The Brotherhood

01

Finley's footsteps echoed loudly on the grey stone floors of the compound. She sprinted through the halls, Titan at her side, careful to dodge the walls so that she wouldn't hurt herself crashing into the stone. She was late. She was so unbelievably late. The halls were completely empty, which could only mean one thing. She was completely and utterly fucked. 

She rounded another corner and barreled down the hall, hoping that she would reach the doors before the bell rang... DONG! The ringing of the bell echoed throughout the compound. Shit, Finley cursed herself for waking up so late.

She couldn't be late for the Opening again, she'd already been late twice this week. If she was late again then she'd have to face the wrath of her alpha, which was not something that anybody wanted. Finley's alpha was known for dealing out punishments that made people wish for death. The last time someone was late for the Opening this many times, Finley's alpha had made them wash dishes until their fingers turned so pruned, they worried that they'd never return to normal. 

DONG! The bell chimed a second time, meaning that Finley only had one more minute until she was officially late. She pushed her body into a harder run, hoping that she would just be able to make it. 

Finley burst into the courtyard, throwing the doors open so quickly that they banged against the side of the compound. Several eyes turned her way as she ran toward her pack that was on the opposite side of the courtyard. She pushed through other packs that were already gathered in tight formations, breaking their perfect lines completely. Several of her brothers glared at her for ruining their pack formations. Finley didn't bother to glare back at them. She couldn't be late again, she couldn't be late again.

DONG! The last bell chimed right as she slid into line next to Xander. Xander glanced at her, seeing how disheveled she looked from her mad dash to the courtyard a moment ago. He rolled his eyes at her and how ridiculous she looked. 

"What?" Finley hissed at him, trying not to attract the attention of her brothers. 

"Really, Fin?" Xander asked with a sigh, "You couldn't get up on time again?" 

"I barely slept last night," Finley scoffed, trying to defend herself. 

He rolled his eyes at her again, "Whatever, Fin. Just do better next time. You can't afford to be late again." 

"I know," She growled back at him. Titan echoed her growl with one of his own from where he stood next to her. Xander's black husky, Betta, narrowed her eyes at Titan. She didn't dare to bare her teeth at him though. None of the bonded dared to attack Titan. 

A whistle blew from the front and every single brother in the courtyard straightened, turning their attention to the stone platform in the front of the courtyard. The Supreme walked onto the platform, his black shepherd dog Alix, beside him. Alix looked out at the assembled brothers as if they were all beneath him, which technically they were since he was on a raised platform. 

The Supreme's booming voice echoed over the courtyard, "It's good to see all of you gathered here again. There are just a few announcements today."

The Supreme continued talking, but Finley stopped listening. She hated these early morning gatherings, they were completely pointless. She suspected that the only reason they had them was so that the Supreme could have Alix glare at all of them so they'd stay in line. The joke was on them though. Finley still found ways to fuck up, even with Alix giving her warning glares every single morning. 

Xander's elbow found the soft skin of her stomach. She grunted and glared up at him. He glared right back at her, his brown eyes flinty with annoyance. 

"Pay attention," He snapped at her. She stuck out her tongue at him. He looked utterly unimpressed by her. Finley didn't particularly care if he was impressed by her. She rolled her eyes at him and slumped her shoulders. The Opening couldn't get done fast enough. 

The Supreme finally got done yacking and dismissed them to breakfast. The packs filed out one by one to go to the mess hall. 

Finley's pack found their usual table in the back right corner of the mess hall and Finley threw herself down on the bench to wait with the pack until it was there turn to go up for food. Xander sat down to her left and Warren sank onto the bench to her right, his huge shoulder bumping into hers. She grinned up at Warren and the huge guy smiled down at her. Sloan sat across from her, Raynar and Miles sitting down on either side of him. 

"So, what held you up this morning, Fin?" Raynar asked her, too casually. Finley crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. Ray was a dirty snitch, always feeding information back to the alpha. 

"Why do you care?" She demanded. 

"Because it would've been the third time this week," Ray said coldly, "and the pack could've been marked down for your incompetence." 

"I was on time, wasn't I?" Finley snarked back. "So, we're fine." 

"You're not fine," a low gravelly voice said from behind her. "The Supreme marked us down despite your interesting ability to arrive to the Opening exactly as the third bell rang, Fin. What exactly do you think your punishment should be?" 

Finley turned around to find her alpha standing behind her, his broad, muscled chest filling her vision. She refused to shrink away from him, even if his dominance shoved its way down her nose, riling her instincts, moving them toward submission. She didn't submit easily. 

The alpha regarded her coolly, his black eyes glinting in the dim light of the mess hall. His muscled arms were folded over his chest as if he wanted to draw more attention to the fact that his chest was broader than any of the other brothers his age. Finley struggled not to roll her eyes at how ridiculous he was being. His eyes never left her face though, and she knew she was going to have to answer him eventually. 

"Maybe I could do the laundry for three days?" Finley suggested with a shrug, "You know how much I hate doing the laundry." 

The alpha narrowed his eyes at her, like he was trying to decide what kind of trick she was trying to play on him. His black mastiff, Baela, sniffed at Titan in a friendly way. Titan shrunk away from her as if he too could sense her dominance. 

"She really does hate doing the laundry, Kane," Xander offered from her side. Finley gritted her teeth to keep from snapping at him for trying to help her right now, when she clearly didn't need it. 

Kane didn't take his night dark eyes off of Finley. He was waiting for her to say more, but she refused to. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of being right. 

"Fine," Kane said in that low, commanding voice that he had. "Fin can do the laundry for three days as her punishment. And she can stay behind in training for an extra hour for each of those days as well." 

"What?" Finley spluttered. "Why?" 

Kane leaned in toward her and she felt completely helpless as he stared down at her. He said gruffly, "Because you've been dragging us down with your pathetic excuse you call fighting. It changes now, Fin. Or you'll have to do worse than clean Warren's dirty underwear." 

Warren laughed from beside her and threw his gigantic arm across her shoulders. "There can't be much worse than that, boss." 

"Trust me," Kane said, "I'll think of something." 

He didn't say anything else before he crossed to the other side of the long table and sat down next to Raynar. Ray leaned over and immediately started whispering to Kane. Finley rolled her eyes at the two of them. Ray could kiss her ass and so could Kane. She reached down and rubbed the thick fur of Titan's neck. He panted in appreciation. 

Finally, the table in front of theirs returned with their plates filled with the compound's breakfast mush. Finley rose with her pack and walked to the service line to get her gray, globby breakfast mush. As she stood in the line, she had the distinct feeling that today was going to be another long, awful day.