The Gamma's Daughter

Chapter One

Mercy

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Looking out the window, I watch as my Mother tends to her vegetable garden. She uses them to make stews once a week. I sigh while putting on my combat boots and walk out of my room.

She is so hard working that it's impossible for me to get her to take a break. She always claims that an hour spent resting would be an hour wasted instead of getting things done. She can be so stubborn sometimes. I hate seeing her work herself like a dog. She deserves better than this. We all do.

I walk out the back door of our two story three bedroom house and take in the fresh air before making my way over to her crouched form.

"Need any help?"
"The rabbits could use some more bedding. It's going to be cold tonight." She replied while pulling some more weeds and tossing them into a bucket.
"Alright. What should I feed them today?"

She looked around the garden weighing the options.

"Give the males some more rabbit feed and give the females some too along with some cabbage. Two of the females had their babies so I moved them into the baby shed." She told me, then went back to her plucking.

She always makes sure she gets every last one.

The baby shed is where we move all the newborn rabbits. They are put under a timed heat lamp and are protected from any predators such as fox's and raccoons. We need these babies to grow so we will have protein for our stews. Its sad, but what else are we going to do?

It's to expensive to go to a store and buy food for all the hungry members of the Pack with the little money my Mom does get's paid every week. We could hunt, but here lately the hunters are having to go further and further out for food.

Rabbits are the next best thing. They breed like crazy and grow quickly. As long as we keep them fed and safe, we'll have protein.

After doing all that she had asked I walked up to her and gave her a kiss on the head. I knew I should help her, but she is so picky about how things are done and usually tells me 'I got it'.

"You heading out?" She smiled looking up to me.
"Yeah, I need to go train."
"How? He shut down the gym and sold all the equipment." She asked squinting her eyes from the sun.

I shrugged while smiling, then moved my body to block the sun out of her eyes so that she wouldn't be blinded. She smiled lightly to me, then looked back down.

"I'm going to do what all the other warriors do. Work with what we have."
"Just be careful." She sighed not looking up to me.
"Always."

I went up stairs and changed into a pair of shorts, a tank top, and running shoes before heading to the woods. I need to work on my cardio so running and jumping from tree to tree will help me build up leg muscles and my stamina. I love using my bow and I've gotten pretty good at it so I figured jumping from tree to tree will be good practice also.

I climbed the first tree I seen, then balanced myself while walking on the limb. I let let out a shaky breath before jumping to the next tree. I landed, but lost my balance and slipped. I quickly grabbed the branch and pulled myself up growling. I spent a few hours and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. My legs were absolutely tired, but it was time to run.

After twenty minutes of painfully running at full speed, I came across a small group of warriors that were sparring. They paused thinking they had been caught by one of the Alpha's minions before relaxing upon seeing me.

"It's just Mercy, guy's. Get back to work." Billy hollered out while walking up to me.

He held a look of pity making me smile. I'm so not doing this. I started the conversation before he could even bring Ruben up.

"Can I join?"
"Are you up for it?" He asked raising a brow towards me.
"Always."
"Alright, then." He smiled getting into stance.

I was shocked he was going to spar with me considering he was the best male warrior we had. I mean, I'm good, but I'm not the best of the best yet, but hey! When the best male warrior wants to train with you, you do it. That's experience and you can learn from how they fight.

I smiled and got into my stance. We began to circle each other slowly while I recited my Father's words in my head from when I was ten. I used to sit off to the side watching him train his warriors hanging on to every word.

Don't fight with your heart, fight with your brain! The heart holds emotions, the brain holds strategies! Ignore your heart and let the brain guide you!

He fakes a step towards me trying to get me to jump or react, but I just raised my eyebrow at him. I don't scare easily anymore. He suddenly charged at me and I rolled out of the way kicking his feet from under him in the process. He was steady on his feet again before he even hit the ground. He smirked to me and I just growled annoyed.

"Remember, Princess. No emotions." My Dad's words filled my head.

I charged at him this time throwing punches distracting him with my hands. He blocked ever single hit while I got my legs lined up to throw a kick.

When throwing my foot towards his head, he caught my ankle. I quickly jumped and twisted my body, throwing my other foot to the side of his head. He released my foot and hit the ground again. I didn't think. I dove from my spot of the ground to climb on top of him placing my hand at his throat. He looked up to me surprised while smiling.

I had realized what I had just done, but gloating is for nose rubbing. I don't gloat. I move on, so I helped him up and nodded to him. I wanted to chance the subject before he starts praising me.

"How did you know that I was going to throw that kick?"
"You let up on the punches just slightly and leaned back on your left foot. I didn't catch on to what you were doing at first, but I did eventually." He answered rubbing the side of his head.

I nodded smiling to him as his good Friend Chuck walked up laughing.

"Damn, Billy. You just got taken down by a girl." Chuck laughed.
"He let me win."
"No I didn't." He laughed as I turned to go run some more.
"Yeah yeah. You were holding back."

He shook his head chuckling as I began running again. I waited until I was officially alone before stopping and looked around to do a double take. I threw my hands in the air and silently cheered at my achievement. Maybe it was luck, maybe it wasn't. Either way, it's a start and I'm not going to let it go to my head. Anymore..

The moment I start to think that I can beat anyone in my Pack, I will start to slack off. I can't have that. I have to stay focused.

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