As the second, I was required to attend dinner with the arriving alpha family from the Wells Pack, Oregon. Maggie worked over four lit burners and Amber—the sandy blonde twin gamma tracker—helped her with three lit burners of meats and stir-fried pasta too.

Maggie still had more food to cook for the rotation of family and warriors coming home soon. Ele kept looking sideways, she did not let the other alphas notice her concern for Maggie, Ele and I never abused our weaker pack members—hell, I had been abused so I never would abuse another.

Jamie snapped out, "Would you tell your damn omega to hurry the hell hum!"

I felt my eyes begin to glow and my alpha aura of power spilt around me. I slowly, fiercely and angrily ground out, "You. Will. Show. Respect. While. You. Are. Here. Brat."

I stared him down for a second longer and then I stood and I walked over to the stoves and began to help Maggie with the food preparation. After less than two minutes in their station, Amber also had me juggling tasks for her too. In the kitchen, rank did not mean shit, except for Ele and Clay, but they cooked for the pack too. All the leaders took turns helping in our kitchens, or even on house cleanup. We are never above menial tasks in this pack, honest work makes for honest Lycans.

"Finally, she is doing something useful."

Clay slapped on heavy hand down on the thick, massive, oak table and said, "In this pack, we all help with any chores or with cooking. Ele cooked the whole pack lasagna last night and she would not even let Maggie help, because she wants to do something kind for everyone all on her own!"

"Clay, what's the point of having omegas, if you don't make use of them," The young man sneered, he was nothing like Clayton in personality.

Clay glared at his little brother and said, "Just keep digging a hole for yourself Jamie, because Jenna has already neutered less annoying males this year."

Maggie chuckled, but only Amber and I could hear it over the sizzling of the pans. I pat her back, Lycans love physical contact with pack, it helps us reassure each other that we are never alone.

"Besides, we don't have omegas in this pack Jamie," Ele said his name like a curse word and this did not escape the older alphas, but they did nothing to help him. I was alpha born too, I know why, because one must earn their own reputation within the community at some point. My dad once told me that if I ever picked on any of the other lycan kids, then he would not save me from them later. Harry Wells had the mild temperament of a wise leader, so my best guess is that he was going to let Jamie hang himself.

'Just let me hang him up by his family jewels Ele, please, please,' I spoke telepathically into her mind, one of our abilities. Lycans can speak into the minds of fellow pack members, or forge friendship links and talk telepathically with friends. Our alpha's power protects our minds from outside invasion and I have heard it even works against other species of supernatural beings too.

Ele had a small smile on her lips and she flipped some lose fiery red curls back behind her ear.

'You can, if he steps over the line,' I snorted into her mental connection and quipped, 'Oh, you mean like back in the yard, or maybe when he called Maggie an omega?'

She sighed and said, 'Patience pup, you know that I will let you loose on him, if the time is right.'

'Don't call me pup, I am almost eighteen Ele!'

'Yeah, but you still have school in the morning, don't think I have forgotten pup.'

I flinched at her mental reminder, the bloody battle for our pack land did not bother me in the least, but the prospect of sitting in pre-calc with a bunch of snotty teenage humans... no thanks.

School had not been my favorite place before my alpha powers awakened, but now it was horrible. The girls were suddenly supper catty with me and the human and lycan boys were always staring at me—I felt like a complete freak. The human guys would bother me now, always flirting and hoping to get in my pants, and I could not maul them. At least the Lycans in class knew better than to piss me off, but they still stared at me when they thought I was not looking. Clay told me it takes decades for lycan men to really start to have perfect control of the hormones, even then, they only behave as well as their laws force them to.

"We have a hunt scheduled for weds day dad, unless you have changed, then I am sure you would like to join us?"

Harry nodded and he had the beginnings of a smile on his face and in his eyes now.

"Been too damn long since the last time I have been able to go hunting with my oldest boy. I hope the game up here is still as good as it was one hundred years ago,"

Clan nodded and said, "We don't let the humans over hunt the land, so it has stayed pretty damn wild, even with this modern world growing up around us."

Harry nodded solemnly and said, "I never thought I would say this, but sometimes I miss the dark-ages."

Ele snorted and said, "You miss the black death and all that fun stuff sir?"

He laughed and so did Ruby and Ruby replied, "Darling there was nothing fun about those days, if you got infected with the black death as a lycan, it took a couple of years—even with our regeneration—to heal from it. Dreadful business, that and all those crazy religious wars, not just the Roman Catholics, but the Muslims too."

Jamie was fidgeting his fingers, he could not care less about the conversation. Ele and I were fascinated by the story, because we are both millennial children. Clay was trying to fondle Ele under the table, but she kept swatting his hand, so now they had a bit of a hand wrestling contest going on.

I quickly helped Maggie dice up the meets we had just finished frying and Amber began mixing the meat into the sir-fried noodles now. Everything smelt great and I was fighting back the urge to drool on my food.

Ten very agonizingly hot minutes later, we had everything ready to go and I sat back down, after helping carry over the plates of meaty noodle dishes. With this many alphas at one table, I was unsure of the exact protocol, but Harry saved us all the trouble by saying, "Ladies first please, it is only proper."

He did not have to tell me twice, though Ele knew that I would not listen to anyone about my damn food. Our pack did not force the whole alpha first thing, but we typically still abide by it all on our own, just to show her difference and respect, because Ele always threw herself between danger and the pack. She has already bled a lot for our pack in less than one year. Dad use to come home bloody from protecting the pack when I was little.

****

After dinner, I lead the warriors and Victor through a night time practice, we made it optional, because my Lycan Games had apparently injured more than a few warriors. The betas and the high-ranking gammas all showed up for night time training, because it is hard work being a semi-dominant lycan.

We had an hour of lycan paced wind-sprints and then we went into martial arts training class in the training fields. Scot Card—our martial arts trainer—led everyone through the steps of new forms and katas. Scot and I had gotten off on a terrible footing a little over a month ago.

He was deceived into believing I was interested in being his mate and when he tried to claim me, I literally tore off the family jewels—lucky for us, we have Daemon! Scot does not blame me, in fact he swore that he would do the same to any male who he caught forcing himself on a woman. He was a good guy after all and he had taught everyone a lot about several forms of Karate and Jujitsu—though, Ele was more of a Jujitsu master.

We had about seventy lycans in the yard going through katas now. It was music to my ears, I took to martial arts, like a fish takes to water.

"What's the point to all this, we have claws for a reason," Jamie sneered and I turned and glared at him, "Shut your damn mouth, train or leave the field, I would be happy with the latter of the two mongrel."

He gave me a furious look and the gamma next to him looked very uncomfortable. I could feel the alpha power leaking off of him, but I could also see his poor balance, he was lazy and he clearly relied too much on his extra bits of power from being a born alpha. I heard him mutter, "Gonna take a chunk out of your ass in more ways than one."

I roared at him and I blurred in motion, catching him by his shirt and I threw him clear across the field, into the closest tree I could find. His back hit with a deep thud and I smirked at him. I turned and looked to Scot and said, "Continue, I will be his trainer for this session."

Scot nodded, he was not going to question me, especially since Ele and Clay both just shrugged and kept working out. If the alphas were fine with it, then I get to have my way with the little twat.

"I got fifty on Jenna in less than five minutes," One of the betas said and I heard Clay say, "One hundred says she finishes him slowly and toys with him first."

Ele snorted and said, "Two hundred says she throws him around the trees like a pin ball and then finishes him," Clay said, "I will match your two hundred and I raise you two trees."

Cam's little voice spoke loudly now and she said, "I have two-fifty on three trees, this is Jenna we are talking about."

I chuckled to myself as I finished pacing to the young alpha male before me. He was strong, nearly as strong as Clay, so he was healing already. Clay was right, I would toy with him, but I was not rigging the bets, we would just have to see how many trees he hits throughout the course of the fight.

"Ok pup, it is time you learn the definition of the words ass beating, hold back and you might die."

He was a flurry of clawed hands and I expertly deflected or dodged them. His speed nearly matched Clay's, but lacked the toning of hard work that Clay had going for him. I blurred to his side and sent three fast jabs into his chest and his coughed in pain.

He slash-kicked and I bent back to avoid it, his razor-sharp clawed feet near missed me. He must be use to people backing down about now, because his speed with the combined effect of using a partial shift was indeed intimidating.

I low kicked his right knee and heard the crunch of bones, and then I cross-punched him with my left. His balanced destabilized, I blurred forward and pulled him over my smaller body, throwing him into a large oak tree further back. I could hear the hiss of satisfaction from all the gambling wolves on the side and the disappointment of whoever was dumb enough to think I would not be able to throw an alpha male into a tree.

His aura was a think of nightmares now, so I could not toy with him like I was—working purely on my training alone. I unleashed all the considerable power of my alpha aura and I felt the hot, exhilarating rush of adrenaline flooding my body now.

Jamie did not wait any longer, he lunged for me and I jabbed him in the nose, ignoring his blow, I was not feeling any pain now. I triple kicked him in the chest and then once more in the same nose, now mashed and bloody. He roared at me and slashed and thrashed with his claws, his coat was beginning to sprout through now. His fur was grey and white—the same as Clay's lycan coat.

I felt the thrill of danger, but I did not yet let myself start the shift. He caught me with the heel of his foot in a back kick, he was fast as greased lightning now. I felt my heckles rising for the first time now and my pure white coat began to sprout and my power shot to its limits now. My oppressive aura would have cowed any lesser male now, but still he came.

He tackled me in a blur and he shifted mid-tackle, I rolled and shifted and he shot over me. He leapt and was a blur of claws and fangs, but I was smaller and lighter, so I narrowly leapt over his assault and I kicked him with both my back legs and he thumped into a second tree with sickening force.

The whole field was silent now and even Ruby was lowly telling her husband that Jamie was getting something, "long overdue."

He lunged at me again and I caught his raised right paw in my jaws and I chomped down on it and jerked and ripped, until it cracked like a chew toy and I let it go and shot lowly past him, taking a swipe out of his flank and belly now. He yelped and limped quickly at me and I rolled under his weight and I spun him and slammed him into the ground with my fangs tightly locked around his throat. He clawed desperately with his back paws, but all I did was dig in deeper and lowly growl a murderous warning.

I pushed into his mind, 'Submit or I will fucking kill you!'

He stopped clawing at me and very reluctantly threw out his neck as best he could. I looked up at Ele and she nodded to me, telling me that it was indeed my win. I let go of his throat and I carefully backed away from him, he was not pack, so I did not trust him this close to me, even injured.

Ele tossed a long tee shirt at my feet, it was one of the long dress length shirts we bought in bulk, so we could quickly cover our lady bits. I shifted back to human with a quick series of snaps and pops and I threw the shirt on in a blur of speed.

All four alphas came to a stop next to me now and I saw a shocking expression in Harry's eyes—respect. He nodded to me and said, "Well fought pup, you are almost ready to get a round with me or Ruby."

Clay chuckled and said, "I won the bet, I mean, good job kid, you made us proud."

Ele smacked her mate and gave me a tight hug and said, "You did damn good."

She turned to the whole pack and said, "This is why we train so hard pack, if we are met with an outside threat, this is where your training will save your hides."

They stopped passing money for a long moment and nodded their comprehension to Ele, before they turned back to their winnings. Harry raised an eyebrow and said, "Son, I am going to have to bring your uncle, this place is like Vegas, but with combat."

Ele burst into laughter and so did everyone else. Jamie got up, naked as a jay bird, with a massive patch of his right side ripped out and bloody. Daemon was already coming to a stop in front of the young alpha and offering some treatment. Jamie looked like he might smack the older wolf, but he restrained himself, his eyes shown shame and disbelief.

Ruby crossed her arms and said, "Jamie, this is why I tell you to be more respectful! You cannot go through life like a sledge hammer, you must learn how to be a gracious leader. Clay has this pack to run with Eleanor, no one can step up if anything ever happened to us!"

He winced with the power of his mother's reprimand and he nodded deftly to her. It was likely he did not receive many ass beating, therefore, he acted like an ass. Harry nodded and said, "I would like to talk about training regiments with you and your lovely ladies son."

Clay looked to Ele and they both nodded, so that means we are going to be talking strategy, not that I minded.

Later on, we spent the next two hours going through all the various drills and martial arts practiced here. We also gave a cursory explanation about our pack defenses, but I did not fill in the blanks that Ele and even Clay left out. Harry could tell they were holding back, but he was not bothered by this, he was old as dirt so he knew that information was often more precious than gold. We had enemies that would kill to have the full layout of our defense grid.

I went up to my room and took a hot bath, washing the dirt and blood off and I settled in with my math homework, cursing the whole time. I hated all the mundane shit young lycans were forced to endure, but I knew that I needed it for pack management.

Finally, with the math demons vanquished, I passed out for the night.

482