The Lycan Queen

CHAPTER 15: Battle Training

For a month the Blood Moon Pack worked to prepare for Crescent Moon and Full Moon to arrive. Word spread fast among the Lycans about the three packs joining together in the search of the Alpha’s daughter. Daniel had no doubt that it was by the Elders themselves, which is why he was not surprised upon the arrival of a letter declaring the three packs shunned and enemies of the Goddess. When the two packs arrived, Daniel announced a week of rest so that everyone could settle in. Both packs chose to leave a hundred men to oversee and protect their territories.

A week later the three Alphas, their Betas, and Gamma’s sat at the freshly crafted table in Daniel’s office. “Time is of essence in this matter,” Daniel addressed everyone. “While I have a team stationed at the South end of the Elven territory, we don’t know how long Rose has. I have no proof now that she is still alive, I can only go by my gut feeling. While I want to save my daughter, I am aware that marching in blindly with untrained wolves will only cause more havoc and needless loss of life. It is my intention to start from the basics and proceed from there. All Lycans of age are to train for battle.” “Where do we stand on the Lycan and witch involved?” Zar asked. “We have come to a dead end on our search. We avoided bringing anyone in for direct questioning, not wanting to cause a stir amongst the supernatural. It has and is our hope to keep this contained. No one is prepared for another “Great War.” “Daniel, I respect you and your leadership. You have led your people wisely and maintained a well-established livelihood for you and your pack. However, I do not believe we can avoid a war for much longer. Our stories have already been written. We are merely pawns in the Goddess’s story.” “What is it, that you are suggesting?” “It’s time to be more forceful with our inquiries, brother.” “It may be, but we ourselves are not ready. We must first train. If we are indeed already doomed for war, I want the Lycan race to at least stand a chance of survival. Let’s break for the day, have all wolves to be trained on the new battlefield at dawn.”

Daniel sat in his office after everyone had left for their quarters. He looked over the papers that he had discovered in Rose’s backpack one evening. He had no idea how long she had spent researching and putting the puzzle pieces together, but she had accomplished more than his warriors, Beta, Gamma or even himself. When they started remodeling the building on the Eastern territory, he had been positive that they would find Rose and Abel. It was infuriating to find the building empty. Rose had narrowed down Abel’s location to that building, and he had found her earring in a cell floor when they arrived to begin work. No one was even aware of him purchasing the property, but yet somehow who ever was behind this knew it was no longer safe. Eventually, he would have to share this information with the rest of the leaders, but not until he had more information on who the Lycan was and where Rose was. Until then he couldn’t trust anyone.

The next morning, he walked on to the field where three thousand wolves waited for his command. “I know most of you are aware of why you are here, and those of you who don’t are at least somewhat knowledgeable of the events that have taken place. Our life of peace and tranquility has been disrupted by a traitor of our kind. While we do not know the identity of the Lycan who has plagued our packs with misfortunes, we do know that he is working with other species. A time of war is very likely ahead of us. It is the decision of myself and the other Alphas, that if we must indeed go to war then we are at least prepared. You are to report to this field every day except Sunday at dawn. We will train until dusk; I will be combining each packs lead warriors to lead in training. Now I suggest you get a few stretches in, it’s going to be a long day.” Daniel ended his speech with a smirk.

They started with basic hand to hand combat training. The plan was to get everyone comfortable with fighting in human form then to train adding shifting mid battle. Daniel walked down the lines of Lycans observing their forms. He sighed to himself, if they truly were going to war, they had a long way to go, before they were ready. Fighting amongst one another was one thing. Fighting other supernatural species was an entirely different story. The Warlocks and Witches had the advantage of magic, some of them could wipe out half of them without even lifting a finger. The Vampires were probably their most equal companion in battle. They had stealth and were quick, the only disadvantage was that their venom was extremely lethal to Lycans. The Elven were sneaky, tactical, and also had magic to back them. In Daniel’s eyes the Elves were they most dangerous to face in battle. If he could clear them in any involvement with the things the events that had taken place; then he would reach out to their king and request a meeting in hopes of having them as allies.

By the time the sun had started to set the Lycans were groaning in pain from the day’s training. Daniel dismissed the soldiers to the dining hall advising them to rest as much as possible before tomorrow’s training. He, himself headed towards the packhouse mind-linking David to meet him in his office after dinner. He knew that the pack would expect him to have dinner in the hall on the evening of the first training, but he was need of a quiet dinner with his mate. They both had been through so much already. Meridah still had not returned to herself. She had her good days where she would sit in her studio painting humming to herself, and she had her bad days where she wouldn’t even get out of bed. It was on the bad days that his heart would shatter even more. She would lay under the covers silently crying, not speaking a word to anyone including himself.

The next day the soldiers trudged on to the training field still aching from the previous day’s training. Daniel’s heart went out to them, but it had to be done. He ordered the warriors in charge of training to push them harder. Once again, he walked down the rows of warriors observing their forms as they trained. He nodded to himself in approvement. In only a day he could already see a difference the training had done. “Daniel?” Meridah mind-linked him. “Yes, my love.” “There’s a young rogue hear to see you. He said he spoke with you during your travels.” “Have him sit in my office; I will be there shortly.” “As you wish, my love.” Daniel headed towards the exit of the battlefield pausing by Mason and Zi. “I have matters to tend to at the packhouse, I trust you two can handle the training without me for a while.” “Take care of your business, brother. We have it under control here.” With that Daniel left for his office where the young rogue awaited.

The meeting with the rogue took longer than Daniel had expected, he had just sent him on his way when he had the soldiers passing by his office door. He glanced out his office window to the sun had started to set. He started packing away a few things he had out when there was a knock on the door. “Yeah,” he called out. David stepped in closing the door behind him, sweat dripped down his forehead. “I didn’t know we were allowed skip days,” he said sarcastically as he plopped down in the chair across from him. “I had some matters to attend to.” “Anything, I should be concerned with,” David said raising an eyebrow. “No, just a rogue seeking refuge. I sent him on his way, we have to be careful who we let in at this time.” “I agree, but we could also use the manpower.” “It’s to risky not while we are still in the dark on who we are up against.” “You’re the boss,” he said as he stood to leave. “I take it you’ll be taking dinner with Meridah tonight?” “Yeah, she’s still not ready to deal with everything at the moment.” “I understand, the loss of a pup can be traumatic.” “We haven’t lost a pup yet.” Daniel growled. “I meant no harm, Brother. Simply saying stating that I understand her grief.” He left before Daniel could reply.

Daniel closed his eyes as he leaned back in his chair pinching the bridge of his nose. The stress was getting to him, he would have never snapped on David before. David had been by his side since they were pups, but with everything that has happened he felt lost. He had taken the information that Rose had gathered and started building on it, he believed the only ones involved were Lycans led by the brother of the She-wolf his father had condemned. Which meant Rose’s kidnapping was personal. Their alliance a group of misfit witches casted out by the others. Unfortunately, he couldn’t bring this to any of the others. It was all speculation and hunch at the moment, but that wasn’t the only thing from holding him back. It still sat uneasily with him that they were under his nose this whole time and were able to stay a step ahead. He believed there was a rat amongst them. He just didn’t know who.

Daniel stepped on to the field the next day meeting the eyes of a few thousand exhausted wolves. A few training spots remained empty. “Why are we missing soldiers?” he asked directing his question to David. “Seventeen are in the infirmary due to collapsing from exhaustion. Four disappeared during the night, no idea where they went.” He paused for a moment, “Push them harder today and let them break for lunch. We’ll meet in my office then.” The three Alphas stood on the sideline as the soldiers trained. David, Billy, and the other Beta’s and Gamma’s walked up and down each row as the warriors pushed everyone in training. Eleven more soldiers collapsed before lunch. The sun was sitting directly in the center of the sky when Daniel held his hand up signaling them to stop. “Lunch is being served in the dining hall. Eat, rest, and we will resume again at two.” The soldiers filed off the field heading to the dining hall. The three Alphas, Betas, and Gammas headed to Daniel’s office.

“Did anyone see the four wolves leave last night?” Daniel asked. “No, all four were unmated bunk mates at the steel house.” “Who did they belong to?” “Two were Zi’s, One Mason’s and the other ours.” “I’ll leave it to you two to decide the fate of yours, but the wolf who belonged to my pack will be deemed a traitor and a rogue.” Daniel spoke sternly. “The same for ours,” Zi and Mason spoke in union. “With that matter settled, lets discuss more pressing matters shall we. At the rate that we have soldiers dropping we won’t have any to battle.” “We’re pushing them by your command.” “I am aware of that. After seeing today’s training. I think we should revise our training method.” “Daniel, I know you want Rose back, and I want nothing more than to see you and Meridah reunited with your pup. You said yourself that we needed to be patient, that you didn’t want to lead these wolves to their death by taking them into war unprepared. But what’s worst being ran to death before battle or dying in battle.” “I agree brother, so I am asking you all now. What should we do?” “Let’s split the soldiers into two groups and rotate on training. The first group we will train from dawn to lunch; the second group we will train from lunch to dusk. They’re still training every day, but not working themselves past exhaustion.” “Is everyone in agreement?” Daniel asked looking at the eight Lycans sitting at the table. They all nodded in agreement. “Let’s give them the rest of the day to rest.” “We’ll notify our packs through link.” Daniel dismissed everyone after that. He had other matters to attend to.