Chapter 3

My knee bounced restlessly as I chewed my cheek and stared forward at the whiteboard. Classes were short in this high school, an accelerated curriculum to allow the entire afternoon dedicated to training. Thankfully this meant we didn’t have a lot of time to mingle, but that also meant there wasn’t any time set for me to greet any of the other students. Some glanced at me curiously as they had come to class, but I had spoken to no one and kept my head down. So much for not being a coward..

‘You can make friends at training’ Nya said sleepily

‘Somehow I don’t think they’ll be impressed by my weakness’ I thought back to her

I turned back to my notebook and continued to take notes, trying to keep up with everything being taught. A girl next to me slid a paper onto my desk without taking her eyes off her own notebook. She had a mane of wild brown and gold curls, and tanned skin, I couldn’t see her face but I nervously unfolded the note.

“Rank?” Was all the note said and my stomach sank.

This pack was entirely built on a ranking system, my aunt had spent the drive home from the airport explaining it, there was the elite tier, the best of the best, Alpha Abel held that spot, along with his beta and another warrior. After that there was the gold tier, this tier had 5 in each rank, gold 1, gold 2, and gold 3 for a total of 15 gold wolves. The silver tier was made up of 60 wolves, 20 in each rank. Bronze tier was where a majority of wolves ranked, it was made up of 150 wolves, 50 in each rank. And lastly there was the Iron tier, a lowly group of wolves who couldn’t make the cut. My aunt explained there were about 37 wolves in this, 20 in the iron 1 rank, 11 in rank 2, and 6 in rank 3, which was essentially labeled worthless. Iron rank 3 actually had 7 now that I had joined..

Fear flickered across my face as I glanced over at her, she met my gaze with soft brown eyes, flecks of gold and red in her irises. She gave me a small grin and slid another paper over.

“I thought so, I heard my rank gained a new member last week”

I gasped and looked up at her, she winked and went back to her notes. The relief I felt at the prospect of a friend was palpable and I couldn’t keep the slight grin off my face as I turned back to taking notes.

My aunt had warned me that the ranking system was taken seriously, that climbing in rank was a brutal goal, and that I shouldn’t expect any kindness outside of my rank. I hadn’t planned on fighting too hard to get out of iron, but moving up a rank or two wouldn’t be terrible. My aunt was in gold rank 2, and kicked my ass without hesitation the first night. Something about me smelling weak.

Class ended at 12 and my ass was sore from sitting for 4 hours, the girl next to me slung her bag over her shoulder and looped her arm through mine,

“I’m Leah, I’m so excited to have someone new join us.” She chatted cheerfully and I smiled at her

“I’m Jess” I mumbled and she tugged me along toward training, chatting nonstop and not seeming to mind I wasn’t saying much. She led us to a locker room and started to strip without even a second of hesitation

“So yeah, I shifted when I was 12 and honestly my parents thought I had to be the strongest of my siblings, since all my brothers didn’t shift until 14, but it turns out I’m the wimp of the family. They don’t mind too much since Klein fought up to silver 3 last year.” Leah stopped only as she pulled her head through her shirt, “and that took a lot of pressure off of the rest of us honestly. So what about you? Why did you move out here?”

I fidgeted with my shirt, not being used to changing in front of anyone “I just needed something new..” I said quietly, “we didn’t have many training options at my old pack, so my parents thought it would be good for me to train here”

Leah nodded in understanding “I get that, our parents want us to be strong, but honestly I’m just dying to meet my mate, I hope he’s strong and wants lots of pups”

I laughed at this and she smiled at me, she kept chatting away about all the things she was hoping to do once she met her mate. I finally talked myself into whipping my clothes off and changing into my training outfit, nodding along with Leahs continued string of chatter. As I leaned down to grab my sneakers, they were kicked across the locker room and giggles rang out.

“Oops, didn’t see you there” a tall blonde with perfectly curled hair and long tan legs smirked at me “hard to see such low ranking  trash”

Her pack of giggling goons cackled and she flicked her hair over her shoulder as her green eyes sparkled with amusement. I hung my head in submission and scurried off to grab my shoes. I heard a low growl from Leah and turned to see the blonde shove my new friend back against a locker.

“I’d keep that mutt of a wolf chained up Leah, or I’ll have to remind her of how weak iron scum really is” she pushed her again before turning and heading to her own locker, the other girls snickering and trailing behind.

Leah rubbed her shoulder where the blonde had shoved her and her cheeks were pink, she met my eye and muttered quietly,

“Chrissy, her and her friends are bronze rank 1 and they’re a nightmare” she shook her head before scooping up her curls and tying them into a high pony tail. “She used to be in Iron, but she’s been sleeping with a bunch of the guys in silver and they’ve been training her, what I wouldn’t give to kick her ass”

“We should then” I said firmly as I finished tying my laces

“What??”

“We should train up and kick her ass” I said with a shrug “goals are good motivators”

Leahs eyes were wide as she looked at me, “it’s really tough to climb, and I really don’t care about rank”

“You want to impress your mate when you find him? No better way than to be able to kick some ass” I said with a grin, Leah smiled back and nodded

“I think you’re on to something” She chewed her lip and we stared at each other

“So let’s make a pact to train hard?” I asked holding out my hand to her, she paused before shaking it and nodding excitedly

“You’re on!” Her eyes seemed to light up, the red and gold flecks glowing “I can’t wait to kick some blonde slut ass” we laughed and headed out to the training field.