Filed To Story: Secret with Betas Daughter: Skylar Story Series
I grab random things and hand them over then turn to walk out. She’s not worth my time and no longer a threat. I will beat her ass if she so much as approaches me aggressively. I am done with her and her rumors and threats.
We step out of the door and I take in a deep breath. The smell was so calming and comforting, this is home. The forest, the people, I can even smell the training grounds. This is my forever place, but I’m still tied to the Royal pack and the warrior compound too. It’s so weird to know that and have no idea what it means all at the same time.
Now I am curious, and have no desire to be in the packhouse if Kaley and her dad are there coming up with ways to get rid of me. So we ate and we walked the short walk over to the training grounds. I am giving a running commentary of the pack as we go. I hear a lot of noise as we approach the smallest of the three arenas.
“What in the world? It’s the middle of the day, what’s going on here?” I ask no one in particular. We walk through the gate and what I see stops me in my tracks.
All of my guys are working with groups of pups in the middle of the day on a weekday. What is happening? There’s never been training in the middle of the day before.
I walk over, waving at Delta Kyle. “What is all of this?”
“This is all you kiddo.”
“What are you talking about?” I look around as I ask him.
“You inspired a lot of things here. We train instead of doing gym class with the pups now and all of the upperclassmen volunteer to help throughout the week. With all of the little attacks and you being gone, we have all bonded being here. think it makes the kids feel safe being able to fight. And they know you’re at warrior training getting better and they want to do the same.”
“You’ve had attacks? I didn’t know that.”
“Yeah, nothing major, but attacks nonetheless. Some houses and properties have been damaged, but I think you found that out too.”
He looks at me pointedly. “Yeah, we got the idea.”
Lil speaks up. “Lillian, Elite Warrior, nice to meet you officially.”
“Oh, I am so sorry! This is Lil, one of the elite warriors on my team, this is Jena, another warrior on my team, but she is also the Alpha of the Black Diamond Pack. This is Delta Kyle, Sam’s dad. Is there anything we can do? We are waiting for orders right now so we are at a stand still. And none of us could sleep if we wanted to in the middle of the day.”
“Do you really want to help?”
“Of course. What do you need?”
“Well you are somewhat of a legend here. Some of these pups have never seen you in action. What do you say to a game of capture the flag?”
3-5
“Really?! Of all the things we could do, you want me to play capture the flag?”
“Actually, I thought they could play against all of you and see how a team works together. That is something this group is struggling with. Everyone wants to be the hero and they are starting to plateau working individually.”
“You guys in?” I look at my friends and I know their answers before they say anything. We all smile at each other.
“What are the rules? What do we get when we win?” Jena asks and Lil and I both laugh.
“Basically the kids put a flag out and you all have to get it without being tagged by them and get it back to the starting line. Sky here still holds the record for the fastest time. No one can seem to beat it, although Sam has come the closest. That is now the bragging point, who gets the closest.”
He laughs and we join in. He turns and starts walking toward the groups of kids working with the guys and some of the other highschoolers I recognize, but don’t really know names of. I can’t tell if the guys don’t notice me because they are focused on the kids or if they are ignoring me, but none of them look our way until Kyle shouts.
“Listen up!!” All the commotion comes to a halt. “We have a treat for you today, Sky is visiting and has a break from her current mission, so she and her team are going to work you over a bit. Let’s see if you can survive a game of capture the flag.”
Many of the kids cheer and wave at me. I love that some of them remember me and are at least excited to see me. The guys are all in their varying states of emotions. Sam waves enthusiastically, Mateo’s wave is more subdued. Oliver is just looking anywhere but at me and the twins are blank. I have no idea what they are thinking.
“You expect us to go up against Elite Warriors? Are you crazy?” A boy, maybe a couple years younger than me complains.
“Why not?”” Lil asks. “You are here to train and get better, not be comfortable and complacent. The only way to get better is to go up against people who are better than you, have a skill that is better than yours, or work with people who have been training longer. Always be learning, don’t whine about the effort of getting better, just do the things that make you better.”
Lil is in training mode now. She is one of our best trainers, she just isn’t old enough to be an instructor yet. She should be a floor leader and a team lead, but she says she doesn’t want those positions. I don’t miss the looks on my guys’ faces at her comment though. They must tell this kid off a lot too.
“That is the mentality of an Elite Warrior.”
Kyle says proudly pointing to Lil. “Now let’s break you up into groups to go against their team.
Kyle starts moving around and pairing up groups so there are an even amount of kids. This looks like our middle school aged kids so the ages and abilities are going to be interesting since many of them are probably in the middle of growth spurts. This is always such a weird age to work with because of that.
“You have your teams, work with your upperclassmen to come up with a plan. You have five minutes.”
He walks back over to us. “Let’s see how creative they get since it’s against you. Don’t go easy on them either, they need to see what real competition looks like. Many of the upperclassmen struggle with harming them during training. No one wants to hurt a child and I feel like the idea that they are weak due to their size or age is actually hurting them more. You are my biggest case in point. For whatever reason you are the smallest wolf I have ever seen, and I don’t think you are growing any more, Little One, but you are one of the most skilled warriors to come from our pack. These kids need a push, just like our boys did years ago. It’s why they do this now, Why they still train just as hard as when you trained them. They saw how it improved them, but I also think they do it to feel closer to you. This was your thing, your project to improve the pack and they refused to let it die when you left.”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.