25 FEBRUARY, THURSDAY, 7.45PM
"Alpha is here." Somebody, I think it was Harvey, announced the moment Savy and I stepped into the training hall. We were early, but it looked like many of the trainees were already here.
"Yo, Alpha!" The guys called back.
It was Thursday night's training sesh so the guys here took their training more seriously than what I was used to.
For the Night Leaf wolves, this would be the last years before proving themselves as warriors, participating in the annual warrior ranking competition, and meeting their mate. I guess knowing that adulthood was just around the corner would make one take training more seriously.
For the Morning Light wolves, they were already warriors from their first shift, and every routine patrol route over there was a real risk of walking into a rogue confrontation. I guess knowing that death was just around the corner would make one take training more seriously too.
So not only were the trainees here before the session start time, they weren't just kicking back with idle chatter, I mean, there was that too, but they had also started their warm ups in small groups.
It was a nice vibe.
Flynn was waiting at the beeches on one side of the hall. As I headed to his direction, Harvey removed himself from the group of guys he was stretching with to accompany me.
I wanted to tell Harvey he didn't have to. I knew from experience how annoying it was when you're just warming up and got interrupted. Your body would cool down again, and then you'd have to warm up all over again.
But Flynn raised his arm in greeting, "Yo, Alpha."
Flynn was grinning.
"What's so funny?" I asked, hands immediately on my hips. It better not be me!
"Nothing." Flynn tried to shrug it off, but ended up grinning so hard that his eyes disappeared between the crescent folds of his smile, "I can't believe the little pup I trained is now the Alpha who can summon me at whim."
"What whim?" I flared a little, "I have an important job for you!"
Kind of. I mean, if you think helping me get back at River was important.
"It's fine, it's fine." Flynn was still grinning, "Even if you called me up just to beat up a few little punks for you. You're the Alpha. Whatever you say goes."
If I wanted to beat up anyone, I could do it just fine without your help!
And then Flynn shrugged again, "I must be getting old. The first batch of pups I trained have all shifted."
Yes, all two of us. Dean and me.
Why was Flynn starting to talk like Beta Lucas? Was getting old such a great achievement in life?
"And who would have known that one of you brats would grow up to the the alpha?" Flynn was obviously still getting over this.
Seriously? What was Flynn going on about? Of course I would be the Alpha! My Dad was the Alpha! Flynn was seriously looking down on my abilities or something.
"Do you know what the wolves of the Underground call me?" Flynn asked.
I shrugged. Since Flynn had been going over as a trainer, wouldn't they call him "Sir"? If not that, then I suppose Slavedriver would also be appropriate.
"I'm the Alpha's Adviser." Flynn grinned like the Cheshire cat, "Whenever I go over, they treat me like a VIP, they even sit me next to the Elder Delta Cornelius."
Who? I must have shown my confusion.
"The Captain's adviser." Flynn supplemented me.
Who? Oh wait, I knew this. Stephan was "the Captain" so that was Stephan's very elder adviser who had trained Stephan as a pup, faithfully waited for Stephan's return with the remnant of his pack, and then opened a school to educate the fight dogs who joined them. Elder Delta Cornelius sounded extremely old and noble.
I narrowed my eyes at my own adviser who was sporting a man bun, and wearing his usual all black t-shirt and jogger pants, crowing about VIP treatment at an Underground Army.
"There must be some misunderstanding." I sighed.
"Misunderstanding?" Flynn raised a confident brow, "You said it yourself. I'm your adviser!"
"Don't you feel ashamed riding on the coat tails of a fifteen year old girl?" I scolded.
Flynn laughed loudly, "It's good you know yourself."
Now that he had his fun - don't ask me what kind of fun, I never quite got Flynn's humor, Flynn got back to his business as usual mode, "So what did you need me for, Sam?"
Just in time, the hallway door - not the one left open at the back of the hall for the trainees to enter, but the one in front of the hall where the Morning Light goons had left their bags near. It was swung open by Wilhelm, and the moment the human stepped in, everyone just froze and whipped their attention to him.
A human! I could feel the mindlinks around me flare up. Why was there a human here?
"Prince River of Snow Moon Mountain is here." Wilhelm announced.
River stepped in then, Keanu just behind him.
Three humans! Why were there three humans here?
And then River tripped over somebody's bag, and fell flat on his face.
There was a moment of silence. Even the mindlinks stopped suddenly in shock.
"Ai, ow, ow, ow..." River scrambled to right himself.
Keanu rubbed the back of his head, "That was certainly quite an entry..."
I don't think Keanu had meant for everyone to hear it, but we were all wolves.
My good beta made the first move, "Prince River, thank you for coming."
Then Harvey turned to me, "Alpha, I've had the the training gym next door prepared for his highness."
Oh, I supposed this was one of the "few tasks" that Harvey had to rush back to take care of before Thursday Night's Training Sesh?
"Okay. Come on, Flynn." Now it was my turn to grin, "Let's go next door to talk."
Flynn nodded, but the trainer in him could not help but add, "Your training session is in five minutes, Sam."
I just laughed it off, since he was my trainer, he should know me by now, "I won't be late. This would only take ten minutes."
"Don't you mean five minutes?" Flynn corrected.
I laughed again, "Is the Alpha's Adviser forgetting? The Alpha is never late."
Flynn narrowed his eyes at me, "You better not let this alpha thing get into your head, Sam. Even though you're strong, you're still a young girl without battle experience. Right now, your training is more crucial than ever."
Despite Flynn's words, he was following me out the hall.
"Come on, River." I called with my usual wide smile, "Come with us. I'll introduce you guys in a minute."
Our packhouse had two gyms. The first gym was on the fourth floor. This was the nicest one, and was accessible to Elite Warrior ranked wolves and higher as well as the administrative staff working in the second and third floor. I've only been inside once. There were a lot of treadmills. As to how nice the gym was, this was the gym that Flynn and Hank preferred even after paying for memberships at the gym in Gate City (solely for the 32 hours of free parking perk every month.)
The second gym was here in the basement. This was the largest one, and used for warrior training. It wasn't opened to normal wolves or guests because it had some secret training equipment inside - at least that was what Beta Lucas told me when I was a pup. But now that I was older and wiser, I suspect that Beta Lucas was just pulling my leg again.
I had never come in this gym. There were usually big warriors going in and out, usually half dressed and sweaty and whenever the door was opened, the smell inside... it was a very concentrated male sweat smell.
I steeled myself and braced for impact when we reached the gym. Harvey opened the door for us. I had to say, it wasn't half as bad as I remembered it - which didn't mean it was good, since I remembered it was very, very bad.
The humans didn't seem to notice it though.
Humans were so weird. It's like they had a nose, just like ours, only that their noses were just for show.
The inside of the gym was tidy. There were a lot of weights, rows and rows of them, and benches, as well as bars, and I had no idea what most of the stuff here was. It wasn't like the second floor gym. This one looked well used but maintained. It even looked clean (if you ignored the smell). I nodded at my cursory survey.
"I hope this place meets your plan adequately, Alpha." Harvey intoned.
I nodded again, rather satisfied, "Yes, you've done well."
Should we ever have a torture chamber installed in our packhouse, I hope it would be maintained with this same level of hygiene.
"Okay!" I turned my attention to Flynn and the three humans, "River, this is Flynn. He is a delta here at Night Leaf and an experienced trainer. In fact, even the Underground Army treats him with great respect and call him grandfather."
I couldn't help it. Hahaha. The Alpha's adviser had the decency to looked abashed, "Alpha is exaggerating, I'm just a young delta here."
I'm glad you know yourself! Hahahaha. But I didn't really want to embarrass Flynn in front of our human guests, so I stopped messing with him.
"Flynn, this is Prince River." I introduced, "With him are Wilhelm and Keanu. They are all friends of mine. River though, is also Savy's mate."
Flynn took pause and then narrowed his eyes at me. What? He didn't believe me?
"It's true!" I protested, "He appeared in Savy's shifting dream!"
Flynn looked at Harvey. Wait, Flynn would rather believe Harvey than me?
When my good beta nodded his head, Flynn frowned, "Savy's mate is a human?"
Well, more like a formling than a human, but I didn't have the patience to explain it all, "That's not important. Flynn, River wants to get stronger so he can protect Savy better. So I need you to help him."
Flynn frowned more, this time he was eyeballing River.
"Ah, yes. Please train me, sir!" River bowed.
Wilhelm and Keanu bowed behind their Prince, "We too would like to receive your instruction, Sir!"
It never failed to amaze me, how these three humans were so well trained in lycan etiquette. They were so well versed in lycan etiquette that every now and then, just like right now, they would break out into it, and it would completely throw me off because they were just human, but they were still able to conduct themselves so properly that even our ancestors from the Colored Mountain would not be able to fault them. But TBH, the thing that threw me off more was that here in Night Leaf, we didn't follow most of these traditional ways, so ironically, it felt kind of out of place.
"Have you trained in any of the lycan fight techniques?" Flynn asked.
To my surprise, River nodded, "I've know how to use a sword, and some basic human self defense moves, as well as a little of the snow wolf fight technique.. but I'm not a wolf, so..."
Seriously? I had no idea River would have trained... swordsmanship too - this was like what Henry and Bell and fancy future alpha's trained in right? But I guess River was Alpha Gunter's son, so it shouldn't be surprising that he had lessons in these things. It's just that River was so River! I couldn't quite imagine him surviving a punch, much less an actual fight.
And wasn't it dangerously to let River hold sharp objects? I wouldn't trust that guy with a pair of safety scissors!
But Flynn was nodding, "The Snow Wolf fight technique is quite an ancient one, and if I'm not mistaken, based on the Snow Wolf's magic abilities. It would do little to help a human, since you have no magic in your veins."
Ah, yes and no. But since River was planning on returning Fount his stone, I guess Flynn was not wrong to say some kind of fight technique that relied on magic would not be helpful for River. Better that River learned a more physical form of combat, but first he would have to train his physical strength for maybe a hundred years more.
"How long will you be staying here at Night Leaf?" Flynn asked.
"Until tomorrow." River answered, "My dad had just sent word that he would be returning tomorrow. We will leave by evening."
Wait, what? NO!
"What about the Warlock?" I flared.
River raised his hands and waved me down quickly, "Don't... don't worry, Sam. My dad says he will settle this tomorrow before we leave. We won't leave you in the lurch."
"Who says I was in a lurch?" I flared even more.
I mean, I could handle the warlock or whatever, but YOU! How dare you cut short the torture, I mean training that I've arranged for you?
On the other hand, Flynn was not perturbed by the single session training, "I see. I suppose I can access your current strength and abilities, and then teach you the exercises and provide you with a training plan to practice on your own."
The three humans bowed in unison, "Thank you for your guidance, sir!"
Flynn nodded, his trainer-mode on, "No need for formalities. Let's just start: show me what you've got."