Wunderhein Academy: Book 1- Awakening

“Hey, watch where you’re going meat-bag.”

“Get out of the way.”

“Watch where I’m walking.”

Catai ignored the grumbles from the students making their way around her on their way to their class before lunch. The place seemed different from the other hallways she had walked in, with students crowding around her from all sides. It seemed more like an intersection that linked most of the passageways together. She never recalled using it before and for a brief moment wondered if they were taking it for Aleksei to make a point.

She noticed the slight turn of Aleksei's head, enough to check that no one was attacking her before he looked away again.

She didn’t think they dared hurt her with him around. Instead, they all eyed her like she was some kind of sludge before moving around her.

She swallowed before stopping altogether, wondering if Aleksei was even paying attention to her.

Maybe she could slip away in the crowd. She took a deep breath before taking another but felt her arm being grabbed.

She was about to scream as she was pulled out of the crowd to the lesser crowded area of the passage.

In a somewhat nimble twirl, she found herself facing the grinning features of Dmitri.

“Hey.” His smile widened as he looked her over. "I caught a catfish.”

“Let me go.” She pounded him with her free fist, her scream dying in her throat. She felt like being sick when she noted the dried blood on his shirt from the fight earlier.

“Dmitri, let her go.” At the familiar growl of their captain, Dmitri seemed to perk up. Instead of obeying, he drew Catai into a one-armed hug. His arm covered her shoulders and she dropped her bag to try and pull them off, scrapping her fingers against his skin.

“Awe.” Catai heard a teasing note in Dmitri’s voice. “And miss all the fun?”

“Dmitri…” She saw Aleksei’s eyes narrow. The corner of his mouth lifted into a snarl.

“Mine.” Dmitri lowered his head next to hers. “Ya weren’t watching.”

“Do we have to do this now?” Aleksei removed the pencil from his mouth that he had been chewing. ”We have class.”

”Exactly.” Dmitri laughed next to her ear. “We do this now.”

“Hey guys.” A cheerful voice interrupted as Boris joined them. He blinked in surprise seeing Dmitri hold her.

“Boris.” She called, holding out an arm. “Help me.”

“Hey.”…Boris looked up at Aleksei in confusion for a moment. “Are we allowed to hug her?”

“Oh for…” Aleksei rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Boris, she’s a person, not some weird object.”

“Yeah Rat.” Catai heard Dmitri chuckle. “Come hug her.”

“Dmitri do not encourage him.” Aleksei snapped but Boris was already shyly putting his arms around her.

Boris smelt like dirt and sweat, breaking up the salt, blood and cigarette smell that clung to Dmitri. Boris was roughly the same height as her but he hunched over slightly as he put his arms around her waist like he was hugging a teddy bear. The tips of his hair rubbed against her cheek. For a moment she felt him squeeze her. It didn’t feel like when the other boys did it. This one seemed like he was afraid that she wasn’t real.

“I’m glad you’re here.” She could have sworn she heard him whisper.

“Mmm.” A deep voice interrupted them. Boris jumped away from her as if he had been caught doing something he shouldn’t.

“Behemoth.” Dmitri greeted before holding her out to Ivan. “Wanna try? Better than cookies.”

Catai glanced at Ivan who seemed to study Dmitri around her.

Another bell went.

“There, are you happy?” Aleksei threw up his hands in frustration. “We’re officially late for class.”

“Awe. Too bad.” Just as he had grabbed her, Dmitri let her go and began lighting a cigarette. “Here I was looking forward to it.”

“Don’t feed me that rubbish.” Aleksei pointed a finger at Dmitri. “You hate Science.”

“If you’re all done, can I go now?” Catai requested, putting up her hand.

“Sure but it won’t make much difference.” Aleksei crossed his arms. “Being late means the whole team forfeits a chance to go on a hunt. Not that we have a chance with you here anyway.”

“Look I don’t care.” Catai blurted. “I didn’t want to go to class anyway.”

“What?” A dark look descended on Aleksei’s’ face.

Dmitri let out a whistle while Boris let out a squeak and covered his mouth.

“I said I didn’t want to go to this class anyway.” Catai shifted uncomfortably on her spot, wishing she felt as brave as she sounded.

Aleksei stepped towards her, his face filled with rage.

“If I ever catch you skipping class, you get punishment detail. It’s a rule of my team, you go to all your classes.” He warned her. “I don’t put up with stupid people. If you have something better to do then feel free to find another team to do it with. With Alpha your education is important.”

“Look I normally skip this class.” She countered. “It’s the one…”

Her voice trailed off and she shivered as she recalled the incident from the previous day. She crossed her arms around her, biting her lower lip slightly.

“It was the one where I didn’t have to see anyone.” She finished meekly.

Aleksei's frown lifted as if he understood. He turned to his team, pointing his chewed up pencil at them.

“Hold on, didn’t any of you stop for bathroom breaks when you were taking her to class?” He snapped at the others.

She heard Boris gasp. “You mean girls…”

“Wait… I was allowed to take her? ” Dmitri looked genuinely surprised. “I missed out on just us in the bathroom?”

“Oh for…” Aleksei smacked his forehead with his palm. “Come on, let’s get you sorted out.”

“Hold on.” She tried to protest, finding herself blushing. “I’m not some kind of pet that needs to be walked around.”

“You also can’t take care of yourself.” Aleksei pointed out before summoning everyone. “Come on. We’ll all go. We’ll grab an early lunch while we’re at it.”

Dmitri cheered as the group began walking. “Nothing beats an empty Mess hall.”

“We deserve that at least.” Aleksei tapped the end of the pencil against his lip. “I’ll claim training practice for this period then. We can still salvage our hunt points that way.”

“Hear that?” Boris grabbed her arm excitedly. “We can still hunt.”

“What’s a hunt?” She frowned.

“It’s not your problem right now.” Aleksei threw back behind him. “At least not until you can look after yourself.”

“But I…” She tried to explain until she ended up walking into Aleksei's back. He turned around and glared at her before throwing open a heavy metal door.

Her eyes widened as she realized they had walked towards the bathrooms.

“Wait,” She tried to slip out from the group but Boris was still clinging to her and the other guys had seemed to surround her. Instead, she shut her eyes, so she wouldn’t see any naked guys with their pants down. It had happened once or twice before. The incidents had been embarrassing.

She missed the quick glare Aleksei gave her, although she heard his voice. “All of you, out, NOW!”

There was scuffling and a few minutes later, someone was tugging on her hair, laughing.

“Ya ain’t gonna get anywhere if you get embarrassed so easily princess.” She opened her eyes a crack and found Dmitri playfully rubbing her hair between his fingers.

“Go.” Aleksei thumbed towards the deserted stalls.

Catai hesitated but ran towards them, not sure when she would get a chance to use them again.

She checked the door was locked, not wanting one of the guys to come in but from the sounds of it they were too busy sorting themselves out and joking around to be interested in her.

When she was done, she stayed where she was, sitting on the cracked lid of the toilet as she tried to get her thoughts together.

The metal stall walls were covered in graffiti. Names followed by things like ’is a meat-bag.”.

Her eyes drew to one further up that made her frown.

‘Aleksei is a Pretty Boy.’

She blinked, wondering if she had read it right but when she checked it again, the sentence hadn’t changed.

She stood up and ran her fingers over the words of the obvious insult. Was it talking about her leader?

Earlier on when she had been with Boris, they’re captain had been called a Pretty Boy too. She felt a spark of anger as she recalled how hurt Boris had been by the incident. Even if she didn’t like her captain, he did seem to be scaring the other guys away from her. She should be thankful for that at least.

Grabbing a wad of toilet paper she dunked it into the toilet bowl before trying to rub out the writing.

She heard the heavy metal door of the bathroom open.

“Get out of here,” Aleksei commanded. “We’re busy.”

The metal scraped again, closing just as swiftly as it had opened.

“Loser.” Dmitri's voice commented before laughter filled the air. “Hey Kitten, ya gonna be much longer?”

“No,” She called back, examining her effort. She had managed to scrub Aleksei’s name off mostly but flakes of wet toilet paper now clung to the wall.

She rubbed it off and threw the wet lump in her hand in the bowel before flushing it. At least she had tried.

Taking a deep breath, she finally stepped out of the cubicle and headed to the nearest basin.

“Took you long enough.” Aleksei muttered, crossing his arms.

She tried to ignore him and began washing her hands, feeling like a caged animal being observed.

They were watching her with open curiosity. It wasn’t how she used to be watched.

It felt strange.

Finally, Boris braved the distance to stand next to her.

“You wash your hands?” His jaw dropped. “Like a med?”

“You’re supposed to wash your hands.” She halted before drawing a water line down his nose, making him jump back with a squeak.

“Wanna show me how to wash my hands?” Dmitri grinned, taking a step towards her.

She looked at the hand he was holding out towards her. He had long thin fingers. Surprisingly his skin hadn’t been stained from his smoking. His nails were un-even as if he had cut them without really caring, but were still clean.

“Try using soap.” She muttered anyway wiping her hands on her uniform since there were no towels to dry them on. To her surprise, the others laughed.

“So you can talk back.” Aleksei removed the pencil he had been chewing on and seemed to study her with more interest now. “I was starting to think you had a spine made of jelly. We can’t afford dead-weight on our team.”

“Stop saying that.” She yelled, throwing the towel at him. He caught it with ease before it even came close to his face. “I’m not a dead-weight. I can take care of myself. I know how to cook and clean and make jams. My mama always said I was the best at making goose feather pillows and salting pig meat.”

They all stared at her. For a moment she felt as if she had gone crazy. “I’m not useless.”

“Get this straight right now,” Aleksei stepped forward towards her. “Nobody is here to play dollhouse with you. We don’t care that you can do that stuff because it’s useless skills here.”

Catai felt tears prick her eyes. “It’s not….”

Without warning, Aleksei reached out towards her, gripping her hair in his hand forcing her to the ground.

“See.” He muttered, still holding onto her hair. “Useless.”

He pulled her up and threw her towards Dmitri.

Dmitri’s grip was even harder as he forced her head up to look at him and his predatorily smile.

She saw the look of surprise on his face and felt his fingers start running along the side of her face.

The side she tried so hard to hide.

“Would ya look at this beaut?” He told the others as he caressed the birthmark that covered half her face.

“Dimi.” Aleksei growled. “That’s enough.”

Catai felt Dmitri deliberately and slowly lick her cheek before pushing her back towards their captain.

“You let your guard down.” Aleksei caught her with ease, using one arm wrapped across her shoulders, keeping her hostage against him. Although he was talking her, Catai noted he was glaring dangerously at the grinning Second. “Don’t ever do that. It makes you an easy target.”

Catai felt like crying. She hurt everywhere now from their manhandling.

She felt her hair being pushed back and tried to turn her head away. Instead, Aleksei caught her face and forced her back.

“It isn’t a bruise?” She heard him almost whisper, his thumb running lightly over her birthmark.

“Captain?” Boris stepped forward into her view, looking confused.

“What is it, Boris?” She felt the change in the pressure of Aleksei’s grip on her face.

She took a deep breath.

Then tried to stomp hard onto Aleksei’s foot.

“OW.” She yelled out as her foot connected with the floor, sending a sharp pain through her leg.

“Too slow.” Aleksei chuckled.

She tried to reach up and scratch his arm in an attempt to free herself. He didn’t react except to laugh with the others at her attempt to free herself.

“Better.” Aleksei approved. “Always fight back.”

“Everyone has a weakness.” Boris giggled. “The Captain hates being tickled.”

“Boris,” Aleksei was about to reprimand the youngster but Catai was already using this new knowledge to her advantage and began tickling him where she could.

Aleksei immediately let her go, stuck between trying to avoid her fingers and his short bits of laughter. “I’m going to kill you for that Boris.”

Boris stuck his tongue out then turned around and smacked his bottom at his captain in the form of an insult.

“Now ya learning. Care to discover my weakness Kitten?” Dmitri asked giving her that predatory smile again.

“No!” Catai hissed, grabbing the knife she had hidden in her sleeve earlier. She held it out threateningly at the boys. “I don’t want to learn anything from you. Just stay away from me.”

Boris looked hurt at her words. Ivan continued to watch the scene in almost serene silence. Dmitri burst out laughing. “Oooh I’m afraid now.”

“Shut up Dmitri.” Aleksei brushed the front of his uniform once in an effort to compile himself, before tilting his head in her direction. “Ivan.”

Without a word, Ivan moved towards her. The kind soul that had fed her cookies earlier wrapped his hand around the knife and pulled it out of her hand.

Her jaw dropped as he showed no sign of even feeling the blade in his hand.

Instead, he walked towards Aleksei, handing it to the Captain. Ivan didn’t return to her, staying at Aleksei’s side instead with arms crossed like a silent statue.

“What’s this supposed to be? A knife from the mess hall?” Aleksei studied it. “Did you really think you could attack someone with it when you haven’t been trained? Cute. You should have used your Standard Army Pocket Blade. You might have actually done some damage.”

“My what?” Catai trembled as she slipped to the ground. She had been dumb. They had tricked her.

The boys always hurt you.

“You know, that Switchblade set you get when you get here.” Boris snuck up to her, keeping low to the ground but kept his distance as if she were some spooked animal he was trying to pet. “Even a girl should know that.”

“But I didn’t get anything.”

“You would have received one when they gave you the rules.” Aleksei tried to coax her memory.

“But I was never told any rules.” Catai insisted. “A social worker brought me because my dad worked here and that was all. Then I was given some shots so I wouldn’t infect anyone and given a room with my class schedule and uniform. That was all.”

“You don’t know the rules or have a knife.” Now Aleksei was frowning.

“I don’t know what’s going on. You have to believe me! And no-one wants to tell me anything. I was just getting beaten up or called meat-sack or...”

“That’s cause you haven’t earned your cuts.” Boris interrupted.

“Lexie, would they send someone here that hasn’t signed any papers.” Dmitri was frowning now as he turned to the captain.

“I never heard it happen before. Then again we never had a girl here before.” Aleksei replied thoughtfully. “Either way she’s one of us now.”

Dmitri shrugged before slowly studying Catai. “This is gonna be interesting.”

“I still don’t like it.” Aleksei dug into his back pocket and pulled out his pocket knife, handing it to her. “Here, take mine. I don’t use it.”

“Are...are you sure?” Catai hesitated before taking it.

“Yeah, I’m sure. I can pick up a new one. Besides, I said I don’t use it didn’t I?” Aleksei replied, making her look at him in surprise. She could tell he was lying. The length of the amber colored, celluloid handle was about 8,2 cm. The blade of the knife slide out of its handle easily with little prompting from Catai. It was a knife that had worked hard but been well taken care of for its efforts. The other guys also seemed to be surprised by the gesture.

“But Captain…” Boris was about to speak but Aleksei continued on, drowning out the squeaking youngster's words.

“And I’ll arrange a copy of the rules for you. For now, just follow a few things.” He pointed to her. “Forget the notion you’re a weak house girl.”

“Stay loyal to ya pack.” Dmitri Interrupted.

“Salute the guys with cuts.” Boris volunteered.

“Pack pride.” Ivan added with a nod of his head as he gave her a smile as she watched them all in confusion. With quick steps he was back at her side and reached out, patting her head.

“Told ya she was a kitten.” Dmitri smirked.

“Kitten.” Boris jumped up excitedly. “You’re a kitten.”

“I’m not your kitten.” Catai snapped. “I’m not a pet.”

“It’s not what you are.” Aleksei’s response made her snap towards him. “It’s your name.”

“But I have a name.” She protested.

“Meat-bags don’t have names.” The tone in Boris’s voice dropped a notch. “The island takes your name when you get here.”

“It does what?” Catai frowned.

“Boris can explain it to you later.” Aleksei interrupted. He pulled out a small dagger from the sheath in his boot.

“So we naming her?” Dmitri’s eyebrows lifted. “Even without her cuts?”

“Un-officially.” Aleksei lifted her hair. “Maybe it will protect her from the Island.”

“What do you mean to protect me from the island?” Catai began. She felt a tug on her hair as her question was ignored.

Aleksei dropped her hair, letting it fall over her shoulders again. She felt his hand on her shoulder, keeping her in place on the ground as Dmitri walked up to her. A scream rose, getting trapped in her throat as he played with the flick-knife in his hand. She tried to stand but was pushed down once more by Aleksei.

Dmitri slipped to his hunches, watching her with a grin before raising his hand to her face.

She flinched; closing her eyes for a moment then felt a wet mark on her face. She opened her eyes and found him standing up. A smirk on his face as he licked the palm of his hand before licking the blade of his knife.

Silently he held out his hand and was given a lock of hair from Aleksei. Her hair, she realized briefly as Ivan took Dmitri’s place. This time she could see more clearly as he cut himself before touching her face and receiving his token.

Boris followed, his face a full-on smile as he placed his mark on her nose before receiving his own lock of her hair.

Lastly, Aleksei released his grip on her shoulder and went to stand in front of her.

She looked up at him, but his eyes revealed nothing as he took his dagger and cut his own finger.

“From here on out, in Alpha Pack,” He began, marking her face as the others had, “You are known as Kitten. May your namesake lead you until you get your name back.”

“Um… thanks.” The newly named Kitten looked around at the smiling faces of her team-mates.

Boris cheered and ran up to hug her.

“You’re one of us now.” He grinned.

Kitten tried to smile back, wondering what being one of them was going to mean.