Chapter 42

**Winter**



The sun has been rising later and later. The season is changing. As a result, I have been sleeping in later. Regardless, we are still up with the sun. This morning though Cole is trying to convince me to stay in bed.

“Kissing me is not going to make me stay in bed Hun.” I tell him.

“But I don’t want to get up. And I can smell your body wants to stay.”

Cole is right. I do want to stay in bed and have wonderful morning sex. I can hear the rain outside though, and I don’t want to pass up that opportunity to run in it.

“How about you come with me and then we can skip training for today." I say to him.

He is nuzzling and kissing my neck at this point. He mumbles “fine.”

We get up and he convinces me to get dressed before we go down. I tried to tell him there is no point considering we are just going to shift. Eventually I give in though. It seems particularly important to him.

We get outside, strip, and shift. Athena takes off running. I can feel she is in bliss. Her fur is getting caked in mud and she is thinking it would be fun to play with Dante. Instead of out running him like she usually does, she drops back behind him to nip at his ankles. After a while she gets tired of that and decides to chase Dantes tail.

This goes on for a while until Dante can no longer take it. He stops running and faces Athena. Then he growls. Not in an aggressive way but as if to say back off you're annoying me. “Apparently Dante does not want to play.” Athena tells me.

I can tell that Athena wants to keep having fun. So, I tell her she can play if she wants to. My mate may not be in a playful right now, but my wolf is. I'm not going to have her unhappy. If she wants to play, she can and has every right to do so.

She pretends to calm down and let Dante run a little ahead of her. Then she winds up and pounces on him. He shifts his wait to throw her off. Then I hear Cole in my head “Winter tell Athena Dante doesn’t want to play.”

“I know Cole, but Athena wants to play. If he doesn’t want to then I vote you find her someone to play with.”

He agrees and I follow him to the training arena. Hopefully, we will find someone there who wants to play? Sure, enough we find Adam he is training in wolf form.

Dante nods at Athena letting her know to go ahead. Athena crouches down and stars to crawl towards Adam. When she gets close enough to him, she pounces, tackling him to the ground. He is completely off guard.

“What?! Who did that?” Adam yells through the mind link.

“It is Winter and Athena” I mind link in response.

Just then Athena bites his tail. She is not trying to be aggressive. She just wants to play fight. Adams's wolf Tyron, like Dante, does not seem to be in the mood.

Tyron takes this playfulness as a challenge. I guess we are going to train after all. In response to her nipping his tail, he bites Athena’s leg. She whines, but the pain shifts the gears in her head. Now she is ready to fight.

She gracefully avoids Tyron's lunges. I can tell she is having fun biding her time until she has a clean shot. Finally, she sees her opening. She paws at his snout breaking the skin and causing Tyron to yelp. Then she goes into her favorite move.

She slides under his belly. Instead of biting him though, which would result in a lot of damage, she just scratches him instead. He yelps as she draws his blood again. Then Athena Bites his tail and refuses to let it go. She decides to play tug of war with Tyron's tail.

Tyron tries to shake her off while nipping at her, but she will not release him. Athena tells me “No one wants to play so now I am going to have some fun at their expense.” I swear sometimes my wolf has a mind of her own.

Some other warriors have come to watch the show. I am sure this is very amusing to watch. The first warrior’s tail is being used as a rope by a tiny wolf who refuses to let go. Even though she is getting whipped around and nipped at.

Who am I to force Athena into a box? If she wants to do her thing it is her prerogative. I let her be in total control when I am in wolf form. No amount of other pack members mind linking us to tell me to make Athena let go is going to make me command her.

Why do they all try to force there wolfs to do whatever they think is appropriate? Wolfs have instincts for a reason. Not that playing is an instinct, but they deserve to not be restricted. I will not tell Athena to let go of Tyron's tail. She can make that call herself. I tell the pack members through the mind link.

Then I feel hands touching our fur. It is Cole. He has shifted and gotten dressed. He is soaking wet in his clothes because of the rain. Athena snarls and is about to bite. She doesn’t want someone trying to take away her toy.

Then she recognizes Cole. “Come Athena, I think you have had enough fun this morning and I know Winter has some things she wants to do today.”

He said that through the mind link. I can tell he closed the link because he didn’t want to boss Athena in front of the others who have been watching.

I don’t know why he thinks he can boss around my wolf. I do not even do that. As he starts to walk away though Athena lets go of Tyron and follows Cole away from the training arena. What just happened?

Why is my Athena, my wolf following Cole? She doesn’t take orders. I am happy she finally let go of Tyron. Her little game of tug a war has left her covered in scratches and bites. Her white fur is covered in blood and mud. I'm baffled at how she responded to Cole directing her though. We reach the Packhouse.

“Now Shift." Cole commands.