Lexi
“You did good for your very first day. I’m impressed.” Nickolas says to me. I, however, am still upset about the whole lying thing.
“Within a few weeks, you should be stronger than the Betas.” I don’t care.
“Within a few years, you’ll make a wonderful Alfa.” Still don’t care.
“I still don’t want to be an Alfa.” I mumbled plopping facedown onto the bed. Immediately the space beside me dipped down as Nickolas sat next to me. His hands started rubbing my back and tracing circles.
“Please don’t ever repeat that again. It kills me each time you say something like that.” The pain in his voice was evident and made me soften.
“I know you don’t want any of this right now, but please, for my sake, please try.” I hated hearing his voice sound this upset.
I sat up in place and wrapped my arms around his neck before pecking his cheek.
Nickolas
It has been four weeks since our first day training and I was impressed with her development. Our days became oddly peaceful; go out to the center in the mornings and work on pack duties and relax in the evenings.
I was also discreetly teaching Lexi about running the pack. At nights I would ask for her assistance with our bank accounts and land ownership taxes. I also had her organize some repairs with the fence and let her order the materials we would need for it.
She still hasn’t seen the pack, other than her brother and some wolves with rankings. Her parents were still on the run and might not be home for another few weeks. Today was the day my father would come down to the center with us; he was eager to evaluate my mates physical abilities.
Lexi was hesitant about letting him watch us, but she gave in once I made him promise to not talk about the mating process or marking her.
As always, I dropped the cage of birds off with my mother. At approximately 35 days old, they were jumping around and had started weaning from their formula. They were still kind of ugly, but Lexi adored each one. It would take a little longer until we could determine their gender, but once we knew, Lexi wanted to name them.
We were currently walking towards the center again; my father would be joining us after he had breakfast with my mother.
“What if your dad thinks I suck?” She voiced her concerns. I knew she secretly wanted my father to like her.
“He won’t.”
“And he promised to not talk about…stuff, right?” I nodded, knowing what she was referring to.
“Good.”
Lexi
My stomach felt queasy as I saw Henry (Nickolas’s Dad) step into the center. I was currently stretching beside Nickolas when he came into the weight room and sat down on the floor. Ignore him, just concentrate.
I took a deep breath before going to spot Nickolas bench press. Over the weeks, he had worked up to 325 pounds, almost three times my weight. His arms lifted the metal bar 35 times before he rested it in place. Standing up he started removing some weights from the bar.
I lay down on the set and placed my hands on the bar, spacing them apart the way Nickolas taught me. He places his hands over my own and lifts the bar off the resting hooks. I lower the 185 pound bar and lift it up 30 times.
I think 185 pounds is something to be proud of; it’s over twice as much as I was lifting a month ago. It was also much over what I weigh.
I look back at Henry and see him nodding in approval. Yes! He likes us! I guess he does.
We all headed to the wrestling room; we were still just wrestling in human forms, Nickolas claimed he didn’t want to hurt me.
Standing on the mat I tied my hair up into a ponytail.
“Remember, if it starts to hurt, let me know.” He always said this; I found it kind of irritating that he almost always beat me.
We begin and he immediately takes hold of my waist and pins me down. I would usually curse at him then smack him for taking me down so easily, but instead I kneed him at his ribs and took the opportunity to flip on top of him.
He literally picked me up and put me on the floor before pressing his entire body weight onto of me. I let my elbow hit into his shoulders but he refused to move. My ten seconds were up; I lost.
He got off of me and held out his hand to help me up. I still felt good for another round so we took our stances again. Nickolas grabbed my arm and spun me around knocking me to the ground.
I used my legs to flip him down and climbed on top, using my feet to hold his neck down and pressed his legs to the floor. He struggled trying to get up, but I just held him down even harder. The ten seconds were up; I won.
I slide off of him and lay panting on the floor. Henry has a slight grin on his face. Nickolas and I both stand up and exit the room, making our way to the track.
“Wait! Could you two run in wolf form?” Henry calls out.
“Sure!” My wolf is even faster.
“Why?” Nickolas asks.
“I haven’t seen Lexi’s wolf, and besides, you two should start training your wolves more.” he explains.
“Well, alright.” I walk into a nearby bathroom and strip before shifting. I pass the swinging door and return to the track where Nickolas’s white wolf sits waiting.
I don’t have a mind link set up with him so we just stand next to each other on the track. And we take off.
Nickolas has greatly improved his cardio and speed over the past few weeks; he was only two to four minutes behind me. I had been wondering about how his wolf would do against mine.
I eventually leave him behind after the first mile and keep on my pace. I knew I was very swift on my feet, I barely made a sound when running as oppose to Nickolas and his thundering paws.
I let my tongue hang out and feel my ears and tail flowing back as I run faster. I hear nothing besides my own heartbeat as I keep running, blocking everything else out.
Minutes pass before I see Henry standing at the same place we started running. I pass over and lay down, panting. I mentally count the seconds until Nickolas appears. Almost 400 seconds later he passes the line and lays down next to me.
Henry stares at us, his jaw dropped. What? Never seen a wolf as fast as me? Calm down! He’s just upset that his son is really slow.
“Lexi, you can go shift now. And why don’t take a shower, I have to talk to Nickolas.”
Nickolas
Lexi leaves and I shift in the weight room, pulling my shorts on. I usually tried to wear my shirt often to make sure Lexi was comfortable around me, but I was sweating uncontrollably.
“What is up with her wolf?” He asks me.
“She’s obviously faster than me.”
“No. I meant why is she white?”
“Oh, that. I think it’s just some sort of genetic mutation. I haven’t marked her yet, but she’ll still turn gold, right?”
“Nickolas. Her wolf is white.” He states.
“So.” My wolf was white. And so was my dads. What’s the big deal?
“Only Alpha born wolves are white.” He states.
I remembered that part from my science courses in high school. But Lexi was the child of a Beta; the only logical explanation for her wolf had to be a mutation.
“Yeah, but she was born to a Beta. It’s just a mutation.” I insisted.
“Nickolas. Listen to me clearly. Lexi is your mate, she's to be an Alfa to one of the most powerful packs in the country. Lexi is freakishly strong; she can already beat you at wrestling and she’s not fully grown. She’s unbelievably fast, I’m certain I’ve never seen any other wolf as fast as her.” His voice started raising as he kept talking.
“What are you trying to say?” I didn’t understand the overall message in this.
“Lexi wasn’t born to Betas. She’s the daughter of an Alpha.”
Lexi
That shower was absolutely glorious! I normally hate showers, preferring baths, but after this workout it was great to wash off immediately. I still wondered about what Henry wanted to talk about with Nickolas. Hopefully he was alright with my current strength levels. Toweling my hair off and throwing on another outfit from the store of clothes in the locker rooms I walk out to return to the tracks.
Nickolas and Henry stop talking once they see me.
“Hey!” I greet them. Henry immediately walks up to me and grabs me into a bear hug.
“You were great today! I’m very proud to have you as my sons mate.” He kissed the top of my head. He loves us! Yeah…this isn’t weird at all.
“Lexi, I understand your parents have been out on a run recently. Do you know if they’ve returned?” He asks me.
I take a moment to link with my brother.
Are Mom and Dad home?
Not yet. But they told me they were coming home in a few hours.
Alright. Thanks.
Bye.
“My brother said they’d be coming home later today.”
“Good. Nickolas needs to have a talk with them.” He nods at his son.
“Okay. About what?” I turn to face Nickolas.
“I just have a few questions, don’t worry about it.”
“Alright, well my wife is calling out for me. I’ll talk to you tomorrow Nickolas. I expect an answer son.”
“I’ll take care of it Dad.” And Henry left.
“What’s wrong? I thought he liked me.”
“It’s not that. He just has some questions.”
Nickolas
“I hate cooking!” Lexi laughed as she tried to beat some eggs. We were both in her parents house cooking dinner. We decided to make some food while we waited for her parents to arrive. I also knew wolves who return from a run have huge appetites.
“It’s alright! We’ll order a pizza if we have to.” And I think I’d have to, after Lexi dropped a pan of pasta and I burned the chicken. I hope her parents wouldn’t mind cleaning up the mess.
“Come on! Just tell me! What do you have to talk to my parents about?” She asked.
“You’ll find out very soon.”
“Ugh! You suck.”
“Tell me this. What’s your earliest memory?” Maybe it could offer some hints.
“Earliest memory? I guess it’d have to be running around with Liam.”
“How old do you think you were?”
“Maybe four.”
“Is that really your earliest memory?”
“Well, the other one, I think it’s just a dream I had.”
“Tell me about it.” I urged her to continue.
“I might’ve been one or two years old, but I just remember a lot of blood and screams. I think I might’ve accidentally watched a scary movie before falling asleep that night.”
“Blood and screaming? What kind of dream is that?” I question.
“I don’t know, that’s just the first thing I can remember! Just saying my parents love watching scary movies, maybe they forgot they had a kid one day.”
“They forgot they had a kid?” I burst out laughing.
“In my defense I was an innocent child! One who didn’t cry much!” I keep laughing at her.
“Lexi? We’re home! Liam told us you were waiting for us!” Marisa (Lexi’s Mom) and her husband walk into the house. The disturbing smell of sex radiates off of them. Thank god Lexi wasn’t sexually mature and couldn’t smell it; it might give her new nightmares.
“Oh! Hello Nickolas! I hope you don’t mind but I also invited Liam here. Now I understand you had some questions for us, we’ll talk over dinner. I assume a pizza has been ordered?” James (Lexi’s Dad) asks after examining our wonderful dinner of a carrot stick salad.
“Yeah, sorry, we’re not used to cooking.” I apologize to them.
“It’s fine. Until dinner arrives, why not talk in the living room?” Marisa offers.
“That sounds great. You and your husband have some explaining to do.” I try to hide the anger in my voice, knowing these two are keeping secrets about my mate from me.
Marisa’s face pales as she grabs onto her husbands arm.
“Explain Lexi’s wolf to me.” I order.