Alpha Eric: Book 2 of The Alpha Series

3. Crimson Moon Pack

Eric

After graduation, I went to Crimson Moon to train with the former Alpha Curt and his son, Alpha Grayson. As I traveled there, I remember when I was young, dad and he got together to train the Lycan warriors for two weeks. One week was spent at Hunter’s Moon and one week at Crimson Moon. While everyone was at Hunter’s Moon, my mom wasn’t left alone for a second and dad kept such a close eye on her you would think that he didn’t trust her. I hope I’m never as overprotective of my mate as he is of her.

When I arrived at Crimson Moon, I was taken to the packhouse by the warriors that picked me up from the Airport. In the packhouse, an omega was waiting to show me to my room while I was here. It was located on the second floor and was the same size as my room back home. I placed my things down and changed into clothing to train in.

I left the packhouse and listened as the warriors trained loudly on the field not far from the packhouse. I followed the sound of fighting and soon saw the field. Their warriors were training in groups and in pairs. This pack had as many warriors as we did, but they were louder and much more aggressive.

I watched some of the groups for a moment before scanning the field for Curt and Grayson. I found them with no problem. I had met them before, so I knew who I was looking for. I made my way around the field towards them while they trained together. When I reached them, I stopped to watch as they grappled with their shirts off, pushing and shoving one another while trying to gain the upper hand. They were closely matched in their pursuit of dominance.

When they were done, they stood up and turned to me while sweating and breathing hard. Grayson walked up and put his hand out to me with a smile as he panted.

“Welcome back to Crimson Moon, Eric,” he said as I took his hand to shake.

“It’s good to be back,” I told him.

Grayson stepped aside to get water while Curt looked me up and down before saying, “You’ve grown considerably since the last time I saw you, pup. Has your dad been working with you a lot?”

“Yes, sir,” I said respectfully.

“Good. I’ll have you train with Grayson first so I can see what you know and how well you learn from your opponent,” Curt told me.

“Yeah. Have me work him now after you’ve worn my ass out,” Grayson grumbled.

Curt shrugged and smiled while saying, “it’s good for you.”

Grayson shook his head before I moved to warm up and we started our training session. I grappled and sparred with Grayson for what felt like an hour, tossing him when I got the upper hand and getting tossed in return.

I felt like I was a close match for him, until Curt said, “stop going easy on him.”

Grayson seemed to have hidden methods and strength that I knew nothing about. I tried my damndest to keep up and fight back but I was outmatched. He pinned me several times and put me in holds that I had to tap out of.

When Curt called an end to the match, I was relieved to have a break, but I felt my ego break a little. I was bested and very easily, making me realize that I wasn’t as good a fighter as I wanted to be. Why wasn’t I as strong as Gryason? What did I need to do and learn to be better?

“Get out of your head, pup,” Curt ordered out at me.

I turned to look him dead in the eyes. He could read others really easily and that irritated me too, even if it was helpful.

“You’re only eighteen and your dad has three of you to work constantly. You just got access to your Lycan, so it’s going to take a little time to build up your strength and abilities, but I’m not going to go easy on you while you’re here. You will learn and you will train for long hours. The more you do, the better you will get,” he told me.

I nodded my head in understanding and wondered why he was being nice to me at the moment. I’ve always known him to be a hardass, so what was going on with him?

“Now I’ll teach you some of the techniques that Grayson was using on you that were obviously new to you. Grayson, you can go do your Alpha duties,” Curt said.

It was like he was in some ways still in charge here, even if he wasn’t the active Alpha. Grayson told us bye and I trained with Curt for the rest of the morning. I was so happy when lunchtime came. I wanted a rest but I knew my day of training had only started.

We ate a meal of rice, beans and buffalo steaks in the packhouse dining hall before going back out to train our wolves and our Lycan’s. It was easy to see that all I would be doing while I was here was training. There would be no time for me to search the pack for my mate. That would only distract me though.

I was so sore and tired by the time the day was done and dinner had been served. Curt looked tired too, but he didn’t seem to slow down for a second. He had discipline that I wanted to mimic if I could. We ate dinner and he left the packhouse to go to his new house while I climbed the stairs slowly to my room. I showered and collapsed on the bed to fall asleep.

The next day was the same as my first, but I was being pushed harder than before. Curt’s attitude changed overnight and now he was the hardass that I was used to seeing. It was like he seemed to hate me for some unknown reason and wasn’t going to go easy on me anymore.

The third day of training came and Curt pushed me even harder to train even more. His attitude towards me pissed me off, so I fought harder, initially giving him what he wanted. He was a little happy with me by the end of the third day, but not completely impressed.

I trained at Crimson Moon for two weeks before I was done. Alternating between human, wolf and Lycan forms. I learned that Curt did this with Grayson all the time and then, when Alpha Wyatt and Alpha Miguel had access to their Lycans, he had trained them too.

Riot trained hard with Curt's wolf, Whiskey, but didn’t really train with Grayson’s wolf, Brewer. Hati did get to train with Ares and Thrax constantly. I was here mostly for human and Lycan training, not my wolf. Hati was strong and learned quickly from Ares, which made me happy.

When my two weeks were over, I wasn’t expecting my mom to show up to take me home. I had just finished training with Curt when I saw her watching us from close by. I smiled when I saw her and rushed to wrap her up in a hug. She pushed against my chest and grumbled before making a disgusted sound.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“You’re gross. Go take a shower before you get on the plane with me. I’m not smelling you the whole way home,” she chastised me.

“Oh, come on. It can’t be that bad and I missed you,” I whined.

“You can give me a hug once you're clean, because I don’t want to smell like moldy grass.”

“I smell like moldy grass?” I asked in shock.

“Yes. I much rather you smell like your normal clean cut grass, thank you,” she said in irritation.

I smiled and said, “fair.” I turned to look at Curt and asked, “Am I done?”

“Yes, go get ready to leave with your mom,” he told me.

“Thank you,” I told him.

“You’re welcome,” he told me while nodding his head.

I turned to walk away while grabbing a water bottle and leaving my mom with Curt. As I walked away, I listened to them talk about how I did. I really didn’t want to listen to him complain about me, so I blocked it out.

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Jamie

There’s nothing worse than a gross and smelly teenage boy thinking he needs to hug you. My children are assholes and I don’t appreciate their crap. As Eric walked away to go shower, I turned my attention to Curt. He hadn’t changed in the almost twenty years I had known him.

“How did he do?” I asked.

“Good. I had to push him pretty hard and then had to piss him off to get what I wanted out of him, but the two weeks did him good.”

I nodded my head and said, “I didn't get a phone call saying that you were mean, so there’s that to be happy about.”

He grunted and asked, “how’s training coming along with the other two boys?”

We started walking towards the packhouse after Eric. I could smell Curt’s scent as he walked next to me with his shirt off. Their training had been intense with how sweaty they both were.

“Good, as far as I know. Cameron trains them, not me, and I hardly ever go out there because of the twins.”

He nodded his head and told me, “Eric’s strong and if he continues to push himself he will get stronger.”

“I’ll make sure he remembers that. Have you thought about getting the others together again for another training week or something?” I asked.

“I have, but I’m not sure where to host it yet.”

“You don’t want to do it here?”

“No. If we do it again, it needs to be somewhere all of us can focus on just training. At a pack territory there are too many distractions. For example, she-wolves that want to watch a young unmated Alpha try to prove himself.”

We had stopped walking and were standing in front of the packhouse now.

“I can see how that would be a distraction. If you need help with a location, just reach out,” I told him right as my hair blew into my face.

I moved my hair out of my face and I watched as Curt was looking at my hair intently. I looked at him with a frown on my face, wondering what the hell he was looking at. Was there a bug in my hair?

“Ma’am, you have gray in your hair,” he said, looking from my hair into my eyes.

I glared at him and retorted, “says the man that has gray all in his sideburns.”

He laughed loudly and said, “at least we are aging gracefully.”

“I am. I don’t know so much about you. You look like you could do with a drink and a week's worth of sleep,” I told him.

He laughed more and said, “Yeah. That sounds amazing right now. It was good to see you, but I’ll let you get going, little one.”

There it was. The nickname I couldn’t escape from with him. I never did ask him why he called me that but he always has.

“Alright, it was good to see you too,” I said as I smiled.

He lightly smiled back at me before he turned and left me at the porch of the Crimson Moon packhouse. I looked at the porch before I glanced back at Curt to see him walking away to his new home. His broad back glistened with sweat from training with Eric. The scent of the cold ocean spray in a birch tree forest retreated with him. I found it odd that his scent never repulsed me like everyone else's did. Cameron’s was the only one that I loved the smell of after training, but everyone else after training just stunk.

I turned my attention to the packhouse and walked inside. I was going to say hello to Grayson while I was here and sit with him until Eric was ready to go. It’s funny how comfortable I have gotten over the years with any and every pack. All of them had become home.