The Soldier's Begining

01 So it Begins

“Jessica, hurry up or you’re going to be late.” My father called up the stairs.

“Coming papi!” I called back.

Today was finally the day, I was finally 10 years old. Normally that wouldn't be all that exciting except that I get to start training with the pack. I had been waiting for this day for so long, I spent so many years watching the warriors train. I actually took martial arts classes after school. The classes were in town and all of the other students were human but I learned so much and loved every minute of it. When I was at home I always begged my older brother Jamie to teach me the things he learned in training and he would. We always turned it into a game and would even invite our cousin Nico to come play. We would chase each other around the yard and play fight with each other while our mom and uncle would sit and watch us with joy on their faces. My little brother Jace would cry and want to join in, but mom told him he had to be a little older before he could play too.

Now I get to train for real. I stood in front of my mirror and gave myself one last look. I had my black tank top on with my matching shorts and my brand new running shoes. My mom french braided my hair last night so that I wouldn’t have to mess with my hair this morning. Ii was ready to go.

“Seriously Jess, if you make us late they’re going to make us run an extra 4 miles.” Jamie shouted.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.”

I ran down the stairs as fast as I could, jumping the last 5 and landing on the floor with a loud thud.

“Jessica Jane Santiago! How many times have I told you not to do that? You could hurt yourself! The next time I catch you doing that you’re getting extra chores for a month. Do you hear me young lady?”

“Yes mom, I'm sorry.” I looked at the floor. I truly forgot she told me to not jump the stairs anymore. I was just so excited.

My mother sighed and pulled me into a hug, “It’s alright baby girl, just don’t let it happen again.” She kissed the top of my head. “Now have a good day at training.”

“I will momma, I love you.”

“I love you more.”

With that I ran outside to the car where my father, older brother and cousin were waiting for me.

“It's about time. You know we’re just going to training, why does it take you so long to get ready?” Nico rolled his eyes at me.

“She’s a lady and ladies take longer to get ready.” My father ruffled Nico’s hair and I beamed at them all.

“You can’t rush perfection.” I said slyly.

“Well can perfection get in the car now so we can go?” Jamie already had his door open.

I rolled my eyes at him and got into the car. The training grounds weren’t too far away from our house. It was about a half an hour run, but my dad always drove us there because it was faster and ensured we wouldn’t be late. As we pulled up to the training grounds I felt butterflies in my stomach and I was having a hard time suppressing my squeals of joy. Nico just rolled his eyes at me. He didn’t understand why training was so exciting to me and frankly I didn’t understand it myself. My mother says that I was born with a warrior’s spirit and that’s why I’m so drawn to it. Whatever the reason I felt the most alive when I was training.

We got out of the car and Dad drove off. He had to head back home to take care of the ranch. The three of us walked to the training grounds. Jamie saw his friends and went to join them. Nico did the same, though Nico’s friends were the future Beta and Gamma of our pack with Nico being our next Alpha. Then there was me standing on the edge of the grounds by myself. I didn’t have any friends in the pack. I was bullied a lot, most of the kids my age called me a half breed and other awful things all because my dad is human.

Most of it was easy to block out since all the bullying happened at school. I usually let out my frustrations at my martial arts class where people didn’t judge me and I had real friends.

My previously good mood was shattered when my worst tormentor and his friends got me in their sights.

“Hey, look, it's the half breed. I guess they’ll let anyone train with us.” Ryan Crenshaw, the worst person the moon goddess ever put on this earth. He and all his friends laughed.

Ryan was the reason I had no friends my age. He would mock and ridicule me, push me around, and the worst thing was that others joined in all because he was our future Betas cousin. Before Ryan could continue his assault on my good mood our head warriors Harrison and Davis started training. Harrison and Davis were in charge of training the junior warriors.

All the junior warriors were separated into two groups. One group was first and second year wolves, the second was the 12 to 17 year old wolves. Our head warrior started our training with a two mile run, followed by 50 push ups and sit ups. All of that took about an hour, our next step was sparing. I don’t know if it was a bout of bad luck or Davis just wanted to see what would happen, but he paired Ryan and I as partners.

Ryan got this almost evil look on his face as we stepped in the room. I knew he thought this was his chance to come after me with no consequences. Little did he know, I had 5 years of karate under my belt. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and shook my arms out. I think Ryan saw this as a sign that I was nervous, based on his snide chuckle. The reality was that I was simply relaxing my muscles. I opened my eyes and readied myself.

Ryan had no strategy and just came at me full force, the end result was me putting him on the ground with little effort. I backed while Ryan shook off his shock. When he was back on his feet he had a look of pure rage on his face and came at me again. The result was the same, we did this two more times before he actually stopped to think. He took a minute to ready himself and when he came at me again I actually had to try. It was like he finally figured me out and I ended up on the ground. It didn’t bother me, I just got up and got ready to go another round. Only thing was Ryan barely let me get up before he knocked me down again. This went on for a while, but still I never gave up. This seemed to piss him off because his next attack was more brutal, he hit me repeatedly and so fast I didn’t have time to block all of his punches and I took a few. His final strike was with all his power and I felt my lip split as I fell to the ground on my side. Ryan rolled me onto my back and sat on me, pinning me to the ground. He started raining punches down on me. I had my arms covering my trying to protect my face, I was crying and begging him to stop but he wouldn’t. Suddenly I felt his weight disappear, slowly I lowered my arms to see Davis holding Ryan off the ground by the back of his neck and my uncle, and our Beta running over to us. Our Beta went to Davis and my uncle came to me.

“Jessica are you alright?” He asked as he knelt next to me and took me in his arms. I cried into his chest. “Can you tell me what hurts?”

“My face hurts Uncle Tobey.”

“We’ll get you looked at sweetheart.”

I simply nodded my head and looked up as my brother and cousin ran over. My uncle looked at the Beta.

“See to it your nephew receives an appropriate punishment for this Victor. I’m taking my niece to the pack hospital.”

“Yes alpha.” Beta Victor bowed his head and turned to Ryan.

My uncle picked me and started to carry me off.

“Dad, I'm coming with you.”

“Me too. My dad would be very upset if I didn’t stay with her.”

I looked over my uncle's shoulder and gave a small smile to Nico and Jamie. I knew they were a little overprotective but I liked how much they cared.

“Well then let's go boys.” Uncle Tobey shifted me in his arms and I winced. “Are you ok sweetheart? Does something other than your face hurt?”

“My side hurts a bit.” I said softly. I really didn’t want too much attention, but my uncle was just like my dad and treated me like I was the most precious thing in the world.

“We’ll be sure to tell the doctor. I’m so sorry this happened sweetheart.”

“It’s ok. I’m strong, I'll be fine.” I smiled and winced when I forgot about my lip.

My uncle laughed and kissed my forehead. “Yes you are. You’re so very strong.”

We got to the hospital and didn’t even have to wait for a doctor to see us. Perks of having the Alpha bring you in personally. I was in the examination room for roughly a half an hour. They told me that my ribs were bruised and the cut on my lip looked worse than it was. The doctor said I wouldn’t heal as fast as a full wolf would but I would heal much quicker than a human. My uncle stood in the corner the whole time while Jamie stood next to the bed holding my hand and Nico stood at the head of my bed so that the doctor could do her work. When she was finished he came and stood on my other side and held my other hand.

Once my examination was finished, my parents came bursting into the room. My father took Jamie's spot and my mother stood in front of my uncle with Jace on her hip.

“This is why I didn’t want her to start training this year.” Mom said to my uncle.

“It’s good for her to know how to defend herself.”

“Tobey she’s lying in a hospital bed! How is this a good thing?”

“Diane, calm down.”

I couldn’t see my mother’s face but based on the fact that she placed Jace on the floor told me she was very angry.

“Looks like your Tio made a mistake in telling your Mami to calm down.” My father whispered to me, and I silently giggled.

“Don’t you tell me to calm down.” My mother had her finger firmly pressed into uncle Tobey’s chest. “I don’t see your child laying on a hospital bed. I don’t like the idea of her training with the pack. She’s at a disadvantage and obviously others are going to take advantage of that.”

“So what? You're going to put her in a bubble and have become a helpless little girl. Diane, that's just wrong. Sure ONE kid went a little too far, but this just means that she gets back and gets stronger. That’s what’s good for her.”

“Momma, I want to be stronger. I’m gonna show everyone just how strong I am. I’m going to be the strongest warrior this pack has ever seen.”

“See Diane listen to your daughter.”

“Those are your words coming out of her mouth.”

“You always said she had a warrior's spirit.”

My mother sighed and turned toward my bed. “Roberto what do you think?”

“I think that no matter what we want this little firecracker is going to do what she wants.”

My mother sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Fine.” She let her arm fall to her side and turned to my uncle. “But if she ends up in this hospital bed again, you're getting one right next to hers.”

My uncle put his hand up and looked very frightened. I giggled and he smiled and shot me a wink. My mom laughed, we all knew that she knew full well that my uncle wouldn’t let anything happen to anyone in his pack especially his family. My mom moved out from in front of him and picked up my little brother. My uncle then walked over to my bed and picked me up resting me on his hip.

“Well beautiful, should we go to the pack house?”

I c****d my head to the side and gave him a really confused look. “Why would we go to the pack house?”

“Well because it’s your birthday and Nico has a very special surprise for you.”

“Oooo what is it?”

Nico rolled his eyes at me. “If I told you it wouldn’t be a surprise.”

I crossed my arms and pouted. My uncle chuckled and kissed my forehead and made his way to the packhouse. The walk was short and quiet, I thought it was odd that no one said a word as we entered the packhouse.

My uncle set me down on my feet and Nico came and took my hand. He happily led me into the common area of the packhouse. As soon as we entered the room I saw a very familiar face.

"Abuela!" I dropped Nico's hand and ran into my grandmother's arms. “Best birthday surprise ever!”

My grandmother was one my absolute favorite people in the world. I usually only got to see her during the summer because she lives in Cuba. Abuela was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. My mother was very pretty but Abuela was gorgeous. She was 5'5" with dark tanned skin, from her Cuban blood and spending so much time in the sun. Her hair was black and pulled back into a tight bun. She always wore bright colors.

"Mi Nieta!" She hugged me tightly. When she was satisfied she held me at arms length and took a long look at me. When she saw the cut in my lip she got a very stern look on her face. She didn't say anything, she simply moved along and gave my brother's hugs and kisses.

When Abuela got to my father she stood in front of him with her hands on her hips. Papi looked so scared which made me giggle since Abuela was so much shorter than him.

"Roberto, would you like to explain why it is my granddaughter has an injury on her face?"

Papi placed his hands on Abuelas shoulders and placed a kiss on each of her cheeks. "You look beautiful today Mami."

"Thank you hijo. Now answer my question."

"She started training with the pack today."

"Jamison trains with the pack. Why doesn't his face look like that?"

My father’s side of my family was all human and didn’t know anything about werewolves. When my mother found him and discovered they were mates my father decided that his mother should know what he was marrying into. He said that he was so nervous telling her, but that Abuela surprised him. He told me she never batted an eye and simply shrugged her shoulders saying. “If the chupacabra is real, why not werewolves.”

"She was paired with a long time bully and he took things too far. He has been dealt with."

“Good.” Abuela then turned to me and cupped my face in her hands. “What kind of treat would my little birthday girl like?”

“Apple churros!”

Abuela chuckled and released my face then took my hand in hers. “How could I forget your favorite treat?” With that she led me into the kitchen.