The Alpha's Fight

Chapter 7 - It Was Simply Two Friends

My feet protested in our destination.

I wasn't enthusiastic for what was about to come either, but I had no choice in the matter. Refusal to show would result in a single unpleasant outcome. Having my father train me today was most definitely the lesser of two evils.

Scott was already present with his father, Ford, and Hayes stood nearer Nicholas. His father, Reid, was already leading the warriors through their paces and the head tracker was disappearing into the treeline with the other trackers.

'Cutting it a little close,' Scott gave me a worried glance.

'My damn alarm didn't go off,' I muttered.

When I turned my alarm off the previous morning, I had accidentally turned it off fully and hadn't reset it. Of all the days I could've slept in, this was the worst.

"So good of you to finally join us," my father said lowly, his eyes narrowed.

"It's only a few minutes..." I muttered without thinking.

'Goddess, now you've done it,' Hawk mentally slapped me.

My father's jaw ticked and the vein on his temple pulsated. Hayes smirked from the side, knowing the brutality that I would face and taking great delight in it. The last time we sparred, I broke his nose and his femur. He knew he would never get his payback directly. Ever since I had gotten my wolf, my wins had been on the increase.

"Hayes, you can go join your father. I think I'll be sparring with my son personally for the entire duration today," Nicholas's eyes darkened.

'And I never got to sniff our sweet blond boy one last time,' Hawk sighed melodramatically.

'I get it, all right?! My smart mouth landed us in shit this time.'

Ford and Scott looked to start warming up with stretches, but I never got a chance. My father's fist came flying at my face. I narrowly avoided the brunt of the blow. Unfortunately, his knuckles just grazed my nose, shedding blood instantly. He followed up with an experienced and precise jab to my ribs. The wind was knocked out of me as I folded, clutching my side. I couldn't be sure, but at least one of my ribs was possibly fractured.

"Get up! You rest on your own time, since you like lie-ins so much," he sneered, moving to snatch a fist full of my hair to pull me to my feet.

I made a painful roll to the side out of his grasp and stood, taking a defensive position to guard my injury and wipe the blood from my nose. When he launched another punch, I was quick to lean backwards out of its arc, grab his wrist to pull him forward and land a swift uppercut to his jaw. But no sooner had my fist made contact that his knee rammed into my side. If a rib wasn't broken before, it was now, with several others. I crumpled to the ground, barely able to breathe.

"Your mistake was thinking you could hide your weakness. The moment you guarded it, I knew where to strike," he sneered down at me. "I see we still need to revisit my other lessons; weaknesses must be beaten out."

Hide my weakness? Guarded it? Was he talking about our sparring? Or something else? Was I being paranoid? Did he know?!

How could he know?

Taylor was never around the pack house. I only ever saw him at school... and he wasn't a weakness!

'Still in the vat of denial, I see?' Hawk shook his head. 'You were declaring your undying love for him to ourselves yesterday. Face it, there is literally nothing you wouldn't do for him... or to him,' he shivered.