Female ✔️

16: what i want to be

"Come on. Throw your best punch, pup!" Alpha John circles me and I circle him. The dance of the fight, my main skill, my priority. I've learned it inside and out, every step, counter, kick, motion, and strategy. I have taken the time and made sure of the effort and double checked all the boxes.

John hasn't left me without skill or tact, he makes every present day hard to make the future easy. Each training session is more difficult than the last, more intense. Sparring with other wolves, learning the ropes of such a pack.

I lunge forward with a fake to the left, taking it low and landing a punch right to his gut. It's like hitting a tree stump and hurts my hand more than him but pain has never stopped me. It never will.

Over and over again, he's on me about attitude, arrogance, and the well rounded circle of a good wolf. Fight, greenhouse, cook with Opal, yoga with Asher, kissing Jack. Round and round, my perfect life. Fine by me, in the near middle of my seventeenth year, having dove head first into life up here on Brine's Peak.

John shows me what it takes to be a real female. A female of power. Constantly, I surprise him with the inner strength I possess. He brings reason to each of his rising thoughts. He still knows little of my old pack, but he knows enough. My scars, my tortures, the sexism.

Jack and Kieran watch from the sidelines, long having transferred my training into the Alpha's hands. Seeing the importance of protecting myself because no one else is ever really willing or able.

My male looks so handsome too, filling out his body even more, he's more toned, taller, full of bulk and brawn. His dark hair is shorter, cut into a more manageable style, a little longer in the front but spiffed up because he likes it that way. His green eyes sparkle with life and love, tan skin becoming more pronounced in the prolonging sun.

The Beta is just the same as always, Kieran standing tall, dark, and handsome. Chocolate eyes mischievous and his curly fro growing out into a boxy shape, shaved up on the sides. He shoots me a wink as I glance over amidst another circling session with my Alpha.

I know this game he plays, this taunting he uses to try and rile me up. He wants me angry all the time, he calls it my fuel. Just getting started, I prowl around his skin, buckling down. I'm blinking to clear red from my eyes. He hasn't told me to shift yet so I can't, I won't. This is restraint, this is being a wolf.

Rolling out my neck, I try to release the tension and it isn't working. I growl out in frustration.

"You're weak, you're unstable, you're arrogant! You aren't a good wolf!" A laugh barked out of the Alpha's throat, shaking his head, eyes so bright. "Grow up, pup! Look at yourself!"

My hands shake as he taunts me, travelling up my arms until my whole body is vibrating. "No!" I scream, voice more animal than anything, and then,

I lunge.

"Shift!" John commands, and I do, within the expanse of mid air between him and I, ripping the clothing to shreds. It's a more smooth transition than it used to be. "Don't attack me now, you can't." He drops a kick into my chest and I fly back.

Twisting through the air, I land on my feet, shaking out my ruff and charging again. I'm fast, lithe, ready for all. I fake out to the left, rearing on the right and snapping at his ankle, letting him know where I would have struck. He attempts to catch me around the waist in my most complicated position but I steer clear, wriggling away and snapping at his opposite knee only to be quickly evaded.

"You call that skill, pup? Pathetic!"

I shake out once again before resuming the prowl, both of us eyeing up and down, playing the part of predators against predators. He's still in his skin. Laughing at me.