Whole Again Chapter 22 - Landry POV

I watch through Matthan’s eyes as he stares down the small woman before him. His hackles are raised as his blonde paws claw into the grass beneath them. He crouches slightly, baring his teeth as a growl rumbles deep from his belly, yet our opponent remains unfazed. Mathan’s trying to act tough, but it’s mostly bravado. I feel his nerves and I’m just as nervous as he is.

I have far more faith in Matthan’s skills than my own, but that’s during fighting with other wolves. We’ve never taken on an irshiust before. Yildiz of the Delegation stands before us, her long black hair tied up on top of her head in a bun, her otherworldly floral scent wafting on the breeze as the gold glitter embedded in her mocha skin glints and twinkles under the morning sun. Her bright golden eyes stare at us as though she sees our moves before we make them. She’s 5’5”, which only makes her slightly taller than Matthan’s 4’9” stature. He’s average size among other wolves but gigantic compared to normal wolves. Our size and supernatural abilities should give us confidence, but not in front of her. We’ve watched her help out with training since she arrived at Invictus, and no one has been able to take her down. What’s more shocking is that it turns out she’s blind! A blind irshiust, and yet she is swatting every last one of us like flies. Really makes you wonder how strong the person was who was able to kill her sister.

“Why so hesitant?” Her melodious voice asks.

“Um, maybe because she’s built stronger than a Sherman Tank and I fear just colliding into her will snap me like a twig,” whimpers Matthan sarcastically.

“I fear the same thing, but she wouldn’t let us get hurt that badly,” I try to reassure him.

“She might not do it on purpose.”

“Hesitation can get you killed. You have to be confident in yourself and your abilities, regardless of who your opponent is. Everyone has a weakness, and smarts will beat brawn every time. Trust me on that,” she says. “Now, charge at me.”

Matthan steels himself and launches himself at her with his jaws open wide to take a bite out of her, but as he clamps his jaw closed all he gets is air. He halts in confusion until we feel a hard shove come at us from the side throwing us sideways like we’ve been hit by a battering ram. Matthan goes tumbling, his entire left flank aching, yet he manages to get to his feet and shake himself off.

“Good thing we remembered to put our block up,” I say with relief.

“Tell me about it.”

“You can do better than that. Don’t go for the easy strike. You already know I outmatch you in strength and speed, so try a different approach,” she encourages.

At that moment, the breeze wafts our way again, but it’s no longer Yildiz’s scent or all the other scents of the pack that we care about; it’s our favourite scent of all. Matthan looks towards the bleachers, and we see Jennifer, sitting in the middle watching us proudly with Jane Lahde of all people, sitting beside her looking surprisingly supportive.

Matthan begins wagging his tail with excitement, raising his head high and puffing out his chest and I can’t help but roll my eyes at the peacocking he’s doing right now.

“Hey! Preen later, focus on the fight,” yells Gamma Tyson. Matthan whips his head to look at Gamma Tyson and growls at him, which just makes Beta Vitali throw an arm around the Gamma’s shoulders and laugh.

“He’s a wolf in love, he can’t help it. Angel would probably do the same thing if he saw Evalyn cheering you guys on, especially now,” he teases.

“Would that be before or after my sister knocks your lights out?” Asks Delta Chris with smug amusement.

“You’re never going to let that go, are you?” says Vitali in annoyance.

“It was yesterday!” The Gamma and Delta exclaim in unison.

“You know, the level of immaturity from you two right now is very disappointing,” says Beta Vitali with a haughty demeanour. “And frankly, I don’t have to put up with it. Good day to you both,” he says as he saunters off with his nose pointed to the sky while onlookers snigger.

“Not very Beta-like,” calls out Gamma Tyson, to which Beta Vitali just keeps walking while flipping him off, only making the Gamma and Delta laugh.

The sound of Yildiz clearing her throat, makes everyone become silent and return their attention to Matthan and Yildiz.

“Are we training or competing over who gives the best comebacks?” Asks Yildiz in a bored tone.

“We apologise, Yildiz. Please continue,” says Tyson, getting back into Gamma mode.

Matthan focuses back on Yildiz and does his best to push out all distractions but knowing Jennifer – and Beatrix – are here to cheer us on has lifted his spirits greatly. He feels more confident and so do I. Not because we think we can win, but because we know no matter the outcome, we have our animai here for us.

Matthan claws at the Earth and snarls viciously as his lips pull back over his teeth and I can feel the saliva dripping from his muzzle. He begins stalking her, slowly moving in a clockwise direction and Yildiz begins to mimic his movements with a smirk on her face. Matthan takes a few threatening snaps at her, but again she doesn’t react. Maybe she can’t see them, but I’m sure she can hear them. Finally, he takes off in her direction, but she does the same. She moves swiftly, appearing like a streak of golden glitter as she catches him from the side, wrapping her arms around his waist and yanking him to the ground, tightening her grip until he yelps, and I can feel the pressure almost crushing his organs.

“Do you give up?” She asks, and I can feel Matthan ready to give up when an idea hits me.

“Try and wag your tail in her face,” I tell him.

“What?” He asks in surprised confusion.

“She’s really close to your tail. Try and wag it in her face,” I say encouragingly.

I can tell he thinks my idea is strange, but he still listens to me and shifts his tail, so it starts to tickle Yildiz’s face. Matthan has a very fluffy tail, and Jennifer loves it. She says it’s super soft and that it tickles, but she still loves getting to play with it.

Yildiz takes in some short breaths and lets out a forceful sneeze that causes her arms to go slack around Matthan’s waist. He takes full advantage, moving out of her grasp and whipping around, aiming his jaws for her neck, stopping just before his canines can touch her. Silence descends over the pack members gathered around us and a few even gasp. Yildiz lets out another sneeze that quickly turns into a chuckle.

She sits up and smiles up at Matthan, “Now that’s what I call thinking outside the box,” she says, getting up with another chuckle, “I’ve never had someone do that before, but that was brilliant. Also, a smart decision not to bite me, it wouldn’t have ended well for your teeth,” she says as she affectionately scratches Matthan on the head as he sits back on his hind legs radiating pride. “This is a perfect example of using smarts instead of brawn. Use anything you can if it tips the advantage in your favour. When your life or the life of someone you love is on the line, use every crayon in the box.” She gives Matthan another smile and nods her head respectfully, “I hope in the future you’ll learn not to doubt yourself. You have good instincts, you should trust them,” she says encouragingly.

“Did you hear that?! She said we have good instincts!” I cheer with excitement, pride and disbelief rushing through me.

“Landry, that was your idea that saved my ribs. I never would have thought to use my tail like a feather duster. That was brilliant thinking. I’ve always tried to tell you that your father was wrong about you,” he says compassionately.

“I’m still a crappy fighter.”

“You’re clearly not. You fight differently, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You use your heart and your brain, and it works. Your father has nothing but brute strength, and even the Alpha would tell you that’s not enough. I mean, even an irshiust is saying this to you. A damn irshiust! Everyone has different strengths, you just need to learn and embrace what yours are,” he says more thoughtfully.

Matthan lets me shift back and I make quick work of getting dressed. The rest of training is probably the most fun and entertaining training session I have ever been a part of. Mutolupuses and nagatas in shifted and non-shifted forms are taking turns taking on Yildiz and everyone is pulling out the most bizarre distraction techniques I have ever seen. Some of them are truly hilarious and others are just stupid. The best part is Yildiz is giving just as good as she’s getting. She seems very amused by all of this and looks like she’s having fun. She says it reminds her of the antics her sisters get up to at home, and I can’t even begin to imagine what kind of shenanigans irshiusts get up to, but I bet you’d never forget it if you saw it.

We’re all watching and cheering while Yildiz fights one of the Aurum Obscuro pack members. The wolf manages to get behind Yildiz and we all look on wide-eyed when it bites the back of Yildiz’s leggings and gives them a solid yank giving her the worst wedgie I have ever seen. She doesn’t cry out in pain, which makes sense. I mean, if the teeth of a wolf don’t even dent her skin, a bit of fabric chaffing probably doesn’t do much either, but that being said, she looks mad as hell.

“I can’t tell if that was a genius move or a death wish,” Matthan muses, just as Yildiz whips around with an annoyed glint in her eye and punches the wolf square in the jaw. The 4’8” wolf goes flying across the field, rolling, and tumbling before coming to a stop, lying unmoving on the ground. Alpha Jasper and Delta Chris race over to check on him, but the wolf is out cold. I can only imagine how much that punch hurt, and I bet she didn’t even put her full weight into it.

“Now that’s a scary thought. She’d have probably taken off his head if she did,” says Matthan with a shudder.

“Good thing we just tickled her nose. Who gives an irshiust a wedgie?!”

“To be fair, she did encourage everyone to think outside the box and do whatever it took to gain the advantage,” says Matthan playing devil’s advocate.

“Okay, and I can see that working on someone else, but maybe she wasn’t the one to test it out on,” I say, cringing at the thought of that being us.

Matthan nods, “Not a risk I’d be willing to take, that’s for sure.”

Gamma Tyson gains everyone’s attention, “Alright, that’s enough training for today. You’re all dismissed,” he instructs. He then walks over to Yildiz to talk with her.