“I meant what I said yesterday, human,” Maximus threw over his shoulder. There was that word again. “Stay out of my fucking way.”
I followed him across the gym. He stopped in a group of people and turned around to face me. His friends were chatting besides him, but he was too busy staring daggers at me. I groaned. So much for staying under the radar, I thought.
“Quiet, quiet, quiet!” A voice boomed across the gym. A man, clearly the coach from the way he was dressed, emerged from the office besides the gym. “That’s enough chit chat. We’re timing the run today. Give me a warmup lap then Maximus and Petyr will lead the stretches.” Without a second command, the entire group took off down the track. I followed them, lingering towards the back of the group. Petyr must’ve been the Eastern Asian man being spotted by Maximus as the two took the lead. I struggled to keep up.
My breath was catching in my throat as I looked across the track and saw Maximus and Petyr looking back at me with stone cold gazes. Great, I thought to myself. Another enemy.
Peytr was handsome as well. But he was no Maximus. Even with how rude he was to me, I couldn’t help but find him incredibly attractive.
We rounded out the warmup lap towards the end of the group then broke into lines for stretching. I wound up being the woman with long black hair whom I’d run into earlier in the day. She made sure to remind me that she didn’t like me by almost body checking me every time we turned around.
When stretching was done, we formed a semicircle around the coach. He stood at the front, clipboard in hand. He scribbled something in pen then sighed before tucking the clipboard under his arm.
“Right, so I’m Coach Wells,” he sighed. It was if he was completely bored. “We’re doing the run today. For you first-years. It’s twenty laps around the track in under fourty-five minutes.”
Twenty laps? Ten miles? In under fourty-five minutes??? I felt my stomach bile rise up to my throat. I ran in high school. I was a decent short distance runner. The mile was my bread and butter. I’d never run more than five miles let alone ten. I looked around to see if anyone else looked panicked. No one seemed phased. I turned back to Coach. He caught my eye and saw the panic on my face.
“Now, if you don’t get twenty,” he said. “Ya won’t get kicked out. But you will have to take supplementary training until you can pass. The ideal is twenty but if you can get fifteen, you won’t have to do supplementary training. Shoot for twenty. Be fine with above fifteen. Got it?”
Everyone around me nodded. Fifteen. I could do fifteen laps. That was seven and a half miles. Only two and a half more than my max. Entirely achievable. Coach had everyone line up on the track. It was wide enough that we were in lines of three. In front of me was a woman with white-blonde hair and shiny purple eyes. In front of her was a woman I hadn’t met yet. The blonde-haired woman slowly turned around and gave me a half smile before whispering a good luck under her breath. With that, Coach’s whistle went off and we were off. Everyone in front of me took off at breakneck pace. I stuttered to start, shocked by the fact that someone had actually been nice to me. I tried to keep up but felt my lungs straining so I returned to the same rhythm I’d learned in high school.
Right, left, right, left. It was easy falling back into the mechanics of running. It had been my escape in high school. In track, there was no orphans or parentless kids. It was you and the red track. You were measured by how fast you could go. And I could go fast.
I was peeling around my tenth lap as coach yelled ten minutes left. I pushed my legs harder. Five laps in ten minutes. It wasn’t undoable. I felt my legs beginning to die as I went harder and harder. I hit the corner of my fourteenth lap and broke into a sprint. I had no clue how much time was left but I knew I had to prove myself.
I flew by the crowd of finished wolves, pumping my arms and legs harder. Sweat dripped down the back of my neck as I repeated my mantra. Prove it. Prove it. Prove to them you are worthy of being here!
I crossed the midway point of the lap when my soul was crushed. Coach’s whistle blew across the track and burned into my ears.
“Time up!” he shouted. “Smith!” he called my human last name and I stopped, keeled over, choking on my lungs. “You’re in supplementary!”
I walked back across the track and stood next to the woman with the white-blonde hair. She gave me a small, sad smile.
“That was really impressive,” she said quietly. “Normally wolfless don’t make it past ten laps.”
“Thanks,” I choked out. “Did anyone else miss it?”
She bit her lip and it immediately answered my question. Great. I groaned and slumped down to the ground.
A foot kicked at my heel and swiped it out from under me, causing me to topple over. I glared up at my assailant. It was, of course, Maximus.
“Only one this year to not finish the run,” he taunted. “And she’s wolfless. You can’t tell me it isn’t because of that.”
I pushed myself up and stood with my chest proud. “I’m wolfless but I still was close enough to almost beat your stupid run.”
“Almost,” Maximus repeated me with a smug smirk. “As in didn’t.” He chuckled and turned away from me.
“God,” I hissed. “I hate him.” “He certainly doesn’t like you,” The blonde girl mused.
I groaned and ran a hand over my face. “Thanks,” I said. Maybe it’s because he knows you’re the Luna heir? The tiny voice in the back of my head said.
He can’t, I said. Unless he was getting information from someone else outside Alpha Academy. No one here knew who I was.
“Okay, damn – you kids and your chatting!” Coach shouted. “Do you even want to spar?”
There was some shouts, whoops and hollers around the group. Personally, I wished to crawl in a hole and die. Sparring?
“Smith!” Coach’s voice brought me out of my daydream. Loren shook me gently. I realized my face was set in a grimace, so I gave her a soft smile. “Anddddd….” Couch peered down at his clipboard. “Wolfham.”
Great. Just great.
Now Maximus was about to kick my ass and gloat about it for all of eternity. I looked across the sparring mat to find him waiting for me. He wiggled his fingers tauntingly and I felt my grimace return. I stomped over to the mat and took my defensive stance in front of him.
“Let’s get this over with,” I sighed. Maximus grinned like a cat. “Gladly.”
He threw the first punch and I managed to block it with my forearm. It stung like hell and caused me to hiss in pain. As I was adjusting, he leg swept out and I was on my ass. I groaned and rolled back onto my feet. It felt like a mental bar had been taken to my ankle.
I looked at him as I retook my stance. His nose was wrinkled.
“You reek of human,” he hissed. “Have you ever even been around a wolf before?”
“Yes,” I threw back quickly as I threw the first punch this time. “Well, no.” I corrected myself. I was worried about giving myself away.
“Yes or no?” Maximus said leisurely. He threw a double cross that landed into my forearm twice. I grunted as I accepting the force.
“No,” I grit out as I threw another punch. He blocked the first at his ribs then used it to counter and landed one in my gut. I was back on my ass again. I huffed and blew a stray piece of hair out of my face. “I grew up with humans,” I managed to get out as I tried to hook my foot around the back of his calve and bring him down.
He barely moved.
I cried out in frustration before rolling over and getting back on my feet. He came at me harder this time. But his words sounded just as lazy as they were before.
“Raised by humans?” he questioned. He threw a hook. I barely blocked it. I was getting sloppy. “No wonder you don’t have any respect for the Higher packs – ” Another hook, just barely missing my cheek. ” – Though what wolf would abandon their daughter? – ” Another punch, landing in my arm and causing my to cry out. ” – Clearly you were a massive disappointment – “
Punch. Punch. Block. Miss. I staggered back.
” – I mean what wolf is wolfless at your big age? – “
A kick to my thigh. My knee hit the ground.
” – Just face it, you’re nothing. Not even your parents wanted you.”
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