Seizing the Hierarchy {Pup Book 1)

CHAPTER 5

The sky overhead was clear of any clouds. A lovely day to be out in your feral form if you ask anyone. But instead of rolling around in bare earth, my fur cooling as the loose dirt washed into it; I was stuck seeing Sean's not-so-ugly face in a fighting stance I couldn't possibly master in a day.

"Lean into it!" Sean shouted, pushing down at the center of my back, so my body had a more hunched posture. "You need to keep your body low enough when you're this small."

"Being slightly shorter than you doesn't mean I'm small!" I hissed back, sweat dripping from my forehead as I watched the grass beneath me in the darkness of my shadow. The day seemed to be at a standstill as the sun continued to beat down on my back, locked in a position of high noon.

Sean dropped in front of me, peeking up at my eyes, "You're absolutely nothing like she was."

"God- you keep saying stuff like that. Do you expect me to read your mind?" I stopped myself, considering what I said. "I can't. Remember? Just tell me who she is." I pulled my arms back and flexed my shoulders. I wasn't doing a bit more training until I got some answers.

He stretched out his body and rolled onto his back. "I'd love to, but it's not my place to say."

I rolled my eyes. "If it's not your place to say, stop mentioning it every chance you get."

"What's it to you, anyway?"

"Didn't you hear? I'm an orphan. If you keep saying that I look like someone, I'm gonna think it's them."

Sean sat up, "You have an older sister?" he asked.

"No," I shook my head. "Older brother. Hunter."

"Oh, then you've got nothing to be anxious about. There's no way you had any connection to her, not with the way she was." Sean laid back on the grass with his eyes fixed up at the edge of the roof.

I let my gaze fall around the stretch of the estate while he lay there. After some time, Sean rolled over, yawning as he awoke from his short nap. "We should go inside now."

"Why? Is the Alpha on his way back?" I questioned. He stood cracking his neck in various directions. "Is Dane with him?" I continued desperately.

"Yeah, but we should try to make it look like you trained first."

"Are you gonna punch me in the face again?" I asked, remembering how merciless he'd been when we got back from the woods. 

 I'd gotten knocked off my feet more than twice before I was able to fend Sean off. And his attacks didn't stop there. I was body-slammed, spin kicked, flip thrown. I was actually beginning to think that he only did it to enjoy torturing me, but he was testing my abilities.

"No," he said, smirking, but seconds later, a solid fist slammed into the right side of my face. I turned my head to the left, cupping my cheek in my hand before Sean grabbed hold of my head, and I caught a small glimpse of his knee right as it connected with my nose.

My head flew back as the blinding sun caught my eyes. I fell back onto the grass, stunned at first but then sobbing quietly as the blood from my nose trickled down the side of my face. It hurt to breathe, and yet unexpectedly, the only person I could think about at that moment was my mom.

I remember one time when I was about five years old. My brother and I played out near the river by our pack grounds. On the bank, a large black and white bird had been resting. It had been there for almost an hour, but for some reason, my brother finally decided that he wanted to hunt it.

Hunter approached the bird. He was stealthily moving toward it. Creeping carefully along the river bank and moving so slowly that you barely even noticed that he moved. On the other hand, I was still very childish and equally clumsy. I knew nothing about hunting and tripped when I tried to match Hunter's footsteps in catching the bird. He immediately grabbed me, dragging me away to the caves.