Gimme Gimme Gimme

Oliver

I glanced down at my watch. I had another half hour of dealing with the high school kids, and to be honest, I wasn’t completely certain why I was here. The kids were developing well, and I was quite happy with how they maintained themselves in their sparring. Usually, Gregory oversaw them, checking in once or twice a week, and left the majority of their training up to warriors. But, I felt making an appearance would motivate them a bit more.

I walked around the room, occasionally making comments to improve form or technique. Overall, I didn’t see how I was needed here, especially when I could think of better uses of my time. I made my way over to Colin, to let him know I’d be ducking out early.

“Alpha,” he nodded as I approached.

“Will you be here next Thursday?” I asked, getting right to the point.

Colin shook his head. “No, Ellie and I alternate. This week, I had Tuesday and Thursday, next week, I’ll have Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.”

I furrowed my brow. To my knowledge, I hadn’t signed off on warriors in training leading the kids. I wasn’t exactly enthused with Ellie doing any training with this group, especially with the performances I had seen from her recently. “Since when was she involved at the school?”

“I asked her to,” Colin said sheepishly. “I thought it’d be good if there was a female leader as well, and she was the only one I could get to say yes.”

“You should have come to me. I could have assigned someone,” I told him. Off the top of my head, I could think of several other more qualified women to help out here. On top of that, I had a hard time believing many people would turn down spending their time helping our next generation.

“She only started leading it by herself this past week, Alpha,” he quickly added. “I used to also be here with her.”

“Well, I’ll leave you for the rest of today. I’m headed over to the training grounds. I need to check in over there, too,” I said. I also planned on talking with Cody, as this change had probably been approved by him, and I wasn’t exactly happy about it.

“Yes, Alpha,” he called, as I headed toward the exit.

Once in the Land Cruiser, it wasn’t too long of a drive to the training grounds. I saw Cody’s car wasn’t in the parking lot, but his apartment in the warrior housing wasn’t too far away, and sometimes he walked in for the day instead of driving. I decided to check the field first, but no such luck. I caught the attention of someone on the field and asked if they had seen him around.

“He was just here working with a new person, but I think he headed to his office,” the warrior said.

“A new person?” I asked, hoping for clarification.

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “Some girl. I hadn’t seen her before, but I haven’t been out of this town much.”

I thanked him for the information and headed in the direction of Cody’s office, hoping to catch him before he headed out for the day. His office door was cracked, and I could hear the rustling of papers as I approached.

“Hey man,” I said, walking over to one of the chairs. Cody glanced up, but didn’t give much more for greeting. “Heard you’re working with a new person. How’s that going?”

Cody shrugged. “Just someone who wants to join the ranks. Shows potential.”

I nodded, curious as to who it was. “Is she interested in enrolling in the program?” I asked.

“Might be a backup plan,” he grunted.

I ran through who I knew in the pack, but couldn’t think of anyone who might be interested in making a career change into the warrior ranks. But, I wasn’t as familiar with the people from different towns. The new recruits usually started applying about now, though, so it wasn’t unusual for people to come and train for a little bit to get a taste of it. Almost like touring the campus for humans and college. “So why didn’t you tell me Ellie was helping Colin out with training the high schoolers?” I asked, changing the subject to why I was really here.

Cody looked up from his paperwork, anger flashing across his face. “What?” he demanded.

“I was just over at the high school, and Colin said Ellie has taken over half of the training. Why didn’t you tell me?”

He clenched his jaw. “I wouldn’t have approved that. She’s just a first year, and she’s not that good.”

I nodded slowly. “I figured you might have made an exception because she’s your mate.”

“She’s not my mate,” he said through clenched teeth.

I lifted an eyebrow, but decided to ignore the comment for now. He’d go into detail when he felt like it. “Well, Colin said-”

“Fuck Colin and whatever he said.” Cody stood up and started pacing the room. “No requests for an additional trainer at the school ever came across my desk.”

“Ellie’s leading training-”

“Fuck her!” he roared. “She’s a shit warrior who can’t follow directions and has no business training them!”

I stood up, commanding his attention. “Colin suggested a female assisting with training would do the kids good. I don’t disagree, but I do need you to find someone more suitable for it.”

Cody sat back down behind his desk. “I’ll find someone else,” he grumbled.

I sat back down and watched as he stared blankly at the papers in front of him. I trusted that Cody hadn’t actually approved Ellie to lead training of the kids; he wasn’t a liar. But, he had been in a remarkable mood the past few days, and outbursts were not his style. I was also not one to pry, and knew he would come forward with whatever information he was withholding when he felt ready to. If it had something to do with the safety of the pack, he would have told me by now.

“I don’t think we should send out more people to east river,” Cody said, breaking the silence. “At least, for now.”

“Oh? Want to expound on that?” It was an idea that had been playing around in my mind, but if I wasn’t the only one thinking about it, maybe there was some merit to it.

Cody picked up a pen and twirled it between his fingers. “Your mate had a good idea to buy us some time. It’s reasonable to assume their primary motive is getting their hands on her, and they will probably hang around until she makes an appearance.”

“Lya isn’t going back there,” I insisted. That was non-negotiable. There was no way I’d put her in harm’s way.

Cody held up his hand to stop my train of thought. “I’m not saying she actually shows up there. But maybe we could do something to convince them she’d be back there at a particular time.”

I nodded slowly. “That might draw even more hunters in for backup, too.”

“Possibly,” Cody muttered. “Depends how many they would think it’d take to collect her.”

“So how do we guarantee the most hunters get drawn in as possible?” I asked. If we were going to set up to take out as many hunters as possible, we needed to make sure they’d be there. This whole endeavor wasn’t worth just a couple.

Cody gave me a sly grin. “Lya and I came up with some ideas.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Should I be worried about you spending time with my mate without me around?”

“You better get used to it,” he chuckled. “She will be Luna, you know. That’s going to require a lot of communication with male pack members.”

I grimaced, annoyed that he was right. “How do you deal with it?” I asked. “I mean, Ellie is a warrior, and a solid 70% of the warriors are men. And she’s a flirt.”

“I don’t, anymore,” Cody huffed, reaching for the bottle of Woodford he kept stashed in his desk drawer. “She cheated on me. I’m going to reject her.”

My eyes grew wide, stunned that a fated mate would do something like that. It wasn’t unheard of with chosen mates, but fated mates were a different ballgame. His fowl mood made sense now, too.

“I’m surprised it took this long for her to do something like that, to be honest,” he said, taking a swig directly from the bottle. “Betcha it was that guy who decided to let her train the high schoolers.”

“How do you know?” I asked, hoping he was just mistaken and Ellie’s behavior had gotten out of hand.

“You can feel it, man,” Cody scoffed. “It’s like someone got a vice grip around your heart and is just slowly squeezing harder and harder.”

I sighed, scrubbing my hand across my face. “I don’t know what to say.” I grabbed the offered bottle from him and took a drink.

“I was dumb for not realizing it was coming,” he said with a shrug. “So no mate for me, I guess.”

I stood up, making my way toward the door. “Just let me know when you need some time. I’ve heard rejecting hurts.”

“Can’t hurt any more than feeling her fuck another guy,” he said, taking another pull of whiskey. “And we don’t have time for me to take a break. I’ve got enough to distract me for now.”

I made sure to close the door behind me. In light of Cody’s experiences with his mate, it seemed as if I needed to have a conversation with my own.