Fangs and Roses

Chapter Five: Family Reunited

Sapphire Nightborne

"Again!" A chorus of groans could be heard as the girls picked up their knives before returning to the throwing line. I had just started their training a mere hour ago and yet they were complaining that they were tired, that this was not what they are supposed to do. I watched as they continued to throw their knives, most throws missed targets or just harmlessly bounced off them, I pinched the bridge of my nose as I watched their pitiful attempts.

"This is useless!" My head shot up as I saw a girl, a few years younger than me, throw her knife to the ground and begin to walk away. I ran up to her, placing my hands on her shoulders.

"What are you doing?" She scoffed as she used her hands to pull my hands from her shoulders.

"What am I doing? What are we doing? This is not what women are supposed to do in a pack, we stay back to take care of the young and old not charge on the frontlines of battle. That is why we have our warriors." Her words made me feel as though I had just gone back a hundred years.

"And tell me, what happens when your men are not good enough to protect you? What happens when the enemy is too strong and breaks through their ranks?" She stood there silent, her mouth closing and opening like a fish. The other girls had stopped their training and were staring intently at us. I beckoned them to come closer with a wave of my hand, it was now time to educate these women.

"All of you do know what happens to women after their pack has lost, don't you? All of you pretty things would become the toys of the men who have won, your children would be slaughtered to prevent any future uprising and worst of all, you no longer have control over your lives because from that day onwards when you get taken, your life is no longer your own." I watched as they stood in shock, the girl who had so confidently defied now hung her head as her lips trembled. I began to circle them and tell them in graphic detail of what I had seen during my days in the field, the horrors I had to watch as defenceless women were ripped from their children and taken away while I could not stop them. The girls stood huddled together, some now even sobbing, I knew what I was doing was cruel but they had to know what they were training for. They were not training for blood, they were training for a chance to let their lives be their own.

Their eyes followed me as I walked back to stand in front of the girl, she had tear tracks on her cheeks that I wiped off with the back of my hand. I placed both hands on her face before looking down at her eyes and then looking back up to meet the eyes of the rest of the girls.

"As your Alpha Female all I am asking is that you fight for your life to stay yours, I had mine taken away for a while and I can tell you that it is the most excruciating thing you would ever feel, to not be allowed to run when you want, to not being able to meet your loved ones at the drop of your hat. These things might seem trivial now but once they are taken away, they become the most important." After those words left my lips, many pairs of arms started to wrapped themselves around as the girls threw themselves on me while I stood there awkwardly patting their heads or arms.

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I smiled as I watched them begin to improve, they were now trying their best to hit the targets and some who were able to even began to help the weaker ones. This was what a pack should be, a place where people help each other to be the best they can be not a competitive battlefield where you step on each other to try and become the best, and the best part was, not a single complaint was raised after my talk with them.

"Girls!" It made me smile to see all of them rush to me with smiles on their faces despite the hard training I put them under.

"I am so proud of your improvement so how about we do something different as a break. Besides knife skills, your stamina has to be at its peak if you ever want a chance to run away from someone over a long period of time or even if you wish to engage in a fight, you have to pray their stamina runs out before yours." Not a word of complaint as they nodded before walking towards the edge of the forest.