in the night
she hears him calling
Startled, I stumbled back a bit as a tiny gasp escaped me. I hadn't been prepared for his nose to practically be in my face.
The wolf's ears immediately shot up in alarm as he watched my reaction. In a flash, he lowered his body to the floor, flattening his ears as he extended his snout to me. He bared his neck, surprising both my wolf and I. The stance was a display of vulnerability, that you meant no harm.
But Alpha's never did that.
Because it was also a show of submission.
So why would he do it to me?
"Oh no, you don't have to do that!" I said quickly.
He scrambled up in a rush, which unfortunately caused him to hit his head on the hanging light fixture above him.
I let out a soft laugh as he growled at the fixture that was now swinging back and forth, forcing him to duck his head every few seconds. Glancing up, I noticed his eyes were black, instead of their usual honey colour. His wolf was in control.
"You're Alpha Eastwood's wolf," my words came out more as a statement than a question.
His attention swiveled back to me, eyes twinkling with excitement. He bent down and nudged my slipper with his snout. I stepped aside from the door when I understood what he was hinting at.
He practically pranced into the room, sniffing every inch and corner of the place. When he got to the couch, he buried his face into the blanket I had been lying in, inhaling my scent. The way he was consumed by my blanket, it was almost like he was addicted to it. As if he felt ..
The beast stood up, flashing me a wolfie grin as he leaped my way and licked my face. I couldn't help but let out a laugh.
He maneuvered so that he was behind me, pushing my back with his nose as he geared me towards the couch, practically shoving me to sit down.
"Woah, slow down buddy," I flailed, flopping onto the couch. I pulled the blanket around myself as I watched Alpha Eastwood's wolf shove the table away and plop down on the ground in front of me.
He wasn't there to hurt me, I could tell that much. But otherwise, I still had no idea why he was here.
"Okay, I have some questions for you," I said, narrowing my eyes at him. Even though he was lying down, his tail was wagging back and forth like crazy. "Right for yes, left for no. Copy?"
He lifted his right paw up and slapped it on the ground with a huff, as if saying 'I'm not an idiot.'
I rolled my eyes at him. "Just checking to see if your communication skills are up-to-date."
He let out a puff of air in annoyance, but his eyes were still shining with joy.
"Is Alpha Eastwood awake?" I asked the question that had been nagging my mind since I saw him.
Our wolves could often take control of our bodies if we let them. Or if we got angry enough. Normally, we would be aware of our wolf's actions, but if we were sleeping, then our wolf could essentially do anything without us knowing. Although, they didn't do it that often.
I saw his left paw shuffle forward, confirming my suspicions. If Alpha Eastwood was aware of what was going on, he would've taken back control and left a long time ago.
"Okay," I nodded, trying not to feel disappointed that it wasn't him, but his wolf that was being so kind to me. "Do you know we're mates?"
He lifted his right paw up, tossing me an unimpressed expression.
"Hey," I put my hands up in surrender. "Once again, I'm just checking. Your other half didn't really get the memo at first."
My wolf was on high alert. I could tell his actions were pleasing her, but her guard was up just enough to prevent herself from fully trusting him - in case he turned on us like Alpha Eastwood had.
"Do you ..." I bit my lip in hesitation. With a shake of my head, I cleared my throat and continued. "Do you feel the mate bond?"
His right paw shot forward in a flash, as he lifted his head up and started howling in pride.
"Quiet!" I shut him up by chucking the blanket at his face. "You're going to wake up the living and the dead!"
I slapped my hand on my forehead when I realized I had just disrespected an alpha wolf. In fact, I had almost forgotten he was an alpha at all. Something about him had put me entirely at ease, and that was a feeling I hadn't experienced in a long time.
"I am so sorry.."
After a moment of aggressively shaking his head, the blanket finally fell off and I braced myself for his anger.
But instead I was met with him putting his head in my lap.
I could feel my beast's happiness radiating from within, a small smile dancing on my lips. Alpha Eastwood I could hate, but his wolf was too kind for me to do that. My hand began stroking his fur on its own accord, and he let out a rumble in satisfaction.
A moment later, he pulled away and went over to the table, picking up the book I had been reading with his teeth. Placing it in my lap, he settled back on the ground.
"Okay," I laughed. "But I'm warning you, this story is really sad. It's about a boy named Amir from Kabul, which is in Afghanistan by the way, and ... "
I rambled on, giving him an unnecessarily detailed summary of what I had read so far, before picking up from where I had left off. He watched me intently, listening hard to every word I was saying. After about half an hour of reading the book to him, a yawn escaped my mouth.
He immediately got up and brought the blanket to me.
"Thank you," my voice was strained from reading the book aloud. "I should probably get to sleep, did you want me to let you out?"
He shook his head, letting out a low growl as an indicator that he wanted to stay.
"Okay," I agreed, too tired to argue.
Another yawn escaped my mouth as I turned off the lamp. "Next time, bring me a snack please."
"Goodnight," I gave him a smile, to which he responded with a little bark, before laying his head back down.
With a sigh, I snuggled into the couch, the thought of my mate's two different sides occupying my dreams.
~*~
I woke up the next morning to see he had already left.
Though I was slightly disappointed, I didn't really know what else I had expected. It wasn't as if he was about to shower me with roses now that his wolf had warmed up to me.
I chuckled internally at the thought of him waking up in my room, confused as to how he had gotten there, especially since he wanted nothing to do with me.
Padding over to the bathroom, I brushed my teeth and washed my face. With a groan, I put my brown contacts on, trying not to cringe at the burning sensation. My vision blurred slightly, but it wasn't much worse than my normal eyesight.
A knock on the door startled me. Opening it, I was graced with a scowling Serena.
Great.
"Could you have taken any longer? I've been waiting for five minutes," she crossed her arms in annoyance.
"It's been 10 seconds," I deadpanned.
"Whatever," she tossed me a glare. "Apparently you're training today so be at the grounds in one hour. Breakfast is downstairs."
I didn't even know where the training grounds were, but talking to Serena any longer was sure to burst my blood vessels, so I just let her walk away.
After changing into some athletic clothes, I made my way to the dining hall where once again, I was stared at like some circus monkey in a tutu.
However, the food looked too appetizing to let it bother me. Pancakes, waffles, bacon, hash browns, fresh fruit, croissants, and every other breakfast food imaginable was placed on the heavenly table in front of me.
Within minutes, my meal was devoured. My stomach was yelling at me to go for seconds, but the thought of puking during training stopped me from doing so. One of the pack members was nice enough to inform me of the training grounds location, so I put away my dishes and walked over.
The training grounds were huge to say the least. Probably three times larger than the ones at Lunar pack. It was a big field outdoors, with numerous battle rings and a few obstacle courses. I could immediately tell why Shadow pack was so good at fighting.
They took training seriously.
There were about a hundred people there, ranging from about 18 years old to mid 20's. They were all clustered around one of the rings, with Scar-armed dude standing in the middle of it. Judging by their build, I could tell that these people were athletic, but not necessarily the most advanced fighters of the pack.
I joined the group, sticking to the back of the crowd. He was barking orders around, sending some people in pairs to the rings, while others made their way to the courses.
As the people dwindled down, I came into his line of view and he immediately gave me a glare.
This pack was sooooo welcoming.
He assigned everyone a task, leaving just the two of us alone after they had left.
"Ms. Willows," he stated, looking at his clipboard.
"Mr... uh?" I still had no idea what his name was.
"Gamma Darren Harris," he stuck his hand out and shook mine with an iron grip. "You'll be completing a training assessment today. I'll run you through some drills so we can put you into a group that's at your skill level. How long did you train with your old pack?"
So Scar-armed dude was the Gamma of the pack.
"I stopped when I was 16, Gamma," I answered, causing him to narrow his eyes at me.
"You just stopped?"
Tugging my ear, I cleared my throat awkwardly. "Well, more like forcefully pulled out of training, Gamma Sir."
"I see," he wrote something down on the clipboard. "Are you more comfortable in wolf or human combat?"
"Human," I hesitated slightly. "I can't shift."
My goal was to make myself appear as weak as possible, as I had at my old pack. If I fell to the bottom here, most people would just ignore me - and that was all I wanted.
Gamma Harris just stared at me.
"You should probably write that down," my finger tapped the clipboard. "In case you forget."
He just shook his head, muttering to himself as he scribbled something down.
"Alright then, we're going to start with some basic defense and attack drills, and then we'll do a strength and endurance test," he motioned for me to get in the ring beside us.
Stepping inside, I took on a defensive stance, making sure my technique was straight up horrible. Before I could even turn to face him, I heard the sound of air whizzing behind me, an indication he was throwing a punch my way.
Instead of blocking it, I let him hit my back. The blow was hard, enough to cause me to stumble forward, but it was obvious he wasn't using his full force.
Fortunately, I whirled around just in time to somewhat duck away from his second punch. We continued like this for some time, and the worse I did, the easier he went on me. However, I was surprised by his skill. It was easy to tell that he was extremely well-trained, and even if I had been trying my absolute best, he would definitely have been a challenge.
By the end, there were so many bruises on my body and I had acquired a lot of scratches. Gamma Harris didn't give me a moment to spare before he pulled out a timer and sent me to run ten laps around the field. I wasn't actually tired, and my wolf was begging me to run faster if anything, but I kept my pace slow and made sure to be out of breath.
Hollywood needed to give me an Oscar ASAP.
Gamma Harris didn't say anything when I finished, instead making a note on the clipboard before walking over to one of the obstacle courses. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another group of men and women coming to the training field. Their muscular builds were a clear indication that they were pack warriors.
And the Alpha was standing in the middle of them.
He looked ridiculously handsome in his plain old t-shirt and I hated it.
Scowling, I focused back on Gamma Harris as he instructed me to do various drills on the course. Halfway through my half-assed pull-ups, I caught the Alpha's eye. He had somehow come closer to where Gamma Harris and I were, and he was watching us intently.
I lost my grip, causing me to fall flat on my face. Groaning out of pain and embarassment, I lifted my head up to see he had shifted his attention back onto a pair of warriors who were fighting.
"Well, congratulations," Gamma Harris finally spoke, tossing me a water bottle. "You're officially the worst fighter I've ever seen."
I gulped the water down, not having realized how thirsty I was. "So, I guess that makes me the best worst fighter, right?"
He tossed the clipboard onto the ground, folding his arms over his chest. "And yet you managed to escape after trespassing."
"I used a distraction," I replied with a shrug. "So, what's the verdict?"
"You'll be joining the beginner group. It's mostly teens, but since they don't train as often as the older groups, you'll be doing fitness training with the intermediate fighters," he said. "And don't think that just because you're a member of this pack now that we're going to forget your disrespect to our Alpha. We've got our eyes on you, so I suggest you be careful not to make a mistake."
My mouth opened slightly to respond, but a familiar voice cut me off.
"Where is my daughter!?"
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Guess who came backkkkkkkk!
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