Chapter 16
ANNA
Stevens led me out a door to a tarmac area.
I carried my bag over my shoulder with my other hand in my pocket as I looked out to a field filled with men and women doing various forms of fighting and training. The shouts of barked orders and group answers floated from the field to my ears.
I cringe and shake my head as Stevens heads to a red wood plank one story building. Just under the roof was a sign on the wall that read ‘Falcon Ridge’. I look to the other buildings…
White Rock
Red Rock
Black Rock
Caledon
Black Lake
Each building was for each pack in the Alliance.
He lead me to a door on the right side that had a sign that read ‘She Wolves' OK my guess is the guys go through the other door. They must not like fraternizing here.
He opened the door and walked in. “Donovan!” He says in a guttural tone.
From a room just off to the side, a large, very muscular woman answers the call and steps out to meet us. “Yes, Alpha.” She says in a monotone fashion. I arch a brow and look her over. You’ve got to be kidding me.
“I have your recruit. Riker, this is Alpha Donovan. She’ll be your housing director and will get you set up. Change and be on the field in twenty minutes.” Stevens grunts.
He turns to Donovan. “Have fun with this one.” He shoots me another glare and walks out.
I eye Donovan cautiously. She pushes past me. “Your bunk is down here.”
“Excuse me? My bunk?” I watch her open a door on the other side of the room.
“Yes. Follow me.” She says sharply.
I follow her and enter a large room where the walls are lined with bunk beds and a wide aisle down the center.
I hold up a hand. “Ok, wait. I have to share a room with a bunch of strangers? You’re kidding right?”
She turns to me. “No, princess. I’m not kidding. Last bed row 1. You’re uniform is on the bed. Change and be at my office in 5 minutes.” She scowls, turns and leaves the room.
I look up the aisle, wrap my arms around myself and walk toward the back. On the left hand, bottom bunk, sat a folded pile of light and dark blue clothes. A pair of military boots sat on the floor.
I walk to the last bed in the row and pick up the t-shirt. It’s an ugly crew neck with ‘Falcon Ridge Training Unit’ written on the right side of the chest.
I flop the shirt down to my thighs. “I can’t fucking believe this.”
I get changed in the ugly ass uniform and leave sleeping quarters. I’ve been here five minutes and already I want to commit murder.
I step into the front room.
“Tuck in that shirt!!” Donovan scare the shit out of me as she yells from her office.
She storms out of the office and closes the gap between us. “We do not tolerate slackers here! You will be dressed properly or face discipline!” She yells in my face.
“Alright! Sorry!” I yell back.
“That’s Yes, ALPHA TO YOU!!”
“Yes, Alpha!” I shout. I need this woman out of my zone before I fucking deck her one.
She points to the door. “Report to Stevens!” She orders.
I roll my eyes and huff.
She puts her nose to mine. “If you don’t get rid of that attitude right now, I’ll have you on your knees scrubbing this whole floor.”
I cross my arms and narrow my eyes. “You wouldn’t.”
She snarls her lip. “With a one bristled toothbrush. I dare you to fucking test me.”
We have a staring contest. A battle of wills before she points to the door again. “NOW, MOVE!!”
My mouth is small as I give her one last glare. I walk past her and out the wooden door to the tarmac. The fucking woman is on my last nerve.
I see Stevens at the edge of the field. Donovan is behind me.
She stops me and I cross my arms with a leg kicked out. Stevens eyes me.
Donovan looks at me, narrows her eyes and turns to Stevens. “Good luck, sir. You’ll need it.” She growls and stomps off.
I squint at her and watch her leave. When I turn back, Stevens is closer than I would like.
“So we have an attitude problem.” He places his hands on his hips.
I meet his stare. “And you all have anger issues.” I growl.
He juts out his chin. He grabs the back of my neck and pushes me to the field.
“HEY! GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!” I yell.
He stops, places his head near my ear and points. “See that track…” He spins me around. “You run 40 laps.”
“What?”
“50 LAPS!”
“That’s not fair!” I shout.
“60!!” He yells louder.
“You…”
“Do you want a hundred!” His eyes flare at me.
“No.” I grumble.
“No…WHAT!” His face is all kinds of red.
“No, sir.” I grind.
“MOVE!”
Reluctantly I run across to the field and start running my laps.
Who the fuck would ever join this place voluntarily?! I’m going to snap if I don’t get out of here soon.
****
Three days in, I’m plotting the numerous ways to disembowel an Alpha in my brain as I run the track, do planks and sit ups and scrub toilets for being mouthy. At this point, prison is looking good.
The only good thing is I’ve made a couple friends here.
Fiona. My bunk mate. 22 and a little too happy, but she’s tolerable. She cheers me up when I’m thinking of ripping off Stevens head and shoving it up his ass with the stick that's up there.
She tells me she joined because the pack she’s from doesn’t have a lot of opportunities for wolves like her. She’s from the poorer side of town and things were just getting too expensive so she lives here.
Fiona is a great sparring partner too. She’s about two inches shorter than me and has wild curly light brown hair with huge brown eyes. She’s the last person I’d picture in the military.
The one bonus happened earlier today…
River.
My heart skipped a beat when I saw him standing in front of me. I will admit, he looked damn sexy in his uniform with his military issue ball cap. It was hard to take him seriously after our nature romp. He demanded I do, so for now, I’ll humor him.
I will say one thing. Having him in front of me barking his orders. It went straight to my core. I was so wet and aroused, I wanted to jump him on the field. If he keeps ordering me around like that, I will.
That’s if I don’t get put on front of the council first.
“I swear, I’m going to mess people up.” I grit as we run through the circuits.
“Oh come on, Anna. It’s not that bad, once you get used to it.” She smiles at the top of her sit up. “That Alphas not too bad. He’s almost kind of fun.”
My eyes wander the lines to River making corrections. He meets my gaze and gives a little smile. I send him one back. There’s definitely something there that I want to pursue, I just don’t know if I can do it while this place pisses me off so much.
“Riker!”
My head whips to Stevens who’s standing at the end of my row. My mouth went small and eyes wide.
He scowls at me. “Get back to work!” He yells.
I go back to my sit ups. “Yep. I’m gonna kill him.”
Fiona giggles and shakes her head.
****
After the morning training is done, we break for lunch.
I walk with Fiona to the dining hall. She walks with her hands behind her back and she practically bouncing in her toes. “So…I saw the eyes you gave to the Alpha. He didn’t look disappointed to see them either. You going to tell me what’s going on?” She smirks at me.
I double take her and look forward. “Nothing. We just met outside of the unit and I was just…saying hi.”
She tilts her head to me. “I’m not new, Anna. I saw the smiles. There’s something there.”
I shrug. “I don’t know. He’s cute, that’s for sure, but I don’t do relationships.”
She ticks her head. “You never know. You two look adorable together.”
I scrunch my face and look at her. “Ya think?”
“Oh yeah.” She swoons. “I totally see you two together.”
We pass through the doors into the packed dining hall. It’s filled with long picnic tables. The entire training Unit can fit in this room.
As we walk up the aisle to where you get your lunch tray, I see those baby blues. He catches mine and runs his fingers through his shiny black hair. He leans on the table and places his finger on his temple. As I get closer, I get a private link.
‘Looking sexy, baby girl.’ He’s tone is extremely cocky.
I look at him and arch a brow as I pass . ‘Really? You’re going to come at me with that?’
‘You don’t like compliments?’
‘I like compliments from hearts, not dicks.’
‘Ouch.’
‘Thank you.’ I look to his back. ‘You looked extremely yummy today too.’
‘Really? Want to meet somewhere and talk?’ He turns his head slightly over his shoulder. My guess is he doesn’t want his friends to know his private life. I don’t know why he’d have to hide it.
‘Place and time, soldier boy.’ I smirk to myself.
‘Okay. Behind the White Rock Barrack building. Ten minutes.’ He links as he gets up and walks his tray to the garbage beside me.
‘Behind the buildings? What are you a school kid?’ I eye him as he puts his garbage in the bin and the tray on the stack of dirty one on the counter of the kitchen.
‘I’ll explain when I see you. Ten minutes.’ His eyes return to his normal hot ones and he winks at me with a small smile.
I smile back. He’s obviously being secretive, the question is why? Only one way to find out.