The Scarlet Hunter

Chapter 7-2

Laying on her back, looking up at her engine, Isla was in her happy place. Truth be told, sometimes she would just go under her truck to have alone time. No one would bother her there. In fact, her brother wouldn't even go there to prevent her from getting her ass kicked by the alpha for being late to training.

Isla reached her hand up to see if she could feel the oil filter. She really needs to get this burning oil smell under control.

"Hey Kara, want to talk about Alec now? We aren't swimming."

Kara stretched and yawned. "Sure, let's start off with why you are persistent in your quest to have us killed or maimed at his hands. Why can't you just do what he says?"

"Cause what he says is stupid."

Kara sighed. "I don't know why the magic leaves humans in charge."

"Are you into him, Kara? Even a little?" Isla asked and dropped her hands to focus on her wolf.

"He's an alpha, so yes, I'm interested, but not like how you're interested."

"Can we do anything to, you know, find out if there's a high probability of him being our mate or not?" Isla begged. "It feels like he should be."

Kara rolled her eyes, "This isn't an engineering problem. No, you can't do anything like that."

"And you aren't interested in him at all? Like nothing?"

Kara huffed.

"Well, I am." Isla went back to trying to figure out if a new oil leak or an old oil leak that was burning.

***

Isla was exhausted and invigorated. The schedule she was on this week was intense. It was less than a week ago when Gamma Jax doubled her sessions. She had never trained with other wolves before, so she was learning how to hold her own, even against her beta. She would probably never be able to hold off Alpha Alec or Gamma Jax consistently, but neither would Beta Kelvin.

Today was her second training as an archer, or a hunter of wolves. She had spent the session before with Peter, but Gamma Jax brought another warrior with him this time.

"Hi, I'm Alex." The new warrior introduced himself. He didn't look familiar to Isla whereas she had known Peter from before she left Winter Moon. He was a skilled warrior, and Isla was glad that he wasn't killed during the takeover. But Alex was new.

Isla shifted her bow to her other hand and reached out to shake, "I'm Isla." She wore a quiver at her hip and two braids along the side of her hair. All of her hair, including her braids, was pulled back into a ponytail.

Alex blushed and looked down with a sheepish smile, "I know, of course I know," and shook her hand.

Gamma Jax clarified, "Alex here requested to be on your team. I figured we could use a second to Peter in case Peter is injured or if we want to use both of them to fend off a more aggressive attack."

Isla looked back to Alex, "Most wolves look down on using weapons, especially warriors. She-wolves are also not highly respected." She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head, "So to support a she-wolf using weapons is an interesting request to make."

Alex shoved his hands in his pockets.

"I don't like this," Kara spoke up.

"I need to figure out what's going on, Kara," Isla replied back to her wolf. "But this is off."

"I, well." Alex paused, pulled his hands from his pockets, and regained his composure. "This is interesting. What you do isn't something that any other wolf does. I do appreciate the hand-to-hand and the wolf-to-wolf contact, but everyone does that." A bit of a pause, "Plus, it's you."