Runt's Revenge

Athena felt the impact before she could react. Her small body flew a few feet before landing on her backside. “Checkmate! Again,” shouted West, the giant warrior in front of her. “You have to watch your opponent’s feet too, Little One, you know better than that!” he growled. He waited a beat while she nursed her aching behind. “Get up, Nea! You are lucky that I am pulling my punches.” Athena scrambled to her feet rubbing a hand across her midriff. He may have cracked a rib with that “pulled punch.” She gritted her teeth, ignoring the ache. She knew better than to give in to her pain during training. She brushed imaginary hairs out of her face. Her long red hair was braided to keep it back. She ignored the dirt on her training shorts and the blood stains on her cotton tank top as she exaggerated her limp back to the middle of the ring. “Not fair, West,” she grumped as she pouted and batted her eyelashes over her bright green eyes. “Your legs are longer than my whole body.” “Tell that to the Rogues as they are trying to kill you, Little One. See if they care,” he said as he assumed a fighting stance. “Again!” She pretended to bend over to take a breath, holding up her pointer finger up as if to say, “give me a minute.” “Honestly, you should have seen that one com…” he started. Athena leapt out of her crouch right at West, shifting into her mini silver-grey wolf, Angel, in mid-air. She went all in, straight for the jugular, landing with all four paws on his chest, claws gripping his t-shirt and a little of his flesh. Her jaws closed on his neck gently, but firmly. Checkmate, right back at you!” she mind-linked the words to him as he grimaced. “You were too caught up in your lecture, old man.” In a real fight, she would have already ripped out his jugular. Well, if she was honest, in a real fight she would probably have been knocked out cold when he hit her. “All right, all right, Nea,” he tapped out, “you win that one. I got lazy for a moment. But, don’t expect to be able to use that move again.” He lifted her little wolf off of his chest with both hands as Athena released his throat He patted her soft head, and gave her a small launch into the air back onto the mat. Angel pranced around the training area with her tail held high. She didn’t win moves against West very often. This was a special moment. She glanced over at his towering form. If she was the smallest wolf she knew, then he was the largest. He had silver streaks in his once black hair. And even with a t-shirt on, you could tell that his muscles had muscles. He was a giant to her in more ways than one. He could have been a Beta, or even an alpha, but he preferred fighting and training the others. He was a valuable member of the pack, and had always been so, even when her father had been the Alpha. She shifted back into her human form over by the changing rack where several robes were hanging for just this purpose. Most of the robes hung high, but West had long ago put a peg down lower so that she didn’t have to jump for it. Nea trudged over to pick up her training clothes from the ring. She would be sore for a few hours until Angel could heal her. Her clothes were dirty, but whole. One of the benefits of being a runt was that she tended to slip out of her clothes rather than shred them like the big wolves when she shifted. Her wolf was even smaller than her human. In fact, she had spent a whole year just practicing slipping out of her clothes during a shift because otherwise she would get tangled in them, which was madly humiliating when others were around to see. “Are we done training today, Warrior West?” She asked, using his title and a little bow to give him the respect due to his station. “Yes, Nea. I know you are scheduled for kitchen duty tonight. It’s not good to be late, so off you go.” Ha, she thought, it's not good to be late when it is me, is what he means. She gave a last formal bow before exiting the private training ring that was outside of his cabin. Nea didn’t do her “real” training in the pack ring. She and Warrior West would meet here at his rustic cabin on the edge of the pack lands where no eyes were on them as he pushed her and her skills to their peak, using her small stature as an advantage. Athena didn’t have much in the way of friends in the pack. Old West was probably the closest thing that she had to a friend here, and he was more of a father figure than a friend these days (and he was neither of those when he was beating the crap out of her on the training grounds). Alpha Eric was good to her too, if distant. He had given her a job and a room in the packhouse when she had most needed it. It kept her out of the way of those that might try to pick on her, some of the time, especially her stepfather and her so-called mother, Rebecca. She suspected that his concern for her mostly stemmed from his respect for her father, the late Alpha Charles, as Eric had been her father’s Beta. Both Alpha Eric and Warrior West had insisted that she train privately after her father had died. Once she began to get proficient, a few years later, they demanded that she keep her skills a secret. When she trained with the pack, she was to focus only on avoidance and defense. If anyone picked a fight with her, she was supposed to either run or take the beating without fighting back much. “Warrior West,” she had asked him many times, “when can I defend myself?” “You will know when it is time, little one, certainly if your life is in danger you must defend yourself,” he would reply. “But, not yet for the trivial things,” he clarified. School had been so bad that, at 14, Athena had dropped out of in-person classes and signed herself up for homeschool. She graduated ahead of schedule when she was just 16. Then West had insisted that she take on-line college courses in business “because,” her wolf Angel complained, “Goddess forbid that we ever have a second of free-time.” “Crap,” she whispered out loud to herself, “I have to study for that finance test tonight.” Nea ran to her little room in the back of packhouse to change into work clothes. It was behind the kitchen, originally built to be a butler’s pantry. It was small, but convenient for training, as it had an outdoor entrance intended for delivering groceries and she could come and go from the packhouse without going through public areas. Alpha Eric had even added on a little private bathroom for her. She changed quickly into baggy pants and a sweatshirt, splashed her face with a little water to clean off the blood, dirt and sweat, and re-braided her hair so that she looked tidy. Nea looked in the mirror and gave a little chuckle. She looked like she was 10 years old. She got most of her clothes as hand-me-downs, so everything was too big on her except for her training clothes. It was okay though, because even though she was physically small, 4’10 on a good day, she was pretty curvy at the age of 17. She had a woman’s body proportionally, just everything about it was smaller. When she wore these giant clothes, most everyone still thought of her as a child. They seemed to assume that she was not very smart either. That suited her just fine. Athena sighed as she looked at the mountain of potatoes in front of her. "They aren’t going to peel themselves, child. Get busy.” Snapped Carol, the pack’s chef, cuffing the back of her head. “And that’s for being late!” “I am only 2 minutes late.” Athena grumbled under her breath. Carol raised her eyebrow menacingly and Athena shut up and went to work. She got out two giant pots, filled them with water, and set them on the stove to bring them to a boil. She had the kitchen to herself as Carol went out to the patio to get the steaks going on the giant grill. Settling down on her stool, she began the arduous task of peeling potatoes for the pack of 200 hungry werewolves. About half-way through the batch, she smelled him. “Ugh,” Angel, her wolf, said in her head. “Watch out! He’s coming this way.” Athena kept her head down, focused on the task in front of her. She actively ignored him as he aggressively strode into the kitchen. He was wearing jodhpurs and high boots, with a white shirt tucked in. Angel sorted, “Ha! As if he had ever even seen a horse, much less ridden one?” Athena giggled at that, but immediately regretted it as his eyes came to rest on her. Damien walked menacingly over to her little stool, towering over her. “I told you to come see me this morning, Athena. I waited for you. You are being obstinate.” He was petting her hair, ew. Athena shook her head unconsciously. “No, step-father, I told you no…” “Stop calling me step-father. I am Damien to you now, Mate.” “No,” I said again staring at the floor, “I am not your mate. My mother is your mate.” He bent over me, grabbing my chin roughly and forcing me to look up at him. I have two mates. The Moon Goddess has blessed me as her favorite son. I can feel the bond. You can’t feel it because you are a runt and your wolf is stunted,” he sneered. Angel growled at that. “She is NOT stunted! I… we… we just haven’t met our mate yet,” Athena said, ripping her chin from his grasp. She kept her eyes down, submissive and respectful, but her tone was firm. “You will come see me first thing tomorrow morning. Your mother and I will be waiting for you. Do not defy me again, or you will regret it!” Using his Beta command voice.