Alpha Zander
Chapter 56

I psyched myself way too much by the time we arrived in front of the packhouse.

Zander tried to help calm me down, but my nerves got the best of me in the end.

I kept replaying everything that happened last night, and one thing stuck out, the supposed reason why Uncle banished me from the pack.

Charwood hadn’t had a Luna for over a decade.

So, of course, naturally, I was worried about so many different things. With such a high expectation, my brain went in overloaded.

What if the pack doesn’t like me?

What if his father didn’t like me?

What if more of his exes show up and try to challenge me?

Would they accept me because I was from Liverpool and not a part of their pack?

So many possibilities were swirling around my head.

I panicked and froze until Zander opened the car door and brought me into a tight hug, k!ssing me gently, trying to reassure me. Every time he does something like this, he surprises me, making my heart ache for him and making me fall in love with him all over again.

We walk up the steps of the pack house, I’m half expecting him to stop and knock for some reason, but he walks right into the foyer and calls out, “Hello, is anyone around?” and we’re met with an eerie silence, as he waits for about five seconds for someone to respond.

I would have waited a little bit longer for a response, but my mate is impatient and doesn’t like to hang around too long.

“Of course not. What was I f*****g thinking?” he grumbles to himself as he looks at his watch on his left wrist and grumbles something about being late for training.

“Come on. I’ll show you the training grounds if you like?” He grabs my hand before I can protest or say anything, drags me back out the door, and lifts me into the car, not waiting another second.

“We have two main training grounds, one about ten minutes from the pack house, that is usually where most of the training is held and is also linked with a lot of the walking tracks, and the barracks are also connected to this ground. Our warriors sleep, eat, and train together, as well as do overseas missions and interstate missions when our allies need any type of help, and the other training is on the other side of our territory. This one has the field, a gym and an Olympic indoor pool that we use year-round. The warriors are split into two-week, on-off rotations between the two grounds; Richie coordinates that side of things. This also lines up with patrol runs.

Richie allocates one or two command officers to each platoon, ranging from 20 to at least 35 warriors each cycle.” Zander starts rambling, explaining how things work here as he drives.

I sit there watching my mate’s sudden weird behaviour. He’s driving like a lunatic, and I’ve never seen him this worked up about anything. We will have an accident if he doesn’t relax and calm down. Maybe he was also just as nervous as I was. I know things with his father are always tense, and I couldn’t feel anything through our bond: It seems he has blocked our link, so Kia or l can’t feel him. I know he could feel my anxiety earlier, but right now, I couldn’t feel anything from him, not even frustration or pressure, just almost empty.

I nodded, listening to his chatter, “Do you have many warriors who train daily?” I asked curiously, hoping if I responded, he’ll lo0sen up a bit.

In Liverpool, they ranged from 80-100 per session and held at least five sessions a day, two in the morning, one mid-day, one in the afternoon and another in the evening.

It’s all scattered around to meet everyone’s schedule. Some people work two jobs. Liverpool tries to give them enough pay to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. Still, it’s tricky when little ones come along, so some of our families take two jobs to keep going. We try to support our pack members where we can by providing them with free education and a sustainable lifestyle.

Once a member has found their mate, they can choose a location where they would like to raise their family. The pack members help build the home; we cover the cost and give them a comfortable lifestyle. We only ask for respect and loyalty and to give 100% into whatever field of business they choose. If you were a warrior, you would typically select a house to live in and decide if you wanted to stay at the barracks with your family or in your home, whichever suited you. If both partners were a part of the team, they would usually set up in the bunkers.

We have small apartment blocks to hold a family of 4 people until they decide to move to their home if they so wish. Ollie and I always tried to do at least two sessions a day, one in the morning and another in the evening after school classes.

“We have 150-200 members each session, and each training field holds these sessions. Richie and Sal coordinate between the two; we have to sign up or confirm we are attending beforehand, so they know how many to expect. We have about 4-5 sessions a day, so around ten sessions total between the two grounds, and we train at least over 1,000 warriors daily. It’s compulsory to do at least one training session a day if you are a warrior. Regular pack members can join if they would like to. They need to let Richie know.” Zander confirms, eyes laser-focused on the road, not even giving me a glance or a look as he’s talking.

Something is up with him. I don’t know why he’s been all funky about this. I hope he didn’t regret letting me visit the pack today.

“Wow, that’s a lot of people training every day. Ollie añd I did at least two sessions a day. It would be interesting to see what you guys do” l smile, remembering the times we used to race around the territory before training, getting all pumped up and excited before the sessions.

It was nice to have someone on the same level as me regarding fighting techniques.

We were similar but different, and I had only managed to take him down twice since we started, training properly with the warriors when we got our wolves at sixteen.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve landed on my a-ss, but lately, I have gotten a lot better, so naturally, I was sad when I knew I wouldn’t be able to Join Ollie anymore.

When we were younger, we would prepare daily by running and keeping fit so our bodies would accept our wolves. We didn’t start training until we were in high school and had our wolves. Since we got into such a routine, it’s just become a part of our lifestyle.

Zander finally glanced at me with worried eyes and a hint of guilt. I folded my arms across my chest. Today I wore simple clothes, Jeans, sneakers, and a nice tee with black and white polka-dots, so not a bad outfit if we wanted to join the training the Jeans might be a bit tricky, but I do have spare clothes in the back I can change into tights if we needed.

“What’s wrong?” I ask as we pull up to a large lush green field with a massive building off to the left. A driveway led to a large open parking area underneath the building.

Glass windows wrapped around the entire exterior of the building except for the back, where it had a wall of dull bricks lined up to the roof. You could see a fully equipped gym looking out to the field and a grand staircase leading towards the pool.

A large number of people in the training field were already chatting, waiting for it to start. Honestly, it was lucky we found a car spot where we did. I looked around, taking in my new space, and it was beautiful. These grounds alone were a lot bigger than the ones I used to.

We didn’t even have a pool attached to our training grounds; you would have to go to another centre.

Looking around, I noticed that most of the people there were Men.

I turned to Zander, who was still sitting there nervously looking at me, waiting to say something more even though I had already asked him a question.

“Want to tell me what’s going on?” I asked, tilting my head a little, darting my eyes to the field and back to Zander again.

My face formed into a confused frown as I waited for Zander to come clean on why he was all squirrely and flustered.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind who is here or who I meet first, but I pray that he isn’t about to tell me that I can’t do training like I usually do because, by the looks of things, there isn’t a single woman on site, now I don’t know what to expect and not expect around here but I really, really hope l am wrong in what I am thinking right now.

“Umm… So we do things a little differently around here,” He mumbles, rubbing the back of his neck, darting his eyes around, not meeting mine. I wait for him to continue before jumping in. I can feel Kia all excited about the prospect of being around other people and training.

He sighs before letting it all out, “Women don’t usually train.” He said, almost cringing a little as Kia bubbles to the surface. I am one hundred per cent sure she is showing in my eyes right now, and I try to hold her back because she is just as pissed off as I am.

With what happened to his mother, you would think that he or his father would encourage everybody to participate in training because I sure hope he knows I’m not going to be the type of Luna that sits back and holds tea parties at the pack house.

I want to be involved in everything, from Patrol runs to pack business to the hospitals and children. It’s already similar to what I did before as Beta. I helped Auntie and Mum all the time.

“By choice or direction?.” I grind out.

I don’t know what to think or expect what they want me to do as Luna, but my first thing will be to change this stupid rule.

Zander shrugs, “It’s always how it has been as long as I remember. No one has ever brought it up, but the people who look after the vulnerable and children get basic training, but that’s about it.”

“So, will we be joining it today?” I ask, trying to calm Kia down and not letting her show as much, I know it’s not technically his fault, but it still rubs off the wrong way.

“l can ask. I’m sure Richie will be fine with it, and I’lI have to let them know you are my mate,” he says, carefully watching me for any reaction.

I nod and quickly grab my tights from the back seat, slip them on, and throw my Jeans in the back as Zander links Richie, letting him know we are joining the training today.

I’m glad I didn’t have to persuade him too much for that. After all of this pent-up energy, I needed an outlet.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to spar against someone, and he’s not so funky about that.

A few minutes later, we are walking out to the training field. There has to be at least a full house this morning with about 200 people. I can see a tall bulkier gentleman standing up the front with a singlet top and loose shorts, which is what most of the guys around here are wearing.

All of them are huge, with enormous mussels and toned legs. Some of the younger ones are off to the back, roughing each other up, while the older ones are standing around chatting.

A few of them notice Zander walking towards whom I assume is Richie, and others start eyeing me, some with curious looks, and a few of them have their wolves peeking through, which I would only assume because l still scent like Liverpool.

I wait off to the side as Zander speaks to the man in front. All these unnecessary stares start to make me uncomfortable. I shift back and forth on my heels, waiting a little longer before turning and making my way towards Zander when a familiar voice calls out and stops me in my tracks.

“I’m glad he finally came to his senses and got his head out of his a-ss.”

I whip back around and breathe a sigh of relief. ” ,Daniel?”

Daniel walks up, flanked by two guys of similar age and height. I’ve seen the shaggy blond one before, he’s nearly always hanging around with Zander at school, but the other one, I don’t think l’ve seen as much, if at all. I try to remember if he was at Chloe’s party, but honestly, that night is such a blur for me.

Daniel grabs me and brings me into a hug surprising me with such affection, I try and wriggle out of it quickly to not cause a scene, but I know my efforts have failed when I hear a growl behind me and stomping towards us.

I’m pulled away from Daniel and back into Zander with such force that I nearly stumble and have to grab onto his arm for support.

“Relax, bro, I was just saying, Hello,” he says with his hands up in surrender and neck bared in submission. I can feel Jace’s possessiveness rolling off in waves. I steal a peek over Daniel’s shoulder, and most of the people standing around us have silenced and submitted.

The two guys behind him have their necks bared and eyes cast down.

“Jace, it’s ok. He was saying hello,” I whisper, lifting a hand to him and leaning into him, trying to calm the tension using our bond, his golden eyes snap down to mine, and I can see him and Zander fighting for control as his eyes flicker..

“Mine”, he snarls towards Daniel before relinquishing control to Zander.

Well, there goes my chances of potentially sparing with anyone this morning.

If he was already like that with his Beta, there is no way he would let me spar against a random.