WILD

twenty two

Lorena was nervous for today. She had training again, and this time she was going to be put into a certain rank. Hopefully she was good enough to not be put into the lower classes. She had trained too hard beforehand to have to work her way back up the ladder.

She and Max walked to the training circles again, and this time she wasn't late. Richard smiled at her warmly. "Luna, how are you this morning?"

She didn't know what to say so she shrugged. "Sleepy. And you, Richard?"

The older man chuckled. "I'm fine, thanks for asking. But you'd better wake up. Today is a very special day."

Lorena frowned and before she could even ask him to elaborate, he had moved on to speak to the group. Max stood beside her, in her workout gear too. She apparently had to train today, and Orion had given her this time off.

"Alright, listen up!" All of the chatter stopped, and Max and Lorena looked up to see Richard standing above them. "Today, we're doing something a bit different, okay? First, I want everyone to give a warm welcome to our new Luna, Lorena. Lorena, you are in the second class, where Gen and Max are. I trust they'll show you the ropes, okay?"

Lorena wanted to shrink so small. However they were looking at her, it made her uncomfortable. She felt like property again, really, and it was slightly embarrassing. Everyone knew that she belonged to the alpha and it technically put a target on her back.

And Gen...she was looking like her like she wanted her very dead at the moment. Lorena refrained from rolling her eyes. Fuck Gen.

"So break into your groups and I'll explain what's next."

Lorena just stood awkwardly as everyone started to move around. Max scoffed and grabbed her arm, pulling her along. "When he says move, you need to move. Or we all have to run laps."

Lorena sighed. "Okay, okay. Sorry."

Max's light brown eyes softened. "Sorry for snapping, okay? But this is like...the military! There's no time for dawdling. Congrats for making it into my group, by the way." Max gave her a toothy and warm smile, and Lorena relaxed.

"Thank you, Max."

Richard's voice interrupted their moment and Lorena tried to give him her full attention. "Okay, so today's training is a lot different. It's about that time where Alpha Orion chooses his force. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a group of you guys that work beside him, fight beside him, patrol with him, and train personally with him."

Max leaned over to Lorena and whispered, "That's the most elite group of fighters we have. The older ones must be stepping down. Richard used to be one of them and he fought alongside Ares."

Lorena nodded, thankful for the background information. She was probably the most ignorant person in the group. She had to study up on the way a traditional pack worked, since her pack never followed those guidelines.

Richard pointed to the building Lorena lived in. "He will be watching from the roof of that building over there, and then he'll come down and personally tell you if you made it or not."

Lorena squinted and could hardly make out Orion's tall figure standing right where Richard said he would be. She huffed and pulled her hair back. She had to get on that team one way or another, even if she had to run circles around the best fighters to do so. She couldn't be Orion's mate and not be on his team, fighting by his side. It didn't make sense and she knew she would be humiliated.

Richard called out names in pairs and of course she got Gen. Apparently, Richard didn't care how badly it had ended last time. They almost killed each other. Gen smirked and walked over to her, strutting a circle around her like she was a predator and Lorena was her helpless prey.

She stopped in front of her and cocked her head to the side, jutting her lip out in mock sympathy. "Aww, what's the matter? Don't want to lose in front of your alpha?"

Lorena clenched her fist at her side and Gen looked down at it, her smirk growing wider. She wanted her to attack her so that she could attempt to humiliate her. Lorena took a deep breath and released the tension in her arm.

"I'm not doing this with you, Gen. Stop your pointless talking and get into position so that we can get this over with."

Gen ignored her and kept on with her taunting. "You sound so confident...wonder where that came from."

Lorena cursed under her breath. This girl was irritating her so bad, her wolf wanted to rip her throat out. It was getting harder and harder to keep herself from flying off the handle. "Shut up." She took a slightly menacing step towards her, but Gen stood in place and laughed.

"Ah, ah, ah...Careful, luna," She pointed up at the rooftop where Orion stood. "Your alpha is watching."

"Oh, fuck him."

Max nudged Lorena with her arm in solidarity and glared at Gen before going to stand with her partner.

"Positions, wolves!" Richard barked out orders from where he stood over them. Lorena got into position as ordered, Gen mirroring her.

Lorena squinted at her. She wanted to rip that bitch's black, almost navy blue hair out of her scalp. How dare she treat her like this? Wasn't she supposed to be the luna here?

But Orion was watching, so she would stay calm. For the moment.

"Whenever you're ready, go!"

Gen stared Lorena dead in the eyes, attempting to distract her before sending a roundhouse kick her way. Lorena simply dodged it and kicked her as hard as she could in the back of the leg she was balancing on.

Gen gasped and her hands hit the floor. She growled and came at Lorena with a bunch of flying kicks, more roundhouse kicks, and punches. It was hard for Lorena to dodge and deflect all of them, and by time Gen jumped and sent her foot flying towards her face, she didn't have the reaction time she should have, and it connected, sending her flying backwards.

She was unable to get up for a moment, and everything was spinning. She rolled onto her side, drool dripping from the corner of her mouth. It wasn't until she wiped her hand across her face that she knew the spit was actually just blood.

Her ears were ringing as she pushed herself back up with her weak arms. Her muscles trembled and her arms gave out, her face smacking into the dirt again. She looked up as Gen stood over her, almost gloating, but also there was a slight bit of concern in her eyes before it was gone just as fast.

Gen grabbed the collar of Lorena's shirt and dragged her through the dirt and back to the middle of the circle. "Get up," she spat.

Lorena felt so much rage that she felt like throwing up. Her wolf was so close to being in control, it physically hurt to keep her at bay. Luckily, she tapped into her wolf's strength and made her way to her feet, staggering a bit at first, but then balancing herself.

Lorena got back into her fighting position and flinched when Gen laughed at her. Like, a genuine heartfelt laugh. She put her fists down and rested her hands at her side. "W-what?" She already felt tears coming to her eyes. She couldn't believe that Gen was actually mocking her.

The taller, more experienced wolf laughed. "We're done. You can't take another hit. And I'm not going to hit you again anyways. It's like kicking a puppy at this point. If Richard really wanted to give me competition, he wouldn't have given me such a hot-headed, stubborn little breeding bitch."

Lorena felt her wolf back down and her heart felt like it had been stabbed with a knife. That really hurt. Because it was true.