Chapter 5: Lily

The nerve of this guy. I’ve told him I’m not sleeping with him, basically kicked him to the curb and he still wants to try to intimidate Lucas for asking me out. Okay, I hadn’t planned on going out with Lucas. His approach was lame, but I needed a quick excuse, and he presented one when he walked by.

I hear Clint growling as I walk away. Take a hint buddy and then you won’t keep getting turned down.

I walk over to where others are warming up and begin stretching, preparing for training. Alpha Patrick and Beta Calvin call us to order. We’re to start running 5 miles before begining the team obstacle course. We all take off and I get into my groove. I enjoy running. It’s my time to clear my head or would be if I didn’t have someone interrupting my peaceful time with the annoying buzz of their voice.

“What will it take Lily bug?”

“Lily bug?”

He gives me his cocky smile. “You need a good pet name. Would you prefer Lady bug? Little Lils? Lily of the Valley? That one is awfully long. I think I prefer Lily bug.”

“Lily is just fine.” I say, my voice clipped in my annoyance.

“How about Lily bud? Ohhh, that would work well with your name. Lily bud it is.”

I huff and increase my pace. I needn’t have bothered, he just increased his as well.

“So, Lily bud, what do I need to do to get you to go out with me?”

“I thought my note was very clear Clint. I have no intention of sleeping with you and since we both know that’s the only reason you’re pursuing me, drop it.”

“I told you, you have the wrong idea about me. I don’t want to sleep with you. Okay, of course I want to sleep with you. You’re gorgeous, sexy as hell, strong and smart. But that’s not why I want to go out with you. As I said, I want to get to know you.”

I stop and turn toward him, other warriors passing us by. “To what end?”

“Why can’t I just want to get to know you and you can get to know me. You don’t seem to like me, and I think you should give me an opportunity to show you that there is more to me than just a guy trying to get in your pants.”

I squint my eyes at him before raising my voice so everyone nearby could hear me. “Does anyone here believe that Clint Nelson wants anything more than to sleep with me?”

A chorus of nope’s and no’s answer my question. I give him a fake smile and start running again.

“Okay, I admit my history doesn’t make it seem that I’m looking for something other than a good time, but how will you know for sure if you don’t give me a chance.”

“Not my problem. But if you figure something out, let me know.”

We finish our run and it’s time for the obstacle course. We can run two at a time and Clint makes sure that he’s up beside me. It only takes a minute to see that he is going to push me and try to beat me, but I’m not having it. I’m a good warrior, and while I know that he should be able to beat me, I can’t help myself. I begin pushing myself harder. I can see him smirking from the corner of my eye and he starts pushing harder as well.

We’re swinging on rope swings, climbing rock walls, crawling under rope nets through the dirt and running over elevated stumps requiring balance. As we’ve continued to go through the course, we’ve started pushing faster and faster, everyone else getting out of our way until the sprint at the end. We race to the finish, grabbing the pole at the same time.

We’re both laughing as we collapse to the ground, sucking in air. Okay, that was fun.

Clint gets up first and extends his hand. He’s smiling down at me and I feel my heart flutter. In that instant, I know exactly why and how he can get any woman he wants in his bed. That smile is a panty-dropper. Even I am not immune to his smile as I feel heat going straight to my core.

I take his hand and when he pulls me up, I’m captivated by his beautiful emerald green eyes. Or at least I am until one of his conquests comes up and brings me crashing back to reality.

“Hey Big Daddy. Will you spar with me today? I could use a little extra training.” She says, letting her hand trail down his arm before she turns and looks at me. “You don’t mind, do you, Lily?”

“He’s all yours, Jules.” I say, pulling my hand out of his and turning to walk away.

I can feel his eyes burning holes into my back as I go to find a sparring partner. I was almost looking forward to sparring with him, just to see how good I really am. But I have no intention of rolling around on the ground with ‘Big Daddy’. I’d even forgotten that was his nickname. Big Daddy Badass. He earned it by defeating our Alpha, Beta and even Anders. Clint is hands down the strongest warrior and wolf in our pack. Just one more reason why she-wolves flock to him. It’s genetics, instinct, I get it. Our wolves want the strongest, most powerful wolves to mate with. The stronger the male, the more likely we are to have strong, powerful pups.

The human side feels differently, of course, but the wolf doesn’t care. She runs on instinct alone and Clint Nelson draws every she-wolf within a hundred-mile radius just by being who he is, a Guardian.

So now, all his little conquests call him Big Daddy. Maybe it’s a kink that he has, I wouldn’t know, and I have no intention of finding out. But it will be a cold day in hell before I ever call him Big Daddy.

I take down my sparring partner in training. Alpha Patrick is there, giving my partner tips before turning to me.

“Lily, you should be sparring with Anders or Clint.”

I smile. “Thank you, Alpha.”

“Tomorrow, you’ll spar with Anders. You won’t get better unless you are given a challenge.” I’m thankful for the small favor that I’ll be sparring with Anders and not Clint.

Training ends and I head home. I need to shower, but before I do, I need to let Andra out to run. When I get to the forest line, I strip out of my clothes and shift. I drop my clothes off at the back of my house before taking off into the forest to let Andra stretch her legs.