Lost Lycan's Mate

Dust flew up everywhere as the apprentice was flipped over the shoulder of his master and into the dirt with a heavy thud. He groaned and flung his arm over his eyes. “Is it lunchtime yet?”

His master stood over him with amusement in his eyes as he held out a hand to the young wolf. “We only started an hour ago. You’ve got a while yet, kid.”

I enjoyed watching the apprentices train.

I learned a lot by watching and listening to them teach. I mostly watched the teachers, but I would also occasionally sneak a glance at the apprentices to see what they were doing wrong.

The apprentices hated it when I watched them. I could sense their aggression when they passed me. They thought I was judging them when I had no skills at all.

They thought I had no place around them when I wasn’t even a wolf.

I curled my legs into my chest, wrapping my arms around them and resting my chin on my knees. I didn’t let their looks of loathing dissuade me.

This was as close as I would ever get to warrior training. I sighed and continued to watch Judah, the apprentice, try over and over again until he did it right.

“Why sit here and lament, hmm?” a croaky voice asked from behind me.

I lifted my head to see Cami, an elderly woman who stood at four-foot-eight, hunched over her large walking stick and raising a bushy brow at me.

“I’m not allowed to train with them. I can’t be an apprentice, so I haven’t got a master.”

Cami puckered out her lips. “Nonsense. You have legs.”

She poked my curled-up legs with the end of her stick. “You have brains.” She tapped the side of her head with the stick.

“Why not train?” She shook her head. “You’re like them. Nothing different. Why not learn like them?”

“Because I have no wolf. I can’t—”

“No matter. No matter!” she scolded me, brandishing her cane and shaking it wildly. “They have no wolf either. They still train.”

She poked me hard in the chest with her walking stick. “You’re the same.” She poked me again. “If you want to train, you should fight to be allowed.”

It was the clearest statement I had ever heard.

She was right. I was just like them. They didn’t have their wolves yet either.

Of course, they had their werewolf traits of speed, strength, and senses, but I could still learn too.

“Young people, stupid.” I heard Cami mutter as she shuffled away to the Elders’ tent.

A bright smile lit up my face as I stood. Why hadn’t I seen this before? Why hadn’t I fought for this?

I marched my way down to the fishing docks where my father and other members of the pack were rebuilding the storage sheds for the coming winter.

My father was prying decaying boards from the sides of the sheds and tossing them on the pile, and his beta was assisting him.

I walked over to the pile of soon-to-be firewood and stood directly in front of the beta as he dropped his board down in front of me.

I raised my head and looked Coda straight in the eyes, squaring my shoulders and trying to exude confidence. “I need to speak with the alpha,” I said, loudly enough for my father to hear.

Coda raised a brow, questioning my formal address of my father. I didn’t want to speak with my father though. I’d asked him time and time again to let me train, but he always said no.

This was the only way I could get what I wanted. By asking him as my alpha, by holding him to his title as leader of the pack, I could twist his arm into letting me have this.

As alpha, he had to look out for the pack. He needed to do everything he could to keep it safe. And training me would give him one more warrior, no matter how pathetic I might be.

I had the same reason for addressing my father so formally as I did for approaching his beta.

Coda was my father’s second-in-command, and if my father wasn’t around to give orders, Coda had permission to call the shots.

If I wanted to speak with the alpha, I needed to get through Coda first.

Coda twisted around and glanced at my father questioningly. A small nod of my father’s head gave him permission to let me through.

Coda stepped aside, allowing me a path to my father. I strode over to him with purpose, hoping I managed to make my walk at least half as intimidating as my father’s.

“Alpha, I request that you permit me to train with the other apprentices. I know that it is against standard tradition, but I only wish to train myself in this form.

“I ask that you allow me this to make me stronger, so I am not such a liability.”

“No, Cleo. You don’t need to know how to fight.”

I resisted the urge to grind my teeth together.

I had expected him to deny my request, but I wouldn’t stop until I got him to say yes. “With all due respect, Alpha, a warrior watching over me is one less warrior fighting on the front lines.

“I don’t ask that you allow me to become a warrior, I simply want to learn how to defend myself and others if need be. Please give me a chance.”

He shook his head. “No, Cleo. Your mother would hate me if I did this.”

“I’m not asking you as my father, I am asking the alpha, as a member of the pack. Let me do this. Let me learn.”

I hoped that training might awaken my wolf. Sometimes it took a large sense of endangerment for a wolf to awaken.

“I want to be worthy of this pack.”

I saw my father’s inner conflict. His protective side was fighting with his alpha desire to gain a possible warrior.

I could see he was fighting a losing battle when he clenched his hands into fists. The veins on his neck popped out as his wolf tried to take over.

“Only the first half, Cleo. You can learn how to defend yourself. This much, I will permit.”

He exhaled a breath through his nose and unclenched his fists. “I am going to regret this,” he muttered before turning back to his work.

A huge smile spread across my face. Tonight would be the night I had dreamed of for years. I would finally undergo the apprenticeship ceremony and start the process of becoming a warrior for my pack.

A low growl rumbled in my father’s throat. The board he was prying from the house snapped in half. He threw the broken and splintered half on the ground and turned to me with blazing eyes.

“Oh no, Cleo. You won’t be getting any ceremony. You are not becoming a warrior. Think of it like taking a self-defense class. Nothing more, nothing less.”

My heart sank in my chest at the reminder.

I suppose it was better than nothing, but it was still a far cry from what I had wanted. “I understand, Alpha.”

Would I be getting a master, or would the warriors trade off every day like I was a job that the alpha assigned, like border patrol?

“You may be right, Cleo,” he answered my thought.

“It’s not fair for me to ask a warrior to become your master when you won’t become a warrior in return.”

“Grey would—”

“No,” he snarled at me. “Grey would baby you. If you are to do this you will be doing it my way.

“You need someone who will push you until you break, who will train you harder than any of the other apprentices.

“You will not be given special treatment because you lack werewolf genes, am I understood?”

I nodded eagerly, happy at any chance to learn how to fight. “I thank you, Alpha.”

“Oh no, you don’t want to be thanking me, Cleo. Your master will be Coda.”

My heart stumbled for a beat before continuing at a much faster pace than before. Coda was my father’s beta, an alpha in his own right. If my father hadn’t been alpha, Coda would have taken over.

The beta was cruel and cold, and he had dropped three apprentices in his time. They’d never completed their training because he considered them too weak to become warriors.

His methods were relentless. He did not go easy on the young wolves. He treated them like threats.

It wasn’t uncommon for his apprentices to have a broken bone after practice. But I wouldn’t heal like they could.

I had no wolf genes, so I would heal as slowly and delicately as any human, and Coda would not care.

My father could sense my hesitation. “You don’t have to train at all, of course,” he reminded me.

So this was his plan. I bristled with rage. He was trying to scare me out of it. And if that didn’t work, he believed Coda would. But he wouldn’t. Neither of them would deter me from this.

Even if Coda proclaimed me unworthy, I would keep coming back and demanding that our lessons continue. This was my one and only chance.

“I accept,” I replied, holding my ground.

“Alpha,” I said, nodding to my father, “and Master,” I acknowledged Coda. “I look forward to starting tomorrow.”

Before I could turn around, Coda stopped me.

“Tomorrow? Oh no, little pup, you’ll be starting right now.”

My father shot him a look and his eyes narrowed at Coda’s eagerness to begin. I suppose my father was a bit wary at Coda leaping at the chance to be in charge of me.

He nodded toward the pile of wood in front of me. “You can start by hauling these to the timber pit.”

“And when you finish with that, you can take the rest of the piles.”

My gaze wandered around the fishing docks to see five piles identical to the one at my feet.

“Hurry up, now. You’ll want to get this done before sundown. Finishing it in the dark would be much more difficult.”

Confusion spread across my face, my brow furrowing. Before dark? It wasn’t even noon yet.

I could carry all the wood to the timber pit hours before dusk.

“I am glad you have such high faith in yourself, as you will be doing this all by yourself. No tools or equipment other than your hands and feet to help you.”

I paled. Do this all by myself, with no tools? I was twelve, almost thirteen, with no wolf attributes. The full-grown warriors could do this with no problem, never breaking a sweat.

But carrying one of these boards all the way to the fire pit by myself would take me at least ten minutes. There was no way I could finish this task before dark by myself.

“Daylight is burning,” Coda reminded me, showing me a feral smile that showcased his sharp canine teeth.

Deep in my bones, I knew I would hate Coda.

He would make me regret this every minute of every day, but I would prove to him, one way or another, that I was not to be taken for granted.

I would train harder than any of the wolves. I would become better than each of them and prove to this pack, and to my father, that I was a force to be reckoned with.