The birds woke him up, not that he cared much.

He rolled over and watched the beauty before him. Even with messy bed hair, sleep marks on her face and a tinge of morning breath, Artemis Haven was still the most beautiful thing that he had ever seen.

"Artemis Haven," he whispered to no one in particular. The name rolled off his tongue easily. He had found out yesterday that her brother's second name was Haven so it was safe to presume that hers was the same.

Before she had just been Artemis with no past, no memories, lots of questions and no answers. But now, she was Artemis Haven. Daughter to Liam and Sienna Haven, twin sister of Apollo Haven. She now belonged to the Valour Pack where she had two loving parents and a protected twin brother who was older than her by a few minutes.

Artemis had a place to call home now, people that loved her and would protect her at any cost. He was sure that she would be welcomed back into the pack with open arms and would fit right in, he had no doubt about that. She would learn so much here, much more than what he could offer.

She didn't need him anymore.

This pack and her family were what she needed, not him. But he was too selfish to let her go.

Sol couldn't bring himself to suggest that she stay in this pack while he drove home. Now, if she wanted to stay, then he would let her go but he refused to be the one to do.

Artemis was the only light in his life. She was what he woke up for every morning and watched over every night. Before her, his life had been pointless and mundane, just a daily routine that he had forced upon himself as punishment for ever wished to be normal and human.

He had learnt to love her and live with her. He didn't know what he would do if she decided to stay; to leave him.

Artemis sniffled and buried her face further into her pillow, pulling the blankets up higher.

Sol chuckled and helped her out, tucking her into bed. Leaning down, her placed a kiss against her forehead, brushing her hair away from her face.

Swinging his legs out of bed, Sol walked into the bathroom in just his boxers. After taking a leak, washing his face and brushing his teeth, he came out of the bathroom and quickly got dressed in a matching black wife beater and sweats. With one last look at Artemis, Sol was jogging down the stairs and walking out of the guest cabin making sure the door was closed behind him.

Sol had no idea where he was going but he followed the sounds of the warrior's training to lead him to his destination.

When he was younger he had hated these training sessions, not really seeing the point of them since he had planned to spend the entirety of his adult life living as one amongst humans but now, he looked forward to training up against other werewolves. He had been going for runs by himself and working out by himself in the woods but now he had the chance to really push himself, to compare himself and challenge himself with the others of his kind.

He had been up before the crack of dawn, waiting anxiously, wondering when the pack rose for training. But when he couldn't wait any longer he had finally risen from bed.

Sol was more excited about pack training than he liked to admit.

After following the sounds of the warriors sparring for a few minutes, Sol found himself in one of the fields he had walked past yesterday.

At first, Sol did get quite a few strange looks since none of the warriors recognised him. Though by the glazed looks and quickly averted eyes, he was sure that the Beta whom was present during training today had mind linked them all to back off, either that or he just told them who he was.

Training was different to what he remembered from his old pack. It seemed that everyone was split into small group of about five or six. Two people from each group would fight while the others would stand back and analyse everything only to report to the fighting pack members everything they had noticed during the fight.

Sol preferred it this way.

"Alpha Westbrook," the Beta greeted him as he approached with a wide smile on his face. "I'm Beta Cole." He introduced himself, still smiling.

"Just call me Sol." Sol grunted his reply before he shook the Beta's hand. A slow smirk crept onto his face as he watched the Beta grit his teeth in pain from Sol's grip being too tight. That was for calling him Alpha in front of everybody though luckily, it seemed that everybody was now too busy to pay him any attention.

Cole nodded and walked ahead of Sol, leading him to his group. Sol couldn't wipe the smirk off his face even if he wanted to as he watched the Beta clench and unclench his fist, attempting to ease away the numb feeling after their rather painful handshake.

"Guys, this is Sol. He's visiting and will be joining us for training today so do make him feel welcome." Cole introduced him to the three other men that were in his group. "These are some of our pack warriors; Jake, Michael and Brian." Sol nodded his greeting and walked around, shaking all of their welcoming, outstretched hands.

Brian was the shortest from the group at about five foot eight while Sol stood the tallest, towering well over six foot. Both Jake and Brian sported blonde but while Jake's was short in a buzz cute, Brian's hair was very wavy and flowing. He was sure that the latter was nothing less than a heartbreaker and judging by the looks he was giving to some of the she-wolves training today, Sol had hit the nail on the head. Jake was the most built out of all of them – even more so than Sol – with a mop of brown, messy hair at the top of his head.

Brian was the first to start a conversation after Cole had patted him on the back, more like punched before walking away to join his own group.

"So Sol, what pack are you from?" Brian smiled friendlily though Sol was sure that if he gave this man any information regarding him, the news would speed through the pack faster than a moth flying to a lit flame.

The man in question only stood there and stared the smaller man down, only offering a slight grimace in response.

"Not much of a talker, huh?" Brian smirked again though this time it seemed that his composure was faltering.

"No."

Jake chuckled awkwardly though stepped forward, rubbing his hands together. "How about we get started. Brian and I will start fighting and you guys keep watch."

Sol nodded and moved off to the side to stand beside Michael. He preferred Michael. The man wasn't much of a speaker like him and seemed to be content with the simple nod of acknowledgement that Sol had sent his way.

Brian and Jake stood across from each other, waiting until Michael finished counting down from three before they both lunged at each other. Sol had assumed that at least one of them would be more patient, staking out the other for his next move but it seemed that he was wrong.

Sol's eyes followed each of their movements, analysing everything they did.

Brian lunged at Jake, wrapping his arms around his stomach before pushing him roughly to the ground. Jake grunted as he was slammed into the ground but was quick to flip them over so now he sat on top, straddling Brian as he delivered punch by punch to his face.

Brian had his arms braced in front of his face, attempting to block the attacks to his face but it seemed that his resolve was breaking.

It was clear that Jake had the upper hand in this fight due to both his height and body mass though Brian was fast and a smart thinker. It was clear that both men needed some extra training to perfect their techniques but they were pretty decent at what they did.

Sol had seen better though.

Both men carried on sparring until ultimately, Jake won.

Jake seemed to have recovered pretty quickly, only breathing slightly harder than he was before he started several minutes ago. Though it seemed that Brian had taken the brunt of it all as he stood bent over with his hands braced on his knees, coughing up some blood. It seemed that Jake had managed to land a few good ones on him.

Jake smiled at his victory. "So what's the verdict, doc?"

Michael and Sol shared a look before the former man started listing his findings. "Brian your punches are kind of sloppy, not hard enough. And you need to stop putting a spin on it from all those action movies you watch." Brian smiled at that, only seeming to pay attention to the last bit. "Jake you were pretty good."

The man nodded his thanks before he turned to Sol. "Sol?" He asked.

Sol didn't feel very comfortable expressing his views on the sparring that he had just watched, especially after having watched the carefree manner in which Michael had delivered his findings but he assumed that he might as well since it was the whole point of the exercise.

"Brian, your punches were sloppy like Michael said and I do agree with the whole spin before throwing thing. You also seem to be going full strength right at the beginning so that tires you out very easily and very quickly. You also need to work on your defence. That would probably be a good place to start."

Brian visibly frowned but Sol didn't say anything, rather choosing to move onto Jake instead.

"Jake, you seem kind of heavy on your feet. Now, if you were a bit lighter on your feet then your movements would probably be smoother and faster than they already are. You'd probably have been able to dodge Brian right at the beginning too."

Jake nodded his head, seeming to be more understanding and taken the criticism better than he friend did.

"What makes you such an expert?" Brian piped up as soon as Sol had finished speaking, his eyes blazing in anger. He clearly didn't like being showed up in front of his peers.

Sol pursed his lips. This man was starting to get on his nerves. "I'm not an expert."

Brian grunted his distaste. "Well let's see if you can deliver as well as you bark."

Sol grinned sarcastically and shook his head, not believing that a grown man could act so childish after having received some constructive criticism.

With a nod at Michael, Sol moved to the centre and braced himself, squaring his shoulders, his eyes following his opponents every move.

Their fight was much quicker than the previous had been. It seemed that Michael had paid careful attention to Sol earlier so he didn't lunge as soon as Brian had finished counting down from three. Instead, both men stared the other down before Sol decided to make the first move. He hunched over slightly with the pretence of going for the stomach like Brian had done, though at the last minute he surged forward and grabbed the dark-haired man around the neck, holding him a headlock, squeezing tight enough to cut off his air supply.

Michael struggled and attempted to kick out Sol's legs, but he stood tall and just tightened his hold on him, refusing to let go until Michael had surrendered. Though it seemed that Michael was a fighter for it was only when his face started colouring an ugly shade of purple did Sol let go.

The man dropped to the ground as Sol released him from his hold, gasping for air and clutching at his throat.

Sol's smirk widened as Brian's disappeared before morphing into a scowl, though he did notice that the wolf was slightly impressed.

"That was amazing!" Jake announced, patting him congratulations on the back. "How do you manage to control your strength so well?"

"Practice." Sol grunted, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

After that first fight, Sol fought both Brian and Jake, Jake being the most skilful from the group though not by much. After he had finished working through the first group, he easily worked through another group of 5 warriors, the second group including two females.

The females fought the dirtiest, one of them pushed herself up against him at every chance during the fight in attempt at distraction while the other was small and very quick on her feet, her main goal being to just to pin him down on the floor even though she didn't have the strength to hold him there.

Before he could destroy any more of the warriors, Beta Cole tapped him on the back.

The man was sweating and slightly gasping for air, waiting for himself to calm down before he started speaking. "The Alpha wants to talk to you."

Sol nodded and grabbed a water bottle, already leaving the field.

"Do you need me to show you where his office is?" Cole called after him but Sol was already out of the field and walking past some of the guest cabins.

"I already know where it is."

-

You can wait for the next chapter which will be uploaded on 11/12/2019

OR

You can read the rest of the book, including bonus chapters, for free on Inkitt! Just search 'Solomon [COMPLETE]' or use this link: https://inkitt.app.link/RA__illuminating_

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Layla Knight

30.08.18