Not-So-Fated Mates

Chapter 22: The Technique

Drake POV

“So, what was all that?” Drake said, sipping his drink as he sat back in the booth. After the fiasco with Zach, he’d watched attentively as she had led the pack in practicing partial shifts. Trouble was, he couldn’t figure out how the hell it had all worked. She’d had them do some kind of meditation before they started shifting, but he didn’t understand any more than that.

It was part of the reason he didn’t bother going to the afternoon training. It would just bug him without clarifying anything. Instead, he’d opted to spend the rest of the day working on the things his Gamma had sent him. It was all quite boring, including things such as budget reviews, accounting, pack requests (like mating pairs that needed a house separate from the pack house), and warrior reports. Luckily, boring meant he didn’t have to worry much, although his warriors had noticed an increase in rogue sightings. However, said rogues hadn’t even attempted to breach his borders, or give the pack any trouble, so it wasn’t too worrying. He did have them tighten security, just to be safe, but any more action would wait to see how the situation developed.

After he’d finished, he’d arranged to have Layla and Chelsea meet him and Jackson at the Blue Moon to discuss the training techniques he hadn’t been able to make head nor tail of. They’d set the meeting for six, since Layla and Chelsea had the warrior training to attend to, as well as a few other duties. Now that they were all there and seated comfortably with their drinks, he intended to get to the bottom of everything.

“Well, there are actually a lot of factors in partial shifting,” Layla began, lightly swishing her whiskey before taking a sip. “I know for us higher level wolves, it doesn’t seem like it, as we can pretty much do it on command without issue. But when I was first training as a warrior, I noticed the lower level wolves struggling with it, so I started looking into it as a way to help them out, since it was hard to make it as a warrior without being able to do it.” She paused, as if considering how to continue.

“Okay, what did you find?” Drake asked.

“After a lot of trial and error trying to help them, I found that a couple factors made a huge difference. The first is emotional control. The wolves who struggled the most were the ones that had more issues of uncontrollably shifting when their emotions were to high. The warriors in training I was trying to help were constantly feeling anxious or upset because it wasn’t as easy for them to get to the level of higher level warriors, so they were constantly close to being cut. Another thing that became apparent to me was that those who were stronger physically, like higher level wolves or experienced warriors who have spent years training, also had an easier time, even if they were of the same rank as the ones having issues. Also, concentration is a huge part.”

“Interesting,” Drake said. He turned to Jackson to see he wasn’t paying attention. Miffed, he kicked his beta under the table to get his attention away from Chelsea, who he’d been quietly flirting with. “Jackson, you should be taking notes.”

“Oh come on, I don’t even have anything to write on,” he whined, rubbing his shin.

Drake rolled his eyes. “Use your phone, jackass. I spent $500 on the damn thing, it’ll have an app for taking notes.”

Grumbling, Jackson dug out his phone from his back pocket and fiddled with it a minute before sighing and nodding for them to continue. “Uh-oh, Jacksie got in trouble,” Chelsea sang before she and Layla dissolved into a giggling fit as he glared at them. Even Drake chuckled a bit at his friend’s expense, laughing out loud when he turned his mutinous gaze on him.

“Really?” Jackson sputtered, turning back to Chelsea. “Jacksie? That’s not even a name.”

“It is now, Jacksie,” Drake laughed.

Jackson groaned, defeated, as he put his head in his hands, elbows on the table. “Ugh, whatever, can we just get this over with?”

“Whatever you say, Jacksie,” the others said in unison, laughing and high-fiving.

“Okay, I officially don’t like this new you,” Jackson grumbled at Drake. “What happened to bros before hoes?” At that comment, Chelsea smacked his shoulder with the back of her hand. “Ow, damn it, it’s just a saying.”

“Don’t care,” she said, sipping her wine.

“Alright, alright, let’s get back to business so Jacksie here can take some notes,” Drake grinned. “And you’re going to get your face stuck like that if you keep it up,” he added when Jackson glared at him again.

“Okay, so, basically, the technique is strengthening the body and controlling emotions,” Layla started, still fighting a smile as she watched Jackson grumble quietly while typing. “I chose to start training with Tai Chi, since it’s great for dealing with stress and helping with emotions, as well as having plenty of physical benefits. Another thing I added to the training regimen is the meditation you saw today.”

“Yeah,” Drake nodded, “I was wondering how that works, exactly.”

“Well, meditation is also great for stress and dealing with emotions,” Layla said. “But, honestly, beyond teaching the basics of meditation, I mostly let them decide how to meditate, and just give advice if they need it. There was one weird thing, though.”

“What do you mean?” Drake asked.

“Well…it’s hard to put it into words,” she replied, looking thoughtful as she played with her glass of whiskey. “It was only when I first began trying this, but a lot of the wolves were struggling with the meditation part. They were already showing improvement in learning to partially shift, but until they mastered the meditation part, that progress was limited. I think the best was able to keep the partial shift for only maybe thirty seconds, and then they lost hold of it and fully shifted. So I’d sit each of them down individually and meditate with them, holding hands with a few that really weren’t getting it. And it was like, all of a sudden, there was a burst of progress from the ones that had had the most issues. They were suddenly doing really well in meditation, and with that, they started doing better in partial shifting. I don’t know why, but I’m sure it has something to do with having support,” she said with a shrug.

Drake said nothing for a long moment, a shrewd look on his face as he stared at her. Even Jackson had looked up from his pouting as he took notes, his eyes seeming to search her face for a few moments. She looked to Chelsea, who was also looking between the two males with confusion written all over her face, shrugging in Layla’s direction when their eyes met, as if to say that she also had no clue what was up with them.

“What?” she finally asked in exasperation.

Drake shook his head and a soft smile appeared on his face. “Nothing, I was just wondering how that had worked. But it’s probably just as you said, they had support and it made them more comfortable.” Layla watched as Jackson quickly looked down at his notes as if they suddenly interested him so much he couldn’t look away. She knew evasive maneuvers when she saw them, and it seemed as though these boys were keeping something from her, but she couldn’t figure out what. What did they know that she didn’t?

Finally, instead of continuing to try to figure out what was behind their suspicious behavior, she simply rolled her eyes and sighed. Men.