark’s face was expressionless but he must have been thinking of the same thing too by the way he was bending the fork in his hand.

“Ya ok Lexie.” Aleksei heard the question again in the back of his head. This time by a younger version of the Shark. They had both just been whipped. Dmitri was pressing a dirty rag against Aleksei’s back to stop the bleeding. “Ya ok?”

Laughter caught Aleksei’s attention. He turned to look at the neighboring table, watching them make fun of the girl.

“Idiots.” Aleksei muttered before picking up his spoon to start on his porridge.

“She’s pretty.” Boris remarked shyly, interrupting his captains mid-bite into his meal. The statement made Aleksei frown before glancing at her.

He wasn’t sure if he would go so far as to call her pretty. He had noticed she was short when he picked her up. She definitely had the features of a young boy trying to grow. Scraggly limbs with a soft face. She could have been a twin to Boris if it hadn’t been for the bruise on her face. That was most likely the only real interesting thing about her.

That and her fear had smelt funny.

“At least those following her ain’t off-limits.”

“Shut up Dmitri.” Aleksei replied, feeling rather annoyed with the situation. He was so stupid. He had said he would never take another member after they had Boris. The bigger the pack, the bigger the trouble. Aleksei glared at his friend, finding Dmitri grinning in that crazy manner of his in the girl's direction. “And stop staring at her like she’s a piece of meat.”

“Someone’s in a mood.” Dmitri laughed as he continued to play with his fork, bending it into a bad work of art.

“Forget it.” Aleksei looked down at his plate, sighed then pushed his plate away. There went another meal down the drain. A grunt made Aleksei look up and find Ivan’s eyes narrowed in his direction, looking from him to his food.

“Can I use my Rat-scratcher?” Boris asked excitedly, altering the mood at the table.

“Fine, as long as you promise not to any un-necessary torture.” Aleksei agreed, picking up a piece of twig he carried around out of habit and began to gnaw on it. “You’re down to your last clean uniform as it is.”

“And Ivan keeps tally.” Aleksei could feel Dmitri’s eyes on him. “Ya may be the Captain but ya counting skills suck.”

Aleksei smirked. “Poor baby hates the idea that I take out more people than he does?”

“Only since you bore them with your entire knowledge, Captain.” Boris joined in, giggling.

“Speaking of knowledge, there’s a rumor going around that Balco was put in ICU yesterday.” Dmitri added casually. “They say it was done with that Spine-crash signature move ya like so much Captain.”

The others looked at Aleksei.

“That’s why I hate rumors.” Aleksei replied shrugging casually. “Lots of people can copy my move.”

“Did you really wipe him out Captain?” Boris’s jaw dropped.

“Boris, we’re in a school training us to fight remember? Besides, you’d wipe us all out with your lack of hygiene.” Aleksei stood up “Come on. Classes are going to start soon. We better get the new kid.”

“Do you think she like cookies?” Boris jumped up eagerly from his seat.

Ivan was slower in getting up.

“I can think of stuff I like.” Dmitri nudged Aleksei. “Watch this.”

He took his fork and aimed it at the nearest trash can. It missed going in, hitting one of the students walking by instead that was in a lab-coat.

“Hey.” The student yelled out. “Watch were you throw that thing. You can take an eye out.”

“That’ll teach the med.” Dmitri laughed, ignoring the complaints from the other student. “Filthy Trash.”

Aleksei shook his head in mild amusement.

“Filthy Trash indeed.” Aleksei agreed with a hard smile.

“Hey watch it.”

“We’re going to ‘The Nest’ later.”

“I’m finally going for my Cuts.”

“Why’s the Wolf taking on Meat-bags?”

“Why else?”

The laughter following the question caught Catai’s attention, making her look up from her food. The youths that looked back at her sneered and snickered as they went past. She swallowed before pressing herself as far back against the seat as she could, her back hitting the cold wall. Her actions made the others laugh more but they went on, leaving her alone,

For a moment she felt confused. Were they really going to leave her alone just because the other boy had told them to? She recalled the conversation just before the boys had laughed. She didn’t know what why else was but she didn’t think she wanted to know.

She reached for her knife and slipped it into her oversized sleeve. At least she had that now to protect her.

Quietly she tried slipping out of her seat, hoping no-one would notice her. She had reached the end of the seat when her exit was blocked by a barricade of bodies.

“Didn’t I tell you to wait for us?”

Slowly Catai lifted her eyes to find the boy from earlier, his hands on his hips as his piercing blue eyes glared at her.

With him was the scary guy from earlier that had been called Dmitri. The others where a giant with his arms crossed, hiding behind him was a smaller boy sneaking out to look at her.

“Well?” The leader of the group asked, his eyes narrowing.

Catai backed up in her seat. The action seemed to annoy the leader more by the look on his face.

“We don’t have time for this.” He snapped. “Ivan.”

The giant uncrossed his arms and stepped forward, picking her up with ease out of the seat.

“No, hey.” She protested in fear, the words from the laughing boys earlier coming back to haunt her. “Let me go.”

“This is boring.” The one called Dmitri yawned. “I was hoping for a fight.”

“We’ll fight later Dmitri.” Aleksei began to turn away. “Come on. We’ll be late for class.”

Catai tried to wiggle out of the giants grip but found herself stuck as he began walking, following his leader.

A few minutes later they were outside her class.

“Drop her Ivan.” The Leader ordered.

Ivan obeyed and she fell onto the ground. Some of the students walking by laughed. Even Dmitri seemed to find what had happened amusing.

The youngster’s eyes widened but didn’t move from his spot next to his captain.

Catai rubbed her bottom, tears stinging her eyes when she found herself pulled up by her arm by Captain.

“Go.” He pushed her inside the Classroom impatiently.

She turned back to ask how they had known she was meant to be there. Only to find them already walking away and separating to their own different destinations.