WILD

seventeen

"So for today, Orion made a list of things for you to do. It's pretty long, but I'm sure you'll do okay."

Lorena was kind of irritated that she had a chore list on her second day there, but then she realized that Orion works all day. She could help out with something.

"Okay, what do I do first?"

Max looked at her little notebook that she kept in her back pocket at all times. "Well, first he wants you to watch some training sessions. You'll be starting training with everyone else tomorrow, if I'm not mistaken, so it's a good idea to see what you're getting into. And they're going to want to place you into a group based on what they think you can do and then you'll move up through the ranks until you're up in Orion's group. It's hard to get into, but as the future Luna, you're expected to be as strong as the alpha."

She crossed her arms. "That's impossible. Since I was about six or seven, I've only trained with other females. There's no way I can be as strong as my alpha with the training I've had!"

Max rolled her eyes. "Are you even listening? They're going to push you until you are as strong as he is. In my opinion, if you're physically as strong as you are mentally, it should be a piece of cake."

Lorena scoffed. "Can't I just do something else? There's a whole list of things I can get done. Why this?"

Max shrugged. "Well, you can do whatever you want. Whatever isn't done on this list is only going to spur a conversation between you and the alpha as to why you haven't done them. I'm still getting paid regardless, sweetie."

Lorena nodded. "Fine." She followed Max out to the place where a ton of people about her age were training, some older wolves supervising.

She had to admit she was impressed and intimidated. The hand-to-hand combat was insane, and the moves they were doing looked nearly impossible. The wolf-on-wolf combat looked a little bit more doable, but she noticed that the pairs didn't hold back as much as her old pack did. They were so close to ripping each other's throats out it was scary.

Maybe that's why no matter how hard Lorena pushed to stay away from Orion in that arena, he was always catching her and outsmarting her. She couldn't even imagine the brutal training that he had to go through to be that good at what he did, and she knew she had no idea about half of the things her mate was capable of.

It scared her a little.

Max walked up to one of the older wolves, Lorena carefully treading behind her. She felt extremely uncomfortable knowing that despite her Class A ranking back home, she would be starting from the ground up here. It both irritated her and humbled her.

"Lorena, this is Richard. Richard, Lorena." She looked up almost sheepishly at the 6 foot tall man with blonde but silvering hair. He had to have been in his late thirties, but he was extremely fit and attractive, as most werewolves are until the age of 60.

Richard turned to Lorena and gave her a curt bow. "Luna. It's an honor."

She didn't know what to say to that. "Um? Thank you."

Max saved her from further embarrassment. "Anyways, Lorena, you're in good hands. Richard and his team will be training you for three hours at the beginning of each day everyday, until you're training alongside Orion."

Richard nodded. "I've heard that you were in Class A where you come from. You may have your work cut out for you here. It won't be so easy. Are you ready?"

Did she have a choice? "Yes."

"Great. We're going to see what you can do, starting with hand-to-hand combat. We're going to place you into a class and you'll move up from there."