***Unknown POV***
The only light in the office is coming from the computer screen, and all of my senses are alert and waiting for danger. If I get caught doing this it could ruin me, but she deserves this and more for being from such a weak pack. How dare she keep stealing what is mine, over and over again. Everyone loves her and thinks she is such a good little soldier. Screw this, I worked for it and she swooped in at the last minute to take it from me. Well, now neither of us will be able to attend. Let's see how she likes rejection for the first time in her life. I navigate to her personnel record, maybe I should look around to see what skeletons she has in her closet of pity parties for the lost pack. That pack was weak, and it got what it deserved. If they were stronger, they would have been able to protect themselves from the rogues that killed them all and burnt down their homes. Too bad she wasn't there when the rogues came. Maybe then I would have gotten the posting I deserved in the Protector's Guard.
He was supposed to help make sure I was put on the Protector's Guard, but doesn't want to cause any suspicion meddling in military affairs. I get it, it was the one thing I was supposed to earn as part of our deal. Foolish jerk doesn't realize that there is so much more going on than he thinks. He thinks he is in charge of anything, but I set this all in motion. I will be the one that succeeds where those warlocks failed 1,300 years ago. He is just a pawn sitting high and pretty in the palace. I will have to work another way to get into the palace.
F**K! I think I heard a door opening downstairs. No time to check her records, but I can still cancel her orders to the Officer Leadership Academy. Just one more moment... and done! Stupid twit wouldn't pass the course anyways, like she could ever be an officer. Now all I need to do is sneak out without being noticed, which shouldn't be hard. It isn't like I have been noticed since she came along.
***Rolf's POV***
As I am walking back up to the training fields, I link Axel. Dude, where are you? I had a call with my uncle and need to work out some of that sparring tonight.
Hahahahah man, you know at some point he is going to call me to hog tie you and bring you back. I won't but I expect you to break me out of the dungon.
Axel was part of the agreement. I was lucky enough that my best friend was deemed enough of a bodyguard to keep me from needing a squad of Protectors following me around. He is also the only one here, other than General Onyx, that knows exactly who I am.
You should have been here, there were a couple of year fours down here sparring. They look pretty good. May want to recommend them for the P-Squad in a couple years.
Just because you are going to have straight laced and be a Protector doesn't mean you get to choose your squad.
How do you think your uncle convinced me to slum it out here with you all these years? Plus, this chick is pretty hot, she came down to help pop in the others chick's shoulder. Not a sound out of the fighter but that looks like it hurt like hell.
You know they are soldiers in training, right? I can't see anything but a little yellow chick getting a broken wing when you call them that.
You're the one that needs to be politically correct, I only have to worry about making sure no one breaks your wings.
As I walk up, I see Axle standing by the bleachers watching some of the sparring groups. He is a few inches talker than me, and is vain enough to constantly be at the gym maintaining his massive build. He is the only wolf that makes me feel small when I am standing next to him. If his size wasn't enough to make him stand out in a crowd, the red hair he keeps cut short makes him easy to spot.
There are only four groups out there since it is Friday night. I only see one female soldier standing with a male at the other end of the grounds talking. Axle keeps looking over toward her, and then back to one of the sparring groups.
"Hey, miacid, where are the soldiers you think should be on the squad?" Calling someone a miacid is like calling a human a neanderthal, which is much nicer than Axel deserves sometimes.
"The guy over there with the hottie is one of them. Not sure where the other chi... I mean other soldier went." Axel did look like he got his paw caught in the cookie jar saying that, so at least there is some shame.
"Any of these groups catch your eye?" I asked while looking around the four groups, I didn't see anything that stood out as spectacular. They were all pretty good though. Considering they were all sparring on a Friday night, these are the groups of wolves that take their training seriously.
"Not really, but it was a good idea to come out to the fields instead of the gym tonight. That doesn't mean you won't need to get that work out done before bed tonight though." Axel's focus on my physical training is another reason I like to keep him around. I get too deep in studying strategy that I wouldn't leave the lecture halls if he didn't make me.
"Alright, let's get to it." I sigh, already having the stress of going home weighing on my mind let alone the weights that Axel will have me carrying later.
***Thyra's POV*** My weekend was the same as always, sleep, train, study, eat, sleep, rinse, repeat. Friday evening, I calmed down from that rage monster that was building. So, I did do something a little different to distract me this morning. I am starting at the results in the mirror of my barracks room now. Since I was 16, I have kept my hair cut to my shoulders tucked back in braids. I needed to focus on something other than my anger, and I took some clippers to my hair and buzzed off most of the right side of my hair. My scalp is only a little paler than my complexation, but I have always been pale. My black hair is combed over to the left side of my head, showing off the new style I gave myself. I look into my murky green eyes, and thank the Goddess that I got bored with cutting my hair before shaving all of it off in frustration. Ana has clinic hours and isn't in our barracks suite right now. She has always been the one that cares for anyone else, the pack mom of our little g
***Thyra's POV*** After lunch, I was on my tablet trying to finish the prerequisite reading list for the Officer's Leadership Academy. I will have to report to the academy a week from Monday, and plan to be in Capitol City in a week to get my living quarters established and scope out the new area. I've never been to Capitol City, the largest city I have been to isn't even a quarter the size of Capitol City. And I will be leaving Mak, Ana, and Kenny behind here at Lyngvi Training Garrison. The academy is usually for year six cadets, but they accept one year four or year five cadet each year. It is an application process I completed after losing a bet with Kenny. I didn't expect to be chosen, but he claims he knew it would happen the entire time. Usually, year six is the year we focus our training on our specific fields. Ana will apprentice in a clinic at a garrison, and Mak will be out with a scouting unit at a field unit near the border of The Darkness. Or if she is lucky, she will
***Rolf's POV*** The small city outside Lyngvi has all the amenities you would expect, but with a focus on getting soldiers to part with their monthly paychecks from the Regency. Everything, restaurants, clubs, tattoo parlors, car dealerships, and even some of the seedy strip joints that started popping up more and more since the mate bonds of the past started to fail to happen. From what I read, it started before The Darkness emerged from the warlock tribes of Somsak. It feels like a myth at this point that mating bonds ever existed. The best investigators still only assume what actually happened, but as the story goes, The Darkness was in response to a warlock that fell in love with a prophetess. She was lycan, and his fear was she would find her true mate. So, he kept her locked away in Somsak, and tried to convince her to stay with him and return his love. Then one day, the royalty from Osvald arrived in Somsak to hold diplomatic trade discussions. As King Oran was touring Somsa
***Rolf's POV***Grandma Petiet is in her element. She flits around table to table in the small diner, like a humming bird floats from flower to flower. The place is casual, and she seems to treat us all like we were invited to her own dining room for a meal. As she walks over to us her smile brightens, instead of standing at the booth she scoots in next to Axel."Dear, I have fresh doughnuts frying for you right now to take home with you." Grandma Petiet turns from Axel to look at me. "And you don't get any of them after teasing this sweetheart about being obsessed with little more than dough, oil, and sugar. I heard you being a snot to this growing male right here," she leans over and attempts to nudge Axel's shoulder with hers, but really only comes up to a few inches past his elbow. Axel wrapped his arm around her shoulders for quick hug."Thank you Nana! I keep telling him that the main ingredient isn't dough but love from your hands that roll it out." Axel gives Grandma a peck o
***Thyra's POV***Today feels like Muphy's Law decided to set up camp and follow me around. In the Army, we all like to joke about it. The thing you need, broken or disappeared, the weather is going to be crap for training. Or in my case, the travel approval orders you were supposed to get to go to a leadership academy aren't there when you need to start turning in equipment to get ready for that move. Murphy's Law is basically, anything that can go wrong will go wrong, usually, at the worst possible time. Of course, while I was standing around the supply office trying to turn in gear, I don't need to take with me the hard ass behind the desk said she couldn't accept anything because her system didn't show my orders.As I walk to the Admin Shop for the garrison, I get a chance to look around at all the activity on post. Creatures that are just getting ready to start year one in gaggles while waiting to get their own supplies issued, or heading toward the barracks that year one's share
***Rolf's POV***Looking down at Axel on the ground wasn't something I could brag about last year. We came to the training fields to spar before lunch. I had just gotten done with another one of the hand-to-hand combat sessions with one of the Finrir Elite trainers. And right now I was gloating just a little, and I hold my hand out to help Axel get up."OK, you need to explain that move to me, that was pretty good," Axel said as he got up, but bent over with his hands on his hips. "Just give me a moment, that knocked the wind out of me.""Hollis showed me that one. His training the only reason I was OK with Onyx changing the normal training schedule for me a little this year," I reply while trying to keep the gloating to a minimum."You think that the general would be willing to smooth things over with the garrison commander, so I can get in on that course?" Axel grins a little as he doesn't quite mention the blow up with the commander last year."If he could have done that he would h
***Thyra's POV***We don't have anything personal decorating the barracks room. However, this has been home since year 2, and I am going to miss being here. The layout is like any other suite in the buildings that house year 2 through 6 cadets. There is a common area that is a sitting room and kitchenette combined. The sitting area has a couch, facing an entertainment center with a small television and bookshelves. The kitchenette has a small refrigerator and microwave along the wall with some cabinets. And a small countertop island that is between the kitchenette and sitting area. There is a hallway off the kitchenette that leads to the suites entrance. On the other side of the hallway are three small bedrooms and a bathroom to share. When you enter the door, the rooms are to the left, and directly on the right before getting to the kitchenette there is a storage closet for all of our military gear.This is where we really grew as a small family. I was lucky to be assigned a room wit
***Thyra’s POV*** Getting to the D-FAC is only a 7-minute walk from the barracks. Mak and I are seated in our normal area when Kenny walks up with his tray of food. He smiles when he sees us at the table and sets his tray down. Before sitting down, he ruffles Mak’s hair. “Why does it always take like 3 days before you don’t smell like The Darkness after your scouting missions?” He teases in a good naturedly. Then bending over, he sniffs at her hair and sighs in relief. “Seriously, you are the only one to complain about that. You should be a scout with what that nose could track,” Mak laughs as she ducks her head away from Kenny. This is what I will miss the most, the moments where we are all just relaxing and carefree. The mornings when we are rushing around the suite getting ready for classes and training that day. Or some of the movie nights where Mak is curled up with her head on Ana’s lap and Kenny is sitting on the floor in front of them throwing pop corn behind him at us. See