A Morning In The Life Of A Wolf
1687 Words
Jonathan POV
The following morning, Dave poked his head into the room before he left and asked if we'd like to come to training with him, then accompany him on patrols. "Give you boys a glimpse of pack life," he told us.
"That'd be great!" Jameson replied, trying to sound enthusiastic but yawning at the same time. He looked over at me. "Bro? You up for that?"
I stretched and sat up. "Yeah, I'm up for it." I looked over at Dave. "Can you give us about ten minutes?" I asked.
He nodded. "Yes, of course. I'll be waiting for you in the living room."
Jameson stood up and stretched as I swung my legs over the side of the bed. Within a few minutes, we were both ready and made our way to the living room, where Dave was sitting on the couch, scrolling through his phone. He looked up at us and smiled.
"You boys ready to go?" he asked.
We both nodded. "We're ready," I told him.
"Not without breakfast, you're not!" Linda called from the kitchen. She poked her head around the corner. "Biscuits and gravy and scrambled eggs are ready."
My stomach rumbled loudly, and we all laughed. "I guess my stomach agrees," I told them.
Dave checked the time on his phone. "I've got about a half hour before I have to be there," he informed us. "It's only about a five minute run from here to the packhouse, so we should have just enough time to eat."
We all gathered around the table just as we had the night before.
"So what all does your job involve?" Jameson asked Dave.
"Basically, I help patrol the borders to make sure no one enters without permission," Dave told us. "Sometimes I get assigned to other tasks, like last week I escorted the current Luna, the former Luna and her daughters when they went out to do some shopping. The Alpha always sends at least four of us warriors along with the Luna, the former Luna, or his sisters whenever they leave pack territory. Those ladies are anything but weak, especially Luna Ana, but Alpha Terrance worries that our enemies will try to target them anyway. The quickest way to weaken an Alpha is to take out his Luna, and if not his Luna, then other loved ones. Our Luna is more than capable of taking care of herself, but the Alpha is still protective of her. Funny thing is, she could take out way more rogues than the four warriors he sends, but it makes him feel better to have her protected."
I nodded. "I can understand. She's important to him."
Dave and Linda both smiled. "Important is an understatement," Linda told us. "The loss of a mate can literally kill a werewolf. Losing the Luna could kill our Alpha, if he weren't strong enough. Our Alpha is strong, so he would most likely survive, but he'd be severely weakened."
I was surprised at that. "Wow! I knew that mates are important, but didn't realize they were that vital."
Dave nodded. "That's why a lot of werewolves are so nervous about finding their mates. It's nerve wracking sometimes, having someone in your life that's that important for your own survival. It's like having your heart walking around outside of your body." As he spoke, I saw him reach over and squeeze Linda's hand. "It's a bonus when you get a mate that's as amazing as my Linda here."
She blushed. "Oh, you smooth talker, you," she pretended to chastise him, a smile on her face.
He smiled at her, and for a minute it's like they forgot there was anyone else in the room as they got lost in each other's eyes. Jameson let out a subtle little cough to remind them they weren't alone. Dave quickly looked back at us with a smile, and Linda stood up to take her empty plate to the sink and refill her coffee cup.
"So how do you know when you find your mate?" Jameson asked. "How do you know she's 'the one'?"
"Well, with us werewolves, it's their scent," Dave explained. "For example, if one of you were to smell of Linda, you'd probably smell her soap or whatever perfume she's wearing. To me, though, she always smells like oranges and vanilla. To her, I always smell like cinnamon and apples. I think it's the same for Lycans, but I'm not sure. Plus the sparks that I feel when I touch her, and vice versa, is intense, even after twenty two years."
"That's really cool," I replied. "There's so many cool things about this world, and that's one of them. I thought we would have to date several women for years before we each met our future wives. Now we find out that we'll know instantly when we meet the right one, and it'll be the same person for each of us. Amazing!"
Linda smiled and nodded. "It really is. I never dated anyone until I met Dave. All through school, I would have boys ask me out, but I wanted my mate to have my first everything - first date, first kiss, to be my first boyfriend, everything. So I politely declined all of them. Most of them took it pretty well," she added with a laugh.
"Most of them?" I asked.
"There was this one kid, Eddie, that was sure I was his mate," she explained. "He didn't take it well when I turned him down. I was five days shy of being eighteen, and I told him if he was my mate, I'd go out with him, but if not, I wouldn't. On my 18th birthday, I walked into school, and straight into Dave's arms. He just happened to be standing by the door, and I caught his scent and knew he was mine and I was his. Eddie was so mad! He tried to grab me later that day, and I knocked his front teeth out. He tried to fight Dave too, and Dave knocked him out. But he healed, a few weeks later he found his own mate, and now they're ridiculously happy with four pups. All's well that ends well."
Dave looked up at the clock on the wall. "We better get going or we're going to be late for training. Gamma Cody will have my butt if we are." He stood up and carried his empty plate and cup to the sink, and Jameson and I followed suit.
"Tell Davina to give me a call later," Linda told him. Then she turned to us. "I hope you boys have a great time today!"
We smiled at her. "Thanks!" we said in unison as we walked outside.
Dave kissed her and then followed us out. "Actually, boys, I forgot, Linda tells me you two can't shift because of some black magic stuff, so we'll drive over to the packhous," he told us. He walked over to the older model blue Chevy Silverado parked in the driveway and climbed into the driver's seat. I climbed into the passenger seat, and Jameson, after asking Dave if he could, settled himself into the bed of the truck.
"If I can be so nosy, may I ask who Davina is?" I asked Dave. I know it was none of my business, but I found myself wanting to know everything about this pack.
Dave smiled. "My twin sister. She's a warrior too."
"Is she the only female warrior in the pack?" Jameson asked.
Dave shook his head. "Not by a long shot," he replied.
As he said, it only took us a few minutes to get to the packhouse, which was a massive five story mansion surrounded by trees, with the exception of a big field off to one side that was currently full of warriors, both male and female, who were stretching their muscles and getting ready for the training session Dave had told us was the first thing on the agenda today. I was anxious to start the research into finding our birth family, but honestly, my curiosity about the inner workings of pack life was winning out over that at the moment.
When we got out of the car, a big, muscular, dark skinned man with short black hair walked over to greet us. I could feel a powerful aura coming off of him, but curiously, it didn't affect me like I would've thought.
'That's because we outrank him,' Damien told me. 'He's the Alpha, but we're Lycan royalty, so we outrank him.'
'We do?' I replied, surprised. 'That's pretty awesome.'
"Good morning," the dark haired man greeted us as he walked up, holding out a hand for us to shake. "I'm Alpha Terrance. Welcome to Whispering Pines."
"Good morning," we replied, both of us shaking his hand in turn and introducing ourselves as we did.
"So, Dave tells me you'd like to get a look at how pack life works," he said.
We nodded. "I'm really fascinated by it all," I told him.
He smiled. "Well, then, what are we waiting for?" he asked.
He walked with the three of us over to where all the warriors were gathered. Some were stretching, and others had begun to spar with each other. I watched in fascination as they seemed to actually go after each other. There were no pulled punches, no light taps, nothing. I saw more than one of them bleeding, and mostly all of them already had bruises on them.
"Wow, you guys don't play, do you?" I asked Alpha Terrance.
He shook his head. "The way we look at it is, we're training to fight for our lives and our pack members' lives if we need to. The enemy won't pull punches, so neither will we. Besides, we're wolves. These cuts and bruises will heal by tonight, and broken bones only last a day or two."
I nodded. "Makes sense."
Alpha Terrance grinned. "So. Which one of you wants to go first?"
"First for what?" Jameson asked.
"Sparring," he replied.
"With who?" I asked.
He grinned. "Me."
- Writer
