Chapter 17

Chapter 0017

“Good morning, Delta Kyle.” I greet respectfully.

“Good morning, Ashanti.” His scorching gaze hovers all over my face. “You look beautiful this morning.” His words jar in my ears like loud music. Did I hear him right? Did he just compliment me?

My eyes widen with surprise.

“Thank you.” I croak, still not daring to meet his gaze.

“You have your hair down, why’s that?” His eyes are trained on my head and that’s when I understand the reason why I’ve been feeling so hot and uncomfortable all this while. It’s because I haven’t tied my hair up.

“Oh…” a chuckle follows that exclamation. “ I … I actually forgot to tie it up even though I have a rubber band here with me.” I say pointing to the two rubber bands on my left wrist. I roll them out of my hand and the Delta steps forward.

“Let me help you.” He calmly offers.

What?

Before I know what’s going on, he takes the rubbers from my hand and gets behind me. I give Nelly as horrified look. She simply shrugs and walks away, smiling.

She’s leaving me to perish here. Alone.

“It’s all done.” Delta Kyle announces after a few minutes of fumbling with my hair and steps in front of me once again, beaming. My left hand goes up to my hair. He has indeed tied it up in a ponytail.

Wow.

“Thank you very much, Delta Kyle.” I thank him with my most charming smile.

“You are welcome. Jog with me.” He takes on his heels and I follow him, but when he sees that I’m struggling to keep up with his pace, he slows down for me.

What a gentleman!

“So tell me, which pack did you come from?”

“The Mystic Diamond Pack.” And once again, I leave out the fact that my father is Alpha of the

Pack.

“That’s nice.”

The rest of the jogging goes on in silence. By the time we complete the tenth round in the arena, I’m limp and breathless. I fall on the floor and suck in all the oxygen in the room. Delta Kyle remains standing as he laughs at me. He’s about to say something when the peaceful atmosphere is interrupted by loud laughing voices. We all turn to look at the entrance and see a group of soldiers walking into the arena, engaged in a very loud conversation, but the moment they see the Delta, they fall silent and bow their heads down before greeting him. He doesn’t respond. Instead, he says “You are late!”

tremble on my spot.

In a loud voice that makes me

He marches towards the men and I feel scared for them.

“Training starts at seven am for you soldiers, but it’s almost nine pm and you are still just arriving.

Aren’t you ashamed to see that the girls arrived before you guys?” The guys look at both Nelly and I. I cringe to death. “The punishment for your t a r d i es s is for you to jog one hundred times around this arena.”

“One hundred times!” The words fly out of my mouth before I can even stop myself from saying them. That earns me the attention of everyone in the area, including the Delta.

I want to crawl into a hole and die. Now!

Kyle turns to me. There’s a blank look on his face,

“Is it too much?” He asks calmly. I should shake my head. I should go on my knees and apologise for questioning his decision, but it seems my brain has chosen death for me because I say-

“Yes. It’s too much.” The Delta squints in

amusement. I can see Nelly flinching on my behalf.

“How much do you suggest I give them?”

“Ten feels like a fair punishment for late coming.”

“But we did ten and we weren’t late.” His voice is calm and gentle. He doesn’t sound annoyed by the fact that I’m challenging him. Instead, he seems to be enjoying it.

“Fifteen then.” I give a raise

“Fifty.” He bargains. Everyone is staring at us, definitely entertained by our little jogging-rounds

auction.

“Twenty.” I argue.

“Twenty-five. That’s final!” The firm look on his face makes me understand it’s not up for a debate anymore, so I nod my head.

“I guess twenty-five is less outrageous than one hundred.” I turn to the guys. “That’s the best I could do. I’m sorry.”

“You all better thank the pretty lady for advocating for you to have lesser jogging rounds.” All the men turn to look at me with genuine smiles on their faces.

“You are a blessing.” One shouts out to me as he gets in line to commence with his punishment.

“You are the best.” Another adds.

“We love you!” He blows me kisses as he joins his friends. I’m almost out of breath from laughing too much. My stomach is hurting. Delta Kyle leads their jogging squad while Nelly comes to meet me.

I swear these guys are the best.

“Look who just gained favor in the eyes of the combat masters.”

“They are all very nice men.

“They sure are.”

This arena is officially my safe haven in this pack.