Reborn as the Lycan Beta

Chapter 16. I’d Rather Err on the Cautious Side

Sebastian POV

The teams were subdivided in such a way that no groups of three had people on the same team.

Unfortunately, that didn’t mean I was free from Joy and her gang. It was even a double whammy. Against me.

I got “partnered” with Joy and the Lycan who seconded the motion.

“Okay guys,” Gamma said aloud to everyone while he headed to our area. “You know the drill.”

“Yes, Gamma.”

“Hey, Gamma Ted,” Joy struck a pose that emphasized her curves. The male Lycan, on the other hand, removed his shirt and placed his hands on his hips as if to show off his muscles to the Gamma. Both of their noses were somewhat twitching, and from them, I could smell a hint of…ar**sal?

I mentally shook my head, but up front, I merely nodded to Ted.

“You guys haven’t introduced each other yet?” Ted raised a corner of his lip in a smile.

“Oh no need,” Joy said. “We know him. But does he know us?”

The male Lycan guffawed.

“That one’s Joy,” I thumbed the female as I shrugged without looking. “As for the other one… doesn’t matter. What’s the mechanics?”

The male Lycan growled and lumbered toward me. He was three-fourths of a head taller than me, and at that height anyone would’ve been intimidated.

Not.

I merely looked up at him as he stopped inches in front of me. Then batted my eyelashes and smirked.

“F*g,” he growled.

“It’s true, though,” I shrugged, before looking back at Gamma Ted. “I wish to know the mechanics of this “threesome.” That’s all that matters.” I said while making quotation signals with my hand.

From the other side of the training area, a chuckle could be heard. It was either Gil or Raymond.

“Ayt,” Gamma Ted shook his head, but the twitch didn’t leave at the corner of his mouth. “Beta Seb, meet Joy and Josh,” he said. “The threesome knockoff drill is quite easy.”

“Beta?” Joy c**ked her head, while Josh frowned.

“Yes, that’s right, this is Beta Sebastian,” Gamma Ted said. “Once Alpha and Luna-Alpha make the announcement, seconded by Beta Seb’s mate, our own Beta Duke.”

I could feel the heat of their glares intensify, but I focused on what Ted said next instead. “See these grass markers?” Ted pointed to some coloration on the grass. They were minute, but for us shifters, they could be spotted. For untrained wolves, it would probably take a while to get used to seeing them. To me, however, they looked like chromatic tints of green.

“Clear as day,” I nodded. “Hunters grass, right?”

“Got it right in one go,” Gamma Ted. “I heard you also used to work with the Hunter Guild.”

The two Lycans in my “team”, having heard of my background seemed to shift their eyes away, but their stance still indicated defensiveness. I merely gave the Gamma a playful grin. “You seem to know a lot about me, Gamma.”

“Blame the Benningtons,” Gamma Ted said, then went back to talking about the grass. “Anyway, if you noticed, the Hunter grass has circular patterns. They’re designed precisely for training. All you have to do is take turns to “guard the circle.” The idea here is to keep staying within the circle while your other two companions will play as your opponents and try to bring you out of it.”

“Got it,” I said.

“Today’s drill involves shifting,” Gamma Ted said. “But out of consideration, we’re not having it for your batch.”

“Which sucks,” Josh growled, but the gamma ignored him.

I looked around at every other team. “Even for them?”

“Even for them,” Gamma Ted nodded.

“Uhmm…” I scratched my head. “To be honest, I wanted to face a shifted Lycan.”

Several gasps, hisses, and growls rang throughout our section of the training ground. Gamma Ted frowned.

I know. I sounded like an arrogant pr**k, but there was something I wanted to try…

“I actually wanted to try something,” I raised my palms outward in placation. “Besides shifting, are we allowed to use abilities, as well? And what are the limits.”

Gamma Ted’s eyes had glazed when the wildfire of reactions sprang from everyone else. Now his orbs were back to their steel gray color, and he sighed. “No weapons, definitely,” he said. “Mystic Arts are allowed definitely, but for those with a gift that involves projectiles like Pearl over there —”

“I heard that!” Pearl shouted back, a giggle in her voice as she flipped and dodged against a struggling Patrick who tried to catch her along with another Lycan from a different team.

“No fair,” Patrick growled. “Stay still, you slippery woman!”

“Quick!” their companion in their “ring” growled a warning. “Do—” he never managed to finish, for Pearl finished her somersault, landing behind him, and in a swift roundhouse at such an angle that an inexperienced fighter would miss, she drove her kick home that sent the man flying.

“Oof!”

And knocking him and Patrick out of their “ring.”

“We’ll never get our turn to man the ring long enough,” whined Patrick.

“So that’s basically that,” Gamma Ted turned his attention back to us, smiling. “Any questions?”

Joy raised her hand. I could sense the gamma wanting to roll his eyes; most likely the female was going to ask something s****d.

“Yes?”

“Will the Beta arrive later?” Joy swung in her place and gave a cutesy expression.

Gamma Ted, rather than letting go of his exasperation, waved off and turned around to clap his hands and grab everyone’s attention. “Alright guys, continue the drill for the next thirty minutes!”

Joy growled in annoyance, then turned to glare at me. “You first,” she placed her hands on her hips.

“Attagirl,” Josh smirked at her, then looked at me just like one predator would against a newborn foal.

—

Five minutes passed, and the two Lycans in my team lay crumpled outside, wheezing.

“F**king s**t!” roared Josh. “Why the heck are you so hard to get off the circle?!”

“The b***h is cheating I swear!” Joy kicked her legs alternately like some toddler on a tantrum. She had just transformed back from her werewolf form that I had kicked out of the ring. “C**t!”

“No fair,” I was sweating, of course. Even with my training both as a wolf and as a hunter, I was still a wolf, after all. Compared to these guys, my stamina is lower. As for my cardiovascular endurance, however…

“It only means you m**ts need to do more endurance training,” hollered a voice from another party nearby. I turned; it was Jack. He smirked, then winked at me. “And you totally forgot the Mystic Arts principles too.”

“Mystic Arts, my pretty a*s,” Joy huffed. “And cardio? Ha! We don’t need those when we —”

“—Have s*x all the time!” hollered another female Lycan, one of Joy’s friends.

Oh, goddess. I wonder how my cousin managed these i***ts.

Snickers could be heard from other groups. From my periphery, I could see some eyes rolling.

“Gotcha!”

Apparently, Josh — himself a warrior guard, and thus had more training than Joy — took the opportunity to try to launch his bipedal form.

While werewolves and their larger cousins the Lycans both transform into their wolves and their bipedal forms, Lycans were supposedly stronger, faster, and tougher. Not only were Lycans immune to poisons, but their healing factors are also ten, maybe fifty, or a hundred times faster, so that one had to cut their heads or rip out their hearts to get them killed.

It was for this reason that Gamma Ted initially didn’t allow us to fight in morphed versions, but because he knew I had hunter training and belonged to a pack that dabbled in Mystic Arts…

Having speed and power increased in increments of tens and twenties, Josh’s gray and brown form nearly ripped me off the ring, and more.

Except, of course, thanks to my training with Mystic Arts, I already had an inkling of his trajectory.

I’ve worked with the Bennington Brothers and their guards, as well as the guys who rescued the two princes. From what I heard, some of those men were members of the nearly mythical Wepwawet, another branch of Moonblade.

Whispers of this group have spread in various regions of the Empire, including my Commune and my old pack. I had never met one until, and even if I did I never realized they were one… until my mission under the Bennington Security Group.

I still don’t know every one of them, of course. I heard that some are out there, doing fieldwork. One thing I know for sure: Pearl is one. My mate is another, and I have my suspicions the top leaders of Moonblade are, too.

As for this i***t… meh.

I let my essence and energy blend with the surroundings, creating a three-step footwork that created a double illusion of dodging. Truth be told, it was a s***ty maneuver for someone as simplistic as Josh, but I’d rather err on the cautious side than underestimate this lumbering Lycan.

And it did pay off, at the last moment. While Josh was bumbling when it comes to tackles and follow-ups, he was, however, huge like many Lycans. That meant his claw and fang reach could easily double back and do massive damage if I wasn’t careful.

Fortunately, again, I, like my cousin, was trained not just in offensive arts, but also in defensive arts. Thus, in just a split second, what had been a recoil that would’ve potentially clawed me down from Josh was converted; his directional torque turned into a centrifugal force that sent him flying outside the ring.

“Grrr!” Josh sat up and was about to launch another attack, but —

Clap! Clap!

“Okay, people!” Gamma Ted called out. “For teams who have one dominating person in the ring, time to hand it over to another one! For all those who were able to stay in the ring for five minutes, submit your names after this threesome drill!”

—