Female ✔️

7: the first break

I roll the stiff muscles of my neck, taut from a lack of post workout stretches, and the numerous back-and-forth shifting I have had to endure this past week. The tension in my shoulders and back has me hunching slightly, the weight of a pack on my head.

Kieran, the big training wolf, has his eyes on me. Daring me to lunge at him as we dance around the edges of the circle of plowed grass, compacted dirt and smudged footprints marring its surface.

"Are you angry, little mountain?"

I growl at him, rolling my neck again. He has blood dribbling down his lip from where I punched him. He made sure I felt no pride from this, but I know he was proud of me. At least a little.

The lumbering wolf had been training me in hand to hand all day, only my second week of training and he has me moving constantly. He makes my eyes follow his every move, training me to watch for ripples in muscle, twitches, even the smallest hint could be the difference between hitting and getting hit.

We are practicing a routine roll of moves, he will swing at my head and I'll duck, followed by an aimed kick to the ribs that you roll left to avoid.

Knowing exactly what your opponent will do is impossible, as he continues to remind me, but it's good to have the ability of quick movement. Also he wants to speed up my reaction time and this is a good juvenile step. He says.

"Duck!" A fist flies over my head in slow motion. "Roll!" A foot swipes clean over my side as I roll left to avoid the hit. "Good, good. Again!"

I'm up again as Kieran shouts orders, progressively getting faster. Harder. Sweat drips down my temple, arms are grass stained and burned. My hair's falling out of the messy up-do that Asher put it in only a few hours ago.

That small female had insisted, grabbing my hair anyways, causing me to growl until Alpha John gave me a hard look and I stopped. the frustration didn't though. But this female didn't seem to mind, she was content with touching my hair and helping me get it out of my eyes. For the time being.

When she left me on the field, she had embraced me, cheek to cheek. The first old custom of females I had seen here. This pack was very new and modernized. Not much like back home at all.

Then Jack came over. Such a nice male, I think I like him. Am I allowed to like him? Blu likes lots of females, takes them to bed, lets me see him mused, smell the sex on his skin.

I remember...

My mind has drifted.

Kieran strikes at me fast, I watch in almost slow motion as his large hand whips out. I duck swiftly, leaning back and catching myself with my hand, his fist inches from my face. I feel the air trailing it. Yet his bare foot hurls into my side, I'm too slow. I hear the sickening crack of a bone breaking and I'm collapsing on the ground.

I can't help the frustrated whimper that slips from between my clenched teeth. My face is in the dirt as I groan and try to get a handle on my pain.

"Goddess, Montana! What were you thinking? You were keeping up until then!"

I shake my head, my fingers feeling useless and numb.

"Don't shift, Bambi." The Alpha's voice above me. "I know your head is telling you to fight the pain, but shifting will only make it worse."