Chapter Sixty-eight: Training

Melinda joins us and greets everyone. Loretta decides to ask the obvious. “Mum! What are those!?” She says whilst pointing at the neon leg warmers Melinda has on.

Hey Mum chuckles, bending down to pull the leg warmers off. “Don’t worry, I just like to annoy Lukas and embarrass him from time to time.”

We all laugh and dive into conversation. We start to warm up and I ask Estelle to take the lead so we can start doing some basics.

A few hours in and I can see the girls starting to strain. Luckily the basic training is straight forward and is similar to the basic training I did with the elves. It’s more based on seeing how much stamina we have and a start on strength training, so requires a lot of use of the gym equipment.

A couple of hours into the afternoon I call for us to stop. “Really well done everyone, I’m so proud of you all!” I can see everyone bar Nuria struggling, even Melinda who I know is used to training. I myself feel fine as well, as if I’ve just tapped into a never-ending energy surge. “I’ll see you all tomorrow at eleven.” I say with a breathy smile.

I mouth to Nuria five minutes, to which she nods. I then look towards the entrance to the training grounds and I see a bunch of she-wolves staring intently our way. I decide to walk over to see the interest.

“Hi everyone. Did you enjoy watching? I’m starting to train some of the female members of the pack, so we can learn to defend ourselves and those we love. I’d be more than happy to host more of you, if you were interested?”

I see some of the females shuffling their feet and assume that the answer would be a yes, but there’s hesitation. One of them however speaks up for the rest of them.
“Is Alpha Lukas ok with this?”

I smile at her. “I am your Luna, and the Alphas equal. If I consider it necessary, then he will agree. Please do check in with him if you need to though.” I say with a smile, however I can see they believe me, even if a little chocked at my assertiveness.

I see a few of them smile and nod at me. “We start again at eleven tomorrow morning. Please do come if you want to join. I’d recommend wearing something….flexable.”

The girls start giggling and bow in respect before heading away. I say my goodbyes to Melinda and the ranked females along with Loretta which left just me and Nuria.

“Are you ready Wolfie?” She says and I laugh at the nickname she’s given me.

I cock my head to one side, deciding if I like the nickname. “Where’d that come from?”

She shrugs. “Just suits you I guess.”

“I like it.” I decide there and then, shrugging back with a grin.

She leads me over to the swimming pool. “I want to begin here. From what you’ve told me, the first thing you figured out was that you can control water. This probably means that it’s your strongest element. However, from my experience with others, you can manipulate it more than just controlling the flow.”

I look at her confused. “What do you mean? I can do more than just move it where I want it to go?”

She looks at the water and thinks, before looking back at me. “Yes, I think so. Let’s imagine that you being able to control the water is the base skill. I reckon you can expand on that. For example, you could probably freeze the water, whenever and in whatever shape you want.”

I look down at the water and feel unsure. “I’ve only just learned how to move it, and even so I’m not very good at it, I’ve barley done anything with it.”

She raises her hand to her chin to think for a moment. “I think we should start here.” She says pointing to the water. “In the mornings we can increase our strength and stamina with the others, but the afternoons we can just work on your powers. We need to understand what power you have and how many abilities you actually have been gifted.

Let’s start with what we know, which is your water gift.”

From that point onwards, for the next few weeks, we continued to train starting in the mornings with more and more she-wolves joining us, hearing that their Luna was allowing them to train to learn to defend themselves, with the Alphas approval, of course. We eventually had to split the sessions into two blocks, one starting at eleven and the other starting in the evening, which Estelle and Nina took over, similar to the male warriors who rotated between five and eight am. Nuria and I continued to enhance my water controlling abilities, finding that I can freeze water whenever needed and my control over it was becoming easier an easier.

We also figured out that my werewolf abilities were ten times better than an ordinary wolf. I could mind-link the whole pack if I wanted to. I had an excellent sense of taste, smell and sight. I also seemed to be able to sense what someone was feeling, which was odd, understanding how someone is feeling by their aura which I seem to be able to recognise from a short distance from where they were standing.

We worked on coordination when Athena and I merge as well. It will always feel very strange but Nuria has been helping us to work together to flow rather than jagged like it was when we first started.

We’ve also found that I have the ability to control fire, but that side of me is fairly weak. We’ve been working on this more lately.

Ultimately, it seems that our abilities are even more powerful when Athena and I are working as one. Our stamina is unlimited when we’re consolidated into one. We also suspect that I have some sort of telekinesis ability but we’ve only seen fragments of this. We’ve been working exceptionally hard to try and figure this out but everything we’ve tried so far has been futile. Even when we’re merged we only see a little of this ability come through. Being able to lift a twig or a small stone so far doesn’t completely prove that we are able to do it, but maybe it’s more possible that there’s fragments of water in the air that we’re tapping into.

I’ve found over the couple of weeks that have passed that there’s been a few wolves unhappy with the decision to allow outsiders in, being allowed to stay on pack lands. Some of these wolves have also started to become upset that I, as a previous outsider, have quickly ascended to Luna, just because I am the Alphas mate.
Lukas was very angry at this and decreed that anyone who was found to be spreading this will be kicked out of the pack. At first I felt bad about this punishment but Lukas choose me and they should respect his decision.

There have also been a few incidents since Elijah has come in. He’s recently been accepted by the Elders, mostly because he is Loretta’s mate, but also because so far he has been nothing but a needed addition to the pack, especially during training where he’s passed some tips and expertise from the Druida community. I assume soon he will be asked if he wants to join the pack officially and will be given a role in the pack. He however has since had to move cottage a few times. His first cottage was burned down. His belongings have been stolen as well. It’s got to the point where Lukas has had to have someone watch his items and home when he’s not there to see if the culprits can be caught.

I stop thinking about what’s happened over the last few weeks and look in front of me, seeing Nuria look up at the sky as if waiting for something.

“What’re you thinking about?” I ask curiously.

She looks at me with a sad smile. “I look at you and Lukas sometimes and think about my past. I once had someone. Not a mate exactly, but a binding with someone whom I loved very much.” She says and looks back into the sky. “He…he betrayed me, but I can’t help but think of him often.”

I walk over to her and we sit down next to each other staring up into the timeless sunset, it’s magical orange hues stretching across the horizon.

“I’m sorry Nuria. It just seems like you’ve been handed some crap luck.” I say sadly, feeling her sadness seep through her sturdy walls.

She sighs deeply. “It seems like a lifetime ago now Wolfie. But love hurts, even a long time after it.” She turns to face me. “What will you do when you lose Lukas?”

I feel my heart crack, not wanting to consider it. I’ve been here a while now and Lukas and I have just grown together, we are made for each other after all. Who knows, there’s a possibility I would die before him. Just when I’m trying to think of another subject, Athena mentions something.

“Why did she say when instead of if?”

I relay what she said and understand what Athena means about the way she constructed that sentence, so I decide to ask about it. “What do you mean when?”

She looks at me guiltily and starts to fiddle with her fingers whilst coming up with a response, which I find strange as I’ve never noticed any nervous ticks from her.

“I’m sorry Aliana. I’m unsure why your parents didn’t mention this. You’re basically a deity yourself, especially as you have blood from two originals. That, from everything I’ve learned about the Gods means that you are immortal yourself. You’ve probably stopped aging, just like I did when I was around Twenty-one.”

I sit myself up not wanting to believe the realisation. No, surely it’s not true. Why would my Mother bless me with a mate if I’m going to outlive him?