N I N E T E E N

Atlas

"We're going to be doing a tournament style hand-to-hand combat day" He explained, pointing to the six shifters stationed at each of the six mats behind him "These six were my top students from last year and they've graciously decided to take time out of their busy schedule to help me teach all of you today"

Coach started to stride up and down the rows of students, assessing each of them with a critiquing gaze, before stopping right in front of Nova with an indecipherable look in his eye.

My stomach churned at the thoughts running through Coach's head.

Because as much as he was a fair man, I knew he also wanted everyone to earn their spot and grade in his class fairly.

He wouldn't intervene unless someone (most likely Nova) was severely hurt.

Coach was also a very unpredictable Shifter...no one knew what he was thinking and if anyone thought that they knew what was going on in that mind of his, he would surprise them and pull a completely unexpected card out of his hat.

Which was why he was so damn good at his job and was able to train some of the most successful Heir guards and Executioners in history.

My brothers included.

"Each of my students will be teaching you a new skillset that you will be demonstrating to me on your assigned partner" he continued "Once you're all finished going through each station, you will compete against your partner using only the new skills you've acquired. The winner of the round will then move on to compete against someone else...so on and so forth. The last two competitors standing will then face off against each other until a winner is crowned."

"What do we get if we win?" Someone from the back row shouted out.

"You ain't going to win kid" Coach smirked as the rest of the class broke into laughter "But to answer your question, whoever's the last one standing gets a single pass to use for this class whenever they choose."

Everyone perked up at that and I didn't have to be a shifter to sense the sudden change in the coliseum, every wolves competitiveness immediately coming out like if Coach just dangled the key to everlasting happiness in their faces.

Which, in a sense, this kind of was a key to happiness considering that Coach rarely let anyone miss his class unless they were on the verge of deaths door.

"Any other questions?"

A bunch of hands shot up.

"Sully" Coach barked "What's your question?"

"Can we shift into our wolves?"

Coach narrowed his eyes a second before his clipboard went flying through the air.

"Eek!" A girl dove out of the line of fire just as the metal clipboard nailed Sully right in the face, leaving behind a small cut above his brow.

Sully just blinked in shock.

"Did you not listen to a word I said Sully?" Coach growled "What does Hand-to-Hand combat style mean to you? Did I say Hand-to-Paw or Paw-to-Paw tournament style? No? I didn't. Next question."

A girl raised her hand hesitantly.

"Pokowski" Coach acknowledged "Your question?"

"Can we use basic moves like guarding?"

Coach nodded.

"Basic moves like guarding or jabbing are fine as long as they aren't the ones that take out your opponent" he said "Because if your opponent is taken out with any other move besides the ones taught today, you will be disqualified."

People groaned.

"Don't whine or else I'll make you all run seventeen miles in the next class" Coach rolled his eyes "I also want to point out the obvious...any little bitch moves like hair pulling or dirt in the eyes will be immediate grounds of removal from my class, a class need I remind you, that you all need to pass in order to graduate from Crescent Academy and attain any type of reputable job."

"Why are we competing in Human form?" A girl, I recognized as one of Saoirse's minions, whined from the back row "It's not like we'll be in any situations that our wolves won't help us out."

Coach just stared at the girl for a few seconds before closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"This is what's wrong with your generation" He groaned, opening his eyes "When the Huntsmen attack, what do you think their first course of action will be?"

"The Huntsmen are a legend Coach!" Someone yelled "There hasn't been an attack or sighting from them in twenty years!"

If they only knew how wrong they were...

Coach narrowed his eyes "You're lucky I don't have another clipboard to throw."

A few uneasy chuckles sounded throughout the class.

"Back to what I was saying" Coach redirected everyone's attention to him "What if the Vamps decided to attack us this very instant? Or the Fae and Humans decided to revoke their decision on the Mythos Accords? What happens then?"

When Coach was met with silence, he continued on his speech "As much as you don't want to hear this, with the superiority complexes you all seem to have, but if it was down between us and the rest of the factions, everyone will turn their focus to permanently eliminating the Shifters. With the Human's rapidly developing weapons or the Fae's poisonous blood, we don't stand a chance against them by ourselves. Now what if the Witches aided the other factions in our elimination?  What if they provided them with potions or spells that were able to stop you from shifting? What would you do then?"

Murmurs sounded out from everyone, making tense lines appear on Coach's face.

"You didn't think about that, did you?"

The girl who originally whined about not being able to shift, shrunk in on herself, her cheeks flushing in embarrassment.

"Can we pick our partners at least?"

"No," Coach said, grabbing his clipboard from Sully's outstretched hand "I'll decide who's partnered with who because if I leave it up to y'all, you'll either pick a friend or try to cop a feel from the opposite gender and I don't want to deal with the paperwork that comes with the girls beating the crap out of you pervs."

Snickers sounded out at his words.

"Now line up with girls on one side and boys on the other" Coach barked, blowing into his whistle "If you go by a different pronoun or gender identity, then form a small group behind your respective lines."

I was proud when I saw Charlotte, or Charlie as he wanted to be called now, walk confidently to the back of the line.

His older brother was Xòlo's best friend and I knew just how much courage it took for Charlie to get to this point in his life, considering his traumatic past experiences, and especially when Charlie's ex-boyfriend was looking at him with so much anguish in his eyes.

At this point, Coach had paired almost everyone in the lines off except for Nova.

With an unreadable look on his face, Coach's eyes locked on Charlie and I nearly breathed out a sigh of relief, knowing that Nova wouldn't be in as much danger as she would have been if she was paired with anyone else.

Before the words even finished exiting Coach's mouth, I was mind linking with Charlie.

"Charlie, you will go easy on Nova" I ordered firmly.

His startled brown eyes clashed with mine immediately.

"What?" he asked "But Coach will know..."

"He won't" I reassured him " I promise you he won't suspect."

"But Alpha..." he started hesitantly "I..."

"No buts" I commanded "You will go easy on your Lupine Heir or else you and I will have a problem."

"Yes Alpha," he said through gritted teeth "I will go easy on our Lupine Heir."

~🌙~🌙~🌙~🌙~🌙~

NOVA

"Nova this is Charlotte...Charlie Ingrids" Coach introduced, automatically correcting himself "Charlie, this is Nova Lupine. If I were you Ingrids, I wouldn't try to kill or seriously injury or maim the last Heir from the Lupine family... you know, for legal reasons."

"No pressure or anything" Charlie muttered to himself, running a hand through his short hair "Trust me Coach, the Lupine Heir is safe with me."

Coach nodded briskly before looking down at his slightly bent clipboard.

"You're at station five" he said "With Nikos."

Before either one of us could respond, Coach walked off quickly, leaving us standing there facing one another awkwardly.

"Well...this isn't awkward at all" Charlie muttered, running a hand through his hair again before looking at me "Uh...Hi...I'm Charlie."

"Hi Charlie" I cracked a smile "I'm Nova."

He snorted "Oh, I know."

"Oh?" I raised a brow "I see news travels fast around these parts. Do you know me because I'm the Last Lupine Heir or because I was stupid enough to piss off Saoirse Fowl?"

"Both actually" He grinned at me "But mostly from the first one."

I snorted at his response.

"Wow, you're normal." He suddenly blurted.

"What?" I let out a choked laugh "What's that supposed to me?"

Charlie had the decency to look slightly embarrassed at his words.

"I'm sorry" he said, blushing slightly "It's just...sometimes their Heirs are a little..."

He struggled with words to describe my fellow Heirs so I decided to help him out a little bit.

"Stuck up? Snooty? Demanding? Pain in the assess?" I smirked "Is there any particular adjectives I missed?"

Charlie clamped a hand over his mouth to hide his loud laugh, wincing when Coach's narrowed eyes shot our way.

"You're nothing like everyone's saying you are Alpha Lupine" Charlie murmured "And I find that...oddly refreshing."

"I find you refreshing too Charlie" I grinned at him "And because of that, I'm deeming you as one of my new friends."

"What?" he choked out a laugh "You can't just..."

"I can" I said firmly, smiling down at him "And because you're my new friend, I must insist that you call me Nova. None of this Alpha or Heir bullshit. It's too pompous for someone like me."

"Someone like you?" He raised an eyebrow "You mean an Heir?"

I waved my hand at the stupid title.

"The second rule as my new best friend is honesty and trust" I said seriously, ignoring his statement "If you can't be honest with me then I can't trust you, plain and simple."

"Well, how do you know that I'm that kind of person?" he flashed me a confused look "And how am I supposed to prove it?"

"You can prove it by telling me the story behind you and hazel eyes over there."

Charlie's head snapped over to where a handsome guy around our age stood, his eyes never once straying from my new friend.

Charlie swallowed thickly, his body tensing immediately as Hazel eyes continued to stare at him with anguish in his eyes.

"It's uh...it's a long story" Charlie whispered to me "One I much rather not relive at the moment."

My heart softened at the heartbreaking tone in his voice and just from that little fact alone, I knew that whatever Charlie had gone through in his life was nothing short of tragic.

"Okay" I whispered, looping my arm with his as I dragged him with me to station five "We won't talk about it now but I expect to hear about it later, when we're more acquainted with each other."

"Why?" he questioned "Why do you care?"

"Because I do."

"But why?" he persisted "Why would an Heir care about someone like me?"

I cocked my head to the side "What do you mean someone like you?"

He fidgeted under my gaze "You do know what I am right?"

"A Shifter?" This time, I was the one sending him the confused look "Yeah, I know what you are."

"No..." he trailed off, gripping the back of his neck "I'm...I'm..."

"My new friend" I smiled softly at him, gently patting his arm as he continued to stutter through his sentence "And I don't care."