Chapter Ten | Partners
My legs feel sore as hell but I expected it as I just ran seventy-five miles within ten minutes in my wolf form. Granted, some wolves had exceeded my ten minute record and finished the seventy-five mile run in as short as five minutes which was half my time. It frustrated me to no end that the fastest that I could go was ten minutes. I had tried about three times now but the only change is that I went from ten minutes and forty seconds in the first lap to ten minutes and ten seconds in the last lap.
A fucking thirty second difference.
Usually, I would've been better than this and done better than half the wolves here. When I used to do this with the pack every month, seventy-five miles in around five minutes or less was easy shit for me but right now I'm struggling and it pissed me off to no extent.
I huff out a breath of air as I crouch down and watch as another set of ten wolves composed of women and men with their clothes locked into their mouths get ready to shift and sprint through the woods to track their running times. Yes, they were naked so I was getting a full, delightful view of their asses.
If it wasn't already apparent, that was sarcasm.
When I was in California and attending Cambridge, the only time I saw naked people was when I attended those ratchet parties where the girls would quirkily try to assert their spontaneity by agreeing to skinny dip with the boys who could give two shits about how 'wacky' and 'crazay' the girls were and just wanted an eye full of ass. If I was being honest, the girls asses were anything but fat; not like having a fat or flat ass mattered in the slightest to me. I was never one to care or look.
It's moments like that when girls bodies would be displayed or when they'd throw themself onto me, which happened quite frequently in California and still occurs to this day, that makes me really wonder. I wasn't even remotely interested in them or their body.
Truth be told, I just felt like they were a nuisance or that they'd be good friends. Although — cocking my head to the side to think deeply because somehow adjusting my head accomplished that — there was this one girl from Cambridge who was really attractive and even I knew that.
She wasn't the smallest girl out there but she wasn't excessively big either, she was very much just a healthy and fit looking girl. Then came her jet black hair that swam past her back and just barely grazed her butt. Her eyes were a deep brown and she had full pink lips with a few dark brown beauty marks trespassing around the area. Rosalyn is her name but she went by Rosa.
Whenever Beck, another really close friend of mine from Cambridge, Rosa and I were together it was nothing but comfortable fun. They were my kind of people and really helped me get over the home sickness that I was feeling within my first year of being gone. I never told them that I was feeling homesick and I didn't want to admit that I was but the two of them really became family to me.
Maybe it was Rosa's personality that made me find her attractive or the smile that came onto her face whenever Beck would crack a stupid ass joke, or maybe it was the fact that she was...
My heart skips a beat as I slowly stand back up, my eyes trained on the slower wolves who were just coming back now but my mind was elsewhere so my eyes were just a complete void.
That's not it. That can't be it.
''To help you complete that thought, maybe it was the fact that she was so similar to Xander.' Jackson hummed with satisfaction.
I shake my head. That's not...no. Rosa was her own person, she wasn't like Xander.
'From the get go, you only felt comfortable around them because they exhibited some of the qualities that Xander had. That's why you were able to form a friendship with them, that's why your home sickness went away.' Jackson said matter of factly and very much triumphantly, like he had just succeeded and won something but he didn't win shit so I didn't know why the bastard was so smug. I could feel him roll his eyes inside me.
I shake myself out of my thoughts and ignore Jackson's words because that was just him trying to push me towards Xander once again. I am firm on my decision. Nothing he says and nothing Xander tries to do will make me change my mind. Shifting my weight onto my right leg, I feel my body begin to feel warm once again for the fourth time today.
The nape of my neck tingles as I walk into the grassy area within the forest that was wide and void of any trees but there was an abundance of plain nature and weeds beneath our feet. Other wolves follow me until all of us are standing in straight lines creating rows of ten and columns of ten which meant that a total of one hundred wolves were here for combat training.
Combat training is something that is done monthly, it's purpose is to equip us with the ability to further grow our endurance, muscle, and combat skills. These training sessions allow us to fend off any attacks from rogues — wolves who weren't apart of a pack for whatever reason and were hungry for blood and the sight of a dead wolf beneath their feet as they've lost any and all emotion — and measure our status and physically abilities as a wolf.
As young pups, we would also do combat training but it was much different than the ones you do as a full grown wolf. The ones you did as a young pup just measured things relating to what kind of wolf you were and these days, since werewolves were being mated more often with humans, if they were even wolves to begin with.
The lowest rank is a non wolf but even non wolves had wolf blood in them which meant that they could access the mind link and do certain things that humans could not do, although to a certain extent, but they were unable to shift. Then came Omegas who are capable of shifting but they were fairly weak as their wolves were small and they wouldn't be able to hold their own against even an average wolf no matter how hard they tried. Though, I heard a story of an omega training hard enough to grow to the size of an average wolf so I guess that it would surely be possible. That shit would be impressive as hell too.
After Omegas came your average wolf followed by a Warrior Wolf, Delta Wolf, Gamma Wolf, and Beta Wolf. There can be multiple Warrior and average Wolves but only one Delta, Gamma, and Beta Wolf. On top of the food chain is the strongest wolf there is which was your Alpha.
Commander, symbol of authority, dominant, strongest of them all, and king of the fucking jungle. The Alpha can't be beaten by any wolf, even ten wolves collectively attacking an Alpha would be of no use. The unfair part is that the Alpha blood that just runs trough their veins from birth gives them that strength, and that innate ferocious power without having to work for it. It's just apart of them, like second nature.
Their build increases naturally but especially so with exercise, however with Alpha's, it grows at a much faster pace than anyone else. The authority that they emit is unmatched by anyone else, even if someone tried to mirror an Alpha's authority they would pathetically fall short as an Alpha's authority is like no other and a simple look will have you baring your neck to submit to them.
An Alpha's dominance is just...threatening.
I swallow.
Their menacing eyes, demeanor, pheromones, it was all too much. If you had the misfortune of touching an Alpha who is emitting his dominance over you, you'd tremble if not break. I shiver and shake my head as tingles spread all over me, but it isn't because of the cold as hell weather outside, it's because he's looking at me.
Since we started combat training around four hours ago and ran through multiple different types of training exercises that varied each time, I felt his eyes on me like an annoying bug that was attached to my skin and no matter what I did, it would relentlessly suck my blood. Xander wasn't sucking my blood but he was surely sucking away at my fucking concentration.
I felt his eyes on the back on my neck and even now, I know that he's looking at me and it makes the hair on my skin stand tall. I wanted to act like it was due to the cold but I couldn't fool myself like that, Jackson wouldn't allow me to even if I wanted to. He'd make it very apparent that I'm feeling jittery and it's all because of our beloved mate.
If I could give Jackson the finger, I would.
'Ditto.' Jackson quipped with mock politeness.
Ignoring him as he's just another nuisance, I roll my neck around in circles as if that would roll away Xanders eyes off me. I wish. It was probably because of him that I had one of my worst times ever. I find it hard to believe that I, who is usually always on my game and score a time of five minutes exactly in a seventy-five mile run, is suddenly only garnering a record of ten minutes consecutively and I did that shit three times! If he didn't stop looking at me like I was the most interesting in the world, I would make him stop looking at me.
'Yeah right.' Jackson snorted.
Scowling, I block Jackson.
I could definitely make Xander stop looking at me if I wanted to whether his annoying ass believed it or not. I look at Xavier who is beside me and has his eyes on Easton. No surprise.
"Easton is probably annoyed as hell that you keep looking at him." I state.
I was actually just projecting right now by saying that, but my mouth moved faster than my brain so I wasn't able to stop myself.
Xavier quickly looks down at me. I hate being the shortest out of my entire clique of friends, I wasn't even short. I was six foot and a half (the half is important) with Xavier and Aiden equally being six foot four, Gnashton being six foot six and a quarter and Xander being — I blow out a breath of air — six foot seven, I was inevitably going to be the shortest.
"You think he's annoyed?" Xavier asked genuinely with those puppy dog eyes of his. A big dumb softy. "It's so hard to not look at him."
He grumbles as he covers his face with his hands. Feeling guilty, I pat him on the back. I can't speak for Easton and yet I did like an asshole all because of how irritated I am with Xander's obnoxious looks.
"He might not be annoyed, he could just be unsure of how to react to you constantly looking at him. Maybe you should try to win him over or something, ya know?" I suggest, Xavier slides two fingers open which allowed him to look at me through the open slots that he created with his fingers. I can't help but smile. "I think you should hang around him often until you grow on him. Kinda like a parasite."
Xavier's hands fall completely to his side and he looks at me with pursed lips. "I don't want to be a fucking parasite to him, Jaylin."
I shrug as I look at Killian who's talking about rankings, everyone's time and other things but I wasn't really paying attention.
"I'm just saying." I say simply.
"I'll give Xander that same advice." Came his snippy retort.
I glare up at him. "No you fucking won't."
Xavier gave me a lighthearted smile, conveying that he was joking and so I relaxed and hit him with my fist on his arm. He feigned hurt.
" — pairs of two for human to human combat exercises." Is the last thing I heard out of Killian's mouth and then I saw everyone around me shuffle around to find a partner.
Wolves either loved fighting with other wolves during these human to human combat practices or they completely hated it, there is no in between. Every time I did it, I won so I never had any trouble fighting another wolf. These are a piece of cake for me.
However, as I whip my head around to see Xander advancing towards me, I panic a little and immediately turn back around to look at Xavier and grab both of his hands.
"You're my partner." I declare.
Xavier, not really understanding my zeal to partner with him due to him being slow as hell, nods in agreement but that doesn't stop my heart from beating more erratically than I would like. I wish I could just reach into my stomach and squeeze it quiet as the beating was loud in my ears and it gave me a fucking a headache. Or maybe it was Xander's scent growing closer to me that made me feel a tad bit lightheaded.
He appears right beside the both of us, eyes slightly cast down at my hands in Xavier's that are firmly clasped around his. I didn't realize that I was still holding his hands until Xander made it very clear with those eyes that glared down at our intertwined hands that I was.
As Xander's eyes slowly trail up my arms, past my chest and finally land on my face with his eyes boring into my own, I could see that he was silently commanding me to let go of Xavier's hands. He didn't have to say a word, his eyes did the talking and they told me not to touch Xavier; more explicitly, not to touch anyone that isn't Xander.
My blood ran cold, the gust of air helping to disguise the shiver that ran through my body as the look on his face slowly became overwhelming and dare I say, threatening. Like the relentless, stubborn, and — as Gnashton, Xavier, and Aiden collectively would say — brave idiot that I am, I refuse to let go of Xavier's hand even though everything in me is screaming at me to listen to the silent order.
To further defy him, I hold onto Xavier's hands even tighter with my eyes remaining on Xander's face. It looks like he's only moments away from allowing a growl to rip through the air. Like — I swallow the anxiety that's building up in my throat — he planned to rip me away from Xavier himself. Before anything of the sort can happen, Xavier abruptly rips his hands away from mine and I look at him while trying to ignore the fact that Xander is still looking at me with a hard stare.
"Xavier's my partner." I state without looking at Xander.