Chapter 10: First Day

I stood in the training room facing my sparring partner. We were randomly paired up with someone. I was stuck with a girl who was a couple of inches taller than me and had a nose ring and eyebrow piercing. She didn’t scare me, however.

Within minutes she knocked me down with her wooden staff. I tried to get back up and was quickly pushed down. That was only the first partner I went through.

The Alpha came into the room and said, “You all have to learn how to fight against an opponent who may have an advantage over you.”

She paired us up with people who were either taller, stronger, or faster than us. I got paired with a guy who was quite taller and more physically built than me.

He looked down and me and said, “This will be a piece of cake.”

“That’s what you think. You don’t know what you’re up against.”

I held back from punching him in the mouth and readied myself for our fight. Before we started, he added, “I want to do hand-to-hand combat.”

“I can handle that. You’re on.”

We went over to where there were mats placed on the floor. He swung at me before I could prepare myself for the hit. I fell to the ground and heard him laughing. I got back up and ran towards him.

“You’re too slow,” he said while dodging my sad attempt.

He shoved me to the mat and pinned me down by my arms. “It was cute you tried to beat me. Better luck next time.”

The next match with a girl shorter than me didn’t go well either. She threw me across the mat hard. I knew I’d have bruises after the training finished. After one hit I felt blood drip down from my nose. She scoffed and gave a superior grin at me.

As we continued to fight, I happened to see Zander knock down a big and buff guy with a roundhouse kick. The guy didn’t get back up either. I couldn’t watch long, as the girl punched me in the jaw.

Zander continued to fight expertly when I glanced at him occasionally. It was almost as if he could see his opponent’s next move and was great at dodging and blocking. He even looked like he knocked someone down by hitting at the right part of the jaw.

At one point, I saw him do a flip off the wall and crash into his opponent. He must’ve known marital arts techniques, because he did a lot of kicks and spins in his fights.

I hated to admit it but I admired his fighting techniques. How did he know how to do these effective moves?

I had one match with Zander. He looked at me and said, “Don’t think I’ll go easy on you just because I know you.” He smirked and added, “You’ll go down like the rest of my partners did.”

“I don’t think you should underestimate me.”

“We’ll see Cleo.”

Zander flipped me onto my back before I knew what was happening. I scowled at him and got up as fast as I could. He chuckled a little and then got back to business.

We did hand-to-hand combat next, and I thought I felt more strength coming to me.

When I tried to sweep his leg from under him, he ended up overpowering me and knocked me down. Zander wasn’t done and pinned me down and continued to hover over me. Being that close, I smelled a mix of an earthy yet musky scent.

It felt like time had stopped as he kept looking at me. His fingers went through my hair, and he quickly stroked my cheek. My breathing became irregular as his hand moved down my neck and rested there.

He looked down into my eyes and pressed both his hands on each side of my shoulders. Zander then leaned in close enough to kiss me. Was he going to kiss me?

My breathing got faster while my heart thudded loudly. It felt like my body was on fire while being in the position I was. He moved his hand to cup my jaw and kept staring at me intensely.

Zander opened his mouth and said, “I told you that I’d take you down.” He gave that darn lopsided smile and said, “Seems I won this match.”

I couldn’t speak. My mouth forgot how to work, and I stared at him breathless. My heart tried to beat out of my chest.

Finally, he stopped hovering over me and offered to help me up. Part of me didn’t want him to stop what we were doing.

I took his hand and felt a tingle go throughout my whole body. His hands were warm and surprisingly smooth for a guy. They weren’t what I was expecting at all.

“We should do this again sometime,” Zander stated with what sounded like flirtation.

My mouth felt dry. I swallowed and said, “I’ll pass.”

“Well if you change your mind, you know where to find me.”

He smiled and strolled over to his next sparring partner. My heartbeat was still racing rapidly, and my stomach felt tied up in knots. I gave a last glance at him and he smiled widely. Quickly, I looked away and waited for my next partner.

I lost the following sparring matches too. A few of them happened as a wolf in the adjoining room to where we trained. I somehow knew that I wasn’t at my full strength.

I should’ve been able to win against someone. It wasn’t as if I wasn’t trying, because I was giving it my all with my hits and kicks.

When we took a half an hour break, the Alpha put our results on a piece of paper. I was on the list of the lowest ranking members. Out of curiosity, I searched for Zander’s name and found it at the top five group.

I wondered how he was so skilled at fighting. He knew what he was doing while I struggled to win one fight.

After training ended, Zander came up to talk to me. “Cleo, I want to talk about earlier.”

My face reddened at the thought and I said, “I’d rather not.”

“Shouldn’t we talk about it sooner than later?”

“I don’t want to. Just forget about it.”

He walked off and I wondered if made the right choice. My heart pounded in my chest as I watched him walk away.