"Marceau Couture, you slimy bastard!" I shrieked, running towards him limpidly.
He laughed, picking me up and twirling me around, "Althea Lavois, I should have known the trouble I'd run into would be you!"
I wrapped my arms around him tightly, "Please don't tell me you saw me fight!"
He paused as if he was thinking, "I'm pretty sure I did, I've always said that your talents always lied in fighting. Didn't I tell you that refusing to come and train with me would come back and bite you in the butt?"
"Years of escaped exercise or one embarrassing fight?" I pondered, "Nope, I think I made the right decision blowing you off,"
With a blinding grin, Marceau placed me down. His face fell slightly as he noticed the others who were now standing directly behind me.
He sobered up, "Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta." He bowed slightly out of respect.
I slid back beside Orion, now feeling the awkward tension.
I coughed, "This is Marceau Couture. We grew up together in Aliment."
Marc nodded, "I was thirteen when she left. We were neighbours, however, so we grew up quite close."
I looked up at Orion. His jaw was clenched and his eyes seemed to be sending daggers. While Marc certainly wasn't short, Orion seemed to tower over him. Though I could see that Marc wasn't letting it affect him.
"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I'm not too familiar with you Marc, what's your position?" Orion asked harshly.
"A warrior, Alpha. I've been in the pack for three years, I moved over after my Placing Tournament in Aliment. After revising my results, it was advised for me to come here to better my own personal skills."
Orion stared at him, "Well, I'll look forward to seeing exactly how... extensive, your skills are. I do apologise, but I need to take my mate home."
I looked at Orion, his eyes flashing from the usual dark eyes flashing to gold. I grabbed Orion's arm and pulled it over my shoulders, holding his hand as it rested ontop of my collarbone.
"Marc I'll see you later," I said honestly, "I really do need to go home, I certainly received my beating today."
Marc's gaze moved from Orion to me. He raised an eyebrow, "Alright. We should organise something, go for coffee or something to talk."
I nodded, "That sounds great, we should definitely organise that."
He gave me a small smile, a nod of respect to the others before walking off, my eyes trailing him before snapping back forward.
"What's wrong with you?" I whispered to Orion.
He narrowed his eyes, "Nothing. Nothing is wrong, let's just get you back home, I don't want you pulling any stitches or anything."
It was blindingly obvious, wolfish jealousy. I held back a snort, passing a knowing look over to the other girls as we walked, Orion still fuming at my side.
I mean, what was I suppose to expect? Over six months of knowing each other and marking hadn't even been discussed. It was no surprise that seeing me with even just an old friend sent him into a maddening spiral.
As Orion's house came into view, I bid the others goodbye and sped up, trying to get inside as quickly as possible. Orion unlocked the door and pushed it open, walking into the empty hallway. If anyone else was home, they had to be locked up in their bedrooms. Gripping onto both Orion's steady arm and the wall, I pulled myself up the stairs. His bedroom door was already open so I filed in, collapsing down on his bed.
I heard Orion shut the door,
I leaned up, "Come on, sit down." He begrudgingly did so, a sour look still etched in his face.
I turned to fully face him, placing my both my hands on his shoulders. "Why are you so jealous huh?"
His eyes narrowed, "I'm not jealous."
I rolled my eyes, "Don't you bother lying to me Orion Westbrooke, you were jealous and you know it." He didn't reply. "Look, Marc has nothing, nothing on you. We would see each other when I visited and hang out frequently before I left, you know, when I was nine? Trust me Orion you have no competition."
He let out a frustrated sigh, placing his hand on my cheek, "It's just hard sometimes. I'm just saying this, I'm not pressuring you or anything but I really pictured that I would have marked my mate by know."
I pulled Orion forward, lightly pressing my lips against his. It had no intention other than reassuring him. I felt warmth flowing through as I pulled away. I placed a kiss on his jaw.
"That will happen when It's supposed to happen." I said, looking straight into his eyes. "I know you may have reasons for doubt, but trust me, we have our whole lives together Orion. Everything will fall into place soon enough."
He grabbed onto my hand, "I trust you, and I will trust you until the very moon goddess claims our souls. No matter our past, I will trust you. And you're right, we have our entire lives together."
A lifetime with Orion. I knew that even when our times ran out in this life, I would be with him in the next, and the next, and the next. I suppose we were destined to be lovers, I suppose it was written in the stars.
--------------------------------------------
I hated Orion with every piece of my being.
Dragging me out of bed and taking me to a public training centre the day after I had publically humiliated myself, the injuries still acheing in my bones.
Gloria had shoved a few pieces of toast in my mouth as I was pulled out of the house, her loud voice bidding the two of us goodbye.
I was still half-asleep as we speed walked, my mind fuzzing and vision blurring. I was still so tired that I didn't even register where I was until I arrived at the training centre, the slow hum of voices slowly increasing until it was unbearably loud. I could see the others dotted around the room. Valeria was doing a series of burpees next to Colton, looking as if in competition. However, both Ivy and Lia were on the machines, Julian and Gabe acting as personal trainers.
I put on my best puppy dog eyes, "Please don't make me do this,"
He pressed a kiss to my cheek, "You're not getting out of this, no matter how you look at me. Now come on,"
He was an awful person. All he wanted was to see me suffer.
I didn't even know where to start, so I suppose it was a good thing that Orion was with me, or else I would have turned back and walked home the moment I got a glimpse of the inside.
"Come on, let's start with weights,"
He started me off easy, placing a ten kilo weight in each of my hands. Orion then unzipped his jacket, tossed it the side and grabbed two thirty kilo weights. He lifted the weights up and above his head before dropping them to his knees. I took this as a cue to start my own lifting. I didn't feel it at first, but the burn slowly built up in my muscles as the time went on. I kept giving Orion's sideglances, half because I was waiting for him to motion me to stop, half because I couldn't seem to drag my eyes away from arms, a slow drip of sweat starting to run down his chest.
I was disgusting.
It felt like eons until he stopped. Orion then had the audacity to flash me a smile,
"We're doing legs next," He said cheerfully, walking over to the gym section of the arena.
It took me a second to start walking, my mouth hanging open. He had to be kidding, he had to be. I trailed behind him. Turns out, he was not kidding. Orion placed a series of heavy blocks onto a slab before doing the same for the machine directly beside it, granted a few less blocks. He then sat down, placed his feet on two spots and started pressing down. As he extended his legs, the slab with the blocks lifted up.
He then gestured me over, pointing to the machine beside him. I groaned, but obliged, knowing there was no way I was getting out of this anyway.
I started, and immediately regretted not just running away. Maybe I really was too unfit, but I didn't care. If I had to do this everyday to even come close to remedying my unfitness, then I think I was going to pass.
But I kept going, keeping a slow glance on Orion until he finished.
In reality, I think he stopped for me, not because he was actually ready to stop. But either way, he had stopped, so it was a win for me. Orion stood up and pushed his hair back.
"I think we're done warming up, you wanna go spar?" He offered, not a hint of exhaustion on his face.
I had a tight grip on my jaw to make sure it didn't fall open in shock. I took a breath and put on a smile, "Sure."
We walked over to the arenas. My eyes washing over them as I watched wolves slam their opponents onto the ground before stepping off with a look of pride and achievement on their face while their opponent writhed on the ground in pain.
I gulped, even though I knew that it wouldn't happen to me.
The man was charted off the floor as Orion walked on, trapping my hand and pulling me up.
Orion cracked his knuckles, "How are you feeling?"
I wiped my face free of sweat, "Fine. Feeling perfectly capable of beating you."
He cracked a grin, "Alright then,"
He didn't hold back, flying into battle almost immediately. I bit back, throwing my fists forward, merely only blocking hits instead. I tried to at least make a little impact, kicking my legs and throwing my fists harder. I could feel Orion slowing down, just slightly, careful not to injure me. I suppose that was the gift of fighting against your mate, you knew you were safe.
But I was also fighting an Alpha, a powerful one at that. So I knew I wasn't coming out unscathed. Orion was smart enough to know that he shouldn't act as if fighting a child. He knew that he should be fighting someone with less experience, not his mate who really didn't know what she was doing.
And I was feeling it.
Eventually, I watch Orion slip up - whether it was on purpose or not - and my fist slipped through the gap, hitting him square in the face. He staggered back, and I knew that the moment that I had done that, our little fight was over.
He placed his hand under his nose for a second before pulling away, looking as if nothing had even happened.
A large smile came onto his face, "Nice hit,"
"Certainly an improvement from yesterday!" Marc's voice called out.
I turned around to see Marc leaning against the edge of the arena, his eyes on me.
I smiled back, "Morning Marc,"
He hopped up onto the arena, leaning against the ropes that surrounded te edges. "I'm not entirely sure how you went from being pummeled yesterday to landing a hit on the Alpha's face today!"
I shrugged, "Maybe it's different, I wasn't under any sort of pressure fighting here. I mean, doing a public battle is enough to get under anyone nerves."
Marc clicked his tongue, "I don't know, I think it had something to do with your opponent. Maybe we should be judging Alpha's fighting skills more then yours, if it was so easy for you to get such a direct hit.
I heard a growl, "Is that true, pup?"
Marc looked at Orion, a cool look on his face, "I mean no disrespect Alpha, I'm just simply pointing out facts."
The entire training centre went silent, the deadly waves of anger rolling off Orion sending everyone into a petrified, silent spiral.
Orion lifted his head, "So, you think you could beat me? In a fight, that is. I mean, since you're obviously so confident in your own abilities."
Marc paused for a moment, assessing the situation. He then stoop up straight, pushing his shoulders back. "Yeah, I think I could beat you. What, are you challenging me?"
Orion growled. "Damn right I'm challenging you. Main arena, ten minutes. This is not a battle to the death nor one in challenge for my position-"
"Well why can't it be for your position?" Mac argued. "I'm just as powerful, if not more than you."
My blood ran cold.
Orion looked at him, taking in his frame and weighing up his options. After what felt like forever, he opened his mouth.
"Fine then, a battle for my position. Should the unlikely chance of you winning occurs, you will be due to become Alpha at the current scheduled time. Should you lose, however, you will be banished from this pack, permanently."
"What, no consequences for you?" Marc sneered, not a hint of fear in his eyes.
Orion leaned forward, his face only an inch away from mine. His face contorted into a toothy grin, "Yeah, no consequences for me. You have ten minutes to prepare."
Orion turned swiftly and exited the arena. I gave Marc a look that told him exactly what I was feeling before following after Orion.
This wasn't going to be good.
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Good morning besties, how was the chapter?
So Marc, bet no one saw that coming... because... he's a completely new character... chile- anyway.
So I'm on a flight back home today meaning that updates will be going back to normal ish, maybe still a little later in the morning but regular author notes and stuff will be back.
Yeah hope you guys didn't miss my rants and overhearing too much, I know I know, highlight of the chapter XD
Ok so, my deadline for ToB is end of April and I'm hoping that's going to be completed, which means I'm moving into a new story hopefully next month! Tbh I'm so excited to write this mafia story, it's basically completely plotted in my head, but I'm going to write it down and try and add some more twists and stuff. That also means I can let my high school romance start to brew and ugh it's gonna be great.
So Title and cover and all that jazz gets released when this story is finished (if you follow me you guys are gonna be getting so many notifications I'm sorry) but I was thinking either August or September for the release of the story element of ToB which is all you guys care so it anyway lmaoo so what would you guys prefer? August or September?
Remember to vote and comment!
See you in the next chapter,
Eryn