Eudora's Baby

Chapter Four: Training Day

At 6:00 AM sharp, all of the pack members between 10 and 50 were assembled on the grounds, dresssed in their warm winter clothes and grumbling loudly about being roused from bed at an ungodly  hour to come out in the cold and train.

Jasmin rubbed her hands together to keep them warm, and surveyed the rather pathetic group.  She had never seen such an unmotivated and lazy bunch.  Lori had shown up, and was stuck to Jasmin’s side like a second shadow.  Jasmin wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed or honored by the young girls devotion.  Just before Caleb was about to address the assembly, Eudora appeared, followed closely by Jericho.

Jasmin frowned at her, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong,” Eudora pulled a knit cap down lower over her ears, “I’m here to train.”

“Train! You can’t train, you’re—you know!” Jasmin ballooned her hands out over her lean abdomen, mimicking a pregnancy.

Eudora rolled her eyes, “It’s a pregnancy, not a sickness.  And all the more reason for me to stay fit.”

Jasmin looked at Jericho, but Jericho only shrugged helplessly.  “I couldn’t talk her out of it.”

Eudora lowered her voice, “How can I expect these people to accept me if I keep my self separate or hold myself to a different standard?”

Beta Caleb nodded and stepped forward to address the group.  He outlined the plans for mandatory training that Jasmin had written out.  The groups were divided by age, pre-adolescents, juniors, young adults, and the adult group.  Caleb had appointed a group leader to each age group.  Jasmin stood up before them and issued a challenge.  “Anyone who can out-run the Alpha on the warm-up run will be excused from the training.”

There was a lot of snickering, particularly from the young men.  Eudora didn’t look like an athlete, and she was pregnant to boot.  Most of the men and some of the women just figured they’d earned a free pass out of training for the day.  Jasmin winked at her Luna.  “Go get ‘em, Kitty.”

“We’ll start with two miles this week, since most of us have not been in regular training.  That is four laps around the grounds.  Go!”

There was some hooting and shoving as the pack took off to lap the field.  Jasmin, Eudora and Jericho joined the runners, taking their place with the front-most runners.  The boys in the front were going too fast, they were setting a pace that they wouldn’t be able to keep up for the entire run.  But the three members of the Oakridge pack were in peak physical condition.  By the half-mile mark, the leaders were starting to huff and puff, and some of their cockiness was wearing off.  The field had spread out, clearly showing who was in the worst physical condition from who was in the best.  Caleb kept up with the Oakridge runners.  He had always trained hard as Beta.  The group watched in surprise as the girl who claimed to be their alpha sprinted like a deer, still laughing and chatting as though she were simply out for a stroll. Even her companions were now struggling to keep up with her.

In the final lap, Eudora blew a kiss to her husband, and easily pulled ahead.  It didn’t seem possible that someone with legs that short could run so fast, so effortlessly.  It seemed to be the Moon Goddess’s way of compensating for the fact that Eudora wasn’t able to shift.  The pregnant Alpha cleared her final lap and then stood and waited for the rest of the pack to catch up.

Little Lori, slow and awkward, was the last one to shuffle across the finish line.  Jasmin gave her a high five and praised her for the effort.

“Well, looks like everybody will be training today,” Jasmin said cheerfully.  “Lets stretch, people!”

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Eudora heaped up her plate with scrambled eggs, bacon, and sliced avocados.  Since she had become pregnant, she was always hungry, and she could eat anyone under the table.  She sat down at the Alpha’s table across from Jasmin.  Jasmin looked a little forlorn and picked at her food.

Eudora washed down her eggs with a swig of juice.  “What’s wrong Jaz?  I thought the first day of training went great.”

“Yeah I guess.”  Jasmin had put together a great plan, that would push the pack, but not break them.  There would probably be a lot of sore muscles tonight, but no one had been sent to the pack hospital yet.

“So why do you look like someone peed in your cheerios?”  Eudora asked.

Jasmin heaved a big sigh.  “All those wolves… I wandered in and out of all the groups… but I got nothing.  My mate’s not here.”