Chapter 15: Chapter 15

(Chapter song ‘I Got You' by The Flys)

RIVER As I walk down the hall from the Operations Unit, I read the order again.

I’m being called to the Training Unit to report to Alpha Bartley. He organizes the Training Team leaders. I’ve never been part of the training Unit except as a recruit. So this order is completely out of the blue.

The sign on the door reads ‘Alpha Bartley' I stand at attention and knock.

"Come." I hear barked from inside.

I open the door and step in. "Alpha Blake reporting, sir" I stand at attention. My chins high and I’m not looking him in the eye.

Bartley smiles and stands. "At ease."

I separate my feet, place my hands behind my back and relax my neck. I meet Bartley’s eyes. They’re not angry or concerned, so that rules out any thought I had about doing something wrong.

"Blake. I'm glad to see you. I didn't think Fredericks would hand you over when I put in the request." He chuckles as he walks around his desk.

I looked at him confused. "Request, sir?" Why would the Training Unit put in a request for me?

He stands in front of me and puts a hand on my shoulder. I glance at it and then turn to him. "Son. What you did during the Karver operation was outstanding. Organizing those teams and assisting Border to bring this badass down…It’s just what we need down here."

My brow stitches together. "Sir, I'm not sure I understand."

He steps back and turns, walking back around his desk. "Son. We're promoting you to Team Leader. We want you to whip these recruits into shape. We like your style. Your commitment to the Alliance. You're a born leader, Son. Time to show us what kind of leader you are."

He types on his computer. "Report to Stevens. He's on the field. He'll give you the rundown."

I stand back at attention and throw my hand up in a salute. "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

"No problem. Dismissed." He gives a quick salute back.

I close the office door behind me and turn down the hall to the training field.

Team Leader? I mean, it’s great to get it, but I was kind of hoping to be an Operations leader. I’ll make it work, I just hope I won’t be stuck here.

I walk to a set of double metal doors and step outside. It’s like a high-school courtyard. A tarmac that’s surround by seven buildings. Barracks for the recruits separated by pack and each building is split into two, male and female sides. The seventh is the Alpha Dorms. Where all us Alpha ranks stay for the week. We each get a dorm room to ourselves. The top floor is for mated couples.

Everything is co-ed in the Alpha dorms. Showers, laundry…everything. It’s attached to the main dining hall which you can walk through to get to the other Units.

Just past the tarmac is a wide open space. The training fields. There’s several here. Ones for combat and strength development. We have a tracker field and a flyer training area.

As I walk out to find Stevens, I see the training is in full swing. Recruits are running drills and circuits. Trainers are walking around making corrections and barking orders as the rookies sweat their balls off.

I spy Stevens over looking the area under a tree and make a course correction to his location.

"Reporting for duty, sir." I stand stiff and salute as he pushes off the trunk and turns to face me.

"Blake. About time you showed up. At ease." He places his hands on his hips. He shoots out a quick salute.

I ease my stance and make eye contact. "Sorry, sir. I came as soon as I was told."

He nods. His face is rough and a little frustrated. "Well, not a moment too soon. The recruits this year need all the help they can get. Especially, that one." He nodded to a girl with blonde and brown hair pumping out push-ups.

I followed his motion out to the field. My face fell. No fucking way! Her face was red and she looked like someone was about to die in five minutes, but otherwise, goddamn she looks so hot right now. I focus on being normal. The last thing I need is to get turned on in front of a superior.

I take a deep breath in. "When did she join?" I try to sound not interested at all, but inside I’m fucking jumping around and celebrating. My wolf is too.

I did it. I got her here. Now, I’ll show her just how much she needs this place and how much she needs me.

"Three days ago. You know her soldier?" He raised a brow. Crap. Keep it cool, Riv.

I clear my throat. "Yes...I mean no....I mean I assisted her on Karver."

I found her in my sights again as she raises herself up onto her calves and wipes the sweat from her forehead. It is a hot one today, I’ll give her that. She’s making it even hotter.

Stevens turned his gaze to Anna. "Ah, yes. I remember now."

He raises his hand to the side of his mouth. "RIKER!"

She whips to our direction. Her ponytail hitting her face. My heart stopped because I wasn’t sure if she would recognize me.

Stevens eyes her up and lifts his chin to her. "50 MORE. ON THE DOUBLE!"

She slams her hands on her hips. She wouldn’t…

Then she shook her head, dropped and gave Stevens 50 more push ups at double the normal time.

He sighs, shakes his head and rolls his head to me. "She's cute. Has a big mouth. And absolute trouble. She'll be a good one to get your feet wet with."

My eyes move along the sexy curves of her plank as she goes down and comes back up. My feet aren’t what I really want to get wet, I think as I slyly lick my bottom lip.

"Assemble a training group.” Stevens interrupts my ogling of Anna’s body with his orders. “Take Riker. I'll give you 3 months. After, I'll evaluate your team. You turn them into soldiers and we'll talk Operations leadership."

This caught my attention and I smile. "Yes, sir." I say with probably a little more enthusiasm than I wanted.

My gaze wandered back to Anna. I locked on her body so much, I barely heard Stevens final words.

"And Blake. Watch that girl. She's got talent, but she's a handful. Don't go lenient. She'll make a kick ass soldier, but her attitude needs to be checked." He places his hand on my shoulder and I turn my head to him.

"Yes, sir." I nod.

I’m sure I can fix whatever Anna has going on with her. She needs focus. Something to direct her anger and pain in a healthy, disciplined way. I just need to make it clear, I won’t take any resistance from her.

"Dismissed." Stevens barks and walks out onto the field to assist the other trainers.

I puff out my chest to look authoritative. Rikers in my sandbox now. Her blow back won’t be tolerated. As I get closer, I try to look official.

She’s just rising in her push up as I cast a shadow on her. Before I announce myself, my nostrils are hit with the flowers and vanilla scent I tracked in the woods the day I had her. I close my eyes and take it in. I need to be equal and not favor her, but her scent is making it damn hard.

I stand straight with my hands behind my back. I lift my chin and mentally slap the smile off my face, making it stone cold instead. "On your feet, recruit!" I bark.

She stops and turns her head up. She has to squint because I have the sun to my back. “River?” She pants as she leans back.

“On your feet!” I scowl at her.

She tilts her head to me, furrows her brow and rises. “Alright.” She mumbles.

“The correct response is ‘Yes, Sir’ or ‘Yes, Alpha'.” I correct.

“River…” She starts.

I lean to her and glare. "You will address me as, Sir or Alpha!” I raise my voice, making my point clearer.

A whiney look forms on her face. "God, not you too. Come on."

"At attention, recruit!" I bark at her. She’s going to fight me. She won’t win.

She straightens up, directing her eyes out to the field and blows out a breath.

"That's better." I say calmly.

"This organized training shouldn’t be foreign to you. Border is lax, but you still need discipline to function. The problem with border is that all goes to shit once the training ends.”

I stop at her back and face her. “Not here. There is no relaxing here. You are expected to work the whole time you’re in our ranks.” My eyes fall to her tight ass. Blue tracks look damn good on her.

I continue to her front. “For the next 3 months, recruit...” I lean to her and smirk, tilting my head slightly. “You're mine. You will train harder than you ever have. I will not tolerate talk back or attitude. Do you understand?"

She narrows her eyes at me and lowers her voice. "You're just loving this, aren't you?"

"Is that how you address me, recruit?" I arch a brow. My eyes never leaving hers.

"No, sir." She grits.

I’m slowly pissing her off. I think I like it.

"Do you understand?" I ask again "Yes, sir." Her eyes narrow further.

"Good.” I spin on my heels, take a few steps and turn back. Placing my hands behind my back. “By the way…” I raise a brow and my lip ticks up. “I'm loving every second of this."

She almost snarls at me, but stops when I throw a warning look at her.

She turns her eyes away from me and looks straight ahead. Yep. I’ve sufficiently pissed her off as I close the door on her defiance.

"Now, I hear you've been a bit of trouble around here. Is that true?" I stood tall.

"Yes and no....sir." She glances at me quickly.

I raise a brow. "Are you going to be trouble for me?"

She gives me a once over. "No, sir." I can tell that's a lie.

"For your sake, I hope not."

I point an area off to the side that has a running track. A small oval with grass in it’s center. "Go stand in the grass over there and wait."

“Yes, Sir.” She mumbles.

Oh, yeah. She’s mad, I think as I watch her jog to the track and pick a spot to stand.

I don’t want her mad at me, but we’re establishing roles right now. This push back and forth has to happen if I’m going to break her. I can’t be weak or she’ll win.

For the rest of the group, I walk up and down the circuit rows. I pick those who I feel will benefit most from my training.

I organized the recruits where I told Anna to stand. Stevens showed up too for inspections.

He stands tall beside me. "This it?"

"Yes, sir." I puff my chest out and look over my recruits.

He paces in front of them then turns to me. "Good choices. These dogs definitely need to be whipped into shape. Good luck, Blake." He claps me on the shoulder and walks away.

"Thank you, sir." I call back.

I stand in front of them and arch a brow. My eyes slowly meeting those in front. I catch Anna’s in the middle and pause. I’m speaking to all of them, but I need Anna to hear this directly.

"You are with me because Stevens believes you're weak! He believes…that you don't have what it takes!..." I walk to side. "Now...is that true?!"

"Sir. No, sir." They say in unison.

I put my hand to my ear. "What was that?"

"Sir. No, sir!" They say louder.

I walk to the center again, put my hands behind my back and bounce on my toes. "I'm sorry. I didn't quite hear you!!" I yell.

"SIR. NO, SIR!"

I caught Anna pressing her lips together to hide a smile.

I nod to her and bounce my brow.

I continue pacing as I talk. "Stevens thinks I can't make soldiers out of you in 3 three months. Is he right?"

"SIR. NO, SIR!"

"No, he's not, you know why?” I scan them all with a smirk. “He's not right because I don't train losers! I train winners!! I TRAIN SOLDIERS! TELL ME, ARE YOU LOSERS OR ARE YOU SOLDIERS?!"

"SOLDIERS, SIR!"

"SAY IT AGAIN!"

"SOLDIERS, SIR!"

I stand in front of them. My eyes pausing at Anna’s every so often. "Good. You put the work in, give it your best, and you'll be a soldier. If you think you don't have what it takes, you walk off this field right now." I looked directly at Anna. "Just know. None of you would even be here right now, if we, and the Alpha, didn't believe you had what it takes. Don't prove him wrong."

I ease my stance. “50 laps and meet on the sparring field. Dismissed!!”

The group breaks and runs for the track.

Anna slowly approaches me and I wave to her to join me on the walk.

I look at the grass as she slides in beside me.

She glances my way. “So…Superior huh?”

I nod. “Yep. Found out today.” I roll my eye to her. I can’t tell her I had anything to do with this. “So…How are you liking it so far?”

“It’s complete shit.” She growls low.

I stop. I turn and she mirrors me. “Anna. I think if you just push aside your feelings for a bit, you’d see the unit…”

She shakes her head. “No way. I’m not letting this place get to me. I didn’t ask for this and I’m not getting sucked in. My first chance, I’m getting out of here.”

“Listen, Anna." I step closer. “I saw your face back there. You enjoyed it.”

She looks into my eyes. “I won’t become a robot, River. I won’t.” She looks me over, spins on her toes and jogs the rest of the way to the track.

I bite my upper lip. This may be harder than I thought.