Chapter 57
DAKOTA’S POV
I was more pissed off now. This wolf just stood there, proud and seemingly bored. I stood up straighter, presenting a false sense of bravado that I didn’t feel.
And then I attacked again, this time going for the chest. As expected, he quickly moved out of the way. I quickly readjusted myself and swiped my paw against his face.
My chest huffed with pride as I admired the red paw marks on his face. He growled at me and ran at me, and then the fight began.
Bites here, paws there, and maybe about an hour later, we were circling each other. Panting, but none of us were ready to give up.
We were about to have another go at each other, but we heard footsteps coming toward us. We both turned around and growled.
“Easy, guys. It’s just us,” Orion said as he came closer to us flanked by Akela and my mom. Akela took one look at me and growled at the strange wolf.
“Relax, Akela. They were just training.”
“Look at her!” I must have looked that bad then.
“Odin would not take it easy on her. You know that.”
“Still…” Orion threw a big shirt at me and shorts at the other wolf.
“You both should go shift.” I picked up the shirt and walked into the woods for cover and shifted back into my human form. That proved to be more painful, as I was having pains in my side, and all my joints were feeling like they had a fire in them. I groaned as I wore the shirt that came down to my mid-thigh and walked as straight as I could back to the small gathering. When I got back, my mouth opened in a gasp.
Surprise! The other wolf was Adam. I gave him my best death stare, but he simply looked at me and looked away.
“So, Adam, how would you rate her fighting skills?”
“Poor. Very poor.” I gasped at him. “I thought you said that she had been training?”
“I have been training!”
“It doesn’t seem like it.” He turned to face me “Is this how you plan to face Odin?”
“Hey!” Akela tried to step in, but he kept on going.
“If this was how your father fought Odin, I’m not surprised he lost and was killed.”
“Adam!” my mother screamed. I took a few steps back, tears already beginning to cloud my vision.
“No matter how much you wish it, you can never be him. You can only wish it.”
I turned around and made for the house, breaking into a run mid-stride. He might be my mother’s mate, but one thing I was sure of was that he would never be a father figure to me. No matter how much my mother wished that. He seemed to have some sort of beef with my father. I don’t care; I hate him. I ran towards my room and fell face first on the bed, crying my eyes out. I distinctly heard the sound of the door opening and closing. I raised my head and growled at the intruder, ready to pounce if it was my mother or her stupid mate.
“Hey, it’s just me!” Akela said, slowly stepping into the room and closing the door. I noticed that he had water with him. I sat up on the bed and extended my arm to him. He handed me the bottle, and the first drop of water to hit my tongue made me realize just how thirsty I was. I emptied the bottle and handed it back to Akela. He took it from me, set it on the nightstand and then sat next to me.
“I hate him so much.”
“I know.”
“I don’t even know him, and I already fucking hate him!”
“I know. I can’t exactly say that he is my favorite too.” I squinted at him.
“But you were all fine with him in the kitchen just yesterday.”
Akela shrugged.
“Yes. And that is because we were discussing hunting. And he was telling me about all the hunting spots in the area.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah…”
There was a pregnant silence between us for a bit.
“Did you think that I’m not a very good fighter? Do you think that I would be able to challenge Odin and win?”
“Baby…” He cupped the side of my face and moved closer to me on the bed “I know for a fact that you are more than able to challenge Odin to a competition and win. The only thing that bastard had was the potion, and we know about it better. We have something stronger.”
I nodded my head at him and smiled. He was truly a sweetheart.
“Thank you…”
He smiled back.
“You’re welcome.”
Suddenly, a smile dropped from my face as I remembered that I wanted to discuss something with him.
“What?”
“I wanted to discuss something with you.”
“What is it?”
“I want us to mark each other when we turn 18.” He looked at me with something akin to shock.
“Why?”
“What do you mean? Don’t you want to mark me?”
“What? No. I do. But why all of a sudden?”
“It’s not sudden. I’ve always thought about it. I just thought that 17 wasn’t old enough to do that.”
“We both turn 18 next month.” I smiled at him. It seemed the moon goddess had planned it to turn out like this, as our birthdays happened to be just a day apart.
“Yes.” We leaned into each other and kissed. A slow, sweet kiss. When we broke apart, I fought a blush that threatened to spread across my cheeks, and we were both smiling like idiots.
“I love you, Dakota.”
“I love you too, Akela.” We smiled at each other and kissed again. This one is much shorter.
“But do you think that I am not ready to take on Odin?” The once cheerful mood disappeared, and seriousness took over.
“Look, Odin is an Alpha. Regardless of the potion, he should never be underestimated.”
“You haven’t answered me.”
“No. I don’t think you’re ready to take Odin. You need to do more training.”
“Okay…”
“And I know that you do not want to hear it, but you need to train with Adam and Orion.” I squeezed my face into a frown.
“Orion, yes. Adam, why?”
“Orion is an Alpha, but he won’t always be here to train with. He has to do Alpha stuff. Adam is not an Alpha, but he has Alpha blood and has been in more fights than they could keep count. If anyone knows how to take down an Alpha, it’s Adam.”
His explanation made sense, but that didn’t mean that I liked it.
I didn’t like Adam.
“I know, but he hates me. And he hates my dad too.”
“True. After today, I don’t like him either. But look at the bigger picture.”
And I did. I can always revisit his ass when I win Odin. I nodded at Akela, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
“That’s good. Because Orion said to tell you to be ready tomorrow, same time,” he said.
“Okay. Let’s do this!”