Making her own path

Chapter 7 - Training with who?

 Aysha woke up at sunrise with the sun on her face. She had been tossing and turning the whole night, hardly getting any sleep.

“Why didn’t you touch him when you walked him to his room,” Mel said as Aysha sat up and stretched. “You had the perfect opportunity.”

“Are you still salty about that?” Aysha rolled her eyes at Mel and got up.

“I just don’t get you. You were not happy about the arranged marriage, so you should be ecstatic that one of them is your mate. That means we don’t have to marry a stranger.” 

“But that’s just it, Mel,” Aysha sighed and opened her closet. “He is a stranger. Mate bond or not, I just met him and us being mates doesn’t automatically mean that he’s a nice guy.”

“Right… Just the guy we are destined to be with. How could we possibly get along?” Mel said sarcastically. “And I’m pretty sure it was you who couldn’t stop thinking about him all night.”

“Shut up. I just want to interact with him a little before I let him know.”

“Fine,” Mel said with a disappointed sigh and stopped pestering her.

Aysha sighed thankfully when Mel stopped bickering about their mate and took out some training clothes. She put on her black yoga pants but decided on a black crop tank top this time. She put her hair in a high ponytail and braided it like always before training, she put on her sneakers and left her room.

----

 She walked onto the training field and noticed that she could not see her group. She noticed Matthew talking to someone near the entrance and walked over to them. Before she reached them, the person he was talking to nodded his head and walked in the direction of the training area for target practice.

“Good morning Aysha.” Matthew greeted her as he walked up to him.

“Morning. Where is everyone?” Aysha asked.

“Training’s been canceled for today.”

“Why?”

“The visiting alphas wanted a demonstration of our best fighters.” Matthew shrugged. “Your father decided to cancel all training this morning so they could use what they wanted.”

“Why didn’t I know about this?” Aysha said and sighed. Thinking about how she could have spent another couple of hours in bed instead.

“Because they want our top fighters. Last time I checked, you were one of them.” Matthew shrugged and started walking towards the people gathering at the target practice field.

“Woah, Woah.” Aysha walked quickly behind him. “I doubt that my father would allow this. He was furious when I mentioned that I liked to train in my past time at dinner last night. Apparently, it’s not “ladylike” enough.” The memory made her roll her eyes.

“Well, technically I’m just following your father’s orders since he wanted our top six fighters.” Matthew shrugged and Aysha could hear the mischief in his voice. He had never been the biggest fan of how her father did not like how much she trained, but Matthew had always stood up for her.

“You could get in a lot of trouble for this,” Aysha said as they walked.

“That’s my headache. Right now, your job is to show these guys that you are not to be messed with.” Matthew said and gave her a small wink.

Aysha had no doubt that he knew why these alphas were here and the dilemma she was facing, and letting her fight against them was his way of helping her, by showing these guys that she was not just some trophy princess. Which was what Alpha Jian expected by the look on his face at dinner last night.

“Thank you,” Aysha muttered and Matthew gave her a small smile.

The people in the target practice area were all familiar to her. They were the top two, and leaders of the kingdom’s two main attack forces. Lisa and Eric, who led the bravo team, and Isaac and Alex, who led the Alpha team.

“Hey, girl.” Lisa greeted her when they got there. Lisa was about ten years older than her, but had always been extremely friendly, and had often given her tips for training. She had thick curly ginger hair and a fair complexion, green, emerald eyes, and was a little bit shorter than Aysha. When looking at her small frame, it was hard to believe that she was one of the top warriors that they had, but in that small frame hid a deadly warrior that led the bravo team. She was wearing black training pants with a silver line down the side and a grey training top, but silver and black were the colors of the bravo team.

“Hey what’s up?” Aysha said and wondered where the alphas and their betas were.

“Not much, just here because your father said that some guest wanted to train with us.”

“Why are you here?” The boy called Alex asked. He was tall like most male werewolves and had long black hair that he kept in a messy bun, and he was also the son of her father’s beta. He had never liked Aysha much, mostly because he thought she was just some spoiled princess playing warrior. He had on a purple shirt and black pants, showing his status as a member of the alpha team.

“Knock it off Alex,” Matthew said before Aysha could answer. “They wanted our top six fighters, and like it or not Aysha is one of those six.”

Alex rolled his eyes but did not press the matter further.

Aysha had wanted to join one of the main fighting forces a while ago by participating in a tournament that was held every year. She did not doubt that she could have passed at least two years ago, but her father forbade her to enter, saying that she should be grateful that he allowed her to train. 

She was pulled out of her thoughts as she noticed the alphas walking towards them. She noticed Zayne and she felt her knees get weak. He was wearing simple black training pants and a sleeveless dark grey shirt. He crossed his arms, and she could see the defined muscles and his well-toned body through the shirt. She did not doubt that he must have spent countless hours training to get such a fit body.

“Now that’s what I call a…” Aysha blocked the rest of Mel’s horny thoughts as she tried to control her own. She could feel Mel’s annoyance from being blocked, but she ignored it.

“Nice seeing you again princess.” Aysha was pulled out of her dreamlike state when Jian’s voice grabbed her attention. “Come to cheer us on?” He said while checking her out, and the look he gave made her feel a bit exposed.

“Actually, I’m here because I heard that you fellas wanted an early morning ass-kicking.” She answered and gave him a small smirk.

The look of shock on Jian's face made her feel much better, and a few people chuckled. 

“You?” He said repulsed. “We asked for the strongest fighters. So why don’t you run along, stop messing around, and not risk getting hurt.” Aysha noticed that he also looked at Lisa who was standing next to her.

“Listen…” Matthew started, but Aysha raised her hand, making him stop.

“You asked for the strongest fighters, you got them. I don’t know how it is where you come from, but around here we believe that women are equal to men, and as long as you can fight your gender doesn’t matter.” Aysha took a couple of steps towards him and looked him dead in the eyes. “But if you’re afraid of girls kicking your ass, you might as well just walk away now, cause I sure as hell am not going to hold back.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Lisa said behind her, no stranger to men doubting her abilities.

Aysha could see Alpha Jian’s jaw tense, clearly not used to being talked to this way. But she knew she had him since she knew his type all too well. If he were to argue any more, he would make himself look weak, and that is something she knew he would never do.

“Anyone have anything else to say?” Aysha asked, but no one said anything. She could see Zayne with a smug look on his face as he looked at her, but she quickly averted his gaze.

“Good. Should we start?”