Chapter 18
Gabi’s POV
One Month Later
Alpha Heath and Luna Von have been Goddess sent to me. I have been here at the Ever-Green pack for 6 weeks now and it is the beginning of May. Alpha Heath is an expert at several weapons. He has just trained me on 4 of them so far. I am deadly with a gun and a bow and arrow. He is so proud of me and brags about me to whoever will listen to him, and it makes me smile. He leads a group of badasses, but he dotes on me. He told me if I continued to be as successful as I have been that I would be able to earn a spot on the team. You don’t just get put on it, you have to beat others already on the team to join. They are very serious about their training, and they all have their own specialties, and, in another month, or a month in a half, Heath is going to have me try to get onto the team. They need another marksman on the team, and I am actually really good.
Heath told me that in the military, women are becoming the best marksmen these days because they listen to the instruction that they are given, believe that the instruction that they have been given is correct, and follow it. Heath liked to joke at the “The female of the species is more deadly than the male” quote is accurate. We are actually probably equal in talent; I think it’s just a more male-dominated field. Heath had also told me that I needed to learn to shoot for my own safety and that it was especially handy when dealing with rogues. Heath told me that when rogues are coming, and in large numbers that is stupid to fight one on one, they are there to kill you. Rogues are vicious and after what they did to my parents I know first-hand that they are. Heath said, “You will tire out quickly trying to fight them hand to hand. You have to dispatch them quickly. You need to take down as many as you can before they can even get close to you. When they are close, you need to then use your knives, Kamas, or Sai, to tear through their necks and drop them as quickly as possible. Their purpose will be to kill you little one. They are not here to make friends or be nice. They cannot be redeemed if they are attacking other packs totally unprovoked. They have an agenda and are just killing machines. Their purpose is mayhem, and the best thing you can do is put them out of their misery. When they are no longer in packs or have structure, they slowly go mad. Do not let them hurt you. That is their goal. You have to take care of yourself”.
I have been training the last two weeks with dull blades as I don’t want to cut myself. I have to say that I am getting better with weapons and this week we are moving from stationary targets to moving targets for me, using clay pigeons shooting out for me to hit. It took about 20 minutes before I started to lead a little with my shot to connect. Alan Carter is usually the weapons trainer, but they made an exception for me because Heath wanted to teach me himself. Alan learned from Heath, so he didn’t have a problem with it, plus, this training group is led by Heath, it is his group to do what he wants, with it. Alan is really attractive and a very strong fighter. He is good at bow and arrow, and any type of gun. He has his blonde hair cut in a military cut and deep blue eyes. Alan has just turned 21 years old, at 6’3 and a clear 8 pack, he commands attention. He gets requested for training a lot, usually by the unmated girls in our pack. They want to snuggle up in his arms, but with Alan's training, he is all business, and the girls get frustrated as they want to cuddle, not to really learn how to shoot. Alan is the lead of the training team, and he is all business because he knows lives are on the line. He wants everyone to take it seriously. He trains in Krav Maga and is deadly at it. The other three on the team are all large men and hard to beat. The other three, though, are great at what they do, but they don’t take it as seriously as Alan does. They sometimes joke around with me, and he gets all frowny and mad about it. I don’t think that Alan wants me on the team.
Hudson Crawford is part of the team, and an excellent marksman and sniper. He is also an attractive 6’4”, with a slimmer build than Alan, he practices several forms of Jiu-Jitsu, and he is good at it. He is 20 years old and not quite as broad as Alan, he has brown hair and big brown eyes, and he is a big teddy bear. He is very protective of me like I am his little sister, and I will 100% allow it. I love it when he is around because I know without a doubt that he will have my back. It was strange how quickly our bond formed. It was like sibling love at first sight for our wolves.
Easton Hayes is also on the team with his easy-going smile and friendly attitude. It is clear why he trains the children and women in the groups as the least threatening member of the group. Easton is a 20-year-old black male, with a strong frame and a 6-pack. At 6’2” tall and a great fighter, he trains in mixed martial arts, and he boxes too. He shaves his head, and he has brown eyes as well. He is great with the Kamas and has helped me learn a lot about using them. He loves them as you can, with practice, learn to be able to take the jugular out in fighting the rouges, and when I get totally trained, I should be able to wipe out at least 30 rouges by continuing hitting their carotid arteries at their necks. It is a quick death, and it saves us time from fighting, and you can move quickly through a group of rouges using them. He loves to crack a joke, but he is all serious when it is time to train. He has a mate, and she is a beautiful she-wolf. She comes to the training sometimes and she is a great fighter, but she has no desire to be on the team. Her name is Angela, and she has natural hair. I love her braided pigtails on either side of her head. She looks so cute with the poofs of hair, but Angela said it was cooler for the summer as we are now starting May. Angela also told me that when it was time for me to try out for the team, she was going to braid my hair and then put it in a low bun, to keep it out of my face, so I could just focus on trying to make the team. She is my only other friend here at Ever Green and I am so glad I have found so many nice girls here to be friends with. I never thought I would have any, with what Heather used to pull and now I have three really good friends, I would rather have quality friends over quantity any day.
The last member of the training team was Jameson Ledger. He is a light-skinned black male with honey-colored eyes and a low fade. He is a 21-year-old male and 6’2” tall and, of course, like the rest of the men on the team, he is an excellent fighter. Jameson is in great shape with a visible 6-pack, and he also excels in martial arts and MMA fighting. He is great at hand-to-hand combat and never seems to get tired while sparring. He has great endurance, and he runs in both his human form and his wolf just for fun. I like to run in wolf form, but not really in human form. That is probably why his endurance is so high though because he puts on a weighted vest and ankle weights and will go out and run for an hour.
Each man has a thing or two to show me about their varied skills, they each have a martial art that they love, and I take my training seriously, so I try to absorb as much as I can. They all seemed welcoming to me when I first arrived. I think they were just humoring me, or actually humoring Alpha Heath. I surprised them though. I was knocked down, almost knocked out, but I got back up and tried it again and again until I finally got it. I have earned respect from Hudson, Easton, and Jameson, but Alan still thinks I am just here to be cute or pick one of them up. I see a lot of girls out here trying to do that very thing. I haven’t tried to do it though, so I don’t know why he would be accusing me of it. I just decided that I needed to learn my Krav Maga from Jameson, because Alan always has something “come up” and cancels on me, saying that he can’t do the training. I believe that he is setting me up to fail, or just really can’t stand me, or both. But I am not here for any of them. I am here for the girls and women who are defenseless like I used to be. The ones not allowed to train and made to feel less important because they were “just Omegas”. I also wanted to talk to Heath, if I make the team, about when we go into these packs that everyone gets to train, including the Omegas.
I have only had two breaks in training since I have been here. Due to me meeting my mate, I went into my first heat at school at the three-week mark. The principal called Heath and locked me into his office to keep me safe. Heath and Von both showed up to get me, she ushered me to the car, and Heath, Eli, and Fawn made sure we weren’t followed. Due to three of the men on the team being unmated, I wasn’t allowed to train for the 3 days that I was in heat. Both Von and Fawn were lifesavers as both of them tended to me while I went through it. Just like I felt when Derek had sex with Piper, my second heat was easier, but I have to stay on the Alpha floor, and my meals get brought to my room and left outside on a cart for me to get when the coast is clear. Heath wanted to have two mated warriors guarding my door, but you have to have a key card to get to the 6th floor, and Von thought that was a little too much, but she watched out for me and stayed with me through it all. Both she and Fawn packed me in an ice tub so many times to help me out of the pain I was in. Alpha Heath wanted to drive me to Red River to let me accept the rejection and try to keep me from going into heat anymore. But after they spoke together and with Luna Liz, they decided I needed to wait to see him.
They wanted me to be trained at least 6 months before I see him again. Heath and Von had me go out to the forest with them when I had been here at Ever Green a month, to see my wolf. I went behind a tree and Luna Von talked me through bringing my wolf forward as I had only shifted that one time, the night my parents were killed. Luna Von was shocked at how large my wolf was and walked me out for Heath to see. I could see him looking at me smiling and then at my face and frowning before he gave me a big smile and let me wait for them to go and shift as well. Heath came out first and was bigger than me, and a fully black wolf. He radiated power and authority and I could mind link with them now, as I had joined the pack about a week after I got here. Luna Von was a beautiful tan wolf with white paws, and she was just stunning in the sunlight. She was right, I was clearly bigger than her, like a foot taller and she was a tall wolf, so I don’t know why, but I am pretty big, especially for a female wolf. We ran for hours that day and had fun.
I later asked Von why she had gasped when she saw me and she said that my eyes didn’t change color in my wolf form, while most everyone else’s did. That this made me special and also made her sister correct in her assumptions. I didn’t ask what she was talking about, I just smiled and nodded, as I was just happy to have been able to phase and my connection with Tala was stronger by the day. They also told me to wait until later on to show my wolf to anyone else. I am still training in human form, and I am being trained in three forms of martial arts, Krav Maga, Jiu-Jitsu, and Taekwondo secretly from Heath as a secret, as according to him, the three that I am learning are the best defenses for women to learn. That each one has a special purpose to it in training and making me be the best fighter that I can be.