The Female Alpha (on going)

Chapter 10

Stretching the kinks out of my muscles as I began to awaken, I reminisced on yesterday’s events. I was convinced by my counsel to release my mate and give him a chance. Learning that my mate is possible the last Native American werewolf alive. Since I had forced him to shift, I had decided to let our wolves, while minding their manners run and get to know each other. Most of the afternoon they just laid next to one another, it seemed as though time flew by because, the next thing I realized was the sun falling in the eastern sky. I told Fye to head back to the house, but the two took a side trip and hunted down a deer for dinner. It gave me a warm feeling seeing the two work together and made me wonder if the man was just as capable.

            Fye enjoying my memories, “Hette please tell me you will not wait. That you will claim Sig and Joel so that we may mate and be together. I can’t hold out much longer.”

            “Fye, I wish it was as simple as you make it. We know nothing of this mans’ character. I realize you have accepted Joel, but I need more time.”

            Fye began whining, “please don’t take too long.”

            “I’ll try not to, now let me get dressed so we can get down to training.”

With the cooler temperatures I grabbed a pair of joggers along with a tank and a long-sleeved exercise shirt. Threw my hair up and headed out. By the time I got to the fourth floor I could smell his scent lemongrass with a hint of pine. My whole body felt like jelly, this was going to be a hard day. Continuing down the staircase I could see Sig standing on the third-floor landing, smiling up at me and there it was that dam dimple.

            “Good morning alpha,” he gave a slight nod of his head.

            “Good morning, Sig. I hope you found your room to your liking?” Trying to stay aloof.

            “Yes, thank you for asking. The room is wonderful, I never realized sleeping on a bed could be so nice.”

            Staring for a moment in shock, “I’m sorry I forgot you are not use to living this way.”

            There was that smile again, “It’s okay, I never knew any different and I am very happy with the way I grew up.”

            Grinning a bit, “I would love to hear more of your up bringing but now we need to get to the training field.”

            “Yes alpha. I am looking forward to this morning. I have never trained in the manner of a normal pack. All of my training has been for survival purposes.” Sig said as we began to descend the rest of the stairs.    

            “Sig please, call me Hette.” He stopped and looked directly into my eyes.

            “Thank you…Hette, does this mean you are warming up to me?” Those caramel soft eyes held me captive as I stared unable to say a word. How could such warm, kind eyes be anything but that, warm and kind, I thought to myself.

            “Hette?” A hand waved in front of my face.

            Blinking and coming out of the daze I realized I had not given him an answer.

            Embarrassed and not wanting to answer the question I said, “Come on now we’re going to be late and that is not very alpha of me to do so.”

Continuing to walk, this time in uncomfortable silence.

            “Hette…Hette,” Irmele headed our way like a bull in a China shop. I swear had those around her not been paying attention she would have knocked them on their rears, pushing and shoving just to get through to me.

            She pulled up in front of us making us stop in our tracks. She looked over at Sig, winked and said, “well good morning hot stuff, sleep well?”

            “Irmele,” I growled out. “That is no way to speak to a guest.” Sig and Irm were giggling at this point.

            “Oh, Hette calm yourself, look Sig doesn’t mind. Do you hot stuff?” As she swayed and gave a little hip bump to the side of Sig.

            Sig blushing a little now continued to giggle at Irmele’s antics. “I do not mind at all Irmele. As a matter of fact, thank you for the complement and to answer your question I slept well thanks.”

            “Okay, okay, if you two are quit done can we get to training.”

            “Yes,” they both responded smiling back at me.

            “Sig, I would like you to go over with Burghart and shadow him. I will be observing you while I practice with the she-wolves.” I pointed to a group of girls doing warm-up stretches.

            Sig glanced where I pointed my finger, smiled and said, “no problem. And Hette…if you don’t mind, I would like to take you for dinner this evening. If you’ll permit me?”

            Irmele grinned from ear to ear. My mouth dropped in shock, no one had ever asked to take me on an actual date before. Trying to keep my demeanor calm, “yes that sounds nice, I will go to dinner with you tonight.”

            “Tonight, it is.” He jumped and skipped over to the males where Burghart was pairing everyone off for sparing practice.

            “EEK,” Irmele squealed. “It’s happening. You’re going to go to dinner, fall in love, mate and then have little pups running all around.”

            “Irm, goddess in heaven will you control yourself.”

            “I can’t help it. This is just too exciting. The tall dark and handsome man, who wanders into our pack just happens to be your mate, it’s like a fairytale.”

            As my hand face planted my forehead, I shook my head and began laughing. “Oh Irm, what would I do without you.”

            “You would be a boring old maid; face it you need me and all the color I bring into your black and white aspects of life.”

            Throwing my arm around her neck, laughing. “You’re right, you bring lots of color.” We continued laughing as we made our way to the group of she-wolves, ready to get their morning moving.

We broke off into pairs just as the males did and began sparing. Luckily, Irmele and I were the lead she-wolves, so we always paired up together, unless a female was ready to test her abilities. I wasn’t into today’s practice my eyes continued to glance over to see how Sig was doing. He was paired up with Burghart, if he was to become my partner and help run this pack, I needed to know he had the ability to be on top of the pecking order. A weakness in a ranked wolf would be taken advantage of.

            “Ufff,” I was snapped out of my thoughts as the wind was knocked out of me. Laying on the ground I realized I had not been paying attention and Irmele had flung me on my back.

            Standing over me with a look of satisfaction, “Crap, Hette, get your head out of the clouds.” Irmele extended her hand out to help me up.

            “I’m sorry Irm, I keep trying to see how Sig is holding up against Burghart.” Brushing the grass and leaves off my joggers.

            “I get it, you’ve got a lot riding on this. Why don’t you and I call it good for today, and I’ll finish training the she-wolves so you can go over and observe from a better, less painful location.” Irmele giggled.

            Smiling at her jab, of my now sore rear-end, “Yes, a less painful location sounds great.”

I left the female group and headed over to where Burghart and Sig where sparing. Sig seemed unsure of himself and a little off balance. Besides that, he seemed to be holding his own against Burghart which, gave me hope. I tried staying in the shadows so as not to distract them. Watching them take turns jabbing at each other, and then trying to dodge the other’s fists, was like watching a dance. As Sig swung again, Burghart stepped back and to the side watching Sig’s fist go right by, along with Sig on his way to the ground.

            “He needs work, but for no training in a pack atmosphere he’s holding his own and against Burghart.” Leonheart said coming up from behind to stand next to me.

            “Yes, but is he worthy to take such a high ranked place within the pack, next to me at that?”

            “That I cannot answer. Only time and faith in the goddess will be able to answer that.”

            “Leonheart you’ve been around longer than I have. Is there anything you know of the native werewolves?”

            “Ah, unfortunately no. There was rumor when I was a young boy that a pack attacked the last remaining native pack. According to the rumor there were no survivors. Only the council of elders could confirm this for you.”  

            “I really don’t want to involve them in this, not with so many unknows, but with Sigs’ shift confirming his ancestry maybe I should reach out.”

            “Why not ask Garard to look into it, after all that is his job, and a letter to the council of elders never hurt.” Leonheart suggested.

            “Not a bad idea and it’s one less thing for me to worry about.”

            “Alpha, you must learn to depend on your pack. We all have different abilities to help aid you. You are not responsible for everything, it may seem like it, but it is not. Remember to ask for help. That was one of the things your father excelled at, although alpha he had no problem passing work along to someone else.” Leonheart said with compassion in his voice.

            “I will try and remember that.” Looking up at the seasoned warrior. “Well general it’s about that time, when everyone learns that Siegmund is not your average werewolf, shall we.” My hand extended in a jester to head over to the warriors. Where they were readying for the morning run in wolf form.  

            I stepped up next to Sig, “not too shabby, with some training you just might be able to overpower Burghart.”

            “I believe you just gave me a complement and I will take it.” Sig looking at me with excitement on his face.

            “I don’t want you to get nervous but next is a pack run. I incorporated this because I believe the man and beast need to work out to maintain strength. Understand, Joel your wolf is the first of his kind that anyone here has seen so, be prepared for some looks.”

            “It’s okay, I’m use to the stares.”

            “Well then let’s do this.” I gave him a smile.

            I stood in front of everyone and spoke so everyone could hear, “Warrior’s before we head out, I would like to formally introduce you to Siegmund.” My hand gestured in his direction. “As we go out for the run you will notice Sig’s wolf Joel, is like no other we have seen before in our community. Yesterday confirmed Siegmund is Native American and as such his wolf’s color is sable.” The group looked around at each other, their faces stunned by the revelation. “I will also announce now so rumor’s don’t build. Sig is my fated mate. Understand, I think of you and that is why I have not accepted him. We all know the circumstances that brought him to our pack, and I will not take that lightly. Now let us release the hounds.” And with that everyone began to strip out of their exercise clothes and shift.

As the men disappeared and wolves took their places, I looked over at Sig, “Are you ready?”

            “As ready as I’ll ever be.” Sig began removing his clothing. I could hear the bones in his body adjusting into their new positions, hair began to spring out all over his body, and his face elongated. No longer able to stand on two feet he gracefully fell forward until what use to be hands, now paws thudded on the ground. I noticed all the wolves eyes on him. Seeing him amongst my pack I noticed he was bigger than most. His size was that of Burghart my betta. Interesting I thought, could he be from a ranked family?

Allowing Fye to come forward, I quickly shifted. Our wolf mind link now hearing all the jibber jabber on the sight of Joel. Everyone seemed to be in awe of his size and color. I heard “not your average wolf a few times.” Luckily, Siegmund was not a member so there was no link for him to hear any of this. Like yesterday he would have to work off the body language of the wolves around him.

Fye nudged Joel to follow her and we headed to the front of the pack. Ayla, Irmele’s wolf came up flanking the other side of me. Fye let out a gentle howl gathering the attention of everyone. Then without hesitation she was off. As usual Ayla kept up with Fye. What surprised me is so did Joel. Glancing at him he looked so happy.

            Fye connected with me and said, “watch this.”

As she raced for the woods, I noticed she didn’t take to our normal daily path. She gave Ayla a head swish, then Ayla with the rest of the pack stayed on the daily route. Fye with Joel on her heels began bobbing and weaving through the trees. She jumped over downed logs. She gave a great burst of speed and took a good lead from Joel. A downed tree just in front of us also had a moss filled gap that could be crawled under. Fye hit the brakes, skidded and slid under the log. Coming up she moved off to the side grabbing a branch with mouth and pulling back. Just as Joel came tearing through and choosing to jump the log instead, Fye released the branch, slamming right into Joel’s under belly just as he was midair. The force threw him back onto the ground. Laying there looking around in complete shock he saw Fye snickering and then she took off again. Through the pack link I could hear the members laughing at what they just saw.

            “Fye, how could you?” I asked her through our connection.

            “I have every right to test a potential mate, besides what’s wrong with having a little fun, Hette.”

            “What if he had been hurt?” questioning her.

            “He is werewolf, healing should come naturally and fast to him. If it makes you feel any better, he is doing a great job of keeping up with us. I am beginning to wonder if he is of alpha blood himself, he’s just not trained up. I was wondering watching him spare with Burghart, so I decided to test him myself. We know since the goddess fated us together, he is of ranked blood, we just don’t know how ranked.”

            “Fye, how could I ever doubt you.”

            “Stick with me kid and we will go far.” Fye then went back to finishing the pack run.

Pulling out of the woods, Joel had caught back up to my side, and we joined the rest of the pack for the final leg of the run.

            Back at the training field everyone pickup their clothing and headed in their separate directions. I grabbed my clothes and got dressed.

            Irmele approached me and asked, “Hette how could you let Fye do such a thing in front of everyone on his first day?”

            “Irm, do you really think I had a choice? Fye surprised me with that move. He’ll be fine and at least the pack will know we’re not taking it easy on him.”

            “Okay if you say so. Join me for breakfast?”

            “Sure thing, I’ll meet you in the dining room after I clean up.”

As Irmele headed to the packhouse, “sounds good, see ya in a few.”

Just then Sig came up to me with that award winning smile and dimple, “that sure was one hell of a run.”

            “Yeah, sorry about Fye, she had her own agenda.” Smiling back at him thinking, what a good sport he was being.

            “So alpha, what’s next for the day?” Sig questioned.

            “Now we go cleanup and then have breakfast. After that I guess you can tag along with me and see what an alpha does to keep a pack running.”

            We both began walking back towards the packhouse, “sounds good, mind if I eat with you? You are currently the only person I really know so far.”

            “As long as you don’t mind sitting with Irm as well, then you are more than welcome to join us.”

            “Great! I like Irmele, she makes me laugh.” Sig said with excitement.

“I’ll see you in a few.”

At the third floor landing Sig headed for his room and I finished climbing the stairwell to mine.