The Beta's Sister

Chapter 5

Nicole

Over the next few weeks, I feel my body slowly adjusting to the morning workouts. Ava has been in the best mood I have ever seen. She wasn’t normally sad or emo, but these days a grin was a permanent fixation on her mouth and I can feel her tail wag constantly. It is borderline annoying, but I love seeing my wolf happy.

Since that first day, I haven’t been late for training. First off, I didn’t want to feel the wrath of Kamaria or Summer. Secondly, I kind of look forward to seeing someone every day. I’m not typically boy crazy, but there is no denying how handsome Warren is. Being that I’m not the biggest fan of working out, indulging in some eye candy is my little reward.

I must be super aware of Warren. Either that or he really is making himself available to me. At least out here, because, oddly, I never see him anywhere else outside of training. When we go on our runs, he’s never too far away. I am more than sure that he could run faster, but he always seems to be in step with me. Probably because he’s concerned I will fall into another ditch. First impressions, I guess. Whenever we have to partner up for exercises, he always seems to be available, except for sparing. Kamaria always has him spar with the warriors. Sometimes I catch them fighting out of the corner of my eye and I cringe at how rough they can be. It’s crazy that Kamaria could have him spar with some of her best and even crazier that he would agree. I hope they are not expecting me to do all of that. I can barely keep up with Hailey.

Hailey is a great fighter about a year older than me. She has already been training for a year and a half, and that girl can fight her ass off. I feel like I’m years behind her, but she assures me I’m improving. She may not be one of the top fighters now, but she is working her way up to one.

“Ow.” I say as I land on the ground again. “I saw you coming and still couldn’t avoid you. You are too fast.” Hailey chuckles as she reaches out her hand and helps me up.

“We just have to make you quicker.” She says as she returns to her fight stance.

“Either that or able to stop time with my mind.” I say before mimicking her stance.

“Well, unless you have some secret abilities you’re keeping from me, I suggest we work on the speed.”

She attacks me with a mid-level swipe kick aimed at my ribs, but I avoid her. I look up at her with shock and have just enough time to block her as she brings the same leg back towards my head. The third attempt, I’m not so lucky as she steps on her leg and pivots, bringing her elbow to connect with my jaw. I instantly hunch over and spit out the blood that pools into my mouth.

“Oh! Nicole.” She says as she pats my back. “Sorry I got into it a bit there. Are you okay?”

“Let me out. I can handle this.” Ava roars in my head, fighting me for control.

“Girl, sit down. Haily would whoop our ass without even letting her wolf out. Besides it was an accident.” Ava snarls in response, but she still rescends.

“It’s okay. Already healing.” I say to Hailey once I lift up from my hunched position and rub my jaw.

“Come on. Luna linked and said we can take a break.”

“Wait! Did Luna Kamaria see that? Did everyone see that?” I feel embarrassment start to blanket over me.

“Don’t worry.” Hailey says with a chuckle. “It’s Luna’s job to watch us, and everyone else is too busy avoiding kicks and punches to notice someone else getting knocked around.” I laugh uneasily at her words.

We walk over to the side of the field where a water station is set up. I pull a plastic cup from the holder and fill it before handing it out to Hailey.

“Thanks, but I brought my water bottle.” She says, holding it up then taking a sip.

“I have to remember to bring mine down. I forget it almost everyday.” I say and down my cup in one gulp before turning and getting more.

“Are you excited about school starting? Just one more week.”

“I’m most excited about moving from daily workouts to three times a week, but yes, I am actually ready for school to start. The only nerve wrecking part is that I won’t know anyone there. I thought I would have seen some other pups my age by now.”

“Oh right. I didn’t think about how much of a disadvantage it would be for you to not train with the pups.” I look at her confused.

“What do you mean? Train with the pups?”

“Yeah. The pups and other wolves that aren’t fighters or warriors train twice a week in the afternoon. It’s mostly dance aerobics, yoga, or runs. You didn’t know that?”

“No.” I say, agitated. “Summer didn’t mention that part.”

“Beta Summer.” Hailey reminds me and I roll my eyes before going to get some more water. “You’ll be able to meet some pups at the mixer so you won’t be completely lost out there.”

“Mixer?”

“Yeah, there is a before-school mixer that is thrown every year. Kind of the last hoorah to say goodbye to summer.

“Sounds fun.”

“It is. And don’t worry. For the most part, the pups are pretty welcoming. I think you will be fine.” I nod my head slowly in response. “Ready to get back out there?” She asks, gesturing towards the field.

“Ready? No, but I know we have to.” I toss out my cup and we head back to our fighting spot.

Warren

I am going through defense practice with Maverick, one of the warriors. I am a pretty tall guy, but he has a couple of inches on me and a ton of extra muscle. It would be easy to assume that because of his size he would be slow with his movements, but that was a mistake I made the first time I sparred with him. He moves as quickly and gracefully as someone half his size. I manage to avoid over half of his advances, but the ones that do make contact leave an impact with the strength he puts behind them.

A whistle blows and everyone stops and stands at attention facing the platform. Summer steps up and calls out for us to run ten miles then takes off heading to the trees. I linger behind as I usually do, waiting for Nicole. She has gotten faster over the last few weeks. When we first met, she could barely make it through ten miles with her lungs still intact. Now she keeps a steady pace in the middle of the group the whole run.

I really don’t know what it is that has me so drawn to her. She’s like a magnet that I don’t want to pull away from. I could be running more towards the front of the pack, but I purposely keep in step with her. Sometimes we chat a little, but for the most part we stay quiet. I don’t mind either as long as I get to be around her. After a couple of short moments she finally runs past me and I run up, easily catching up with her.

“Hey!” She says as I come up to the side of her.

“Hey.”

“Real original.” Adolfo says in my head.

“Shut up.” I spit back at him and he rolls his eyes, but leaves me alone at least.

“Can I ask you a question?” Nicole’s sudden voice surprises me. We are about two miles into our run and haven’t said another word to each other since we started.

“Uh…yeah… What’s up?”

“Okay. I’m not stalking you or anything but…Why is it I never see you after training? You never come to the dining hall.” I give a relieving chuckle at her question. I don’t know what I expected, but it had me nervous for a second there.

“Depends on the day. Some days I’m working with my dad, some days I’m working with Alpha Brendon. Some days I’m working with them both.”

“What does your dad do?” She asks innocently, which makes me chuckle again.

“He’s the Alpha of Howling Moon.”

“Alpha?!” She shouts, getting the attention of a few of the nearby runners. She grabs a hold of my elbow, pulling me to the side and stopping our run. Her beautiful brown eyes are twice their normal size as she looks up at me. “Did you say Alpha?” She whispers and looks around in a cute suspicious way. “So that means you’re…”

“Next in line to be Alpha? Yeah. You don’t have to whisper. It’s not a secret or anything.” I grin at her continued shocked look. “I wasn’t trying to keep it from you, I assumed everyone knew.”

“Everyone who didn’t just move here, I guess.” She mumbles, placing her hands on her hips.

“Right…” I try my best to bite back my grin. Her reaction is cute and refreshing. Everyone I’ve ever been around already knew my status. She, on the other hand, is genuinely surprised and, for some reason, I like it.

“Well, I guess we should get back to the run.” She says, and we start running again.

We make it to the tail end of the group in no time. Two more miles go by and I notice that Nicole keeps giving me side glances. Every few steps she looks over at me like she wants to say something, but stops herself.

“What is it?” I finally ask her.

“Nothing.”

“It’s something. You’ve given me weird looks for the last few miles.”

“It’s just…hard to believe.”

“What’s hard to believe.”

“You being an Alpha’s pup. You just don’t seem like the type.”

“Oh really? And what’s the type?” There’s a bit of a sting to my question.

“I don’t know. Pompous jerks. Overall jackasses.” She chuckles, but I don’t find her statement funny.

“And how many Alpha pups have you actually met?” My tone is laced with anger, making her shift from her giggly mood to an uneasy one.

“Two.” She says, deflation in her voice.

“So you met two pups and you think you know me now?” I don’t wait for her to respond and increase my pace making my way to the front of the group.

I don’t really know what came over me. Why do I care what she thinks about me? Or what she thinks about other Alpha pups? She was right, though. I have been around those types all my life and they were pompous and jackasses. They thought they were the goddess’s gift to the universe, and believed that everyone was supposed to treat them like they were made of gold.

I let a few more miles pass while inwardly kicking myself for my behavior. I vere off to the side and wait for her to pass. When I ran away from her I had made it to the front of the group and she had been working her way from the back towards the middle. She really has gotten faster since we started. After that first week she was able to make it through a full run without breaks.

When I run up next to her, she glances over at me then rolls her eyes and looks away. I definitely deserved that. If she kicked my feet from under me, it would be letting me down easily.

“I’m sorry.” I say sheepishly.

“Sorry, Alpha, what was that?” She asks mockingly.

“I’m sorry for snapping on you. You are right. A lot of Alpha pups are jerks and apparently sensitive jackasses.”

“You forgot pompous.”

“Sensitive, pompous jackasses. Better? Can I have my running partner back now?”

“I guess.” She says with a shrug as she turns her head away and tries, unsuccessfully, to hide a smile. We finish our run with a usual comfortable silence and I am happy I didn’t just mess it all up.