Chapter 4

Octavia:

I gasped awake from my horrid dream. No, it wasn't a dream but a nightmare. The awful flashbacks of the night I was taken by my "mate" swirl through my mind again. I shove the blankets off of my body, feeling hot and claustrophobic. I glance over at the clock that read 3:47am.

I roll my eyes and jump out of bed and head towards the bathroom. I turn the light on and give myself a glance in the mirror. I looked like an absolute mess, my hair was all over the place and my eyes had decently sized bags hanging on to them.

I turn the water on to its coldest setting and wet my face. It made me feel a bit better seeing how I was almost sweating buckets.  I gripped the sink leaning forward and taking in a deep breath. I didn't want to be stuck here, but the pain was unbearable and if Ajax is to be believe it would last for days. I could never make it all the way back home in that state. I would have to lay on the ground in the middle of the forest and suffer until it just magically went away? That sounds insane.

I drag my way back to bed and yank the blankets well over my head. I've never felt so lost and confused. I wish for the sleep to come back, to take me away. And it did.

***

"Rise and shine my beautiful pumpkin!" Cipher chirped happily in my ear, seeing as she was practically on top of me. I groaned and shoved her away before pushing my face into the pillow. Maybe I'll suffocate and die. What a happy thought...

Just kidding, I value my life and plan on seeing my amazing family once again. I look up at the clock that sat on the night stand. 6:00am. Great, I had only got two extra hours of sleep. I turn over in bed just in time to see Cipher emerge from the closet with clothes in her hands.

"Let's go, girlie! We're gunna be late!" Ugh why is she screaming? Wait maybe that's just me, since I did just wake up. She tugged my arm and pulled me out of bed. She handed me some workout clothes and told me to change and "don't bother to shower".

I did as I was told, not in the mood to put up a fight. I brushed my teeth and combed my hair back into a high ponytail before changing into the high waisted spandex leggings and sports bra. I exit the bathroom and Cipher wastes no time has she shoves a pair of socks and running shoes in my arms.

I sigh, "Why are we doing this so early?" I take a seat on my bed and put on my socks and then sneakers. Do other people do it like that as well? Or do they put on one sock and then a shoe? No, they can't. That's so stupid. Wait why am I so concerned about that?

"Alpha's orders. We do spontaneous training sessions at anytime of the day to make sure we're always ready just in case of an attack." She explains as she looks herself over in the mirror. We were wearing very similar outfits but her hair was in two French braids. I envied her beauty, it was like she was crafted from the goddess herself. She was tall and lean, yet dainty and girly at the same time.

I, on the other hand, am short like pumpkin and have dull brown hair and dull mundane features. I could feel my wolf become angry for comparing ourselves to another, but I couldn't help it. I was always insecure about my height, other she-wolves are so tall and gorgeous and I'm the size of an elderly human.

"Are you even listening to me?" Cipher pulled me out of my train of thought. I look over at her to see her standing with her hands on her hips. I smile sheepishly.

"I'm sorry. I zoned out."

"Of course you did." She rolls her eyes playfully and tugs me off the bed and out of my room. Which if I could, I would never leave that room. I hated this place. I hated living with him.

"In my defense, I didn't sleep all the great last night."

"Really? Because from what I saw you were sleeping like a little baby, drooling ." She let out a small giggle and my cheeks flushed red.

"I was not drooling!" I exclaimed as we closed the front door behind us.

"Oh sure, because it's not like I didn't see it with my own eyes." She says jokingly.

I give her small nudge with my elbow as a smile over comes my lips. She gave me a warm smile and for a second she reminded me a my best friend Siren. She always knew how to cheer me up and make me feel better and now Cipher is doing the same.

"Come on, before the big bad Alpha tears my head off for not being on time." She giggles and gives me another tug in the direction of the gym and training field.

Everyone from the age of sixteen through forty-five was either here in the large gym or outside on the training field. I scanned the room, my eyes unknowingly searching for him. There were so many people though and I couldn't find him. Maybe he was outside. Wait, why do I even care?

"Come on, let's warm up outside with a run and then I'll teach you the rules of sparring." Cipher said as we begin to make our way through the large gym. The whole backside of it was glass, revealing all the people training outside.

"The rules of sparring?" I questioned.

"There's only two rules really, but I don't want to freak you out too soon. I won't put you to spar in the ring just yet, but I do want to lay down some points and hints since I don't really know how you trained back home." She explained as she nodded over to the ring in the center of the room where two large men were going at each other as if they were actual enemies.

We ran outside on the track for a good twenty minutes. I had no problem keeping up with Cipher even though her legs were longer than mine. All my life I had to deal with being the short one and so I've pushed myself to train harder and run faster until I could keep up with some of the best warriors in my pack.

We brought our running down to a short jog and began talking about simple things. I had asked Cipher if she had a boyfriend and she all but laughed in my face which was actually quite funny.

"The last boyfriend I had was when I was twelve and let's just say he was very heartbroken at the end of that 'relationship'." I couldn't help but giggle along with her.

"You're gorgeous though, surely guys must hit on you all the time. How many offers have you had to be mated?" I ask curiously. I was genuinely shocked that she didn't have a boyfriend. Someone like her could probably get whomever she pleased.

"You're so cute and naive," She smiled down at me. "And I've had a lot of offers but none of them are really my type."

"So then what is your type?" I asked teasingly. Do people really have types? What does that even really mean? You can't help whom you fall in love with, therefore no one really has a type.

"Oh you know," She says casually as we continued to jog. "Tall, blonde, and a total badass."

"I think you just described more the half of the male werewolf population." I laugh a bit and looked around almost immediately spotting about five blonde guys who were tall and super cute. There's something she's definitely leaving out.

"Jesus Octavia," She said whilst trying to hide her amusement. "Do I have to spell it out for you?"

"Erm... Maybe?"

She rolled her eyes at me once more and I playfully shoved her. "Come on! Spit it out, I'm dying to know why you aren't mated yet."

"I like girls."

My jaw dropped and how I managed to keep jogging was a shock to me. Holy shit, I totally never would've guessed that. And now I feel like a complete moron.

"Omg all of those poor guys must've been so disappointed to find out you don't love men." I say sympathetically while on the other hand she bursted out into laughter and stopped jogging. I stopped along with her and couldn't help but smile at how out of the breath she was from laughing.

"You're so funny, Octavia. I wanna just put you in my pocket and bring you everywhere I go." She says once she catches her breath.

"I am not small enough to fit in your pocket." I huff and cross my arms across my chest.

"Almost." She shrugs trying not too break up into laughter once more. I shoot her a glare but she ignores it and grabs a hold of my wrist, tugging me off the track.

"Onto sparring," She says once we reach the open field where the rest of the pack members are fighting as well. She stands across from me and I look up at her awaiting for her direction. "We only have two rules when it comes to this. The first one is, no attempting to murder someone. If the Alpha or the council find you guilty of attempting to murder a pack member at anytime you are either exiled or sentenced to death. The second rule is if you do manage to kill someone during sparring, you lose your life. The council does not need to be addressed. The Alpha will handle it."

"Does that happen often?" I ask curiously as I look around at all of the people sparring around me.

"It has happened a few times, but not recently."

I nods my head at her words, "So, who am I sparring up against?"

"Me." She smirks before attempting to throw a punch at me.

I duck quickly and take a fighting stance, with my feet spread slightly and my fist up. "Thanks for the warning." I say sarcastically.

"The are no warnings during wars." She points out before taking another swing at me. I duck once again but this time when I come up I jab her in the stomach and kick her in the side.

She lands a punch in my chin but I quickly deflect the rest of them and bring my knee into her gut. She doubles over for a second and I take it as an opportunity to knee her in the chin. She recovers quickly and lands a high kick on my shoulder and a punch to the cheek. I shake it off and raise my fist up once more and just as we're ready to go at it again Ajax steps into the middle.

"This hardly seems like a fair fight to me." He states looking down upon me. I raise my eyebrow in confusion.

"Why?" Cipher and I ask in unison.

"Well, Cipher is your friend. She would never really do anything to harm you." He had almost an evil glint in his eye. Where did he even come from? It's like he evaporated out of thin air into the middle of us sparring.

"I don't know, that punch was pretty narly." I say jokingly as I run my hand across my cheek. It really didn't hurt all that much, but I wanted to tease him a bit.

"What's your point Ajax?" Cipher growled out.

"My point is, she needs to go up against someone who doesn't know her. Someone who'll actually challenge her." He gives us a hard look as he crosses his arms over his chest. I roll my eyes. Must he be so annoying? He probably just wants to see me get hurt. Asshole.

"Fine," I spit out harshly. "Whom do you suggest I spar with?"

He smirks and calls out, "Diana!" In his big Alpha tone. I look around and spot an auburn haired girl perk up at the sound of her name. She had on small tight spandex shorts and a sports bra. Her build was very similar to Ciphers only she was a bit shorter. The girls eyes lit up like a Christmas tree at the sight of Ajax, making my wolf a bit uneasy due to the mate bond. She trotted over here like a winning pony at a show.

Cipher let out a grunt and rolled her eyes. I shifted on my feet suddenly very annoyed.

"Hi dad—I mean Alpha." She said in a soft high pitched voice. My jaw almost dropped but I contained the annoyance and shock that was bubbling inside of me like hot lava.

"Hi Cipher." She gave her a wink and Cipher simply scoffed.

"You think Diana could go up against an Alpha?" Cipher asked a hint of amusement in her voice. Her confidence in me made me feel much better. I kept my chin up and stood up straight, my arms crossed.

"This little girl is an Alpha?" Diana giggled and wrapped her hand around Ajax's bicep. I rolled my eyes and did my best to push back my wolf.

"Well, they do say the best gifts are the small ones." Ajax chuckled deeply. I don't appreciate it when anyone picks on my height.

"Are we going to spar or what?" I snapped, practically baring my teeth.

"You ready to get beat tiny girl?" She let go of Ajax's arm and approached me with so much confidence. Did she really think she was going to win? How foolish of her.

I wasted no time, as soon as she was close enough I swung with my right hand and punched her right in the nose, causing her to stumble back.

"You bitch!" She gasped.

"There are no warnings in war." I stated and brought my knee to her gut twice before she escaped my hold. I could hear Cipher chuckle behind me only boosting my confidence.

I watched as Diana stood up and took a fighting stance. I matched her movements and raise my fist. I deflected her first few punches, but she got few in along with a kick. She tried to tackle me but I quickly moved out of the way. She turned around a little surprised and began charging at me again. I kicked her in the side and gave her a quick punch to the cheek. She seemed furious and began swinging at me once more.

She landed a hard one on my cheek causing me to stumble back. I watched as she looked over at Ajax for approval. I could taste the blood in my mouth and spit it out. Ajax just gave her blank stare before she returned her attention to me. We took our fighting stances once more, this would be the last time. I'm done playing games. She came at me first, I dodge all of them and got a few jabs in causing her to fall back.

I punched her straight in the nose once more, before  landing a high kick right to her chin cause her to fall back and land on the ground. I spit on the ground next to her, blood lacing my saliva. "Looks like I won, bitch."

She let out a frustrated shriek and gathered herself up from the floor holding her nose. "Who the hell do you think you are?!"

"I am Octavia, eldest daughter to Octavius the Alpha of the SnowMoon Pack and you will show some respect." I spat out angrily. I look over to Ajax who simply had an sly smirk on his face. It's like this is exactly what he wanted.

"Next time you bring one of your trashy sluts to me, she will not make it out alive." I threatened, only making his smirk grow. I so badly wanted to just throw something at his sly little face. I hate him.

I turn around and storm away, Cipher hot on my heels. I didn't know exactly where I was going but I knew that I wanted to be far away from there as possible.

"Octavia!" Cipher called out to me but I ignored her. I was so unbelievably angry and I couldn't figure out why. Why am I so bothered? I shouldn't be. I don't even remotely like him. Why would I care if he pinned one of his sluts against me? I could take on all of them any day. He probably has thousands. Just thinking of all the girls he probably had sex with made me want to vomit.

"Hey," Cipher said softly as she placed her hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"No," I mumbled has my lip began to quiver. No, Octavia you cannot cry. You can't. You are bigger than this. I take in a deep breath, but it was useless.

All I could think of is how much I hate this place and how badly I wanted to be home with my family. I couldn't help but let the tears spill over.

"Shhhh, hey don't cry." Cipher pulled me into a hug and rested her chin on my head. "If it's any consolation, I thought you were a complete fucking badass back there. I'm proud of you for standing up to the both of them. The look on Diana's face was priceless!"

"Cipher, I miss my home." I mumbled. She pulled away a little a gave me a sad smile.

"I know babe, but you gotta be strong. I'm sure you'll see them again one day. Ajax can't be cruel forever. Hell I wish I would've got to you before he did. I would've marked you for myself." She winked at me jokingly causing me to let out a small laugh.

"I thought your type was tall, blonde and badass?" I teased.

"Well you're definitely a badass and we can dye your hair and I will totally be willing to look over the height thing." She said picking up a strand of my hair and pretending to inspect it. I laughed some more.

"There is no way I'm dying my hair."

"Oh come," She smiled and began to lead me back home. "Not even for me?"

"Nope." I smiled shaking my head.

"You're breaking my heart." She fake sniffles and feigned being hurt as she placed a hand over her heart.

"You'll be fine." I giggled. I was so glad to have Cipher by my side. I don't know what I would do without her in this situation. I'd probably have really hairy legs after waking up from that coma...

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