Chapter 8 Capture The Flag

Amarah “Eos, get the Warriors to the clearing.” I say as I approach the group of women near the training ground. Eos and Rhea don’t hesitate a moment and instruct the Warriors I want to assess through the mind-link, while I walk over to Ione and Melia to have them follow me to the clearing. The clearing is a strip of no-mans land between our Pack and that of our neighbors, we use it to assess our new Warriors or to train them to build up their speed. We also keep an eye on it during our patrols, because it is the perfect way for rogues to try to get access to our territory. The clearing runs from our northern border to our southern border making it our eastern border, not that any rogue has been able to penetrate our borders and if it is up to me they never will. For the next three weeks I will not only use the clearing to train our Warriors, but also to prepare myself for the Alpha bloodline competition. I step into the clearing and my eyes get drawn to the western border of Dark Mountain Pack, in the past ten years we have only seen someone of their Pack a handful of times. “Okay, Gentlemen. Today we play “capture the flag” and I want you to talk strategy with Eos and Rhea, once the first one of you comes for me you have an hour to get the flag from me. I promise you, I will do everything I can to keep the damn thing. So, good luck.” I say as I walk away from the group with Ione and Melia. An hour later I am still the proud owner of the flag and every Warrior is flat on their back, trying to catch their breath. They did a hell of a job, but I am just too fast for them and I have to admit that I know they will never succeed. Even my friends have never been successful, not even with the help of Alastor. For the past four days we have played “capture the flag” three times a day and every day the amount of Warriors that join gets bigger. Eos told them on the second day why I used this type of training and each and every member of my Pack wants to help me get ready. Twice a day I play it with my Warriors, just to improve myself and them and they are becoming fanatics. Once a day with the Pups, all of them love the running around and their Mothers stand on our border cheering them on. Mom and Dad have joined them twice already and the huge smile on Mom’s face is a sight for sore eyes. This morning the group of Warriors is the biggest that it has ever been and I laugh as I see them arguing with Eos and Rhea on what might be the best way to try and grab the flag. “Let’s make this a bit more interesting. How many knifes do you think I can nick?” I ask Ione and Melia through our mind-link and I hear their giggles as they are thinking about my question. Ione thinks maybe one or two and Melia thinks I might manage to grab five knifes. There are eighteen Warriors in the clearing and all of them carry at least one knife in their belt, so the minimum could be eighteen if I can take one from each of them. As Eos and Rhea walk in our direction I ask them the same question through the mind-link. Rhea agrees with Melia but Eos thinks that I might be able to grab six knifes and I smile at their lack of confidence in me. A twig snapping to my left has me on high alert and the same goes for everyone in the clearing with me, but I see it is a Warrior of Dark Mountain Pack. Suddenly five more men step forward and I hear Eos say through the mind-link “Yummy” and we burst out in laughter. “Okay, if you Gentlemen are ready I suggest you start.” Rhea calls out to our Warriors. I step away from the group as the Warriors spread out and slowly make their way over to me. Myles is the first one to lunge at me, but I had already seen it coming and I quickly step aside. He slams into the ground face first and I hear Ione call out “Ouch” as two Warriors try next. I run around them, I jump over them and slide under them. Melia whistles as the hour has passed and I grab the flag from my belt with a huge smile on my face. “Sorry, guys. I didn’t lose anything.” I shout as I walk towards Melia, “Unfortunately you all did lose something.” And the girls hold up all the knifes that I took from them. Nestor bursts out in laughter as he realizes that I took both his knifes and each Warrior is looking from the knifes to me and back again, not understanding how I managed to do that. Theseus Yesterday one of our Warriors told me that members of White Cresent Pack are using the clearing between our Packs for training and this morning I told my Warriors to warn me if they showed up again. I don’t mind them using it, but I was wondering why they didn’t use their own training grounds. “Alpha, they are back at the clearing.” One of my Warriors informs me and I tell my men to follow me. Damien has been training a little bit more than usual, but not as much as I think he should and I have a feeling he will not make it through the first round. As we approach our western border we can hear chatter coming from the clearing and most of the voices belong to males, but as we clear the tree-line I can see a few females with them. The females are standing together and so are the males, making me wonder what is going on. “Those are Warriors of White Cresent Pack, Theseus. Including the women, look at the emblem on their jacket.” Apollo states and after looking at all of them I agree with him, these are Warriors. One of the females shouts out to the males and another female steps away from her group. One of the females on the sideline calls out “Ouch” as one of the males hits the ground and we all chuckle as Ajax mumbles, “Beginners luck.” Soon after that he mumbles “Fuck” as we see the female dodge all the males attempts to get a hold of her. “The one with the auburn hair is a Delta’s Daughter, I met her when she was about twelve years old and the one with jet black hair is the Gamma’s Daughter.” Apollo says. Xanthos tells us that the female with light brown hair is the Beta’s Daughter and the female with dark brown hair is also a Delta’s Daughter. “Who is the female with ash blond hair?” Josh, one of my Warriors asks and none of us can answer that question. The blow of a whistle draws our attention back to the clearing and every Warrior is laying on his back as the female pulls something from behind her. “Capture the Flag.” Josh says and I have to admit he is right, they were never meant to grab her. They were meant to grab the flag, but failed miserably and I am stunned when I see the other females holding up hands full of knifes. Every Warrior is checking their belts and it looks like she not only held on to the flag, but also took all of their knifes away from them. Xanthos is laughing his ass off as he watches the stunned looks on the Warrior’s faces and I watch as one of the Warriors approaches her, he bows his head as he speaks to her. All the males show her deep respect and Midas thinks she might be the Daughter of their Head Warrior. The way she holds herself tells me she is a High-ranking Wolf, so he might be right as a Head Warrior is considered a High-ranking Wolf. Suddenly the clearing is completely quiet and as I lift my head I see that all of them are gone. I strain my eyes to see if I can still spot them, but it is of no use and I see surprised looks on the others as well. They had not noticed them leaving either and a part of me feels relieved that I wasn’t the only one that missed it, I chuckle as I look at my best friends. Shortly after lunch Josh links me again to tell me that they are back, but this time with a bunch of Pups and I tell him to just ignore them as we already know why they are using the clearing. I put my focus back on the paperwork in front of me, but my mind keeps wandering back to the female in the clearing. I still haven’t been able to find out who she is, not even my Father could tell me after I described her and I know he has met most of their members when he still ran our Pack. My Father had looked rather surprised when I had told him during lunch what we had seen. For a moment I even thought he didn’t believe me, but my men confirming my story changed the look on his face and he had quickly changed the subject when Damien joined us. I wasn’t the only one that noticed and Xanthos was the one that asked through our mind-link what that was all about, but I knew as much as he did.