1: Selene

                I groaned inwardly as my head throbbed. It was so unfair that werewolves metabolized alcohol so fast that we had to drink way more than a human to get drunk, but we that also meant the dehydration caused a mean hangover. If I didn’t feel like I was playing the worst game of catch up with the rest of my kind, I would’ve canceled this morning’s training session. I just knew I was about to spend the next 3 hours getting my ass handed to me.  

                I snuggled into the chest of the man lying in the bed beside me and breathed in the delicious smoky sandalwood and dark earthy spice of his scent. It made it all that much harder to force myself to get out of bed. If I left it up to him, I wouldn’t be training at all. Sighing, I renewed my resolve to slip out of his embrace and face the world head on.

                His arms tightened around me, “Just tell him that you’re skipping today.”

                It took more effort than I would ever admit to wiggle out of his grasp. When I could finally sit up and look down at him, I frowned, “We’ve been through this; I need to be able to hold my own in a fight. But I am surprised that you didn’t just order him to cancel this morning on me.”

                He chuckled, stretching out and propping himself up on elbow to watch me as I climbed the rest of the way out of the bed. “No way,” he smirked at me, “I’d rather not be the target of your wrath. But if you’d like a good workout this morning, I could think of a few things to get your blood pumping.”

                I jumped out of the bed, dodging his attempt to pull me back in. “We worked out plenty last night,” I teased, disappearing into my side of the closet to grab a sports bra and some leggings to train in. I almost collided into him as I headed back into the bedroom to let him watch me dress. “You don’t have to get out of bed, I’ll be back up in a few hours,” I landed a quick kiss on his lips, twisting away to avoid getting caught up in his grasp.

                “I’m going with you,” he called back as he grabbed some clothes of his own.

                “Oh, no you don’t,” I warned, “It is not going to be one of those sessions. Not today Dmitri!”

                He came out in a pair of gym shorts and a sleeveless tee that stretched tight over the broad expanse of his chest while showing off the definition of the muscles in his shoulders and arms. I never got to see him dressed this casually; damn it, he still looked amazing. “I’m not leaving your side until we know your uncle is back on his side of the globe.”

                I pulled on a pair of running shoes, “We’ve sent scouts to follow him and report on his movements. We’ve doubled the patrols and sentinels posted. He hasn’t brought an army with him that we know of,” I grabbed a hair tie off my nightstand to gather my long red curls up into a messy bun, “Aside from a few verbal jabs last night, he hasn’t done anything aggressive or even threatening.”

                “I’m not leaving your side, Selene,” he growled, his wolf adding an edge to his voice that sent a shiver down my spine. The shadow dancing behind his ice blue eyes and the set of his jaw was almost a challenge as he stared me down. 

                “Fine,” I grumbled, “I think you’re being a little over protective, but fine, we’ll do it your way for now.”

                “You said she sounded panicked,” he tried to reason with me.

                His worry trickled through the mate bond, making me feel a little bit guilty for being so stubborn. He was right; I hated when he was right. Anything that could make the other half of me panic had to be a threat. I just couldn’t run and hide from it the way he wanted me too.

                We’d invited the threat. It couldn’t have been avoided, custom dictated that my closest relatives and alpha of my native pack be invited when we formally announced ourselves as bonded mates. It was just dumb luck that they just happened to be the Alpha of Alphas.

                I took a deep breath trying to separate his feelings from mine, “I said we’ll do it your way for now.”

                He wrapped his arms around my waist, “It would kill me to lose you.”

                “Then let’s hope that he’s just here to verify that I am who I say I am, and congratulate us on our bond, so he can go back home to his own pack,” I pushed myself up on my toes and pulled him into a deep distracting kiss.

                ‘Dmitri is insisting on joining us this morning,’ I linked to Nathan, his Beta, to warn him.

                ‘I know,’ his thought came to me with an air of amusement, “it was my idea. He wanted me to cancel on you.”

                I pulled out of the kiss abruptly and narrowed my eyes; I couldn’t say anything without risking him punishing Nathan. “Quit being so distracting,” I smacked his chest with mock annoyance, “You’ll make me late, and then I’ll be in a bad mood all day.” A wolfish smile curled his lips up, and he reluctantly released his hold.

                “Goddess, be merciful this morning,” he teased.

                “Not likely,” I promised heading out of our suite, “You’ll be lucky if I don’t knock you on your ass instead.”

                Most of the house was still asleep, aside from the sentries posted and the kitchen staff getting a head start on breakfast. None of them paid us any mind as we walked arm in arm down into the old basement training room. Nathan, as per usual, was already there, waiting on me. Standing with is arms folded over his chest he let out a long sigh, “I was beginning to think you might not make it down at all.” I might have imagined it, but I thought I saw a hint of a smile instead of his usual brooding scowl. “Drills, first, let’s move!”

                I groaned, rolling my shoulders back, it was going to be a long day.

                Every morning he started me off with the same moves over and over as a warm up. I had to run from one end of the room to the either, run up the wall and jump off to turn around and run back to the other end. After a few laps, he’d let out a whistle, and I’d have to drop down to roll on the floor, jumping up again in a different direction, making me crisscross the room. Eventually he’d move into my path as I ran, forcing me to dodge as he attempted to grapple me.

                Nathan enjoyed taking full advantage our agreement: I wasn’t one of the pack’s Alphas here. He outranked me on these mats until my skills surpassed his. Dmitri had been less than thrilled when he found out, and still tried to talk me out of it. He didn’t like the idea of me taking orders, or putting myself at risk of injury. He didn’t see that as an alpha, I needed to know how to defend myself and our pack if it ever came to it.

                I grinned from ear to ear when Nathan told me that I would spar with Dmitri instead of him this morning. That must have been why he’d told me about Dmitri’s attempt to cancel this morning’s session. He knew it’d piss me off.

                “I thought the plan was to have her watch us spar,” Dmitri frowned at him, clearly unhappy.

                “I’m the one that is supposed to be getting trained,” I scolded him, “there’s no way I’m sitting out, and let’s face it, Nate isn’t going to go full contact with you in the room glaring at him the whole time.”

                Dmitri’s rich laugh echoed around the room, “and you think I’m going to go full contact on you?”

                I smiled up at him sweetly, “Oh, I think you will.” I took a step back, “If you can get me to tap out, we’ll call it quits for the day. You can toss me over your shoulder like a cave man and carry me back up to our room.”

                He shot Nathan an accusatory glance. He just shrugged back, “Don’t look at me man. I haven’t even been able to catch her for a few days now.” It was rare for him to give me any kind of praise, especially when it came to speed. He’d never gotten over loosing the bet he’d made with me on my first pack run. He’d been the fastest wolf in the pack until that day and in the last few days he’d been getting increasingly frustrated that I’d been able to evade him easily.

                “I can’t believe you’re encouraging this,” his eyes fell back on me, “Ok Princess, you’ve got a deal. Care to seal it with a kiss?” he took a step towards me to claim my lips.

                Dropping to the ground, I curled my leg behind his knee to sweep him off his feet; rolled away and back up onto my own feet. “Sure, if you can catch me,” I smirked down at him, blowing him a kiss.

                Nathan instructed me silently by link as he watched us move around the room. Sometimes he listed different moves to practice; sometimes it was just a change in direction. When it was clear that I could dodge his Alpha’s hands no matter how he tried to grapple me, Nathan told me to let Dmitri catch me a few times to practice breaking out of holds.

                Glancing up at the clock on the wall; then back at him as he stopped to catch his breath I teased, “We’ve got about 15 minutes left. Wanna give up yet?”

                Nathan chuckled, earning another glare.

                “How are you not tired yet?” he huffed.

                I shrugged, “Maybe you’re just getting old, my love.” He was only a few years older than me.

                A warning growl rumbled through his chest.

                “I’ll sweeten the deal,” I grinned, “I’ll cancel tomorrow’s session if you win. You can even up your game.”

                He gave me a wide wolfish grin at the challenge, a familiar shadow danced in his eyes until there was nothing but black surrounding the ice blue centers. I so did enjoy when his wolf came out to play. “Do you want a head start, Princess?” that deep gravelly voice sent a shiver up spine.

                “And give you an excuse to say you let me win,” I scoffed, making him chuckle.

                I ran right for him. He moved to snag me as I faked right, dropping down and sliding across the mat between his legs and rolling back up onto my feet as I kept running. He chased me for about 10 minutes before he was able to catch me, but I managed to slip out of his grasp. He couldn’t get me to tap out if he couldn’t keep a hold of me.

                “That’s time,” Nathan called out with a laugh, just as I’d slipped free once again.

                The shadow faded from his eyes, as he sighed dramatically. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

                I sidled up against him, with the sweetest, most innocent expression I could muster, “You can try again tomorrow if you want.” I ducked as he tried to wrap his arms around me, and started walking out, “I’m going to go take a shower and get ready for my day of diplomatic family fun bonding time.”

                I didn’t care that I sounded sarcastic. We all knew I didn’t want to go through with this. Neither of them were particularly jazzed with the idea either. If I hadn’t had to be diplomatic about it, I would have told the man to fuck off.

                Dmitri and Nathan hurried out of the room, catching up to me easily. Dmitri wrapped an arm around me as we walked, “You really can’t even catch her anymore?” he teased.

                Nathan stifled a small chuckle, “And you think you did.” He clapped Dmitri on the shoulder and laughed, “Hate to break it to you man, but she let you, a lot.”

                Dmitri looked down at me as we walked, “You wouldn’t…”

                I smiled, “I would never.” My sarcasm was thick, it made Nathan laugh louder.

                It earned me a sharp slap on the ass. ‘That’s just a promise of what is waiting for you when I finally have enough time alone with you to punish you properly, Princess.’

                ‘Promises, promises,’ I teased back, enjoying the tingle that danced up my spine.