Chapter 3

MISTY

I woke early. Last night’s rain had unsettled me, and I couldn’t stop thinking about Lloyd.

I didn’t quite know how to feel—on the one hand, I found him attractive, insanely attractive, but on the other, I wanted to tell him to fuck right off. He had no business hating me.

~“Why does he have no scent?”~ Cammy asked sleepily.

~“I don’t know.”~

~“I thought he was our mate, but I can’t verify without a scent.”~

~“Just as well.” ~

I checked the time when my mother came storming into my room. “Goddess, Misty, Dad’s about to leave. You have five minutes,” she scolded.

I expected a few days off, but no, I was to start immediately, and I had a feeling that before long, I would have a mark against me. No fucking holiday and straight to work. This was not what I signed up for.

~“Maybe it’s just Alpha, and the rest of the pack is nice,”~ Cammy consoled.

~“Maybe if your name weren’t Calamity, our reputation wouldn’t have preceded us,”~ I retorted.

~“Sorry, Misty, but the Goddess gave me that name. It’s not like I had a choice…”~

Seems like no one had a choice.

Dressing hurriedly, I stormed into the kitchen. “I’m ready,” I said, grabbing a slice of toast to eat along the way. Dad nodded quickly, and I followed him out of the house.

“JP is in charge of everyone’s schedule. As long as you follow that, you’ll be fine,” he explained, searching my face as though he wanted me to promise I’d behave—like I had any control over things that just happened magically.

I grunted in response. We walked to a brick building, and my dad opened the door to a hallway sporting a row of offices.

JP’s office was cramped, and his desk had so much shit on it that you could barely see his laptop. He looked up as we walked in.

“JP, this is my daughter, Misty. She’s been assigned to the O-Team. I’m sure you know what to do.”

“Yes, Beta Harris.”

Squeezing my arm consolingly or warningly, I wasn’t sure which, my dad left.

“Dawn,” JP shouted so loudly that I jerked.

“Coming.” The response came from another office.

Dawn came running in, stopping when she spied me. She was my height with short, red, curly hair and bright-blue eyes. The orange shorts and T-shirt she was wearing clashed horribly with her hair.

“Hi.” She smiled.

“Hi,” I responded.

“Misty Ross has been assigned to O-Team, and you can onboard her,” JP said, not even looking up from his laptop.

“Sure,” she said, her eyes widening. “Follow me.”

Wishing I didn’t share the same last name as my uncle, I followed her into a small office with four desks and a steel cupboard. She sat, pushed a chair out with her foot, and said, “Sit.”

I sat down with a sigh.

“Did you have a nice family reunion with Alpha Zack?”

I snorted. “He hates me,” I said bluntly.

“Oh? Why?” Rummaging in a drawer, she hauled out a box of Oreo cookies and offered me one.

I took one and bit into it hungrily. “Because I practically burned down the alpha residence, and he’s never forgotten, even mentioned it yesterday,” I admitted.

Dawn’s eyes went round in surprise. “I remember that. Was that you? How did that happen?”

“Well, let me paint you a picture,” I said, and Dawn leaned forward expectantly. “I was eight years old, sitting in front of the fireplace, roasting marshmallows—unsupervised—

“The stick I was using caught alight, and I watched it burn in fascination. Once it got close to my fingers, I meant to throw it into the fire, but it landed on the floor, and the curtains burst into flame. I watched it in horror before running away and not telling anyone.”

Dawn laughed uproariously. “Serves them right; pups need supervision.”

“And you? Are you Knox born and bred?”

“Yeah. Anyway, I promise to look after you. Let me introduce you to the third member of our infamous team.” Her eyes glazed over, and within a minute, I heard someone running down the hallway.

“Wassup,” he said, coming to a screeching halt at her desk. His light-brown eyes surveyed me with interest.

He was barely taller than me, with long, straight, dark-brown hair and tattoos covering his arms. I was happy that not everyone wore a military hairstyle, but he did wear an identical orange outfit, which gave me pause.

“Meet Perry, and now you know why we are the ~outcasts~. Nobody says ‘wassup’ anymore,” she snickered.

Perry laughed outright. “O stands for outrageously good-looking. Welcome. You’re Beta Harris’s daughter, right?”

“Yeah, I’m Misty.”

“Great to have you, Misty.” He smiled and pulled out the chair next to me. It looked like we’d be doing office work. That wasn’t too bad.

“Anyway, let me explain how things work around here. So, all the teams are color-coded according to your level of training, and the O-Team is…like…the entry-level, and our color is orange.”

Opening the metal cupboard behind her, she pulled out six pairs of shorts and T-shirts. She added a small black backpack with “KNOX” emblazoned on the back and a thin black towel.

“You’re kidding. Am I expected to wear that?” I asked in disgust—stretchy shorts and a sleeveless, figure-hugging T-shirt.

“For training, yes. But you can move up the ranks—or teams if you’re physically adept.”

It sounded like many had, but she wasn’t one of them.

“I like the O-Team and have no intention of killing myself on the training grounds,” Perry quipped, giving me a wink.

Dawn handed me a sheet. I looked at the schedule, and my mouth fell open.

Two-hour daily training sessions were penciled in at various times and disciplines. This didn’t suit me at all.

“Seriously? Eleven hours a day? It’s like slavery.”

“You get an hour’s lunch. But yes, it’s quite hectic—you get used to it,” she conceded. “Alpha Zack likes everyone to be proficient in defending the pack.”

“And are we attacked often?” I asked. We never had any issues at Monolith Pack. In fact, I’d never even scented a rogue.

“Nah, we’ve never been attacked, but Alpha Zack says times are changing, and we should all know how to fight,” Dawn said, getting to her feet. “On the upside, you can spot your fellow team members easily,” she added.

“So, what work do we do?”

“Because there are only two of us, sorry, now three, we go wherever we are needed when a department is short-staffed. JP assigns us daily.”

“Okay, let me get this straight. The three of us do whatever jobs are assigned, but train together, alone?” Goddess, three of us with a trainer would be murder.

“Nah, our training is combined with other teams, which can be excruciating anyway. You’ll see in about half an hour,” Perry said, looking at his watch.

“Let’s go now so I can show her around the changerooms,” Dawn said, getting to her feet.

Dawn showed me my locker, and I quickly changed. Besides lockers, a row of showers afforded no privacy whatsoever, and I wrinkled my nose at the thought of showering here.

There were multiple training grounds, each the approximate size of a basketball court with chalk-drawn perimeters. The archery section had permanent targets, and the fitness one looked like an obstacle course straight out of the movies.

I couldn’t help myself; the moment we stepped outside, my eyes swept the area, searching for Lloyd.

I told myself it was curiosity, but the truth was I felt unsettled. The way he’d looked at me, with such cold, undisguised hatred, didn’t make sense.

He didn’t know me. We hadn’t exchanged a single word. And yet, that glare—sharp and deliberate—had landed like a blow.

It rankled, not just because it was unfair, but because part of me flinched at the intensity of it. What had I done to earn that kind of contempt?

We reported to the fitness trainer with a team that wore light blue outfits. Twelve males and three she-wolves.

“Fuck, the G-Team. This is gonna suck,” Perry whispered.

The obstacle course was exactly what I pictured army guys doing. Stutter-step tires were laid across one corner, then a wall you had to climb, and then a ladder you had to swing across rung by rung. Finally, a cargo net climb.

“Shit, they’ve changed it again. I hate this one.” Dawn whispered.

My anxiety soared. I was athletic enough, but things always happened when I was in the spotlight.

~“I’ll help as much as I can,”~ Cammy reassured, which was no assurance at all.

The trainer clapped his hands and motioned us closer. The G-Team stood around him in a semicircle, and we stood behind them. I’d already noticed the lip curls and snickers behind our backs.

“Right, I want you to focus. This obstacle course should take you less than five minutes. Line up. G-Team first,” he said, his eyes traveling over me. “New pack member?”

“Yes.” I nodded.

“Yes, what?”

“Yes…?”

“Oops, sorry,” Dawn interceded. “We address him as Trainer Marcus. This is Misty Ross.” She patted my back.

The first G-Team member made it through the obstacle course, and Marcus praised him, shouting out the time. “Three minutes and forty seconds. Excellent.”

“Do you wanna go first or last?” Perry asked.

“I don’t want to go at all,” I said, picturing a dozen mishaps.

“Nah, you go first. Better that way.” Dawn said.

My mouth was dry before I even started. The tires were no problem; I managed to get through them without falling on my face.

The wall was a little more challenging, but once I’d pulled myself up and levered my leg over it, I jumped down without falling. Next, the ladder traverses.

Jumping up, I grasped the first rung, and once I got a rhythm going, it went pretty quickly until I reached the middle, and one rung broke.

I tried to grasp the next one, fingertips grazing it, but it was too late, and I landed on my ass in the muddy puddle to raucous laughter.

“Get to the next obstacle,” Marcus snarled.

With soaking-wet shoes and a muddy ass, I scrambled to my feet, my dignity leaking into the puddles I’d just fallen in.

I sprinted toward the net, hoping to salvage what little pride I had left, only to catch a flash of gray hair in my peripheral vision. My stomach dropped. Of all the people who could’ve been watching, it had to be ~him~. Lloyd.

Mortification rushed over me. I didn’t need to look again to know he’d seen everything. And probably judging. My cheeks burned as if he’d slapped me with that stare alone.

It took me much longer than I liked; the wet shoes kept slipping off the ropes, but I made it.

“We have a new record. Seven minutes and twenty-one seconds. Not what I expected from a beta’s daughter,” Marcus shouted.

Asshole. “Again,” Marcus shouted. “Try to shave off a few seconds.”

Fuck.

Glancing around, I saw Lloyd walking away and breathed a sigh of relief.

I managed to shave off all of twenty seconds, but the belittling whispers at my muddy backside provided the G-Team with boundless entertainment.

The three she-wolves were especially vicious, and I turned to face them. I was a beta’s daughter and didn’t need to put up with this type of bullshit.

“Ignore them,” Dawn advised, grabbing my arm.

It was easier said than done, but I buttoned my mouth. Marcus dismissed us, and we hurried to the showers. At least I wouldn’t have to walk around with muddy buttocks.

“Throw your clothes in the hamper, not your underwear—obviously. The laundry crew will wash them.”

I gaped at her. A laundry crew? Seriously? Is this what occupied Uncle Zack’s time? Color-coding the teams?

I didn’t like that I wouldn’t get back the ones I’d worn, but Dawn and I were the only she-wolves to wear orange, so it didn’t faze me too much. But the military way this pack was run did.

Peeling off the wet and muddy uniform, I chucked it into a laundry basket, moved next to Dawn, and grabbed the lever.

The damn thing came off in my hand, and a jet of water the size of Alaska hit me in the stomach, forcing me back. I lost my balance and sprawled on the floor.

Crap!

All the showers stopped. I got up and tried to stop the water with my hands, but it was impossible. The water pressure was too high, and even with Dawn’s help, we could not stop the water from pumping out of the hole.

The floor was already covered with two inches of water before it was shut off.

Dawn straightened and said, “Beta Anthony, the lever just came off in Misty’s hand. It must have been faulty.”

I turned in embarrassment, covering my boobs and mound. How could he just walk into the showers?

“What the fuck did you do?” he asked. “These showers are new and were only fitted three months ago.”

“I didn’t do anything… It came off in my hands,” I said pointedly.

“Alpha Zack warned us about you. One mark for the destruction of property.” He hauled out his phone and opened an app, typing into it. “Three, and you will be punished, and I predict you’ll have three before the week is out.”

As tempting as it was to give him a flippant answer, I wondered how many punishments I’d have to endure before Uncle Zack expelled me.

“Apologies, Beta.” I dropped my head submissively.

Beta Anthony grunted and walked out.

Dawn patted my arm. “I believe you. I saw it. Anyway, it’s lunchtime, and now that we have to shower at home, we’d better hurry.” She fished our uniforms out of the laundry basket. “No point in wearing clean ones without showering.”

After changing back into the muddy clothes, I walked home briskly, resisting the urge to pull the shorts out of my ass crack. Taking my shoes and socks off at the door, I heard a snicker behind me—Josh.

“Nice ass,” he laughed. “Heard you like to wallow.”

Before I could think, I slapped him hard.