Under The Alpha's Protection

Chapter 14: The Little Girl

Blue woke up and decided to venture out through the Territory on her own. In light of what she'd done, the Council had informed Laia that Blue was allowed to go about on her own. It was only right that Blue started familiarizing herself with the Northern Territory, because tonight, she'd be Officially Welcomed into the Pack.

She woke up before the sun had fully risen, but many of the werewolves in the Northern Territory were already up and about. Some were heading into the woods with baskets, axes, and machetes, others were making the trek up the staircase built into the Northern Hill to start tending to the terraces. There were smaller farms on the ground, located at the other edge of the populous area. People were also already working on the farms, wearing boots and gloves and pulling out crops from the fertilized soil.

The Northern Territory was already bustling with life as the sun rose, and the most surprising thing Blue witnessed was at a clearing.

There were six children. None of them looked older than ten. At first, Blue thought they were simply playing—but then she watched the kids running back and forth continuously, staying in their imaginary lines, touching their large, individual rocks like a set checkpoint before running to the other direction.

These children were training.

Specifically, they were building up stamina, and they were doing it without adult supervision. As if the elders here trusted that the children wouldn't sway from their laps.

Out of the six children, only one was a girl. She had her hair tied in a high ponytail, wearing a sleeveless shirt and leggings. She easily kept up with the other boys, huffing through her open mouth.

Just as Blue had taken a step away from the clearing, the girl tripped in the middle of her lap and fell to her side, landing on her elbow.

The fall looked terrible.

Blue, on autopilot, immediately ran further into the clearing before the girl started crying out.

The other children had stopped at the noise and gathered around the girl. Blue had reached the circle and immediately knelt next to the girl who was on her back, clutching at her elbow as fresh tears dripped from her eyes.

"Yena, are you okay?" One of the boys around Blue asked, all of the children catching their breath from running.

"M-My arm," Yena sniffled. She met Blue's gaze when Blue placed a hand over her head.

"Hi, Yena," Blue said soothingly. "I'm Blue. How much does your arm hurt?"

Yena's lower lip trembled. "Hurts... really bad. I don't think I can m-move it."

It tugged at Blue's heartstrings seeing a child in pain like this. "Should we take you to Arlo? You know who Arlo is, right?"

At first, Yena looked conflicted. But she nodded nevertheless, and Blue helped her sit up. Looking around at the boys who stared curiously at Blue, she asked them, "Do any of you know Yena's parents?"

"We do," A boy with two missing front teeth replied, his shirt already drenched in sweat.

"Could you please tell them that I'm bringing Yena to the medical den because she fell and hurt her arm?"

"Okay!" The same boy nodded. All of them started running towards the houses, even though Blue had only needed one of them to go.

Blue wrapped an arm around Yena's waist to help her stand while Yena held her bent arm against her chest.

"Do your legs hurt? Do you need me to carry you?"

Yena swiveled her ankles, testing out the joints. Her voice was small when she answered, "I think I can walk.

They'd only taken a few steps when Yena said, "I've never seen you here before."

Blue smiled down at the child's curious gaze. "I'm new. I've only been here for a few days."

Yena blinked her bright green eyes. "Are you the human that's going to be a member of our Pack?"

Even the children were made aware of Blue's Official Welcome. "Yeah, I am."

Yena considered for a moment. "You're prettier than I imagined."

Blue let out a startled laugh. "Oh, thank you. But you're prettier than I am."

Yena pouted, shaking her head. "I don't wanna be pretty. I wanna be strong!"

"You can be both?" Blue suggested. "Lots of girls are both."

Again, Yena silently pondered that. "I guess... But I hurt my arm. That's not being strong."

They've reached the first line of houses. "Everyone gets hurt. That doesn't mean they're not strong."

Yena looked up at Blue again. "Will Doctor Arlo fix my arm fast? I need to go back to training."

The last sentence made Blue frown. "Doctor Arlo will most likely put a sling around your arm so you won't have to hold it that way the entire time it's healing. And I don't think you'll be able to join your friends in training again today. Moving too much will be painful, especially on your arm."

As if she was making herself seem bigger—she only came up to Blue's waist—Yena squared her shoulders and raised her chin. "Head Alpha Lucian says pain only makes us stronger. I want to be strong like the boys."

Blue's breath caught in her throat at the mention of the Head Alpha. She's reminded of the conversation she and Laia had the other night, about how the Northern Pack started training its members at a young age; the reason they're called the warrior Pack.

It saddened Blue to think that children here thought getting hurt meant they had to fight through the pain instead of taking it slow like actual children.

She couldn't voice this out to Yena though.

"I'm sure you're already as strong as they are."

"I want to be a better fighter than them," Yena said with the type of confidence children easily muster. "Head Alpha Lucian is the best fighter, but I really want to be like his sister, Laia!" The girl's expression took a turn when she glanced up at Blue again, this time smiling with missing teeth. "Do you know who Laia Steele is?"

Blue returned the grin. "Yeah, she and I are friends."

"Laia's my friend too! And she's really, really good at fighting! We saw her tackle Head Alpha Lucian in a fight before. Nobody else has ever done that!"

Blue didn't have to fake her interest in hearing this. "Really?" Were they training? Had Laia been pissed enough that she tackled her older brother? Were they shifted into werewolf form at the time? Blue made a reminder to ask Laia.

Yena nodded just as enthusiastically, proceeding to ramble, "Uh-huh. I'm practicing really hard too, because I want to be that strong. I hope I present as an alpha, because Laia's an alpha. Head Alpha Lucian too. But my mom thinks I could be a beta. She's an omega, by the way. I wouldn't hate it if I presented as an omega, but my dad says omegas don't usually end up as soldiers for the Pack, and I wanna be a soldier."

"What do you do when you're not training?" Blue asked. The medical den wasn't far now.

The early hour meant that the werewolves here were too busy on their way to wherever their responsibilities were. The ones Blue and Yena passed barely spared a glance in their direction.

"I help mama and papa at the house, with chores. I like washing dishes, but I'm not tall enough yet to reach the sink without a chair. I want to start helping with some of the chores around the Territory too."

"Do you play with your friends a lot?"

The little girl next to Blue hummed. It was hard to believe Yena hurt her arm just earlier, given how talkative she was. "Yeah! My friends and I shift and run around the forest with a few older alphas sometimes. The older alphas don't want to teach us how to fight properly yet, but my friends and I pretend to attack each other while we're in werewolf form."

They arrived at the medical den. And while Arlo was taking a look at Yena's arm, the girl's mother arrived, wearing a wrap around her hair with a wet spot on the front of her floral dress. She thanked Blue for accompanying Yena, sharing that as soon as those boys had arrived at her doorstep she'd left the laundry she'd been doing to make her way here.

While Arlo tested the range of motion Yena's injured arm was capable of, Yena's mother—who introduced herself as Dana—asked Blue if she had truly helped Florence Ire while the omega was giving birth, and if Blue had stitched up Arlo's arm too.

Arlo showed the stitches to Dana, which thankfully, did not look infected. Both Dana and her daughter made similar amazed looks at Blue, and it made heat climb up Blue's neck.

Because werewolves had faster healing, it would take less time for Yena's sprained elbow to get better than compared to a human child. If she took care of it. Yena nearly cried when the physician told her that she wasn't allowed to do her usual training routine, but the girl nodded her understanding in the end.

Blue was hugged goodbye by a very thankful Yena. Dana also hugged her, and told Blue in a whisper that she believed Blue deserved to be part of their Pack.

Arlo and Blue made eye-contact after the mother and daughter had left, with Yena's arm in a sling.

The physician had heard what Dana had whispered to Blue. "I agree with what Mrs. Worlamp said."

That was nice to hear. But the issue was, Blue didn't think she herself agreed with it.

-----

Blue had made a few wrong turns on the way to Laia's house. But she'd managed to find the familiar dirt path without having to bother anyone for directions.

Before she could actually make it there, the Head Alpha suddenly emerged from the other side of the road.

Blue had no idea if Lucian lived near his sister. She hadn't expected to see him again until tonight, at the Official Welcome Ceremony.

Truthfully, she hadn't expected to keep seeing Lucian so much. Wasn't the Head Alpha always busy or something?

They met at the edge of the narrow way to Laia's front door. Lucian was dressed in a maroon shirt this time. It was plain again. Blue was starting to think that Lucian didn't own any clothing with patterns.

Blue had half-anticipated this encounter to be slightly awkward given the things Lucian had said last night while dropping off a dress from Laia.

But fortunately, Lucian had sounded like his usual self. "The young werewolves told me you helped Yena get to the medical den today," The Head Alpha said in lieu of a greeting.

Blue made an affirmative noise. The UV rays from the sun were starting to become unbearable, but she and Lucian had already begun their conversation out here. "She fell and sprained her elbow because she was running laps as part of her training."

Lucian nodded, not seeing the problem. "It happens. Kids get hurt because their bodies are building muscle, their bones becoming stronger."

It was hard to keep Blue's expressions neutral. Even harder to keep an even tone so that the tone of the conversation remained pleasant. Blue had always been vociferous about her beliefs.

"Yena isn't even ten years-old! She and the rest of those kids should not have been up at the c***k of dawn to run laps," Blue said. "Their young bodies need exercise, but not to such extremities."

The crease on Lucian's forehead made an appearance again. It was the most familiar look to Blue. "Why do you sound so upset about this? It was only a sprain. Children get hurt running around all the time. With her fast healing, she'll be back to training in about two weeks."

"That's not my point."

"Then what is your point?" Lucian crossed his arms, raising a brow and adjusting his stance as if he was already getting ready for another argument.

If that was the case, then Blue wasn't about to disappoint. "Laia told me that your Pack starts training kids to be fighters at a young age. Frankly, I can't understand why that is."

"Kids naturally have lots of energy," Lucian argued. They kept their voices at an appropriate volume in case anyone happened to be nearby and could overhear them, but the belligerence of their tones was unmissable. "It's good to direct all that energy somewhere instead of letting young werewolves aimlessly play around all day and cause trouble."

"That's what kids are supposed to be doing!" Blue practically hissed the words through her teeth. She had not foreseen being this worked up about the topic, but Yena's pained cries and the talk they had while going to the medical den kept replaying in her mind, unable to make her stop. "They're supposed to be playing with other kids, enjoying their youth and causing trouble so they can learn and grow on their own! This thing your Pack is doing, it's practically brainwashing the kids into thinking that they're supposed to be soldiers when they grow up."

Lucian took a visible deep breath. He looked up, closing his eyes for two counts before taking a step forward and meeting Blue's gaze in a much more cowing manner. "The Northern Pack has successfully fended off enemies for as long as we've existed because we train werewolves at a young age."

The way the Head Alpha towered over Blue, plus the sudden deepness of his voice, had Blue taking a tentative step backwards.

But Lucian only continued, "Listen to me, Blue Emmetson. Do not ever try to bring up the things you just said to the Council. You have only spent a mere week inside our Territory, and you do not get to start judging our Pack's way of life when we also fight humans like you. You may not know it, but there are a number of werewolves here who will probably never accept you as part of the Pack. That number will double if anyone heard you just now."

Suddenly, that short interaction she had with Lucian last night felt like a dream—something Blue's sleepy mind had conjured up. Gone was the cordial tone, the open look, the genuine sorry in Lucian's eyes.

Now, Blue was facing the Head Alpha of a Pack that had werewolves who wouldn't care what happened to her. The werewolves Lucian pertained to were probably the same ones who'd deliver Blue straight to the Southern Pack's Territory if it meant that those Southern werewolves left the Northern Pack alone.

Something must've changed in Blue's expression, because Lucian suddenly blinked rapidly, like he was also realizing just how close they had gotten—and how Blue hadn't tried to answer again.

The Head Alpha took two steps backward, his arms returning to his sides.

He released a breath through his nose. "Yena is only one of the children in the entire Northern Pack," Lucian said, suddenly cold and detached. He was fire and ice, and Blue was reeling again. "Do not generalize that every child in my Pack is miserable and being coerced into training as young as they are."

Lucian proceeded to walk the road to Laia's house, leaving without waiting for Blue's response.

Blue forewent seeing Laia, suddenly not in the mood to tease the female alpha about things Yena had said about her earlier while Lucian was there.