High Moon Academy

Chapter 11 POV - Charlie - First day.

I can hear my alarm going off, telling me it's already 4:00am. I know I have to get up, but Goddess dang it, why would the school torture us with this early morning schedule. Also, it's not my brightest idea of staying up till midnight on a school night. As I’m lying here, I’m playfully tossing the idea around that maybe the future beta isn’t really for me if I have to get up at this ungoddess hour.

Then the sweet aroma of coffee hits my nose, and all that nonsense leaves my brain. Oh sweet Marissa, please tell me that's for me, as I finally muster the strength to roll out of bed. I throw my hair up into a ponytail, throw on some work-out shorts, sports bra and t-shirt and head on out. Only momentarily forgetting my running shoes and running back to get them. As I walked out of the room, Marissa was sitting at the table reading the news on her tablet, eating cereal and drinking coffee. Goddess woman, it’s 4:00 in the morning, she can’t have even slept yet. How can she have done all this, and look so ready to go?

“You know, I can see you over there in all your groggy morning glory. Clearly, the big bad beta wolf is still not a morning person.” She smiled and giggled and handed me a coffee. I barely grunted a thank you in her direction and sat at the table, gulping away the coffee. Once I had downed that coffee and promptly poured myself a second cup, I became acutely aware of what Marissa was wearing. We both have the same schedule, so I know her training session is in 30 minutes too. Yet here she is wearing converse and what looks like a push-up bra.I get up and walk to my bedroom and grab some extra sneakers and a sports bra and toss them at her.

“Lesson one, Marissa, you need the proper equipment if you're going to endure this training. Your boobs need support, not the ability to attract a wolf's attention, and you need real sneakers. Not some fashion statement.” I see she blushes and gets a bit embarrassed. I shrug it off. She introduced me to the world of Naylee and I’m introducing her to what it actually looks like to work out and train. This was our agreement after all. She smiled and thanked me for not allowing her to show up looking like a noob and changing into the proper clothes and shoes. We finished our coffee and we headed out to the training fields.

As we were walking onto the field with the other students, I could see everyone turn to watch us as we were the new people. I tried to look powerful and tough, I wanted to exude confidence. The boys definitely take note of Marissa, but I get a few glances too. The girls, however, look like they are plotting how to hunt us down, and I’m not sure why. I look at Marissa as she notices too and just shrugs. Maybe they all heard about my run in with the rogues and Mr. Creepy. Whatever it is, I can’t let anyone distract me.

We all line up as the head trainer is explaining how things will go. We are instructed to partner up and begin sparring. The head honcho named Cliff says he's going to come and assess Marissa and I as we are new today, so we are given each other as partners. Everyone breaks off into pairs and Marissa and I go find our place.

As I look around at everyone, I get a glimpse at how well trained everyone is. Everyone, regardless of size or rank, has pretty good form here. Though I can definitely take them down, they don’t seem to spar with any kind of passion, and you need passion to win when it counts. I know I'm a month late to the academy, but watching them has me wondering if they were always this good.Or if the academy really was that great at training. I moved towards the sparring ring for evaluation and I took my stance in front of Marissa and we began to spar. I can see Cliff watching but he’s not saying anything, his face is hard to read. Goddess every teacher seems hard to read, it’s like being taught by top of the line poker players. Marissa’s form is alright but could be better and she gives away her moves before implementing them. Making her a pretty easy partner to counter, I’ll have to find time to work with her at night. Cliff notices this too and interjects.

“Thanks girls, Marissa, I would like you to go and spar with Jasmine.” as he pointed to a girl in the sparring circle 10ft over. Jasmine smiles and Marissa goes over and starts to spar with her. They are both more or less on the same level. When I look around, I can see that most of the good fighters are; the guys and the girls are actually pretty mediocre. Cliff then tells me he will be sparring with me. This way he can see what skills I have.

After twenty minutes of back and forth, he got a few good kicks into my right thigh. Me getting a nice right hook into his jaw. Oh, his look of surprise was exhilarating.

‘Ah, that should bruise up nicely’ I snickered to Iris.

‘He’s at an unfair advantage. You know you’re not supposed to channel me in a sparring match’

‘I didn't exactly want to look weak on my first day, Iris, also It’s not like I can channel you without your willingness. You know you wanted to show off too.’ I can see her chuckling in my head and then watch as she curls up in the back of my mind. Good thing the match was over.

I think I saw a glimpse of emotion. What was that, was he impressed, frustrated, proud, can’t really tell before he was back to poker face. He then simply holds up his hand and the match is over.

“You're good Charlie, one of the best fighters I’ve seen in a bit. Coming from Alpha blood. I’m sure that helps.” That stings a bit. I mean I know Jaymee has no interest in fighting and probably won't be that good, due to her lack of training. So hearing this guy pass my strength off as alpha blood makes me a bit infuriated, but I’ll let it go this time.

“I actually think it's because I trained everyday in my old pack. Not so much the alpha blood. I believe anyone can be a good fighter. Not just those blessed by the moon goddess with alpha blood.” He sees he hit a nerve and smiles. At this point, more people are listening and a crowd has gathered a bit.

“I can see you’re more than your blood. I didn't mean to offend you, little one.” Ug that word little. I refrained from rolling my eyes, but I could feel Iris rolling hers in my mind for me. I smiled internally at her solidarity.

“I think you need to train with some of our better trained warriors to help you improve. You can practise with Martin, during training.” A very handsome guy comes sauntering over, at the beckoning of Cliff. This guy had abs for days and was already shirtless and glistening. His sandy blond hair slightly bobbed as he came over and he had a cute, but cocky smile on him.

‘Goddess Charlie, if I didn't know any better I’d say he was your mate, judging by the ogling you’re doing.” I internally died a little inside at her words and instantly straightened myself up, while she chuckled in my head. Clearly, he saw my attraction and smugly smiled at me.

“Hi there pipsqueak, I’m Martin.” I’m sorry what, pipsqueak? All that appreciation for his body was gone. Wanting to kick his butt now more than ever. I smiled sweetly at him and pointed towards the training ring. He cockily smiled and followed behind me.

“Come on now you big ogre, ready to get your a** whipped by, how did you put it, a pipsqueak.” I saw the glimmer in his eyes as his wolf came forward and knew I had struck a nerve. Wolves are proud and insulting him like that was only going to make this all the more fun.

“Ready when you are small fry.” Ugh god this guy knows how to push my buttons.

We get into ready positions. I raise my arms in a fighting stance and he smirks. I know I can beat this goofball. I just need to use my strengths. He puts his fist up and we begin to circle one another. I punch first and he dodges and tries to side swipe my leg. I managed to just barely jump out of the way but landed on my ankle incorrectly, knocking me slightly off balance momentarily. He took my momentary loss of footing as a sign to punch my stomach. I managed to parry at the last moment and twirled behind him. I kicked in the back of his knees and he went down. I knew I had him now. I jumped on top, put my arm around his neck and attempted to pull him down. Unfortunately for me, he countered and managed to grapple me to the floor. He laid on top of me and pinned me. I had to tap out.

He got up and got off me, offered me his hand to help me up. I took his hand and he smiled.

“I didn’t think you’d last that long, it was really good fighting you. You’re strong. I look forward to sparring with you more.” He winked, smiled and his eyes lingered on my body about 30 seconds longer than he should have. A part of me was happy he enjoyed sparring. I really did think sparring with this guy was going to make me a better fighter. Internally, I thanked Cliff for switching up my partners. I found myself blushing again. Goddess what is wrong with me?

‘You like him. I mean he may not be our mate, but we are wolves. No sense hiding from a really good looking man who can show us a fun time.’ I could feel Iris panting in my mind as she too was ogling him.

“Thanks you’re pretty good yourself. I won't go so easy on you next time.” I Semi-joked, he knew it, he smiled and put his arm around me and declared he was taking me to lunch. I could see Marissa and her new friend Jasmine smiling. I didn’t know what to do, so I just let him take me to lunch. I’ve never been alone with a guy that made me want to jump his bones. I could feel the blush creeping up my cheeks as he escorted me to the cafeteria. There were lots of students already eating there, and clearly, Martin having his arm around me was causing some stirs in the cafeteria. We both grabbed a tray full of food and went to sit down at a table.