The Alpha and the Oracle (The Belesone Pack #1)

Chapter 19

The day passed pretty much as expected. Classes were quicker and easier to endure with Katarina by his side. She quietly praised Milo over his maths homework, which he was beginning to understand a little better with her help.

Lunch went without a hitch and although he got some funny looks from his friends, for sitting so close to Katarina and being affectionate with her, he didn't care.

There was a lot he didn't care about lately. There shouldn't have been, since he was the Alpha of a hundred wolf-shifter strong pack. But he was quickly finding that outside of Katarina, at the moment, he didn't want to know or think about anything else. She was all that mattered. And that said something. But he didn't want to think on it too hard. He was enjoying himself too much.

Milo was still popping painkillers for his knee, so he was pleased to find Leo and Josanna following him into the gym after school. They would all walk back together, with Leo leaving him at the Torlov house for dinner and picking him up again an hour and a half later. He would have liked to blow off pack business and have another night in with Katarina, but he was the Alpha and he couldn't turn his back on his responsibilities.

"All right boys and girls; torture time." He grinned as he clapped his hands together, relieved that he would be doing a purely theoretical explanation for that day. Tomorrow, he would feel better once the inflammation went down in his knee with the pain meds. Until then, he was going to make good use of Josanna and Leo.

"Let's have you two stretched and ready to go. Katie's going to do an endurance run for half an hour and then straight into hand to hand combat." Milo decided the routine for that day and set everyone their tasks.

Again Katarina was in an adorable, tight outfit that got his mind racing, but the pain helped him control those thoughts.

Surprisingly, Milo found Katarina's mind elsewhere. She was continually stopping and asking him, in his head, if he was okay and if he needed to stop for a break. The guilt was obvious in her eyes, but he would reassure her that it wasn't her fault later. At the moment, he was too busy replying to her internal messages and making sure that Leo and Josanna were just as physically active as Katarina was.

Milo was more than a little proud to see that Josanna and Katarina were almost equal in their five circuits of the room. Although Katarina lagged behind initially, she won in the end and Milo was beginning to realise that she was pacing herself for a return journey. In her head, every run was a hunt. He loved it.

He watched, pleased beyond words as Leo slowly accepted Katarina for more than she seemed to be. He saw the potential, he saw her skill and talents for himself.

"See, I told you she was fast." Milo gave Leo a nudge, at the end of the session while the two girls were changing.

"I'm sorry for doubting you, Alpha." Leo hung his head and admitted that he was wrong.

He completely understood that he didn't understand how he and the rest of the pack never saw this side of Katarina. He often wondered that himself.

"Why is she not like this with the pack? Is she intimidated by her own people?" He wondered.

As far as Milo saw it, whatever made Katarina smaller and different to them, also made her smarter. Whereas her own pack ran like the wind to a hunt, they all dawdled back at their own pace, enjoying the night, because they were usually tuckered out.

Whatever he was, Milo knew that their pack were sprinters. Fast in the short term and then they needed recovery time. Katarina wasn't like that. She liked to start off slow and work her muscles into the exercise and once she started, she could go on forever.