“-ld! HOLD!” Coach howled, I wasn’t sure what had happened I felt dazed and the red hot rage had not yet subsided. Backing up, my focus was on the Alpha before me. They were laying on the ground, a soft growl escaped me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something charging towards me and I quickly grabbed it. Shaking it a few times my growls were the only thing I heard but the taste of blood was something that I can no longer forget. I started tearing it apart and it was a taste that I longed for.

Rabbit.

My ears started ringing as I felt calm after hungrily eating.

“If I haven’t stopped Alpha Angel, that would be a dead Alpha Hurly. Alpha Angel hasn’t come down from his taste high, he wants more blood. In order to control the need to taste is to give them their favorite fresh meat and let them calm down. Alpha Angel still wants to fight and just like any other wolf he will fight if anyone gets near their prey.”

I was finally free from the grips of the molten iron rage as the meat cooled it down, licking my lips I stared down at the last remaining bites of the rabbit. I felt light headed as my vision blurred for a few moments, heaving a sigh and giving myself a shake. I hadn’t realized how sweaty I had become, the wetness in my fur was uncomfortable and it smelled bad. I guess I should continue to push myself more like this, wouldn’t do the pack good if one of their wolves is weak.

Looking up finally after my sight returned I seen red smears surrounding me and the Alpha that was just picking themselves up.

That wasn’t sweat on my fur.

Alpha Hurly looked up at me and flinched, keeping himself low and small.

‘Remember pups,’ an old memory from the Omega District popped up, ‘If you want to apologize share some of your food with the other.’

I picked up the rest of the rabbit and gently placed it in front of Alpha Hurly then backed away. I hadn’t meant for something like this to happen, not to my own Pack.

“Any other wolf wouldn’t receive such an apology from Alpha Angel, I suggest you take it and do well to remember those scars.” Coach said and Alpha Hurly took the meat and ate it quickly. He gave a quick wag of his tail and retreated behind the line of Alpha’s. “Alpha Angel is an Alpha worthy of Challenges, to be worthy you must draw blood one of two ways. Fighting or Mating.”

Sitting down while Coach explained I refrained from licking at my red stained black coat. My paws were shiny from the lights and my wet fur, I wasn’t sure which one of us was bleeding most. I certainly wasn’t feeling any teeth on me, it could still be that I was shocked. I also noticed that the Alpha’s for once were quiet, it was unnerving since it only meant that they’ll pick on me after the lesson.

“Alpha Angel,” I looked up at the sound of my name, “are you prepared for the playground to become a war zone?”

It already felt as if I came from a war zone, but regardless I straightened myself out, “Yes Coach, after all what have we’ve been training for?”

Standing at the back of the Pit as the Alpha’s liked to call it, were Beta Franklin and Alpha Rodger. Having witnessed the bloodshed from a one sided match between an Alpha and an Omega.

“Amazing,” Beta Franklin said watching as the little Omega-Born gave his last few bites of meat to the fearful Alpha-Born.

“Another year and we’ll see what Alpha Angel’s next move will be, I want him with the Elite Alpha’s. But no doubt with that skill he’ll be a Delta,” Alpha Rodger commented not fazed in the slightest.

“It doesn’t seem that his Spirit Wolf helped him, were Omega’s really born that strong? If so then he’ll most likely be treated as an Alpha-Born like-”

“Omega’s were always naturally strong. They hide it because they don’t like to fight, if you see a gentle peacekeeping Alpha then they are Omega-Born.”

I felt a shift in me while my friends talked about what I had just told them. They couldn’t believe what I said and they certainly didn’t see how the water was red when I showered. I made sure to wash again just to make sure the scent of blood was no longer on me.

My worry wasn’t trying to make heads or tails of what I had done.

It was the up coming Challenges that I’m sure to get. Having defeated a large Alpha I’ve put quite a target on myself. I just hope that I’m lucky.

Lucky that I don’t get stronger Alpha’s after my position.

“What was it like?” Knox asked as he slowed his pace to match mine, his soft spoken words were enough to bring me out of my swirling thoughts.

“My matches were all different, but the last one was... bad? I was the winner in all of them but the last one feels too real to even be true. I... I don’t have words for it. I’m not even sure of who I am anymore.”

“You’re Alpha-” Lake started after hearing what I was saying, but I didn’t want to hear it. I wanted to be anywhere but there.

“Let’s eat,” I picked up my pace. If I let Lake continue he well tell me that I’m an Alpha and that it was fine to shed a few drops of blood during a practice fight. These Alpha’s are far too innocent, it won’t be long now until they tasted blood like I had.

“Stay away from the desserts,” Lake said and started to walk fast to pass me, I matched his pace and we soon started running down the hall.

“If I let you have the desserts there’s not gonna be any left!” I ran ahead of him, but stopped in my tracks when I smelled a very familiar scent. Down a branching hallway that branched in another direction I smelled the heavy scent of copper.

“Alpha! Let’s go!” Jayden called as they all walked past me as if they didn’t smell the blood from a recent Challenge. I wondered if this was normal for them, unless they never smelled or tasted before.

Shaking it off mostly from the need to pick a fight I ran after the Alpha-Born’s, it also seemed as if Salem wasn’t present. I stood behind Knox as I gathered my food and we walked to our table. The center of the Cafeteria was open as it was the most popular place for the Alpha of the Den to take on Challenges. I’ve seen a few of them and they never shed a drop from each other I now noticed.

It was admirable.

Lake sat triumphantly with 5 slices of cake on his plate. I took a bite out of my single slice and stopped.

The taste was all off.

The cake was bland absolutely no flavor at all.

I took a bite from the other food and found the same tasteless flavor. I pushed my food to the center of the table for the others to grab. Walking up to the counter where the chefs were taking a break.

“What is it pup?” one of them growled.

“The food is tasteless,” I stated not holding back since I got growled at, only right to growl back.

“You tasted?” another chef asked standing up and pushed past the grumpy one. The Alpha studied me for a few more moments before getting a plate from a different tray. “Come to this line from now on, proud of you Alpha.”

Thanking them I went back to my table and took a bite, for the first time it felt as if I was properly breathing. Forgetting my manners I ate hungrily, I didn’t care what made the food different it was delicious.

Finishing the food, I calmed myself down as best as I could by looking around the Cafeteria. I’ve noticed that the older Alpha’s weren’t showing their ears or tails like the younger ones. I ran a hand through my hair and didn’t bump into my wolf ears, but instead touched the new ears on the side of my head.

How I haven’t noticed before was beyond me.

Could have been a number of things.

Some Alpha’s turned to me and nodded while going back to their own group. I haven’t really paid much attention to the Alpha’s around me, mainly because Justice said that it wasn’t important. I’ll need to learn from the older ones now if I want respect in this Pack.

I was finally allowed to hunt after a few more weeks of lectures on how to hunt, I was in a group of 3 Omega-Born’s and 2 Alpha-Born's. All of them were older than me and the Omega’s were shocked that I was out and treated me like a little pup that strayed from his mother. I wasn’t having it and quickly threw one of the Omega’s down. I was surprised with how weak they were and quickly moved away from them before I hurt them. They were so soft and their bones were like sticks when I touched them. I barely even felt them touch me when they went to apologize by licking under my chin.

I retreated more and stood next to the Alpha’s who weren’t afraid to show their power. They laughed and told me that it was good that I knew not to be rough with the Omega’s anymore and we were on our way to the Common Hunting Ground.

The Omega’s taught me the proper stance to hunt rabbit and I watched one graze on some clovers. The forest floor was moist with recent melted snow, the strong scent of pine and leaf mold felt like home, liked Dad. When the rabbit tucked into the clover patch I pushed myself forward to give a surprise chase.

The rabbit quickly bolted and I stayed hot on the cotton ball tail until it disappeared into a hole. Growling I returned to the Omega’s and we went to find another rabbit that wasn’t alerted to me.

I’m thankful that the Hunting Party was patient with me as we position ourselves in a new location. The rabbit was brown this time and nibbled on some lettuce that the Alpha’s had laid out before hand. 

An Omega-Born watched me carefully, gently nudging me to fix my stance and to lower myself a bit more. The rabbit looked up suddenly and bolted towards us, thinking quickly I nabbed it before it could escape.

“Sorry!” Omega Rosehert whimpered as she stepped out and stopped seeing the rabbit firmly in my jaws.

“All good, Crystal! You helped Angel catch his first rabbit!” Omega Thornleft said and we made our way back to the Alpha’s. The Omega’s started talking about my catch of how I got it and what they were feeling during the catch. It was a lot of information to take in, unnecessary information.

I laid my catch next to the rest of the rabbits that were caught without my help.

The hunters howled at the catch when I laid it down and told me how to thank the rabbit for feeding the pack. It was mainly touching my nose to its nose and a low howl. We had one more hunting lesson to take and it was to catch a deer as a group.

I was given the basics on how to hunt a large game and we went to the location where the deer were. The deer comes here because of the well taken care of patch of grass and small wild garden.

The Omega’s and Alpha’s devised a plan on where they will herd the deer and it was the Omega’s job to make sure it makes it to the waiting Alpha’s. I was about to move with the Omega’s until one of the Alpha’s called me back. Following the Alpha I was told to wait in a spot and watch.

As I waited I watched the Omega’s take their spots and begin as soon as the Alpha’s were in theirs. The buck shot forward heading towards the wolf in the middle of the path, the plan was for the Alpha to jump up and grab the buck while the other Alpha goes in and the Omega’s surround it to tire it out.

What happened was the Omega’s were slow and the buck saw the two Alpha’s and turned towards me while I remain hidden in the shadows. I froze as the large deer charged towards me but muscle memory kicked in and I popped out biting down on the leg and broke it. The buck fell and I delivered the killing bite to the neck.

The other’s caught up and stared at me as if I was an intruder.

Then they howled.

I went to the nose of the buck touched his nose and howled with the others.

Returning to our camp I was taught how to skin the rabbit and deer as well as break it apart. The deer was hung up as the skin and fur we got from them were drying.

I finally got to smell what my Dad smelled like, pine, moldy leaves, the fur and skin, the reason why he was gone for a few days. I felt a small stab to my heart, I haven’t seen my parents in so long.

The Omega’s taught me how to sew since I wanted to make a blanket with my rabbit fur that I got to keep. I was given a practice hide to practice beading on, I made a simple bracelet with red and black zig zags on it.

It was finally the day where we brought back our hunt with the help of a few Alpha’s. They were impressed with our hunt, I was given my rabbit when we brought it back to the Den. The skin was put into the empty warehouse entrance to continue to dry, we went down and I brought my rabbit to the Cafeteria.

The chef’s were so glad to have such a prize and we made stew with it. They froze my portion and the rest was given to them and the rest of the Alpha’s. Every time I went out I brought back my share to the Cafeteria and the Alpha’s looked healthier and less ragged.

We’ve done that for a year now and it was very peaceful in the Alpha Den, especially when the Alpha’s see me they act more like puppies. The food improved during that year since I kept bringing back fresh meat for the chef’s and out of boredom started asking about their lives.

Coach’s training plus my own nightly workouts I’ve gotten stronger, fighting with the Alpha’s wasn’t as tiring as before. Knox had helped me with strength training and Lake helped with agility. Jayden was more focused on combat intelligence so learning from her was brilliant.

I was constantly reminded to never let my guard down just because the Alpha’s show ‘Affection’ so I’ve keep my mind on training as much as I can. Not once have I questioned why Justice held such animosity towards Alpha’s.

Relaxing in my room on the one rare day off from training, I let out a low purr as I cuddled my rabbit fur blanket. Yesterday was Hell Week since Justice wanted to make sure that I was in shape for the assessment next week. The assessment was to go on a hunting trip with other Alpha’s to live for a week off the land. Justice had warned me to only do what was necessary and not go over board with taking care of other’s who would lay around and do nothing.

A knock sounded and I lazily got up and got the door, the smell hit me first before seeing them. My senses went on alert but they looked as if it was normal to smell of fresh wounds. Lake, Knox and Salem invaded my room and started talking about random things. It was strange seeing Salem so comfortable with my friends since he wasn’t too keen on spending time around the group for long if they were around.

“What happened?” I asked guarded as I sat at my desk waiting for them to explain the friendliness towards each other.

“We’re fine,” Salem cheerily said with a smile. He wasn’t using the stupid nickname for me so I frowned at his words.

“Sharp,” Knox growled and showed his injured hand to me, growling myself I took out my first-aid kit and brought it to them. I bandaged them up while they explained what had happened. An arrogant Alpha Challenged them and the offending Alpha won and to show dominance shed blood.

The Alpha’s in the Den opposed to the recent spill and the Alpha went after the Den until it was taken care of by the Alpha of the Den.

“You weren’t involved in the Challenges?” Knox asked after Lake finished explaining.