Chapter 4

Leah and I were good to our word, training fierce and grinding to claw our way out of iron rank 3. In 2 months we were able to make it to iron rank 1, but found reaching bronze was a challenge that we would need more guidance on. My aunt was often too busy to help us train so we would watch other ranks and try to imitate some of their techniques, but we really needed more insight into what we were supposed to be doing.

“We need to find someone to train us, try flirting with the bronze boys” Leah nudged me as we sat under the trees watching the bronze train. She giggled at my disgusted look, “you’re so pretty, you could do it”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes “says the golden goddess”

“Shush, you have this whole porcelain doll vibe going on girl, mysterious and tempting” she waves a hand at me

“Maybe I should be flirting with you” I joke and she giggles

Suddenly we hear a twig snap nearby, both of us whip our heads around to see a huge dark brown wolf watching us. Leahs eyes go wide and she bares her neck in submission, I watch frozen, unsure of who it is and on instinct I don’t submit. Training had started to build my confidence and climbing the ranks you couldn’t just roll over and submit to every challenge. My eyes met the dark wolf, we simply stare at each other for a few moments before he shifts into his human form. I gasp and quickly bare my neck as well, but not before getting an eyeful of all his glory.

My cheeks burn, I can feel my embarrassment on my neck and down to my chest. The curse of being so pale, i sometimes joked my entire body would blush, not just my cheeks.

“Are we trying to seduce pack mates? Or have I stumbled onto a little girl on girl action?” I hear Nico ask, his voice deep and full of a chuckle.

“Just discussing training” I say quietly, nudging Leah who seems to have lost her voice in the presence of the alpha’s son. She often gushes about how delicious of a specimen he is, but now she leaves me to face this conversation alone.

“Mm, yes the old flirt your attacker into submission” he laughs, and I glance up to meet his eye again

“Obviously not” I retort, the corner of my mouth fighting a smile, his arms are crossed as he leans against a tree, still completely naked without even attempting to conserve any modesty

“I could see you finding success in that tactic” he says with a shrug, his brown eyes twinkling

“I think I’ll stick to throat punching” and this time Leah let’s out a snort and I laugh with her

“If you’re interested in a little extra training, you can always ask me”

“I don’t know if-“ I start but Leah cuts me off

“Yes!” Her voice nearly a bark with excitement

“What rank are you two?” Nico asks and I glance away, neither of us answer, the air heavy with our shame “I suppose it doesn’t matter as long as you’re willing to put in the work.. Saturday, meet me at the falls at 8 am” and he shifts so quickly neither of us have a chance to respond, before he darts away into the trees, almost silently.

“Oh my god” Leah tugs my sleeve and whispers “he’s glorious, and he’s all ours on Saturday”

“He’s just training us” I say pushing her over and laughing “he probably won’t hang around after he sees how pathetic we are”

“He’s totally into you, he’s gonna train you out of your panties” she squeals and rolls around kicking her legs and laughing

“Absolutely not!”

“Oh most definitely!” She sits up at looks at me with a sly grin “he was tooootally flirting, can’t really say you did any flirting back, but you’re just such a prude”

“You wench!” I laugh and throw grass onto her “I am not a prude! I’m just not interested until I meet my mate”

“You never know, Nico could be yours” she shrugs brushing the grass out of her hair

I shake my head “he’s going to be alpha, I’m not Luna material, the moon goddess knows better than that”

“Come on, we gotta get going” Leah said, hopping up and pulling me to my feet.

We headed to the cafe in town to meet with some of the other Iron wolves, Troy, Rayna, and Wes were part of the small group of us who embarrassed the town and we tried to stick together. Troy was a little bit of an ass, way too cocky for a kid who couldn’t even land a punch, Rayna was a much better fighter but stayed in the lower ranks to try to get closer to Troy, she insisted they were mates and he didn’t really deny the attention. Wes was quiet and really genuine, but didn’t open up much.

They were a lot closer to Leah before she and I had started to try to get better, she reckoned they were feeling jealous but it made me nervous to be near them. She insisted they were harmless, I guess I couldn’t argue with that sentiment since according to the pack they were genuinely the most harmless wolves according to rank.

Troy waved us over, they were sitting at an outside table beneath an umbrella. Leah and I hurried over and plopped down, Wes smiled and slid two lemonades over to us,

“We ordered these for you guys” he told us

“Thank you! Sorry we are late, Jess here was flirting her way into some excellent training” she said before taking a sip

“I absolutely did no such thing!” I shook my head and laughed, meeting Troys gaze, he scowled at us and turned away.

Rayna looped her arm in his and he shrugged her off to pick up his drink. We all ordered, enjoying the cool fall air and chatting. There was some gossip about a pack of rogues terrorizing the east coast packs, I made a mental note to call my parents and make sure they were being safe.

“They won’t make it over here will they?” Rayna asked

“Nah, why would they travel this far?” Troy shrugged, not quite sounding as confident as he seemed to want to be “but I heard they wiped out most of the Gray Stone pack, killed their alpha and everything”

“Woah” Leah looked shocked “but Alpha Sam was known to be a really good fighter, he trained here!”

“Yeah he was a gold tier wolf” Wes nodded, “the rogues aren’t even trying to take over packs, they’re just demolishing them”

“Why?” I asked “what’s the point of killing off other shifters?”

“I think it’s a vengeance thing, they’re attacking their former packs” Troy said, “most of the rogues were banished wolves and Alpha Sam wasn’t exactly lenient”

“Still” I whisper “seems awfully excessive”

The group went quiet as we pondered the dark news, killing an alpha and taking a pack over wasn’t shocking, but slaughtering an entire pack? That was unheard of in our community, lessening our numbers was never something other wolves sought to do. Sure we were sometimes power hungry, or greedy, but murderers? Even rogue wolves had agendas beyond senseless death. My stomach churned at the thought.

“Well we should make sure to train hard” Leah looks at me and I nod in agreement

“Yeah go ahead and join Chrissy and her slut squad” Troy said harshly

“Excuse me?” I asked shocked by his statement

“You heard me, suck all the wolf dick you need to and maybe the rogues won’t kill you” he nearly growled

“I don’t know what crawled up your ass and died” I said angrily, getting to my feet “but it fucking stinks”

I stormed off, Leah hot on my tail. I felt furious, why the hell did it matter that we wanted to get stronger? It was a wolf eat wolf world and I wasn’t gonna sit by and be weak anymore.

‘Stay away from him’ Nya growled

‘Trust me, I don’t intend on speaking to him again’

‘We can claw his eyes out’ she was pushing forward and I could feel myself holding back a shift.

“Hey,” Leah touched my shoulder “ignore him, he’s a jerk sometimes”

“He’s a jerk all the time” I told her “I’m not hanging around him and his piss attitude”