His Warrior

13-History

The days that followed seemed to become routine.

Ares kept himself scarce, only making himself known at meal times where I would be seated at his left. I would meet with Brock at the new training grounds, barren lands that were used for planting crops many generations ago, to help train the turn tails in the mornings and spend my afternoons alone in the clearing. I'd train alone for at least an hour before dinner, then spend at least thirty minutes in the shower before reading myself to sleep. I'd spar with Athena every second day outside the cabin she stayed in, ensuring that her smart mouth was filled with dirt by the end of my visits. She stopped speaking after the third visit.

Alala was unusually quiet, but I knew she was giving me the time I asked for while Ares gave me the space. My chest held a constant hollowness after the first week that was getting harder to ignore. I started to cut the time training wolves with Brock short, spending more time alone in the clearing and training alone. It was strange, realizing what a soothing effect Ares had on my emotions when I sat next to him at meal times. I started craving his presence more and more the less I saw him, which by the middle of the second week, became only breakfast and dinner time.

I'd watch him interact with his pack, settling issues and listened intently to whatever stories they told him. He would calmly talk down newly shifted pups who would lose their temper easily, his wolf letting his aura out more to calm their wolves. They knew who their Alpha was and knew that they were safe whenever he was around, that he was only a threat when they acted out or forgot their place in the pack's hierarchy. Only once a juvenile male flashed his fangs at me, not recognizing me as a part of his pack when Ares acted faster than I could think, pinning the boy to the wall lightly with a warning growl. Telling the male who I belonged to.

That only caused my jumble of emotions to worsen. One side of me felt a warm sensation at belonging to Ares, the other snarling at having to be someone's property. By the end of week two I was losing sleep and feeling absolutely crazy. I'd skip training alone, becoming more feral when sparring with the gorilla and turn tails, opting to spend more time in the clearing in the afternoons. I'd finish my food and excuse myself at dinner, not bothering to converse with any wolves anymore. Mary avoided me since the day Ares sent his sister to the cabin, which was more of a relief than anything else. I'd see her from time to time when heading back to the pack house, ignoring her warning growls. She didn't appreciate the hardships I put her pup through, but that was fine with me.

 Athena surprised me when I visited her the first time on the third week, asking about how Shadows came to be.

"Alpha's are proud, and I know that there was a time that they refused any form of protection because they believed that they couldn't protect their pack if they couldn't protect themselves. So how did your kind come to be?" she asked.

"My kind? I am a wolf just like you, you know." I smirked, crossing my arms.

"You know very well what I mean. How did your rank come to be?" She snorted.

"You should sit. The story isn't a short one." I warned, taking a seat on the steps leading outside as she sat two steps below me, keeping eye contact. 

"You're right when you say that Alpha's were once too proud to accept any form of protection. They would die protecting the pack, but left their Lunas behind when they did. Their mates grieved uncontrollably, bitter at the fact that their halves could have lived longer if they had only swallowed their pride. In those days, Lunas were also more docile than they are now. They weren't seen as a vital leader of the pack, but a vital breeder. They were seen as a female of importance because they would provide the next Alpha while tending to the smaller pack duties such as caring for the wounded during battle and keeping the females and pups calm at the same time. They were heavily protected because Alpha's would be too distracted by the broken bond to rule the pack correctly. The first Luna to stand up to her mate was seen as absolutely crazy, their pack couldn't believe that she would refuse any guards. She insisted that if her mate could protect himself, she could as well. When the Alpha told her that he would be heartbroken if anything happened to her, she asked him why her heartbreak would be lesser than his if he died." Pausing to make sure she was still following, I continued when she nodded.