After an uneventful winter break—and a more solemn than usual Winter Moon Festival—Chloe moved her self-defense training group off of school property to a small clearing in the forest that lined the north side of the school.
It wasn't long before other wolves (students) from the neighboring packs attending their school found them and encroached on their "territory."
A blond senior with a handful of other wolves interrupted their lesson, snickering amongst themselves as they approached, the snow crunching under their feet. They were members of the pack that bordered the northeast side of their territory—the Ashtar Pack.
Anxiety mingled with hostility within as Chloe and her packmates advanced on the intruders, protecting the unaware humans huddled behind them in the middle of the clearing.
"What are you doing out here?" the blond male asked, eying each of them and sniffing, no doubt making mental notes of everyone.
Two of Chloe's senior packmates—her cousin Luke and Veronica, another female—stood on either side of her with their arms crossed over their chests. Their breaths puffed out in front of them in soft white vapors. Their cheeks and noses were pink from exposure to the frigid January air despite the heat generated within their bodies from the exercises. Snow lined their coats, hats, and gloves after repeated throws in the snow.
"What does it matter to you, Vance?" Luke demanded.
Vance shrugged his shoulders before a crooked grin slowly began to spread across his face. "Doesn't, I suppose. But being off of school property means there's no need to abide by the school's rules."
"Back off," Veronica growled.
Chloe's other five cousins present, including a set of twins two years older than her, stepped up to her sides as well—even the shy cousin her own age. All descendants from warriors, proud and fierce, and unwilling to back down from threats. Kayla likewise had her back and sniffed, imprinting their scents in her mind.
"Why should I?" Vance asked, narrowing his eyes and taking slow steps forward.
"Just because we are off of school property doesn't give you the right to threaten us," Luke said, emphasizing the last word to remind Vance of where he stood—on their lands.
"There's more of us than there are of you," Veronica added.
Which was true. There were a dozen of Chloe's packmates behind her, half of them her cousins, double Vance's numbers. With another ten humans behind them—humans who were no match against wolves but were protected by their laws nonetheless—the Ashtar wolves were outnumbered and no match for them.
Vance begrudgingly backed down and left with his entourage, grumbling under their breaths.
"We can't come back here," Luke said, turning back to their group.
James and the other humans frowned. "But we need this."
"I know, but guys like that will get us in trouble," Luke told him.
"So what should we do?" Kayla asked.
"Change location," Chloe stated. "Every day, we have to go someplace different."
Luke shook his head. "Won't stop them from finding us. They'll follow our tracks in the snow. We can't cover that up. Once the snow melts, we can cover our tracks and change location, but I think we're going to have to stop these meetups."
"Or," Veronica cut in, "take it back to school property."
All eyes turned to the older female and gave her their full attention.
She motioned for them to come closer so she could lower her voice after looking around the snow-covered trees that surrounded them. The coast was clear of the Ashtar wolves. "We could form a 'club' and ask a trusted teacher to let us borrow their classroom."
"Where are we going to find a teacher cool enough to let us borrow their room during the lunch break?" One of Chloe's cousin's asked.
"And what about the hard floor? We're not going to be able to practice throws unless we can get mats but that's too much work and hassle and will look suspicious," another packmate brought up.
"We'll have to keep things simple. Or Luke and I can be the bully everyone practices on. We can handle a little rough-play, right?" Veronica smirked at Luke and Chloe knew she was referring to them being wolves and could heal faster than the humans.
Luke grinned at her. "No pain, no gain."
Veronica straightened up and looked around at everyone gathered. "Sound good?"
"I think it will work for now." Chloe shrugged her shoulders. "Does anyone know of any teachers we could ask?"
Lips curled up crookedly on Veronica's face with a glint in her eyes. "Let me handle it."
***
It took a week, but they found their classroom and got the new club seal of approval.
Chloe stared at the piece of paper outlining their club name and guidelines Veronica handed to her while she gathered books from her locker. "We're the new Dungeons and Dragons Club?"
"It's a role-playing game," Veronica explained. "Plus I know the humans playing it get bullied all the time and they wanted to join our practices too. They just want to watch for the first little while before they build up the courage to join in."
"How did you get approval? I know the principal knows you and I'm pretty sure he knows you're in our group," Chloe said.
"The D&D—"
"The what?"
Veronica rolled her eyes. "Short for Dungeons and Dragons. Keep up, girl."
Chloe smirked and gave her head a small shake.
"The D&D leader is Winston. He organizes all of their adventures and campaigns. Big-time nerd. He got it for us. He's also on the Student Council so he's highly regarded by the principal and teachers."
A grin spread across Chloe's face. "That's awesome. What made you think to ask him?"
Veronica threw her head back and laughed. "I used to play D&D with them!"
Chloe's eyes widened. "Really? Why?"
A sly smirk played on Veronica's lips. "There's a lot of strategy and planning that goes into these games. Winston and I used to take turns being Dungeon Master so our school work wouldn't suffer. But since I want to be a warrior too, I decided to quit D&D and join you in your practices with the humans. It's not much but it's something to give me a little head-start so I won't be the weakest warrior to join the ranks when I graduate high school."
Chloe smiled in gratitude as she folded up the approval and tucked it into one of her notebooks. "Thanks. For everything. I didn't even want to do this but James begged me to. I never expected it to get this big."
"It's cool. I wish we could start training earlier but the adults all want us to focus on our studies right now." Veronica rolled her eyes. "How did you manage to convince your father to start training you so soon?"
Frowning, Chloe looked down the hallway before closing the door of her locker. "I received a vision at the Winter Moon Festival a year ago. I knew I was to become a warrior like my dad. Then when Madison disappeared..." She heaved a sigh, her thoughts drifting to Animkii and his family and everything they had been through in the last few months. "It seemed like a good time to start then."
Turning, Chloe began to walk down the hallway to her first class, Veronica followed at her side.
"Yeah, that was crazy. Do you know what happened? I mean, your father is the Head Warrior and you know the Alpha and Luna's family better than me. I barely ever see them since I live at the northern end of the territory," Veronica said.
Chloe shrugged, not wanting to think about how much pain Animkii must have endured at the loss of his mate. She still hadn't seen him. Even when she visited Anwaatin, he kept himself shut up in his room. He had to know she was there, but for whatever reason, he refused to come out and see her or speak to her and she was hesitant to intrude in his space.
"Not much. They never found her body. They know she died though. It's still difficult for them to talk about."
Veronica shook her head. "Crazy. I can't imagine what Animkii must be going through. I'd probably lose my mind if that happened to me and I lost my mate. Well, I'm over here. See you later."
Veronica turned into a classroom while Chloe continued down the hallway to hers, her thoughts lingering on Animkii. She wondered if there was some truth in what Veronica said. Was Animkii going crazy?
Ducking into the girls' bathroom, she ran into a stall and sat down on the toilet to hold her head in her hands for a minute.
What if he had gone crazy?
She tried to shake that thought from her mind. She couldn't bear the thought of it.
Even though he hurt her, he didn't deserve a fate like that. He deserved to find happiness again in some way, shape, or form.
He couldn't go crazy. The pack needed him.
And she needed him to endure it, somehow... Even if they couldn't be friends anymore.
----
Dedicated to HeartStone Packmate: AliasTheSage - Join us on Faecbook!
Copyright Jo Lee Hunt ( Joflower ) 2020