Rejecting my Alpha

Chapter 3: Training

When we finally arrived at the training grounds, training was already in full swing.

“What time do you usually start?” I turned to Emmett, asking him about their training routine.

“Our warriors usually start at seven. I have some other duties which I have to attend to, so I join them around nine,” he informed me. That made me feel guilty since I had delayed his routine by asking him for an orientation tour and I had already learned that he was not the type of person who did anything halfway. Since I asked, he gave me a full tour so I could move freely around the pack.

“I am sorry,” I told him, but he only shook his head.

“Show me what you got,” he replied teasingly and hearing his tone, I quickly looked around to make sure my lovely mate wasn’t around to grab him by the neck again. Luckily for me, he was nowhere to be seen. We moved to the corner of the training ground so we wouldn’t be disturbing the warriors. I could see that they noticed us, but none of them came closer to ask about me. They all pretended to be caught up in their training. Or maybe they were. Who knew?

I started with my stretching routine to make sure my muscles were warm before I did any workouts. Emmett watched me for a moment, but when he could see that I knew what I was doing, he did his own stretching so we could start with training. I still had a tendency to look around for my mate. I wasn’t really sure if I was afraid to see him there or whether I actually wanted to see him.

After thirty minutes we were done with stretching and I was getting excited about being able to spar with someone other than the warriors in my pack.

“Ready to get your butt beaten?” he asked, and I couldn’t help but scoff. I was pretty confident in my abilities to fight. Not only was I my father’s daughter, but I was almost the beta of my pack if this Alpha hadn’t taken me away.

“In your dreams,” I replied to him, keeping the smile on my lips. I took the first stance, expecting him to attack. If I had learned anything from training, it was the fact that as a she-wolf I was always weaker than males, so I had to find my own fighting style in order to beat their as*es.

Emmett laughed for a moment and I could see that he was still underestimating me, which was definitely playing to my advantage.

Exactly as I thought, he was charging at me. I shifted my body weight to my front leg to make sure I could use his momentum to flip him over my shoulder. I wasn’t really sure whether he was joking or if he really underestimated me so much. As soon as he tried to hit me, I grabbed his outstretched arm, flipped it over and ducked so he could fly nicely over my shoulder and end up on his back with a loud thud, eating dirt.

I couldn’t help but laugh loudly. In a second he was back on his feet, looking like he just saw the Moon Goddess herself. I heard laughter coming from other parts of the training ground as well.

“Again!” Emmett shouted, and I could see that he was totally pissed. I guessed that no one had ever thrown him on the ground like that and the fact that I was a girl probably hurt his pride even more. Well, they needed to be taught some lessons here.

This time I changed my stance since he was more reluctant to attack first and for a brief moment we were just circling each other, both waiting for the opposite side to attack first. That was another of my secret weapons. Once the opponent got too focused on following my movements, I could easily shift, going down to the ground and hitting his leg. I was fast, but Emmett wasn’t bad either. He could see through it and jumped up in time to avoid being tripped again. He tried to change his position instantly and attack, but I was ready for that and dodged his kick smoothly.

“Not bad,” I praised him, but he smirked. I could already see he was ready for his move.

This time, he moved toward me slowly. I didn’t take a single step back. I needed us to exchange some punches so I could actually get to know his strength. Training with the boys and with my father’s warriors all the time was good. Getting hit had been my daily routine, which increased the limit of how much I could take before I went down.

Seeing Emmett’s fighting style still made me feel pretty confident in my own abilities. As I thought he went down to my stomach. The first lunge I dodged, but the second I let through, trying to make it look as natural as I could. I had to admit, he definitely didn’t lack strength. I needed a second to shake it off, so I deliberately took a few steps back to get away from his range.

“You had enough?” he asked me, and I could hear cockiness in his voice. At least I knew I didn't need to hold back in order to defeat him. In general, Emmett wasn’t bad, and he treated me nicely, but, as with almost every werewolf, he had his nose in the air when it came to fighting skills and power. He definitely needed someone to bring him down.

“Not at all,” I said, trying to shake off the pain of his punch.

Emmett didn’t wait much longer and charged at me again, believing that I was still shaken from the punch so he could finish the battle quickly. I was waiting for that moment. I could play with him longer and in a normal situation, I would. But right now I had several eyes watching, and winning this battle was one way to earn their respect. Not the respect for a Luna, but the respect of a warrior. The respect which I always cared about.

As he was getting closer to me, I still pretended to be hurt and held my side where he hit me, but I had already shifted my weight again. This time, when he stretched his hand out to grab me, I blocked it and in a smooth movement shifted under him, letting him fly above me but since I was holding his hand, he flipped over as the momentum of his body pushed him to continue but my grip pinned him in place. He ended up on his back, which gave me the opportunity to turn around quickly and pin him down, holding my hand to his neck.

“You lost,” I told him with a sweet smile on my lips. His eyes were popping out of their sockets as he was trying to process what had just happened. It was so quick and I think he didn’t realize what was happening.

“What the f…” he wanted to say, but at the same time, I felt a firm hand gripping me from behind, lifting me up off of him and literally throwing me sideways. I hit a tree which took my breath away and I needed a moment to process what had just happened.

I heard a loud, deep growl and my eyes landed on several people kneeling, all facing the place I was fighting with Emmett. To my shock, Emmett’s feet were hanging in the air and my mate was towering in front of him, holding him by the neck. I wanted to shout, but my lungs were still shaken from the impact on the tree and I couldn’t properly take air in to talk. I somehow got on my wobbly legs and hurried to stop Adrian from hurting Emmett. I hung on his hand, trying to let Emmett go, but the only thing I saw was his pitch black eyes staring at me. His wolf was surfacing.

‘Leia. He will kill him,’ I pleaded in my mind. Emmett wasn’t our mate. We didn’t have to care for him, but Adrian was the jealous type. We had already experienced his jealousy the day before, so we couldn’t let Emmett suffer just because I wasn’t careful enough and got too close to him.

Leia instantly took over and forced the shift, taking a combat stance, hoping that she would provoke our mate to focus his attention on us and let Emmett go. I could feel the tension through her connection with our mates. His wolf was fighting for dominance but Adrian was still keeping control over his body, yet the anger his wolf felt poured into Adrian’s mind.

Leia charged. I could see through our eyes. Adrian let Emmett go, letting him fall on the ground. He shifted instantly and a huge black wolf stood in front of us, but Leia didn’t waver. Not even for a second before she charged at him.