“Sonja, hurry up. You don’t want to be late.” I heard my mom calling up the stairs. I put on my black sports bra and black training shorts. I tied my long chocolate brown hair into a high pony tail and rushed downstairs.
My mom had a plate of eggs, bacon and toast sitting at the table for me. I sat down as she poured me a cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice before sitting down across from me. You would never have guessed that my mom was my mom unless you were a werewolf like us. We aged much slower, The average werewolf lived to around 150, but some had been know to live over 200. My mom was the ripe age of 65, but looked half of that. We shared the same hair but I got my eyes from my dad.
“How are you feeling? Do you feel prepared?” She asked.
“I’m feeling good, maybe a little nervous. I want this so bad.”
“You have this. There is no way they can miss what an amazing warrior you are.”
Today was the day that our pack was testing their warrior candidates in a tournament to go to the prestigious warrior training with the Eclipse Pack. It was considered an elite program that trained the best warriors. They ran a year long program that allowed only three warriors from each pack to attend each session. Now that I was finally 21, I was eligible to try out.
There were not many female warriors in our pack, or any pack for that matter. But I had been training with my father since I could walk. My father is the Beta of the Rising Moon pack. The Beta is like second in charge, right after the Alpha. He helps train all of our warriors and since my older brother, Karl, has been preparing to take over for him since he was a little boy, I followed them around, joining every chance I got.
I grew up watching the warriors train and envied their skills. I knew early on that I wanted to be one of them, and I wanted to be the best. When my dad saw my drive he started training me along side my brother, until I could be accepted as a warrior of our pack at 18. Now it was my job and my life. I spent every moment honing my skills and pushing myself to be better.
My mom watched me as I finished up my breakfast and cleared my plate, washed my dish and put it in the dishwasher. I grabbed my black and pink Adidas tennis shoes and laced them up. She walked over and engulfed me in a tight hug, kissing my forehead before sending me on my way out the door. She yelled one last wish of good luck as I took off.
I ran down the back trail from our house that cuts through the forest. Our pack was in North Eastern Washington, close to both the Idaho and Canadian border. It was late spring and the last of the snow was finally melting giving way to spring flowers.
My best friend Alexandria met me along the way. Her dad was a fellow warrior. We had met as small pups on the sidelines of the training field watching our dads train. We instantly became best friends.
“Hey, girl!” She shouted as she jumped out at me. She grabbed hold of my shoulders with her 5’6” frame. She has long, wavy blonde hair and sky blue eyes.
“Yikes, what are trying to do, give me a heart attack before I compete?”
“Just keeping you on your toes” she laughed.
We continued on our way to the pack training field, catching up along the way.
“Did you hear that the Beta from the Eclipse Pack will be there today?” she asked.
“Yeah, my Dad told me last night. Talk about adding to the pressure.”
“Hey,” she grabbed my hand and pulled me to a stop to look at me. “You got this. If there was ever a she-wolf who deserved to be in their training program, its you! I have never seen a more dedicated, hard working, ass-kicking, she-bitch.”
She pulled me in as we hugged and laughed. “Thanks, I’m feeling pretty good. I just hope I don’t mess anything up.”
We approached the crowded training field. My dad was in the center of the chaos directing people around. Since I was competing this year, he had stepped down from directing the tournament and instead the pack’s Gamma, Aleksei, had taken charge. My dad was there to help set up and support them.
Alexandria gave me a quick hug before she darted off to the side of the field to watch with the rest of the pack as I made my way over to the the warrior area and began stretching. I was sitting on the ground stretching out my legs when Dominik came up behind me.
“You don’t actually think that they would let a girl into the Warrior program, do you?” Dominik was always such a pain. He could never accept that a girl like myself could kick his ass and decided to be a real dick to me as his way of dealing with his feelings of inadequacy.
I glared up at him, “Why don’t you go bother someone else, Domi-dick” His eyes quickly darkened as his wolf came forward at the insult and he let out a growl. He took a step towards me, but was stopped with a large arm crossing the front of him.
“Is there a problem here?”
“No Beta Sasha” Dominik said as he stared daggers at me.
“I didn’t think so. I think it’s best that you start warming up, don’t you Dominik?”
“Yes, Beta” He said before he turned and wandered off. His anger rolled off of him as he kicked at a stick on the ground. He made his way to the opposite side of our warm up area and glared menacingly at me as he began stretching.
“Maybe not the best time to be causing mischief, is it Sonja?” My dad asked me with a raised eyebrow.
“Just putting a dog in his place.” I said with a smirk across my face.
Dad took a deep breath and shook his head with a little laugh before he reached out to help me up.
They announced for all competing warriors to come to the middle of the field to begin. Dad gave me a tight squeeze and told me good luck before giving me a little push towards the field.
All the warriors had grouped together in the middle of the field. There was an elevated stage at the front where Alpha Andrei stood front and center. Luna Yana proudly stood to his side with her son Maksimillian, the future Alpha. He was always nice to me but was a boy of few words. He was still in high school at only 16 years old. In two years he would be heading off to Alpha training. My brother would take over for my father when Maksimillian took over as Alpha.
There was a man that I didn’t recognize sitting in a chair at the back of the stage to one side. I assumed that he was from the Eclipse pack. He was huge compared to most of our warriors. I was sure he was the Beta my dad had told me about. He stood around 6’5” with light blonde hair that was cut short on top and faded to bare flesh down the sides. He watched everyone with such an intensity.
On the other side was our Gamma, my dad and Boris, our lead warrior. My mom was off in the crowd with Karl and his mate Raisa. I assumed they would be on their way up to the stage soon to join the others. Everyone quieted down as Alpha Andrei began to speak.
“Warriors, welcome to this years trials. You will be tested on both your agility and your fighting skills in both skins and furs. We will begin with our agility test. You must run through the obstacle course in your skin before shifting to your furs for the forest agility course ending with a swim across the lake back in your skins. You will be ranked upon your completion time. Your ranking will determine who you will be paired off with for our first round of sparing. We will have a stepped elimination sparing tournament. Our first round will be in skins, the second round will be furs, our final two rounds will be combination sparing. The winner will have earned a spot in the warrior training program with the Eclipse pack. The remaining two spots will be decided by myself, Gamma Ivan, our lead warrior, Boris and our special visitor, Beta Jason from the Eclipse pack. Good luck to you all and may the moon goddess show you favor!”
Everyone cheered as the warriors found their places along the starting line. I lined up among the towering figures of the other warriors. My 5’10” slim frame was dwarfed by most of these men, but I knew that it would give me a leg up as I was naturally more agile. Perfect for the first portion of the tournament.
I took a few deep breaths as I readied myself. “Go!” the Alpha shouted and the chaos began.
I darted between the two men on either side of me. The obstacle course was made of wooden logs. Similar to what you would see at one of the human’s military complex’s. We were all very comfortable with the course as it was the one we trained on every week.
It started off with a raised horizontal log about four feet up off of the ground. I launched myself over the first hurdle and propelled myself up the rope climb. It was a twenty foot high wall with five ropes hanging down across its fifteen foot breadth. It was important to be one of the first on it so that you did not get stuck behind someone else. I pulled myself up with ease and quickly dropped back down on the other side, the twenty foot plummet not even an inconvenience for my physiology.
I could feel some of the others hot on my heels as I threw myself down into the mud. They kept the mud deep and thick for this obstacle. There were wires and ropes hung two feet up that you had to squeeze through. I knew I would benefit with my smaller stature on this part as I moved more easily through the tight spaces.
I popped up on the other side before step jumping up the logs that stood vertically. They were spaced unevenly apart from each other and were around eighteen inches taller with each log that followed the last. I grabbed ahold of the rope that hung from a high post at the end and swung myself as far into the water obstacle as possible, landing with a large splash. The water was around seven feet deep. Most of the mud was knocked off of me and I quickly swam to the other side.
As far as I could see, I was in the lead as we approached the last section of this obstacle course. I grabbed hold of the rope ladder and quickly climbed up to the top of the platform jumping off the high fifteen foot drop and landing in a roll.
Once I crossed the line at the end I quickly shifted into my silver wolf, shredding my clothes along the way. My wolf was large for a she-wolf and I allowed her forward to help push myself even harder. My eyes glowed silver with her emergence. Our wolves were as much a part of us as our human side. While our human side was the more dominate, our emotions, thoughts and strength were connected. My wolf and I worked together as I entered the forest weaving my way through the dense trees. I jumped up and over the fallen logs, kicking dirt up as I sped through the pathway. I saw a brown wolf, I recognized as Leonid, to my right gaining on me. He glanced over and pushed harder.
The thundering of more paws were making their way towards us. I serpentined through the dense trees turning a hard right near the cliff. The lake was quickly approaching and my wolf smirked as we pushed harder speeding away from the pack of wolves behind us. I had held back, not wanting to overexert myself too soon. I was always the fastest during training.
As I approached the shore of the lake, I quickly shifted back to my skin and dove into the icy water. Werewolves naturally ran warmer than people which was good because if we were human, we wouldn’t be able to spend more than a few minutes in the lake that was just above freezing.
The sound of splashing came behind me as the others dove in. We all swam hard as through the frigid water. I was close to the other end of the lake, and in the lead by a good distance when I heard a groan behind me. I looked back to see Leonid struggling to swim. The others took advantage to pass him by.
I growled in anger at the blatant lack of care for their fellow warrior as I quickly turned around in his direction. The other warriors swam past me toward the end as I approached Leonid. I saw Domink scoff at me as he passed. I growled in his direction showing him to mind his own damn business.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I came up on Leonid.
“I got a leg cramp. I can barley swim.” I could hear the panic in his voice. I pulled his back to my chest. “We will swim together, okay?”
We back stroked the remaining way. Coming in the last two positions. I helped Leonid up on shore and grabbed some towels and clothes for us from a pile. Being a werewolf meant that nudity was an everyday occurrence, but we still liked to cover up when we could.
“I’m so sorry Sonja. I don’t know what happened. I’ve never cramped up like that before. But thank you for helping me. I don’t know if I would have made it without you.”
I ran my hand back over my head, pulling the water out of my hair. “It’s fine. I’m just pissed that I was the only one that came to help. It’s bullshit.”
“You know them, they have tunnel vision. They are all so desperate to get into this training program.”
“Yeah, but still, I call bull shit.”
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