You Rejected Me. Remember?

Astrea

As expected, the drills weren’t easy. Sir Elliot was a bit stricter than my dad. At times my pouts and puppy eyes would work on my father but Sir Elliot… nope. There was only one way to end a session and that was by ensuring we had pushed our limits. By the time we were allowed to go back to our rooms, we would be tired out. We would be too exhausted to do anything else. Right after dinner I usually go back to my room and sleep.

During the first three days, he made us all join a series of cardio workouts, and then after that began the real training. The first week was combat training. And in the second week, he gave us swords to fight with. I was new at it and I didn’t know how to hold it correctly. But after a few lousy attempts, I managed to grip it correctly. I just had to place my clumsy fingers on the right spots. The second week was hard, yet fun. Learning to use a sword was enjoyable. In addition to that, we were taught defense techniques. How to tolerate and save ourselves in case the enemies used tear gas infused with wolfsbane. Or what to do if they use silver on us.

In such cases, the best thing we could do was to train our bodies to tolerate the poison but that would take time. So we were taught how to minimise making contact with the poisonous substances. The wolves from our pack were already used to rubbing fresh wolfsbane leaves on our skin. It was part of our training to be warriors. All the recruits would have to do it. It stung and at times resulted in blisters on our skin, however, the irritation did get better with time.The wolfsbane would cancel our scent and it could be extremely beneficial for us during a war. That was something we learnt from Elijah, a wolf who joined our pack a few years back.

As time passed I blended in with the wolves and made new friends. Although Leo and Xander didn’t join the training I wasn’t lonely. The wolves who had volunteered from different packs were very friendly and easy to work with.

Among them was Sarah, a girl with auburn hair and blue-grey eyes who was about my age. She had turned eighteen last year, but hadn’t met her mate yet. She was passionate about the training session and eager to learn the new techniques we were about to learn, just like me. She was from the Silver Moon pack. I knew our gamma female, Amara, was also from there.

We had a good relationship with our neighbouring packs, especially Silver Moon. The other pack was the Red Wings pack which was dissolved some years ago. That was aunt Monica’s pack. I really admired her strength. I was very young when she arrived. Despite my tender age, I understood that she went through hell to become strong. She possessed the powers of a vampire, and was an alpha female – the first female alpha I knew. She was the reason I believed that I could lead my pack. I looked up to her. She was my idol and I aspired to be strong like her. If she could be strong, I could also do it if I tried hard enough.

The Elusive Crawlers pack was located a bit further away from us and we seldom negotiated with them. As their name indicated, they were elusive. Yet, when it comes to defending our turf, all of us were fierce and that was exactly why we had gathered in the kingdom. We were going to work together and find out what the rogues are up to.

When I noticed Sarah approaching me, I smiled at her. She handed me my orange juice and sat beside me. We started to sip on our drink. Over the couple of weeks we had trained together, I had grown rather close to her. It was our break and we always had a cold drink to cool us down a bit before Sir Elliot decided to grind us. Arnold, Rafael, and Elena followed her and gathered around us. Arnold was originally from the Red Wings pack, but later his family moved to the Silver Moon pack while Rafael and Elena were my classmates in the Dark Howl pack. We weren’t very close back then, but after joining the team, we were closer than we used to be. Despite having different roots, we were friends, and honestly, I thought they were the best wolves I had met, excluding Leo, of course. We had about fifteen minutes to relax so we would undoubtedly try to make the most of it.

“Guess what happened today in the boys’ changing room?” Laughed Rafael, almost snorting on his iced coffee.

Grinning, I looked at him. “Do tell,” I said. Our break would usually be filled with the crazy stories the boys narrate. With them around, it was never dull. I could see Arnold was turning bright red and Rafael snickered under his breath.

“He brought some fart bombs to the changing room and he threw one of it into one of the stalls and guess who walked out of it? Sir Elliot!”Raphael laughed.

Sarah and Elena snorted on their drinks while Arnold covered his face, groaning. Rafael howled as he bent over in laughter. I tried not to laugh, but Arnold looked too funny not to.

“I can still see the look on Arnold’s face when he saw Sir Elliot. It went from excited to devastated so fast,” Rafael added in between his fits of laughter.

“Why in the world did you take fart bombs to the changing room?” I asked, trying to hold my laughter in.

Groaning, “I thought Rafael was in there. At least some other fellow wolf, not our trainer!” Arnold mumbled.

“Was he angry? Did he say anything?” Sarah asked when she managed to catch her breath.

“Well…he looked dangerous when he asked who threw the fart bomb. He looked like the Grim Reaper. I felt that my soul was leaving my body at that moment,” Arnold replied. “And I think he was looking directly at me. Maybe he knew already.”

“And?” Elena chuckled.

“And, fortunately, this dumb-a*s admitted,” Rafael said, playfully punching Arnold’s arm.

“Yeah. I told him that I thought Rafael was there and that I was sorry. He said nothing else. But took all the fart bombs from me and left,” Arnold scratched the back of his neck as he spoke.

Grinning mischievously, “no more fart bombs?” Rafael teased.

“Shut up, a*****e,” Arnold rolled his eyes, but then beamed at us. “I’ll still get you back somehow for replacing my toothpaste with white glue,” he grumbled, making us all laugh out loud.

“Oh God, I love you guys!” Elena chuckled. I noticed how Rafael shifted. Holding back a snicker I sipped on my cold orange juice. Everyone knew that Rafael liked Elena. He liked her even during our high school years. Elena too knew that, but she was playing dumb since Rafael never confessed his feelings. They would both soon turn eighteen, and hopefully find their mates. I secretly hoped that they ended up together because they were just so cute.

“Time is up! Line up! Now!”

“Time is up! Line up! Now!”

Sir Elliot’s voice boomed in the training arena. I quickly finished my drink and hastily stood up.

“Well, it’s time to get grinded. See you girls later,” Arnold mumbled, standing up to leave. We all lined up and faced our trainer.

We had to team up and spar. The first two rounds were in our human forms and then the next two were in our wolf forms. It was a lot like the alpha training I completed with my dad. I guess the stealthy ninja techniques were saved to be taught to us later. After the final round, we once again lined up while Sir Elliot addressed us.

“This is the end of the third week. After one more week, we will test all of you and will make the final selections. I am happy to say that all of you have made a remarkable improvement. The test is just to see if you could put what you have learnt during this month to use in a time of emergency. Now you all shall disperse,” Sir Elliot announced.

My friends bid me goodbye and left to go to their dorms. Since I stayed in the Palace, I headed in a different direction. As usual, Leo was waiting for me outside. He looked smart and handsome in his faded jeans and a black shirt that clung to his torso like a second skin.

When he flashed his signature lopsided grin, my heart skipped a beat.

Damn it!

Despite my efforts to remain neutral, I keep leaning towards this handsome guy. It was as though I had no control over my emotions.

“Hey, how was training?” He said and pecked my cheek. Grimacing, I stepped back.

“Eww, Leo. I’m sweating,” I mumbled, shoving him away.

Shrugging his shoulders, “I don’t care,” he said and looked at me. The look in his eyes made my heart flutter. It was deep, full of emotions. It felt as though our eyes were communicating in an unknown language. My heart raced and my mouth dropped open, but I didn’t know what to say.

He snickered and raised an eyebrow. “Let’s go? We can’t stay here forever, you know?” he said.

Sucking in a breath, I nodded and looked away from him. As we walked out of the arena, my heart kept beating like crazy, not just because I ended an intense training session, but because of this Greek god walking beside me.

“Change and come out for dinner,” he winked at me and I felt that my breath got caught in my throat. I nodded, trying my best to portray a calm demeanour, and closed the door.

As soon as I was certain that I was alone, I let out a deep breath of air. Inhaling deep whiffs I leaned against the door. I wanted my erratic heart to calm down.

“Well?” I heard Ash. I could almost see her snickering internally.

Taking in deep breaths, I clenched my fists. No. This shouldn’t be happening. It would only hurt more.

“We better find our mate soon,” I told her through our link. “I hope I do,” I added and covered my face.