Temptation.

Training Room

Siya’s eyes were met with an upside down smile from Jate.

                “Are you an idiot?” She hissed, realizing he had dropped the bar on purpose. “What if I hadn’t caught it?”

                “But you had.” Jate moved to sit upright on the bench, turning to lean an arm along the metal bar and starred at Siya.

                Siya moved her hands to her hips. “You’re crazy.”

                He muttered something under his breath, but not even Siya’s enhanced hearing could pick up what it was. Before she could open her mouth to question it, Jate spoke up. “You have beautiful blue eyes, Alpha.”

                Siya’s mind fell empty and her stomach knotted. What was his strategy? Suck up to the alpha, and get whatever he wanted? She pursed her lips. “Your comment is a little out of line, Lambda.”

                “So it may be.” Jate said nonchalantly. “It’s quite refreshing to see the striking blue rather than our grey.”

                It occurred then to Siya that his flattery was merely an attempt to persuade her to take Eio out of Warrior training. She would not fall for his games. Siya was a much wiser alpha than his previous alpha had been. 

                “Why do you not want Eio to become a Warrior?” She questioned.

                “He doesn’t have the maturity for it. In a few years? Maybe, but by then it will be too late for him. You start your Warriors much younger than our pack.” Jate explained, his eyes focusing onto the wall behind Siya.

                “You are telling me he isn’t qualified for it?”

                “I believe he will be able to endure anything you throw at him. But I don’t think his alliance will be with you; Eio is a little egotistical.”

                “That can be fixed.” A knowingly evil smile crossed Siya’s lips. Jate shook his head, humor in his eyes.

                “Not with Eio. People always told him he looked like Jacobi.”

                “Is that so?”

                “He must have gotten it into his head that he is part-alpha, since their resemblance was uncanny.”

                “We can arrange for that nonsense to be driven out of his head.”

                Jate looked up at his alpha with serious eyes. “What I am trying to say, Alpha, is that his alliance will be with the Lambda pack. He will gain too much knowledge and skill from Warrior training, and will not learn to appropriately practice it for the Omega pack.”                               

                Siya took in this information quietly. Jate made sense; she had seen the rebellion in Eio from the moment she had encountered him. But her gut was telling her to push Eio through Warrior training.

                “Why do you think this is so, Jate?”

                “It happened to me.”

                Siya waited in silence for him to continue further.

                “When I went through training, I had a distant relative who had separated from the Lambda pack, and was now alpha of a pack in the Northwest. I assumed that must have meant alpha was in my blood.” He shook his head, smiling slightly as memories clouded his vision. “I got my ass kicked one too many times before I learned. I worry that Eio will never learn.”