Warrior Training

ALLIE

After a leisurely breakfast with James, I make my way to the pack training grounds.

James has recently had them updated, modernizing the equipment and expanding on the facilities available. He’s intent on making sure that the Red Moon Pack can defend itself from Ryan’s rogues.

I’m intrigued to find out what warrior training entails for a pack wolf.

My mother stressed the importance of being able to defend myself, and I’ve always exercised to maintain my fitness and strength.

But her training regime could hardly be compared to what James’s warriors would demand.

I walk half a mile through the woods that cover the pack territory until the trees give way to a large open field where wolves stand in groups ready to begin training.

To the right of the field is a large, modern single-story building.

“Allie, glad you could make it for our training session,” Lucy calls out as she walks toward me. “I’ll show you around the facilities later, but we are just about to get started.”

She gazes around at the assembled wolves until her eyes zero in on a group to the far right near the trees.

“Follow me.” She beckons me forward. “We train in groups based upon ability. All pack wolves have to train, but we tailor the training regime to the abilities of each wolf.

“The demands placed upon them based upon their role within the pack.

“The elite warriors train every day for at least four hours, while the older wolves with more sedentary roles only train for two hours twice a week.

“I know you’re a good fighter, taking down those rogues who attacked you proved that, but I’m not sure what experience you’ve had with formal training.”

“None,” I admit. “I trained with my mom when she was alive, but that was about preparing me to survive an attack, giving me long enough to escape. It couldn’t be classed as real warrior training.”

“That’s what I thought. What I’m going to do is put you in the group with the lowest fighting skills to begin with.”

Once I see what you can do, I’ll move you up into a group that will better match your abilities.

“You’ll need to be able to take down all the wolves in your training group before I’ll move you up to the next group. There are six groups in total.

“Come and meet Bronze Group!”

When we reach the group of wolves, she introduces me. “This is the alpha’s mate, Allie. She will be joining your training session.”

“Hi,” a couple of them say to me, smiling nervously.

“Hi. Thanks for letting me join you.”

“You’re welcome, Luna,” a small middle-aged she-wolf tells me, bowing her head slightly.

“Please, I’m not your lu—” I stop. Now that it’s out in the open that I’m with James and he is my mate, I can’t deny being his luna. It still doesn’t feel right though, so I say, “Just call me Allie.”

“Thank you, Allie,” a thin male wolf says to me. He looks to be no older than seventeen and doesn’t yet have the muscular physique most male wolves develop when they reach adulthood.

“Allie has some fighting experience, but she has never trained formally with a pack,” Lucy explains. “A lot of our training techniques and fighting moves will be unfamiliar to her.

“In order for me to better understand what she’s capable of, she’s going to train with you today. It will also give her a good opportunity to learn what our training involves.

“If she picks up the training quickly, I’ll move her to another group. Can you please take the time to show her what is expected from her?”

“Of course,” the middle-aged she-wolf says enthusiastically with a beaming smile. “We will be happy to help the lu… Allie. It will be an honor.

“I’m Julie, and this is Matthew.” She points to the young wolf who had spoken before. “This is Kerry, Ian, Jo, and Trevor.”

“Pleased to meet you,” I tell them all, and they nod back at me. I fall in with them, and they include me in their warm-up exercises.

The exercises are fairly straightforward, nothing I can’t cope with. As I move in sync with the group, my confidence starts to grow.

When Lucy blows her whistle from a raised podium, all the groups stop what they’re doing to face her.

“Right, that’s enough of a warm-up. Let’s move on to practicing fighting moves and techniques.”

Immediately, all the wolves take up a basic fighting stance. I’m familiar with the stance they’ve adopted but I don’t know what to expect next. I look around at the wolves I’m training with.

Julie takes pity on me. “The next moves we practice are lunges. We pull back our right arm, push forward using our whole body for momentum, and punch.

“In battle, some of the strongest warriors partially shift so their claws are elongated to rip into the enemy’s flesh. For us though, it’s more about being able to land blows.”

I nod and follow Julie’s lead. It’s a straightforward move. I watch the others as they concentrate hard and, with varying degrees of success, perform the move.

Julie is diligently executing the fighting position, but she lacks power. Matthew’s punch is much more powerful, but his technique is poor.

He swings out and his arm wildly pitches to the side, causing him to almost lose his balance.

I can’t stop myself from trying to help.

I move to Matthew and pull his limbs into the required stance, then show him how to push forward with his body first and use the momentum to give his punch power while pushing his fist straight ahead.

He grins and dimples appear in his cheeks. “Wow, thanks. I’ve never managed that before.”

I move back to watch his efforts, happy to see the improvement he has made.

“Well done, Luna.” I turn, surprised to see Lucy standing behind me with her hands clasped behind her back. “You’ve really helped Matt to improve. We’ll move you up to training with the more skilled groups soon.”

I’m pleased to have been able to help. Maybe this training thing won’t be so bad. Lucy moves on to another group, and we run through other fighting exercises.

These are all straightforward and easy for me to master, and I’m soon helping the others again. We continue with this for another thirty minutes when Lucy blows her whistle.

“Well done, guys. Now it’s time to put those moves into practice. Please pair up and get ready for your first fight.”

“We spend the last hour of training fighting each other,” Julie tells me. “They’re practice fights, and no one is allowed to seriously injure their opponent, but they can get a bit brutal,” she clasps the front of her T-shirt in her hands and twists it nervously.

“That sounds fine. I’ll let you take the lead. Shall we pair up?” I ask her.

We move into the fighting stance again. I’m going to take it easy on her—the last thing I want to do is injure one of the pack during my first training fight!

I allow Julie to make the first move, and it’s easy to work out what she’s going to do. She moves slowly, keeping her eyes fixed on my chest, as she aims her hand forward to punch me.

I move slowly to the side, evading her fist. She staggers forward and I grasp onto her arm to steady her before she falls over.

Lucy joins us. “I think this will be the last day you’re with this group, Allie. I don’t think they’re going to be challenging enough for you.”

A familiar, obnoxious voice calls out, “Why wait for next time? Surely the alpha’s ‘mate’ could do with a more worthy opponent today. I would be happy to fight with her.”

Great. Way to ruin a perfectly good day, Karen.