The Green Flame

Four

I flushed, looking down as my hair fell over my face. I had never been called hot or beautiful in my life before, and my mother often yelled at me for that. I needed a husband, apparently, although that wasn't high on my to-do list.

Tasha stopped in front of the group, her hands on her hips. "The way you said that sounds like Fletcher already called Jade hot."

Fletcher grinned mischievously, slowly approaching her. "That's for me to know....and you to never find out."

Tasha tossed her hair over her shoulder, "mmhm." She pushed him away as he came closer.

"Can we just get on with the tour?" Sam rolled her eyes at the two. "You can do some lovey-dovey stuff later."

"Well, I say we stay here for a bit. Chill out, get to know one another?" Charlie grinned at me, winking. "Besides, we have to shift in and out of Wolf form, and I as much as I would want to see that, I know you gals will take her out later."

I flushed again. I wasn't used to being the centre of attention, and it was a bit unsettling, but I didn't mind it. They seemed to be accepting me, just as I was accepting them, and my new life.

Fletcher nodded. "That makes sense. Okay, let's all go back into—" he stopped as Milo nudged him. "Shìt. Right. Sorry. I—I can't do that anymore." He glanced at me.

I realized what they were talking about. Fletcher used to be Alpha so he was obviously used to ordering the others around. "Look—" I started, slightly jumping as they all turned to me. "I-I know I'm alpha and all, but can't I—resign or something? I'm new—I don't know everything about this kind of life and stuff." I stuttered.

Fletcher blinked. "Really? I didn't think your Alpha—or wolf would let you do that."

"Well, there is some objection, but I would rather give up the title then lead." I smiled slightly as Nixie giggled.

Tasha put a hand on my shoulder. "Then that means it's time to go to the Rockies." She announced.

I didn't know what the Rockies were, so they all quickly explained.

The Rockies were on the other side of the mountain, where they all train, or play fight. Even though they could all challenge Fletcher for the title of Alpha, none of them did, since he was the oldest and the most powerful, apparently. Until me. No one said that though.

And it turns out Fletcher is actually 167, but his physical looks stopped aging at 18. Tasha was 132, but physical looks stopped at 17, Milo and Nixie both 103 and stopped at 19, Charlie 39 and stopped at 17, Sam was 77 and stopped at 17. And I was sixteen and two hours old, youngest both in werewolf and human aging.

Apparently no one has ever been able to beat Fletcher in even a play-fight, except Tasha once when they were..."getting it on," Charlie explained (Both Fletcher and Tasha blushed at this). This made me recall back at how easy it was for me to take him down and bite his neck. I asked if I'm a bit stronger when I'm a newborn werewolf, but they said they didn't know. I was willing to test it.

As we made the last turn, I finally got a good look at where we were going. There was mountains all around us, and between them all was a large quarry, the walls all smooth as they steeply sloped down into a rough circle. The middle of the quarry was smooth from use, and on either ends of the quarry was small cave openings. "Where we go to shift," Sam had explained.

Fletcher led us to the middle before speaking. "Why don't we all go up against Jade in human form, see if she can beat us? We can do the official battle after." He seemed to be uncomfortable as he said this, and kept glancing at me. I gave him a nod as my wolf went in a corner of my mind, huffing and growling in complaint.