I have to admit, I’m excited too. This is what I have been dreaming about ever since I found out about the Elite Warriors. Working in the shadows, no one really knows who you are. It’s not about the glory for them, well most of them, I think as Audrina’s face pops into my head. They are the ones who take care of the really hard stuff and never get any public recognition. They make pack life better and most don’t even realize it.
“We better get the homework done then, and maybe a nap if we’re going to be up all night.” I move towards my books.
“Wwwwhhhhyyyy?!” Mina whines. “We are like two weeks ahead on everything. I hate your classes, have I ever told you that?”
I laugh. “Maybe once or twice. But we don’t know what this new training is going to do to us. If we can’t stay ahead, it’s going to be a bigger pain in the ass, trust me. Let’s get this out of the way and then we can actually focus for the next week on training.”
“Ugh, I hate it when you make sense!’ She moves for her backpack. “At least most of the classes are starting to make sense. Math might kill me though. I may just have you take the test for me so the professor doesn’t have to wait a week for me to finish it.” We both start to giggle.
For the next two hours we work through everything that we can. Mina asks for help every now and then, but mostly we just work in comfortable silence.
By 6pm we are starving and as far as we can go with all of our subjects so we head downstairs to see if we can grab food before one of the warriors picks us up for training. Stella and Jack must have been told what was going on in some form, because when we walked into the kitchen two heaping plates were set aside with our names on them. I just smiled, something about the way they take care of us feels like what Luna Ava and Alpha Lucas would do. Parents secretly caring for the kids that want to grow up, but doing it without hovering.
We take our plates out to the dining room. While we are eating Audrina, Bridget and Chelsea walk by laughing about something. They all stop at the same time. It’s almost like they share a brain. Now that I think about it, maybe they do since they have all been branded, maybe they were talking over the shared link and somehow knew to stop together. I don’t know.
“What the hell?” Chelsea asks.
“Since when do we get to eat in the middle of training? And where’s the spread?” Bridget says looking around, like maybe she could get in on the action.
“We have orders and need to eat earlier than usual.” Mina keeps her tone level and reasonable. She really is so much more calm when dealing with people. They way she acts out in public, you would never know her real age. The way she whines about homework is another matter altogether. “That’s just code for the spoiled princess gets whatever she wants.” Audrina snarks, but the cold stare of her eyes says she’s not amused.
“We did extra training earlier, still met you this morning before the rest of the warriors are due to come out and like I said, we have orders. We’ve done the time and then some. If you don’t like our arrangement you will need to take it to the warrior who will be here to pick us up around eight.” Mina stares them all down. For a Delta her presence is strong. The difference is, she doesn’t use it to make people bow down to her, more as a pressure to help them understand she’s serious and rethink certain actions or thoughts.
“Whatever. You two are so lazy just hanging out here in the compound while the rest of us actually work. You’ll never get called up if you can even manage to graduate.” Audrina shrugs and starts to walk away.
Neither of us respond. It’s not worth mentioning, again, that we train more than she does with all the extra thatl force my friends to put in and whatever hairbrained thing she has us do every morning trying to wear us down so we make a mistake in front of the lead warriors. It has actually become a part of our routine that we plan for each day.
“She’s so jealous of you it’s kind of disturbing.” Mina says around a mouthful of food.
“What are you talking about? I don’t think it’s me she’s jealous of. You walked in here like you owned the place and then owned the sparring mat your first night. I think I might still have a couple bruises left over.” I laugh at her.
“Shut up, we both know you healed in like five minutes. I’m a warrior, my presence is supposed to be known. You came in unknown. No one knew you, or had heard of you. You’re this tiny little snack sized person…” I cut her off with a laugh. “What?”
“One of my friends nicknamed me ‘Bite Size.’ That eventually got shortened to ‘Bitty.’ Actually, all my friends had some stupid small nickname for me. laughed thinking about the way that all started, then sighed. I miss them.
“Was he special?” She asked with a funny look on her face.
“They were all special and stubborn and overbearing and wonderful and I miss them.”
“They? How many hearts did you break when you left?”
“Wait, what? Breaking hearts? What are you talking about?”
“That look in your eyes tells me Mr. Bitty was more than just a friend to you, he was special. But you just said ‘they.’ How many boyfriends did you have back home? And how did you handle all of them? I had one boyfriend once and he was enough guy to handle. I can’t imagine having more than one.” She fans herself.
“WHAT? No! No, no, no! I didn’t have a boyfriend, I’ve never had one.” My voice is getting high and kind of raspy and I can’t control it.
“So, you’re telling me that you had guy friends and did nothing with any of them? No dating, kissing, hand holding, anything?”
“Sometimes they would hold my hand, especially when the trials were going on, it helped to calm my nerves and they all used to kiss me on the cheek or forehead, things like that. But, no, I didn’t date any of them.”
“So they were all touchy feely with you, but you did nothing back. Girl, you missed all the signs.” She’s laughing now.
“Huh? You make no sense. There were no signs. These are my brother’s friends, they are all like extensions of that. They are just over-protective.” I roll my eyes.
“You keep telling yourself that.” She laughs again. “You may have missed your chance to have all your firsts with a future Gamma, Delta and Alphas. bet they have plenty of experience for you.” She winks.
