The Alpha's Unrecognised Mate

More Training

I was full of trepidation as I headed to the training grounds on Saturday morning. I’d been too nervous to message Clint, and he hadn’t messaged me either. I was concerned about how he felt after we’d slipped a little too far on our date. He’d ran off into the woods without a word, we’d never even said goodbye. There was so much hot tension between us in that moment, but how did he feel when his senses returned?

I wasn’t as desperately keen this time, turning up only a few minutes before six. Most of the others were already waiting around in their human forms. I looked around as one pointed Lyra towards a sign at the front of the grounds.

‘Training Shed 300m’ it said, with an arrow pointing in the direction of the shed. I followed it to find a roughly assembled wooden shack. It hadn’t been here last week. It looked like… had Clint built the shed himself from the trees he was cutting down last week?

Misty lay absently near the door, and I could smell another person inside the shack itself. It must be where we were going to change into our wraps. I laid down near Misty to wait my turn, dropping my wrap from my mouth. It didn’t taste horrible, but it wasn’t pleasant, either.

Lucas!

I thought to myself, finally remembering the name of Misty’s human counterpart. It had been itching at my brain since last week’s training.

A midnight black wolf prowled through the woods not long after I had. Like most of the others, I recognised it, but couldn’t place its name, or its human’s. It looked at the queue, threw its wrap to the ground and shifted in front of us. I wanted to look away, but I was entranced by the female physique that emerged, naked, from the wolf. It was obvious she hadn’t been avoiding her training the last few years, her body toned and gorgeous. Her vibrant orange hair flooded over her shoulders like a vision. I didn’t play on that side of the field, but I couldn’t deny she was smoking hot. I could hear Misty panting lightly nearby, obviously entranced even more than I was. The man that had been changing in the stall came out to find the woman pulling the wrap delicately over her curves, no concern to the watching gazes locked on her- if anything, a slither of a smile fell across her delicate lips. She enjoyed the attention.

It took the man from the shed and Misty a moment to realise that they were holding up the line, only realising once the woman was fully dressed. She chuckled darkly at them before walking back towards the training circle, the man hurrying to catch up to her, hoping to grab her in conversation. As they walked off, I could hear just enough to know she wasn’t as interested in him as he was in her. I couldn’t decide if it was comical, or sad.

Lucas didn’t take long to change and soon it was my turn to enter the shack. The door was wide enough for even the larger wolves to enter, but otherwise the shack was merely walls and a roof. There was no floor, just the bare earth. The door wasn’t too advanced either. It didn’t have a lock, only hinges to allow it to move. It only stayed in place because it dug into the ground a little, dragging in the dirt as it opened and closed. Still, for a project Clint had done on his own with wood he’d collected himself, I was impressed. I changed quickly into my wrap. By the time I left, others had lined up outside.

I did my best not to look into Clint’s eyes as he instructed us. I needed to focus if I wanted to get the most out of these sessions. Fortunately, there wasn’t much talking this session. It was mostly pushing, pulling, sweating and groaning; both in human form and wolf form. Clint explained that our wolf forms were best for training endurance, with their faster healing allowing us to push ourselves further and more frequently than our human forms. However, he recommended training our muscles as a human, as the human world’s gym equipment was designed to target all different types of muscles in precise ways, and unfortunately there wasn’t much of a wolf equivalent. While he didn’t bring any machines out into the woods for our training, he did have various weights, kettlebells, and deadlift bars for us to work with. I was out of my element, but so were most of the others. I noticed with a grimace that the beautiful red head had no issue with any of the equipment or exercises.

“Keep training, and we’ll get there,” Lyra encouraged me. Somehow, envy wasn’t in Lyra’s vocabulary.

“Really? Come on, Lyra, I’ll never look like that,” I chided, taking in the woman’s body once more. Lyra scowled at me.

“If you don’t give up, you will,” she said determinedly. I couldn’t picture myself ever being that flawless, but Lyra wasn’t one for letting my self-doubt take hold. I would at least accept that I could get closer to the woman’s physique with proper training and commitment.

“Well done, Olivia,” Clint mentioned absently as he strolled past her while she dropped the weight she’d been carrying to smile brightly at him. Lyra growled so powerfully that I felt my human form rumbling, which I tried to disguise as a cough. Okay, maybe Lyra did know what envy meant. Goddess, how much weight had that woman been carrying?! It looked to be nearly 100kgs. I shook my head.

“Focus!” Lyra and I said to ourselves at the same time, looking down at the 20kg weight we had in front of us, lifting it again. It was hard, though. While Clint was going around and giving advice on how to complete the exercises, and assisting with correct form, he seemed to be avoiding me completely. I did what I could to learn from other’s mistakes to fix my own, but I was hurt to be ignored by him, especially when I needed this training so badly. I puffed heavily as I dropped the weight to the ground.

Arghh!

We broke training for a brief break for lunch, but otherwise we pushed through until the sun started to hide below the trees. Some of the seniors had brought sandwiches for us to eat, and while we’d all gulfed down several a piece, we were starving again by the time training finished. No one dawdled on the way home, slowing only to allow their sore muscles to heal in wolf form before bounding off. Clint had headed off towards his own home without waiting for the training shed to empty. He’d likely walk a while in the woods and shift in private. However, it meant that I didn’t get a chance to speak with him alone. Disgruntled, I waited my turn to change. Lyra and I spent the whole time arguing on whether we should go and visit him in person, or just text.

“It’s so much easier to talk in person than over text,” she whined. She wasn’t big on texting at the best of times, her natural instincts preferring a face-to-face conversation, or at least talking.

“The whole reason he’s ignoring me is because things got out of hand last time we were alone,” I grumbled back.

By the time we’d gotten home, eaten, showered, and then eaten again, we’d decided on what to send. Well, I had. Lyra had given up on arguing with me and was scowling quietly.

I’m sorry if I took things too far Thursday

I was deeply grateful that he had a quick response time. My poor heart didn’t have it in me to wait hours for his reply.

i didnt kno u had it in u ;)

I released out a breath I hadn’t realised I was holding.

It was all Lyra’s fault

I replied quickly, and Lyra let out a growl that was somewhere between proud and ‘oh, you’re putting this on me, huh?’, a light humour to her tone.

thank her for me

Came the response.

thank her urself ,)

Lyra typed out before I could stop her, smashing the send button. I groaned aloud at her, but she only laughed.

I think that was meant to be a ;) but she sent it too fast

I messaged with an eye-roll emoji. I could picture Clint laughing at us. Would he be in his kitchen, or laying on his large couch, while he was messaging me? What if he was lying on his bed, looking out at the stars, smelling me on his sheets…?

He reacted to my message with a laughing emoji before sending another message of his own, pulling me from my downhill spiral.

im sorry i ignored u 2day

And then, shortly after,

i knew i wouldnt focus on training if i looked at u

A grin stole its way onto my face as I held my phone to my chest, hugging it as though it could send my hug through the airwaves, too.

“You could always send him a picture of your chest, you know…” Lyra suggested, but I pushed her out. I had another thought on my mind.

Would you be available for private training then?

For once, Lyra was proud of me for choosing a path different to the one she suggested. I could tell she was excited by the idea, her tail wagging at the thought of her two favourite things being combined: training and Clint.

that sounds like a great idea