The harder she falls

  Seven years later...

Left jab, right hook, roundhouse, spin kick ground and repeat, jab, hook, kick, spin, kick sweep repeat.

The only sounds that permeated the stale air of the gym were the grunts of suffering coming from the bag in the corner as Isabella punished it.

Hours passed, but the 17-year-old didn't care. It was the mating run for her pack tomorrow night, and the other single pack wolves were busy getting ready, a palpable excitement staining the air in the whole pack grounds, all hoping they would hear an answering howl and find the other half of their soul.

There were unmated wolves from all the other packs arriving today, as it was an annual event which happened to fall on her birthday this year, and the first-year Bella was allowed to attend, but she had already decided she wouldn't be going, why bother? After all, these days, her heart lay dormant, unfeeling, and comfortably numb.

An outsider amongst her peers, she knew what they called her behind her back 'El despiadado.' The ruthless one. Destined to be alone, oh how right they were.

A part of her heart had never recovered after the death of her childhood friend. Shadow's flinty grey eyes would still haunt her dreams, and over and over, their last moments together branded their way into her very soul, tearing her apart; no one else had ever come that close to her again.

---

Isabella's walls were higher than the walls protecting the Royals, and she had no plans to lower them any time soon. Hell no, comfortably numb was the best she could ever hope for; she had hidden like a coward while her brave friend rushed fearlessly into battle, and Bella had lost him forever because of her stupid skins' weakness.

But no more, she vowed, and as the years progressed, Isabella Romano had honed her body into a lethal fighting machine.

A top warrior in both skin and wolf form she rose to the top with her punishing self regime and earned the rank of the youngest elite pack warrior ever to graduate the Shadow Moon Academy.

Now working as one of the packs' trainers, even if she didn't have a reputation that preceded her, there was an invisible line between warriors and other pack members, and a bigger gap still between trainers and trainees.

Yes, alone is exactly where she needed to be.

---

Psssssssssss...

And another one bites the dust, Bella thought as the poor bag split open and spewed its guts onto the floor.

She wiped her brow and looked around, signaling to the Omega cleaning the hall that she required a cleanup and another bag.

The male, in his early twenties, if she were to hazard a guess, kept his eyes lowered as he grabbed the split bag and began cleaning the contents.

There were bruises on his shoulders and finger type marks on his upper arms. He was underweight, and something about the way he gingerly carried himself caught her attention.

" What's your name, male?"

He began shaking under her intense gaze, and his voice when he spoke was hesitant and gravelly, almost as though he hadn't used it in a while.

"Ethan Fletcher, ma'am."

"Ethan Fletcher, who gave you those bruises?"

"No one, ma'am, I'm just clumsy." He muttered between clenched teeth.

Isabella cocked her head to the side and narrowed her gaze.

"Look at me, Ethan."

Slowly he raised his eyes, and Bella could see the fear in his chocolate gaze, but he continued to look her in the eyes despite the obvious difference in pack ranks.

"I don't respond well to lies, Ethan Fletcher, so I will ask one more time. Who.gave.you.those.bruises?" Bella let the stranglehold she had on her power as a Beta born loose just enough to fuel her words with a hint of authority, and the Omega straightened, eyes ahead feeling violated as the words were ripped from his mouth by her power.

"Ma'am, I am gay; my fated mate is not, but he made sure to let everyone know exactly what he thinks of gay mates and insists on waging bets on which of his friends can break the most of my bones on any given day, my wolf is so weak now I doubt I will ever shift so I am stuck in this useless human skin getting my arse handed to me every time he has an insecure thought about his own sexuality."

Bella's brow furrowed.

"Why don't you reject him then?"

This comment earned her a bitter laugh from the Omega.

"It's a bit hard to reject a Beta born ma'am. As you can see, I can't even keep my mouth shut around his sister."

Holy shit! That must mean...

"You are Mikhail's mate?" Bella exclaimed, her hand flying to her mouth as if to stop the words from coming out in shock.

Ethan dropped his gaze, hoping to avoid the uncomfortable conversation but, as the silence lengthened, he realized that 'El despiadado' wasn't going to release him until she knew the full story, so, sighing, he began,

" I am twenty-three years old; my dad is a Gamma in another pack, and Mom is the Omega cook in this pack. Dear old Dad is ashamed to have a gay son and forced Mom to choose between us. Let's just say he was not impressed when she chose me, and before we could blink, we had been cast out of our pack, and Dad disowned me."

"I was only 7 at the time, for Christ's sake."

"When we came to the Shadow Moon pack, without Dad's confirmation, the Alpha here was unable to formally acknowledge me as Gamma blood, which is why I am classed as a lowly Omega...Gamma's are meant to be warriors, dammit, not cleaners! But here I am not even allowed to train with the pack warriors, forbidden to train on my own; I am no one."

"As an extra kick in the teeth because of my blood, I can still sense my mate, even if he isn't of mating age yet, and I just assumed he was gay since, well you know, we are fated."

Ethan paused briefly, taking a deep fortifying breath, feeling familiar prickly heat make it's way across his body, a clear sign his wolf was also getting angry."As it turns out, your brother is so straight you could stick a broom up his arse, and the damn thing wouldn't need to bend at any stage in its journey."

Isabella couldn't help but snigger at his description. Mikhail was so arrogant he would never have lived down Ethan's description of him if he'd heard it. Her younger brother definitely thought he was the Goddess's gift, alright.

Ethan was clearly worked up at this point, so she waited for him to continue. He wouldn't need to be pushed; once he had started, it just seemed to tumble from his lips like an avalanche.

" I was eighteen when I realized Mikhail was my mate, but he was only twelve at the time; it would've been wrong of me to pursue anything, so I stayed away, in the shadows just watching out for him, until three weeks ago, when he turned seventeen, and I figured well twenty-three and seventeen didn't sound like that much of an age gap like it wasn't creepy or anything."

" I waited until after his school friends had left, he was just on his own down by the lake, and I was so excited to finally reveal myself to my mate, I wouldn't be alone anymore, even if he can't feel the mating pull properly until he turns eighteen, he would still recognize me as his, and as a Betas mate, I could have my Gamma blood recognized. I could train as a warrior. It has been such an insult to be seen as an Omega for the past sixteen years, my wolf wants to be free, to run to fight to train to mate!"

It was common knowledge that the Omegas were considered too weak to be allowed to run as wolves; their wolves were often scabby and small, sometimes a little unhinged as well. Almost as if the Omega mind couldn't fully house a wolf's spirit, the results were ugly.

Isabella hadn't known that a wolf of higher blood rank could be forced into the role of an Omega, which was a bit unnerving, to be honest.

"So how did they contain your wolf for sixteen years, and how come you think you will never shift again? Surely with Gamma gene, any bind that has been put on you wouldn't weaken your wolf, merely subdue him?"

Slowly Ethan's eyes found hers, and Isabella saw the brown swirls turn caramel. She realized that Ethan's wolf was now staring back at her. As he regarded her solemnly and began to speak, his voice was no more than a whisper.

" They made me eat a plant root; every day, I am forced to endure its awful taste, it keeps me weak, wolves are not meant to eat roots.

My skin side may be gay, but I can assure you that I am not, and I will never allow him to mate with the same sex. I wait for my mate, my FEMALE mate, until she comes. I will remain flaccid because the skin side and I are waging an inner war. There will be a continued draining of energy until one of us bows down, that means no healing for him and no running for me, we are stuck in a stalemate."

Isabella frowned at this, she thought wolf and human spirit were joined, but if they were fighting against one another for something as fundamental as sexuality then what will become of them?

"Wolf, what is your name?" She asked.

"I am Drastus, Beta warrior Isabella, and we will talk again."

---

Slowly Ethan's eyes returned to normal and Isabella motioned for him to continue with his story.

"I tried to tell your brother that I was his mate, hell I begged him to search deeply, to recognize the pull, but he flat out denied it. He called me a creepy faggot, bared his teeth at me, and used his Beta blood to command me to remain silent, to not tell anyone that I thought I was his mate, told me his social status wouldn't take it, that he could never be with an arse fucker and that this is a sick joke."

Ethan's gaze fell to the floor and his body seemed to shake a little more when he spoke his last words.

" For the past three weeks I have been in living hell, he won't reject me because the broken mate bond would cause him to weaken, proving I told the truth, and I am ambushed almost every day on my way home from work by his sadistic mutt mates who love to play "Break the faggots sticks" as I said, whoever breaks the most bones wins."

Unfortunately because of my Gamma blood, my bones are hard to break and are partially healed every time they jump me..lucky me right?"

For once Isabella was lost for words. How could her brother be so cruel? Knowing that the only reason Ethan could tell her what was happening was that she had ordered him to, and her blood outranked Mikhail's was disgusting.

He had made his poor mate suffer, and as an Omega, all Ethan could do was let him.

The real question is, what was Isabella going to do about it? For some reason, she took a liking to this softly spoken male. Truth be told, some of his mannerisms reminded her of another special friend, maybe that was it? The spark of Shadow she could see every so often in this man.

Thinking back, she could vaguely remember Ethan attending Mikhail's football matches, and watching their family from a distance when they trained or played at the park, Ethan had seemed to just blend in...

And just like that Isabella Romano made up her mind, and Ethan Fletcher gained a friend.