The Beta's Sister

Chapter 1

Welcome readers! This story is a continuation of "The Warrior's Child". You certainly don't have to read it to understand this book, but you would gain some insight on characters. Either way I hope you enjoy the read!

T. Nikki

P.S. Feel free to join our f.book group -Nikki and the Crew.- We'll be waiting for you.

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Nicole

It’s my official first day of freedom! Okay, maybe not freedom, but at least I get from under the thumb of my parents and am finally able to go to a wolf school. I always wanted to go to a school with other werewolves. Instead of going to a school with humans where I had to hide part of myself. Yesterday, I moved in with my brother and sister-in-law to Dark Moon pack. A pack that is eight hours away from Blue Shadow pack in Pennsylvania where I was born and raised.

Blue Shadow is an interesting place to grow up. It’s small. It’s always been rather small, and it’s super secluded. There isn’t a community of packs in the area. The closest pack is 70 miles north of us, more towards New York and a few more condensed outside of that radius. For this reason, there wasn’t a need to have a wolf school for us pups, so the few of us that are at school age were bussed to a nearby human school.

I guess I could have dealt with one more year, but the humans are annoying. The high school girls are obnoxiously catty. I could deal with it coming from my own species, but it felt beneath me dealing with it coming from them. Plus, for the sake of keeping our identities a secret, we were limited in the amount of extra-curricular activities we could do or who we could be friends with. It all just seemed pointless.

That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to ask Luna Kamaria if I could move here for my last year of high school. I was nervous she would say no and even more nervous my sister-in-law, Summer, wouldn’t want me around. Even though Summer has always felt like a blood sister to me, I worried she didn’t want me in her face 24/7.

Luna gave me the okay and Summer seemed genuinely happy about my decision. I knew my brother would go along with whatever decision his mate made. My mom was upset at first, but my dad talked her into it. I was surprised he was so on board with it from the beginning. I expected my mom to be against it at first, but thought she would come around and actually be the one to convince my dad.

There is still a month before school starts. I wanted to move here early so I could take the time to get myself comfortable with the pack before I jump into the busy life of class schedules. Stephen has been living here for almost six years now and I have always come to visit him with my parents, but living here is going to be completely different than visiting a few days at a time.

Rolling out of bed, I put on a pair of socks and look down at my suitcase that is open on the floor at the foot of my bed. We got in around 6:00 last night and I did not feel like unpacking at all. Even though I just sat in the car for eight hours, I was super tired. I had used the last little bit of strength I had left to rummage through my suitcase for pajamas last night, and crashed on the bed shortly after. Maybe after I have some breakfast I will have the energy to unpack.

I walk out of the room, over to the kitchen. My parents slept in my nephew, Elias's, room last night. Stephen had a bed set up for them and moved Elias’s crib into their room for the time being. I glance over and their bedroom door is still closed. They must still be sleep. The entire house is pretty quiet so I assume everyone is still sleeping.

When I get into the kitchen I make myself a bowl of cereal and take it outside with me to the patio. I sit on the lounge chair that sits alongside the banister, taking in the morning summer air. I can see almost all of the pack grounds. The clinic, parts of the family housing, the forest that encircles the grounds. It’s peaceful and wonderful. I love the view from here. I love any view that gives me a sight of trees. Back home, I would sit for hours just staring at the trees that surround our pack. It was almost like I could hear them call out to me. Probably because I was such a lonely child. I only had one other friend, Alyssa, but she was three years older than me and often busy with her boyfriend. Something I was not interested in for myself, so I would just sit and listen to the faint words of the forest.

My peaceful moment is interrupted by a naked body exiting the trees and running across the grounds. A very pale naked ass is in clear view as the culprit struggles to put on a pair of shorts and run at the same time. He is unsuccessful as he trips and nearly face plants the ground. I hold in my laugh as I watch him pull on his shorts then get up quickly, running towards the training grounds after grabbing shoes and a shirt off the ground that fell when he tripped. I’m a little disappointed when he leaves my sight, but shrug it off and go back to eating my cereal.

“Shame he had to go. I was really enjoying the show.” My wolf, Ava, comments in my head.

“Ew, Ava, seriously?” I chuckle in response.

“Hey!” Summer calls out, startling me as she steps onto the patio. “What are you doing out here?”

“Having breakfast.” I say, slightly holding my bowl up to her.

“Well, hurry up. You have training.” She says before turning around and heading back inside.

“Training?!” She turns back at me with my question.

“Nicole, I told you in coming here I want you to train.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t think you were serious. I mean, come on, Summer. Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously. You are a part of the Beta family, now. I need you to be trained for any situation that could arise.”

“Any situation? What? What situation? What if I promise not to find myself in any of these situations you worry about? Can I not do training then?” I whine.

“No. With the way rogues are trekking around and hunters getting dumber by the minute, I want you trained. Get dressed. You are already late. You have ten minutes.” Summer orders with finality and goes back into the house.

I take a large spoonful of cereal into my mouth and get up from the lounge chair to walk into the house. Summer is standing at the kitchen island, eating toast with a scrambled egg spread on top. I pour the remaining contents of my bowl in the garbage disposal, placing the bowl in the sink before heading to my room.

“Eight more minutes.” Summer commands from behind me.

“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.” I say without looking over at her.

Thirty minutes later and I am walking out of my room with my 4c hair divided into two buns on top of my head. I had put on my pink and grey workout pants with a matching sports bra and a pink racer back shirt on top. As soon as I open my door I am met with Summer standing with her arms crossed,leaning against the kitchen island facing my door.

“What?” I say in response to the deadly glare she is giving me. Sometimes it feels like Summer is more my sister than my brother is my brother. We just seemed to get along perfectly from the minute we met. I may fuss at her, but she loves it.

“You were already late and now you made me late.”

“You could’ve went without me.” I mumble.

“If I would’ve left without you, you wouldn’t have come. Now, let’s go. I’ll let Kamaria deal with your tardiness.” Summer gives me a mischievous smirk and heads towards the door. I shrug behind her as I follow. Kamaria is a big softy, no way she will be too rough on me. “If you think she’s going to go easy on you, you have another thing coming.” Summer says, opening the door.

We make it down to the training field that sits to the far left of the pack grounds. The field is almost the size of a football field. There are hurdles, pull up bars, and monkey bars that line the back of the field. About ten tractor size tires lined up the side. Some weird walls with a window cut out right next to two pyramid-like structures followed by a large wall, that I wouldn’t be surprised if it was twenty feet tall, all coming up the front. Everything seems to circle around the grassy open center, almost like a crazy obstacle course.

“Fall in line. There’s an open spot in the back.” Summer says before walking over to a platform set in the front of the field where Kamaria is standing.

“Oooh yay! Exercise!” Ava says in my head. She loves to workout and I love to make excuses not to workout. We are the perfect wolf and human pair.

“At least one of us is happy about this.”

I look over to the area where Summer pointed. The center of the field is filled with wolves and she-wolves going through a sequence of jumping jacks and squats. I jog over to the open spot and try to pick up on the sequence everyone is doing. It finally feels like I’m getting it just as a whistle is blown and everyone stops, standing at attention.

“Alright! Ten miles in twenty minutes! No shifting!” Summer calls out to the group. She jogs off going into the woods and everyone follows without a single word.

“Ten? Did...did she just say ten?” I ask out loud, not expecting an answer.

“Yep. She definitely said ten.” I turn to my side to see the naked boy from earlier, who is now fully dressed, shaking his head in disapproval before he slowly jogs over to the rest of the group.

I throw my head back in a fake tantrum, kicking the grass and joining the group. We run into the trees, bobbing and weaving around fallen branches and tree trunks. We are only three miles in and I already feel my lungs catching fire. I try my hardest to keep up with the group, but feel myself start to lag behind. It only gets worse when I trip over a tree root and go tumbling into a ditch. I lay there for a minute staring at the sky through the treetops, taking the moment to catch my breath.

“Damn, Ava, I thought this was your thing.”

“Well, thanks to you, I’m a little out of practice. If we could shift, I could handle this easily.”

“Well, no can do on that one.” I say back to her, basking in the energy that I can almost feel radiating from the trees.

“Oh s**t! You okay?” I hear a voice say, interrupting my moment. I look over to see naked boy standing over me.

Now that I can actually take the chance to look at him, he’s hot. Olive skin and straight black hair that is longer on the top and tapered on the sides. He has on black shorts and a blue tank with the sides cut low so that I have a peak at his obliques. I can only imagine that there is a six pack to go with the muscular parts of his body that I can see. Damn it! Why did he have to see me fall on my ass? So embarrassing.

“Yeah I’m good.” I say as I sit up quickly, wiping the dirt off the front of my shirt. He reaches his hand for me to grab and I take it just before he pulls me with enough force that I stumble into him. “Thanks.” I mumble out as I push back with a hand on his hard chest. I pull my hand away quickly, feeling my cheeks heat up as I wipe at the remainder of the dirt on my clothes.

“You’re new here, right?” He asks as we make our way out of the ditch

“Yeah, sort of.”

“Well, fair warning. Beta, can be a bit of a hard ass. Yesterday she had us running three miles over and over until we all got in under ten minutes. And that was after a five-mile warm up.”

“Great, I’m totally looking forward to doing this on a regular basis.” I mumble with sarcasm. “You can go ahead, I’ll catch up with everyone.” I really don’t want this gorgeous guy to hear me wheezing for air as I run. I was in great shape for a human, but as a wolf I was a disgrace in the fit area.

“No can do. We aren’t allowed to be out alone.”

“But you were alone earlier?”

“You saw me earlier?” He scrunches his brows together in confusion with his question.

“We should get back to the run before they get too far ahead of us.” I say, trying to change the subject from me just admitting to seeing him naked. Well, it was just his butt cheeks, but still not something I feel like explaining.

We start running and make it back to the tail end of the group after another three miles. I’m trying my hardest to keep at it, but I’m getting a cramp in my side and my breathing is getting sporadic. It wouldn’t be so bad if the hot, naked boy wasn’t still running next to me.

“We can take a short break if you need to.” He says, and I take him up on his offer, stopping and breathing heavily with my hands on my knees. “Put your hands up.” He says, grabbing my arm and raising it in the air.

“Seriously, you can go ahead. I’ll be fine.” I say while trying to steady my breathing again. This guy is like gum on the bottom of my shoe. Why won’t he go away?

“No. I can wait for you.” Yep, definitely gum.

After a few seconds I muster up the energy to continue to run, being that I won’t be able to shake this guy. We eventually make it through all ten miles and when we make it to the clearing back to the training field, I allow my body to collapse on the ground. I lay on my back with my arms and legs spread out in an X.

I feel a gentle kick to my foot and open my closed eyes to see Summer standing over me. “Hey. You’re late. Again.” I sit up with a groan, trying to give my best scowl, but I probably just look constipated.

“Summer-” I start to protest before she cuts me off by clearing her throat, making me look around and remember where we are. “I’m sorry, Beta Summer, I’m not used to running.” I say in a more respectful manner. Back home it’s fine for me to call her and my brother by their names, but when we are in mixed company I should address them formally.

“I’ll take that into consideration with your punishment.” She answers and I drop my head in defeat.

“Come on, Beta, she said she was sorry.” A familiar voice calls out. I look up to see Luna Kamaria smiling down at me. Thank goddess.

“Well, Luna, what do you think we should do about the late duo here?” Summer asks, motioning between me and naked boy who is standing nearby with his hands clasped behind his head as he catches his breath.

“How about ten laps through the obstacle course?” Luna Kamaria asks Summer.

“Ten?!” I exclaim. What is up with these two and the number ten?

“I was going to say twenty, but I wanted to go easy on you. Be late again and it will be thirty. Understood?” Kamaria says with an authoritative tone. So much for thinking that she was a softy.

“Yes. Luna.” Me and naked boy say in unison.

I push myself from the ground to stand up and follow naked boy towards the far end of the field. Now that I see the field from this angle, I can see that I was right about the makeup of the training grounds. The pull up bars, monkey bars, tires and weird walls all make up the course. Everyone else is dismissed and Luna Kamaria comes over to explain how we are supposed to move through the different obstacles before walking back across the field to stand on the platform with Summer.

“Sorry for getting you in trouble.” I mumble to naked boy after she leaves.

“I was already in trouble before you got here. This is the third time I’ve been at least five minutes late for training.” I nod my head at his reply. Well, that explains the reason he was running naked out of the woods earlier. Actually, that only explains why he was rushing, I can only assume he was naked because he had shifted from his wolf. “I’m Warren, by the way.” He says looking at me, waiting for my reply.

“Oh, Nicole.”

“Well, Nicole, I should probably be thanking you. I thought I was going to get it way worse. They must really like you to go easy on the both of us.”

“Yeah, the near death experience is a family benefit.” I mumble under my breath as I turn and look at the tires we are now standing next to.

“Huh?”

“Nothing, ready?” I say, motioning to the first obstacle.

We eventually make it through all ten of our laps and my limbs feel like they are about to fall off. I never had to do intense training like this. At Blue Shadow, we were only required to attend an aerobics class two times a week. I mostly went to dance fitness. It was fun and easy, not like this. This was torture.

I find myself on the ground for the third time today, staring at the sky as I will my wolf to heal my achy muscles. Naked boy, now known as Warren, sits next to me with his arms wrapped around his knees. He seems exhausted too, but I can tell he is in way better shape than me and recovering quickly.

“Good job, you two.” Kamaria’s voice comes over us. I can hear in her voice how entertained she is from watching us in pain. “Warren, Alpha is waiting for you in his office.”

“Thank you, Luna.” Warren says and stands up before he jogs across the field towards the pack house.

"Wow! Look at him go." Ava purs in my head.

"Goddess, Ava. Chill out." I call back to her.

“How are you feeling, Nicole?” Kamaria asks with a chuckle. For a second I thought she could hear Ava, but her amused look shows that she is still tickled at my worn-out condition.

“Sore, but healing, Luna.” I reply back.

“Serves you right.” Summer says walking up to me and extending her hand out. I grab it and let her pull me to standing. “Next time don’t make me late.” Summer says sternly, then softens her look with a chuckle. “Come on, I’ll piggy back you to the house.” I eagerly jump on her back and she walks us towards the pack house.

“Sorry we have to be so tough on you.” Kamaria says walking next to us.

“Is this going to be an everyday thing?” I ask, hoping that this will just be a two times a week activity.

“At least until school starts. Then you can move to three times a week.” Summer replies and I groan as I lay my head on her shoulder. “I don’t want you too worried, but there are more rogues out here than at Blue Shadow.”

“Plus this damn hunter situation.” Kamaria says agitated. I pop my head up at her statement.

“Hunter? Like supernatural hunters?” I ask, confused. My eyes widen when Kamaria nods her head. “I thought there was a truce made decades ago between them and all supernaturals that they don’t hunt us for sport anymore.”

“They are radical hunters who work outside of the truce we made, but don’t worry too much about it. The hunter organization is handling it.” Kamaria says and I notice her and Summer share a glance that reads like there is more to the story.

“So until this situation is under control, I want you to train.” Summer tells me. “At the very least we can train you to be a boss chick on the field.” I chuckle and Summer adjusts me higher on her back as we continue our walk to her house.