Chapter 3

Raven POV

The training grounds are on the other side of the pack lands behind our main packhouse. Our packhouse is suppose to hold the unmated wolves and any in need of safety or a home like the orphans or elderly. In my pack though, only the Alpha and Beta families lives there because they dont want to deal with others or have to worry about taking care of the weaker members which to them are inconvenient and dont hold any use. You would think they would just move out of the packhouse into one of the houses next to it, but why would selfish people give up such a huge house, or more like a mansion. The packhouse has 3 floors where the first floor holds the kitchen, a huge living room with a 60" inch tv, a game room that holds atleast 5 different game consoles with tvs lining all 4 walls and a pool table. The second floor is made up of the Beta family with their own apartment type room that holds 4 bedrooms, a small kitchen, and a living room. The top floor holds the Alpha suite which is similar to the Beta suite, but larger in size and holds the Alpha's office. The Packhouse use to hold 20 rooms on the 2nd floor and 10 rooms on the top floor, but after the decision to kick everyone out they did some remodeling and turned it soley into the Beta and Alpha suite. Don't get me wrong the packhouse is absolutely gorgeous regardless of the selfish pricks that live in it. The outside is made up of white bricks with a gold trim around the windows and a huge front porch surrounded by flowers of all kinds. The backyard consists of a huge garden full of roses, daidies, marigolds and pretty much any flower you can imagine with a fountain in the middle that has a wolf in the center howling, the water comes out the wolfs mouth making it a relaxing fountain to come sit in front of.

The training grounds are just a huge clearing behind the packhouse surrounded by trees that close us off and keep us hidden from others. Especially visiting Alphas becasue they might be our enemy one day and it would be a serious disadvantage if they were able to learn about our fighting tactics. Walking into the training grounds I spot my only and best friend Penelope, she is an Omega which is the lowest rank of the pack, and many do not agree with her wanting to train. Omegas are used for cooking and cleaning becasue they are considered so weak, but of course they would be weak if they never get the chance to train. I have been personally training Penelope for the last year due to no one else being willing to waste any of their precious time to help someone out. Penelope finally notices me walking up and starts waving like an excited child, she is always happy which makes her sucha  good friend to me because I have a hard time looking on the bright side of life.

"Hey Penelope, sorry I'm running a little behind today. I hope no one gave you shit while you were waiting for me."

"Hey girl, that bitch Heather decided to throw some insults while walking by. Don't worry its nothing I havent heard before." she said with a touch of sadness in her voice.

Its not right that they treat the lower ranks with such cruelty and hostility. I'm the daughter of a Top Warrior which puts me higher up in the ranks, but not enough to avoid the insults and some pushes and shoves. The worst ones are Heather, the Gamma's daughter, and Maximus, the Beta's son, who go out of their way to pick on Penelope and me. I dont know why they do it, we stay out of their way and rarely run into them but they somehow always find us. I think Heather is just jealous becasue she hasn't trained a day in her life which makes her weak and not suitable for the higher ranks she is trying to get mated to. Right now she is dating Maximus and has been for the last couple years, but we all know she is trying to become the chosen mate of either the Beta or Alpha so she can tell people what to do without question.

"I dont know what Heather's problem is with you. You have never done anything to her and you go out of your way to avoid her. Maybe she's jealous an Omega is more trained and stronger than she is." i said laughing which got Penelope out of her sad mood and she laughed right along with me.

"Let's get started on training so I can kick her ass one of these days if you dont beat me to it.  I can't wait til the day someone puts that girl in her place and I hope to the Goddess its one of us that gets that honor." she barely got out through her laughs, but shes right we should start our training for the day.

After we finished up our little conversation we started with our warm ups and the 20 mile run, which seems like a lot but wolves have higher stamina and speed than a normal human so a 20 mile run only takes us about an hour. Once we got back we started on our hand to hand combat which we have to be seperated for due to our difference in strength and skill, She gets paired with one of the weaker females and I get paired with one of the stronger males. I am only 1 year off from being the strongest of all female and male warriors and I will do everything in my power to make it to the position and make my father proud of me.

4 hours later and training was over for us so I walked Penelope to the packhouse to start her cleaning duties and I walked the long walk home to hopefully get there before my mother gets home. Right as I opened the front door I felt my head snap to the side with no idea what happened until I turned my face forward and noticed my mother was wasted and had just hit me.

"Where have you been?! You were suppose to be home an hour ago and you're just now getting home! Did you expect me to make lunch for myself or clean the kitchen?! You are worthless and ungrateful. I ask you to do simple things and in exchange you're allowed to live in this house to have a roof over your head and you don't even do what's asked!" she says this while screaming in my face and all I can smell is the vodka on her breath knowing it's going to be a rough night.

No one knows of the way she treats me and I want to keep it that way. I know my father would be disappointed in his mate so I atleast want the pack to see her as just a grieving mate and it's not like anyone would help me even if I did say something. I usually zone out her rants about me, but all of a sudden my mother just stopped and slumped to the ground unconcious.

"Mom, are you ok? what's wrong?" I said as i kneeled down, but I got no response from her and I could barely hear her heartbeat. I immediately called the pack doctor and he came running over with a couple warriors and they rushed her to the pack hospital without saying a word to me.

I hope she's ok