***Thyra’s POV*** Getting to the D-FAC is only a 7-minute walk from the barracks. Mak and I are seated in our normal area when Kenny walks up with his tray of food. He smiles when he sees us at the table and sets his tray down. Before sitting down, he ruffles Mak’s hair. “Why does it always take like 3 days before you don’t smell like The Darkness after your scouting missions?” He teases in a good naturedly. Then bending over, he sniffs at her hair and sighs in relief. “Seriously, you are the only one to complain about that. You should be a scout with what that nose could track,” Mak laughs as she ducks her head away from Kenny. This is what I will miss the most, the moments where we are all just relaxing and carefree. The mornings when we are rushing around the suite getting ready for classes and training that day. Or some of the movie nights where Mak is curled up with her head on Ana’s lap and Kenny is sitting on the floor in front of them throwing pop corn behind him at us. See
***Thyra’s POV***I try to hide that I am sniffing at this stranger, so I pick up my napkin to wipe my nose. The stronger sent was more sandalwood than forest. My nose must be turning as sensitive as Kenny’s. This movement does catch Mak’s eye though, and she sends me a concerned look. I shake my head indicating I am alright.“I apologize, I must have been so struck by your beauty that I forgot to introduce myself earlier. I’m Axel Grist, Pro-,” he starts making eyes at Ana then coughs interrupting his introduction. “Um, proudly at your service.” He ends his introduction with a small bow while stumbling over his words.“Well, Axel,” Ana says trying out another more courteous look that matched his bow. “These are my friends, that in fact can call me Ana.” She starts nodding toward each of us as she provides an introduction. “Mak is my roommate and unofficial little sister. Kenny who is in fact my official brother but don’t hold that against me. And Thyra, the friend that is leaving nex
***Thyra’s POV*** The week was moving too fast, it was already Wednesday evening. I was permitted tomorrow and Friday off from training to pack and move to Capitol City. There wasn’t much training to be had for the rest of the week at least. Mostly of the finals were completed already and it was a transition time between years. Ana and Mak are in my room with me, helping me pack as much as I can in my suitcases. They want to get this out of the way so that tomorrow evening we can all relax and hang out because on Friday I am leaving. My room looks like it was hit by a tornado, clothes and my personal items spread into piles for take with, pack for them to bring in 5 weeks, and storage. I didn’t realize how many books I collected until I needed to go to our storage closet for another box to pack them in for storage. They are mostly related to training in some way, with a few that were just for fun. The fun ones were stories about this lost race of creatures called humans. These crea
***Thyra’s POV*** “I’m good now,” I turn to face Kenny and see him flinch when my breath hits his face. “Give me a moment, I am going to brush my teeth.” I rinse out the sink in front of me and then move to the bathroom to brush the acid out of my mouth. When I am looking in the mirror, I realize that Kenny wasn’t in time to fully save my hair from vomit. After rinsing the toothpaste down the drain I lower my head under the faucet to clean up my hair. I looked as sick as I felt. My skin was paler than normal, and there was no color in my lips. It was as if I hadn’t slept for a week and had the flu the entire time. I grabbed a towel to wrap up my hair, it will need to be washed but right now I need to figure out what I saw. I walk back into the commons area, and other than Kenny everyone is in the exact same spot they were when I ran to the sink. Ana looks at me from the couch and jumps up. She rushed over to me grabbing my hand and dragging me to Mak. There she wrapped her short arm
***Thyra’s POV*** There were a lot of cadets at the bus station. Most of them were year 5 cadets heading to their apprenticeships. Yesterday, the four of us made a day of relaxing in front of the tv watching old comedy movies. We played some card games, and just spent the day laughing and joking. We also stayed up way too late, and I am not operating on only a few hours of sleep. Kenny crashed on our couch, so we were all together for a quick breakfast one last time, before they came with me to the bus station. Now, we are awkwardly standing around waiting for my bus to be called. None of us came up with any good ideas on what I need to do if I have another vison. Mak thinks I should talk to someone in the Army to see if there was anyone that should know about it. But we all assume that no one will believe me. We also all agree it needs to wait until I am at the Officer Leadership Academy so that it doesn’t interfere with my training as much as possible. Kenny, who is naturally sus
***Thyra’s POV*** Getting settled into a new area by myself was new to me. After we had to leave the pack lands, I always had Ana and Kenny with me. I spent the weekend learning about the area of Capitol City where I had an apartment. It is too far to link with my friends so my phone spent the weekend having notifications pop up from all three of them. Maybe I wasn’t really alone? Ana has been texting with that creature from lunch last week. He promised her that he would look out for me while we are here. I let her send him my phone number and he has already reached out to make sure I had the information I needed to get to the academy this morning. Sunday, I did some recon, so I knew where I was going. Now, I am sitting at a café across the street from the main lecture hall of the academy waiting until it was a quarter to 8am so that I wasn’t there too early waiting in the halls by myself. Then I would go to the auditorium for orientation. There are already a lot of creatures in the
***Thyra’s POV*** I am still trying to figure out what the f**k is going on. It is hard, with this sensation of sparks and warmth traveling up my arm from the hand being pulled by this male. As soon as I punched him Sel was in my head howling. She only said one word, ‘mine’. I feel like my world has been turned up-side-down. And then Axel went from the smiling, funny male I met in the D-FAC to a snarling creature that looked on the verge of shifting. I was thinking how I had never fought a creature as big as him when he was pulled back away from me by this infuriating and handsome male. Who was he, why did he think he could approach me like that. I had never met him before. Just because he is the most attractive creature I have ever seen, doesn’t give him permission to touch me with out my consent. I can see that he and Axel must have linked each other. When their eyes clear, Axel nods at this new male and we start walking back toward the apartment building. Now I am conflicted. I
***Thyra’s POV*** “You have to be kidding me?” I respond to the most ludicrous question of the day. “I am being serious Thyra, what do you know about fated mates?” Reed questions again. Hearing him say my name sends shivers of pleasure through me. “Only the fairy tales that parents would tell children so they would behave. One, how twisted is that, telling a bunch of pups you don’t act good enough to have a Goddess blessed mate. Two, I still hear the stories about how much it was a double standard against females. Overentitled males thinking they can tell their fated mates what to do in the name of the mate bond. How many females were shamed if they were not as pure as the day they were born, but males could run off f*****g anyone they liked,” I respond with disgust. This can’t be true. “Not ignoring the fact that, there hasn’t been a fated mate since before The Darkness if you believe all of those tales.” “Have you heard the story of King Oren and Queen Ayla?” He continues his qu
***Unknown POV*** This is interesting. I was getting settled in for the day and reading through correspondence from the evening before and came across a flash order sent from General Onyx. That wasn’t the interesting part, the interesting part is catching her name on the orders. Why would General Onyx even know about this little pest? And then to care enough to get adjust her training at the leadership academy? I knew there was something going on after she was awarded the spot at the academy over me. Maybe she has a special thing going with the General. If I can get some evidence of that, I already have evidence of preferential treatment. Now I just have to decide if I should call this out when I send my next update to the warlock. Maybe I should just wait until I have more so that I can really impress him. That is what I will do, but now I need to reach out to my contact in the palace to see if he can get any more information. ***Thyra’s POV*** Seems like all it took was for me
***Thyra’s POV*** The sleep I got was the most restful sleep I have had in years. It was amazing to wake up and one of the first things I thought about was how if this plan is real then I am on my way to fulfilling the vow I made. That was the only rough part about getting ready this morning. Remembering that vow brought me to when I made it. While I was helping bury my family, the memorial I chose for my parents and brother read ‘Family First, and Always’. Reading that over and over, I vowed to my family that I would do whatever I needed to so that their horrific deaths would be avenged. The guys were waiting for me in the lobby when I made my way downstairs from my apartment. Reed was leaning against the wall by the door watching as the elevator door opened. As soon as I caught his eye, he smiled. His entire face lit up, and I could feel mine start to blush. As I approached them I said, “Morning you two. Any news on our plans?” “Sure is, you should get your reassignment to our s
***Rolf’s POV*** I can see the look in her eyes shift from suspicion to ambition. I am going have a long talk with Onyx after this. I hope he understands and doesn’t put up any roadblocks. “There is a condition,” she looks back at me some of the suspicion returning. “I want you on our squad at the academy. We can start evaluating others from there, the three of us. And I don’t want you to have to put up with the jerk on your squad anymore.” My admission seems to make sense to her, I am trying to be as honest as I can. Considering all the secrets I am already keeping from her. And lies I am telling. It is starting to make me feel ill. “Do you have enough pull to make that happen? I don’t know about this, I don’t want it to affect how I am looked at by the instructors here,” she goes from looking like she will say yes to pulling up walls again. “That is why we wanted to talk to you about this first, before reaching out to Onyx,” I have to be careful here not to scare her away. “We w
***Thyra’s POV*** As I was approaching the apartment door, that familiar scent seemed to pull me closer. That is when it hit me, this was the first time something that reminded me of home didn’t wake my rage monster. It just calmed me. I stood there for a moment before the door opened, and he was standing there in front of me. He was 3 or 4 inches taller than me, and so handsome that it made me feel awkward to stare at him but not enough to look away. His dark olive skin radiates a warm, sun-kissed hue that accentuates his features. His chiseled jawline held a shadow of a day's growth, adding an alluring ruggedness to his appearance. Even though his dark hair was cut short, it was thick with curls that made me want to reach up and run my hand through it. But what is most striking are his amber hued eyes, they look like polished amber and are framed by strong, defined brows. His presence exuded a quiet confidence, and with every movement, there was a certain grace that commanded atte
***Rolf’s POV*** It was a long day. The obstacle course was typical as compared to the ones at Lyngvi. Nanook was right about being good at the courses. She was good enough that she was able to take charge and help get the weaker creatures across as a first time go. Meaning we passed the course on our first time trying it. The other squads were not so lucky. Even though we had a pass, the squad captain had us run it another 5 times. We made it back to the apartment about 30 minutes ago. Both Axel and I decided it would be a good idea to get a shower and change out of our sweaty uniforms before sitting down to talk. Our rooms have ensuite bathrooms, when I was finished and left my bedroom Axel was already waiting on the couch. “I’ll go ahead and jump right into the issue bro. You can’t rush in and start dictating her life to her. I can’t imagine what you are going through, but I believe you about it being a fated mate bond,” Axel started. “I have been texting with her friend Ana,” n
***Thyra’s POV*** “Great idea cadet, you all should be getting to know each other. Asking questions is the most efficient way to do that.” Hollis instructed the class. It looked like Klaus missed the sarcasm in ‘Great idea’. Hollis said it like that should have already been understood. “How can you not be good at stealth to be one of the six that survived Onyxbite?” Klaus asks me with a smirk. The male that was to the right of me and responded to me being from Onyxbite let out a low warning growl. I don’t know how to respond to all of this. But one thing I do know, the rage monster has been awoken. I haven’t felt her poking around since this morning before coming into the academy. I have to take a deep breath. In through my nose, hold for a few seconds, release while staring down Klaus. “I suspect it had something to do with being a 15-year-old pup and off in the woods with friends instead of at the pack. Then again, I wasn’t worried about being stealthy, when I got back to my fam
***Thyra’s POV*** The squad rooms are pretty big. The part the entrance leads into is a sitting area, with couches a television, and a big whiteboard with markers. Behind that are tables, and a small kitchenette with a couple microwaves, a fridge, cabinets and a sink. Further behind that there are equipment storage lockers. They are set up with fencing material from floor to ceiling. Almost like small closet shaped cages, and there are enough for each of us to have one. I am the second to last cadet to enter. And an instructor closes the door behind the male that enters a few moments behind me. Thank goddess I am not last, I am really trying to just blend in at least for the first few weeks until I can better understand what we will be doing here. “Cadets, go ahead and take a seat on the couches. We will get started with some introductions. Today is an easy one, you will not start lectures until next week. This week we will focus on team building,” explains the instructor. “The in
***Thyra’s POV*** We arrive at the auditorium, and almost like they planned it Axel and Reed flank me in the seats. I don’t have the energy to argue with their overbearing behavior. I guess I don’t need to as long as they don’t distract from my training. We still have a few moments before the instructors will start breaking us all out into our squads. I feel tingles run across the back of my shoulders as Reed stretches his arm around resting on top of my chair. Before I even realize what I am doing, I lean into him. I really need to pay attention to this, so I don’t let these weird impulses become a problem too. I feel my phone buzz, and pull it out to see an alert from Ana. Dr. Ana Medical Extraordinaire: Axel says you two look like the cutest couple. Give him a chance, maybe it all fits in with your plans. 😉 Me: Don’t make me change your name to Dr. Ana Love Therapist Disappointment. Gotta go training is starting. I look up from my phone to see Reed reading the text as wel
***Thyra’s POV*** “What do you all think?” I ask my three friends, who are on a video call with me from my old barracks suite. I had just finished giving a quick rundown of what happened in the last hour. All three of them start talking at the same time and I am not able to hear what any of them are saying. “Guys, stop talking all at once, I can’t understand any of you,” I interrupt the chaos. “Is he at least hot?” Kenny asks first after they all stop talking. “Yes,” I sigh. “I mean that isn’t even important at this point.” “You said his name is Reed?” Ana asks. I nod, and she continues. “Oh, I met him with Axel on the training fields. He is hot.” “Ana, Kenny! This isn’t why I called. I don’t know what to do. I have too much going on to entertain some relationship,” I say exasperatedly. “You’re right and wrong,” Mak interjects. “Just like what Axel said, what if this is part of the prophecy, and with your visions it makes sense that you would be a bigger part of it all. “I ha