Her Rogue Mate

Chapter Twenty Three

A week flew by with no news of the rogues. Training was as harsh as ever and every night the wolves who patrolled the pack borders came back tired and sometimes soaked, if it rained. Dad stayed holed up in his office or taking his turn at patrolling.

Aiden and I's relationship had slightly progressed, and each make out session in my bedroom got a little more handsy. It didn't help that my wolf sometimes broke through and nearly jumped Aiden's bones. I needed to learn to control her a little more.

The full moon was fast approaching, and that was the time when every wolf would be at their strongest point. Which wouldn't bode well for me, since mine had very... sexual urges from time to time.

Today we would be training in wolf form as a change from the enormous amounts of human training we'd done. I felt as if I could be an underground fighter at this point.

Two warriors stood at the front of the large group of young wolves. You had to be sixteen and up to take part today because your sixteenth birthday was when you experienced your first shift. Anyone younger than that was separated out and taken to go through a set of different drills in the gym inside the pack house. I envied them - the weather was quite uncharacteristically cold and I was shivering in my tank top and loose shorts. I knew I'd warm up once we got going but right now I was ready to run inside to my bed and sleep.

"Okay!" The pack warrior who was going to be training us today shouted, and immediately the crowd of rowdy teenagers quietened down so that we could hear what he had to say. "Today we're going to be training in wolf form. All of you will shift and we'll do a short run to warm up, then we'll get down to business. Sound good?"

There was a chorus of yeses and some of the less conservative people began taking off items of clothing so that they wouldn't rip when the person shifted. I wasn't really bothered about my own clothes; I could always get more, and besides, I didn't want to be colder than I already was.

Lisa was beside me, wearing a thick woolly jumper that was completely unsuitable for training - human or otherwise. She shrugged at me before taking it off to reveal an ordinary green t-shirt underneath.

I shut my eyes so that I wouldn't have to see everyone's naked bodies before they shifted into their wolves. I felt like it was an invasion of privacy, in a way, even though there was no such thing as privacy around here.

When I began to hear the cracking of bones as people shifted, I opened my eyes and do the same, turning into my usual dark brown wolf. I was larger than everyone except for Aiden because he had Alpha blood as well, which was probably the reason we were paired together by the Moon Goddess in the first place.

A few people were staring at him because no one had stopped to think that maybe the rogue would be stronger than them in wolf form.

One of the warriors that stayed at the front of the group was still in human form, whilst the other one had shifted into a black wolf with a white-tipped ear. The wolf motioned with his head for us to follow as he trotted off into the woods. He didn't speak through the mind link for my friends' benefit, seeing as they wouldn't be able to hear what was said.

We all followed in a straggly line. The lazier people stayed towards the back and the energetic ones zoomed to the front, which happens every time a group of people go running, werewolf or not.

The warrior who stayed in human form yelled at us to run in twos and I soon found myself beside Aiden. He sent me a wolfy grin which I returned, and then suddenly he veered off the path and into the trees.

I faltered in my steps, confused. The next couple of pairs passed me out, not sparing a glance to the side. I made a split-second decision to head after Aiden, if only to make sure he was okay.