The Alpha's Beta

Chapter 16

I woke to someone shaking me. 

"Five more minutes, Mom." I mumbled. 

"Rav, I'm not your mom." The voice said, chuckling. "And you gotta get up now."

"No." I rolled over. I wasn't a morning person, if you hadn't noticed.

"Yes," said the voice, pulling off my blankets.

"Hey!" I protested, opening my eyes and looking at Lucas.

"I was forced!" He told me, palms up in surrender.

"Uh huh." I glanced at the clock. "It's only 5am! Why did you wake me up?!"

"I wanted you to be ready."

"For what?"

"Leaving." 

I was suddenly wide awake. "Wait. When?"

"You have -" He looked down at his nonexistent watch, peeked at the alarm clock "- 25 minutes."

"You said eight!"

"Yup. But a true warrior has to be ready anywhere at any time."

"Warrior? I'm just a teenage girl!"

"Then what am I training you for?" Lucas asked. "If you're going to shower, I suggest you take a quick one. 23 minutes."

"Okay, okay." I grabbed a t-shirt and jeans, and underclothes, and ran into the bathroom. 

I emerged nine minutes later, towel drying my hair. As I was doing that, I grabbed a huge pile of clothes from the dresser and dropped them on the bed. An open backpack sat there for me. 

"You need to carry that with you, so I suggest you pack things that aren't too heavy. I have the food in my bag, so don't bother packing any. Just pack your essentials." Lucas said, just leaning against the wall.

"Are you going to help? Or just stand there?"

"How can you learn if I guide you through every task I give you? I suggest you hurry, ten minutes left."

"Argh, enough with your stupid 'suggestions!'" I growled, rolling some of the clothes into an easily compressed position.

"I can leave and come back another time. Tomorrow, perhaps?"

"Stop acting all mature and whatnot! You're one-and-a-half-ish years older than me!" I brought the towel back into the bathroom and hung it up.

"You're my charge. I'm supposed to be 'all mature and whatnot' around you." I decided to ignore him.

I pulled on a jacket from the dresser and went over my mental checklist. I brushed my long hair out while doing so.

T-shirts, jackets, jeans, pajamas, underclothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, brush, hair-ties and whatever, aaaand I think that's it.

"Time's up." Lucas called, walking over to my bag of stuff. 

"That wasn't ten minutes!"

"You're right. It was only five. But warriors always have to be prepared sooner rather than later. The 'later' could be what gets them killed."

"You forgot something." Lucas smirked, zipping my bag shut.

"What?" I ran through the checklist again. Nothing was missing. 

"You didn't have to be ready until eight!" Lucas exclaimed, laughing. 

I gave him my best death glare. It apparently didn't faze him.

"Just kidding." He picked his black backpack - same as mine - up off of the floor and slung it over his shoulder. "Do you really have everything? We can't come back..."

"Um, yeah."

"Okay then." My mentor led the way out of room 3027, down the endless halls, up a billion stairs, and eventually to a door with a red, glowing sign above it. 

"Really? Cliché much? An 'EXIT' sign?"

"Don't look at me! I didn't design this place!" He opened it, walked through, and held it for me. 

"Thank you." I said, as snootily as I could.

"Your welcome, my lady." Lucas responded, equally snooty.

"So, uh what do we do now?" I asked, looking around at the surrounding trees and bushes and morning sky.

"Now we head in the direction of your Pack."

"Which would be in what direction exactly?" 

"You know." 

"No, I don't." I didn't even know where we are right now, let alone my Pack!

"Yes, you do. Reach out to your Wolf. She will know where to go."

Whisper? Do you know where our Pack is?

Of course.

Will you lead us there?

I will show you the path, which you will remember, but then I will sleep again.

I understand.

Suddenly, my mind was lead through a series of images, but really fast, until it stopped in the middle of a group of people who I assumed were my Pack.

Thank you. 

Of course.

"This way. I will take a day or two to get there," I told Lucas, walking in the direction I knew to be northeast, thanks to my Eagle powers.

A little while later, he said, "Do you trust the people we're going to?"

"Um, I don't know exactly. Kind of. But I don't know them all that well." I paused. "Hey, can you answer some questions about Shifters and whatnot? People haven't really told me anything."

"Yeah, sure."

"Why do we sometimes have the powers of our Animals even though they're hiding?"

"We call them abilities. But it's because the Animal is part of you. It is you, so it makes sense that you could do what it does. For example, we constantly have our Eagle's sense of direction and wind. But not their eyesight, since their eyes are different than ours. That would be something to call on. In time, you can call abilities without calling your Animal."

"Wow, that's pretty cool!" I thought for a second. "How do you find the 'recruits?' And do you find them as fledglings already, or do you bite them?"

"Our Scout is sent to search for possible kids that would make good fledglings. But they are also looking out for Eagles, too. If we're sent possibilities, then we inject them with our blood and see if they accept it."

"Scout?" Why does that sound familiar? "Oh, yeah. Isn't my mom a Scout?"

"Yes, she is one of our Scouts, as far as I know."

"What happens if the possibilities don't accept your blood?"

"Then they die. I'm sorry, but that's how it is."

"Why don't you bite the kids? I was bitten."

"Birds don't really bite. Wolves do. So, it makes sense. Plus, eww."

We walked until the sky was dark again, then stopped to sleep. I found a tree, sat down against it, and tried to fall asleep. Across from me, Lucas did the same, but stayed awake, saying he was 'keeping watch.'

Fine by me. After what seemed like forever, I fell asleep. 

I was being shaken again. "Rav, wake up. Seriously! We've got company." Lucas whispered urgently.