Katana

Katana stood outside on the training grounds, stretching along with everybody else. She laughed at the jokes that Isaac and Troy threw at each other. The two were becoming quick friends and she enjoyed their company. Lewis and his gang were puffing out their chests and shoving people around. Katana wasn’t that greatly impressed that Lewis was one of the people who had to stay behind. She would have liked it very much if Lewis was picked to go to the front lines already.

Her mind moved back to last night when Kieran kissed her. She could feel the heat crawling back up her cheeks again. She still couldn’t believe that he kissed her. Did that mean that her mate was attracted to a boy? Was he gay? A lot of questions popped in her head. She didn’t know how to react to all of this. She was happy she found her mate, but she never imagined meeting him in the military. To make matters worse, her mate was attracted to a boy.

She bent down and touched her toes with her fingers, to stretch her hamstrings. Closing her eyes, she breathed evenly as she counted in her head, until she was completely caught off guard when she felt someone slap her butt.

Her eyes flew open immediately and she turned around to see who it was. Her mind was bent on smacking the individual who couldn’t keep their hands to themselves, until her eyes landed on her mate. He raised an eyebrow at her in question.

“Did you just slap my ass?” She asked.

“No.” He said, but a slow smirk crawled on his face. Her eyes narrowed doubtfully.

“I don’t believe you.”

“Are you questioning me now, Kenneth?” He asked.

She blinked. “Well, I mean, like...”

He raised his eyebrow again, almost as if he was urging her to continue. She growled and stomped towards Isaac and Troy. She saw Kieran move to the middle of the group as he began explaining the training today.

She crossed her arms and threw a glare at her mate. Troy stood up from where he was stretching and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

“You look angry.”

“Irritated.” She corrected.

“And why?” Troy asked.

She opened her mouth to tell him, but closed it. Troy doesn’t know yet that Kieran was her mate. She wasn’t sure if she should tell him or not.

“Nothing.” She muttered.

Kieran’s eyes flitted back to them and turned black. His eyebrows furrowed with anger and his lips thinned tremendously. Troy shifted uncomfortably and removed his arm from Katana’s shoulder.

“Today, we will be working on strategies. This is a military exercise that is performed to explore the effects of warfare and test your strategies. The purpose of this exercise is to ensure you are ready to be on the front lines. At the end of this exercise, you will have learned hand to hand combat without actual combat.” Kieran announced. He started moving and dividing everyone in the middle. “You will be divided into two groups. Xavier will be captain of the red team and I will be captain of the blue team. The objective of the game is to simply win.”

Katana got split up from Troy, but was glad to have Isaac on her side. Lewis stood on the other side with Troy. Xavier came into view from her peripheral vision. She turned to look at him, noticing that in his hands he was carrying a small brown paper bag. He grinned in excitement as he waited for Kieran to finish his instructions.

“Red team is home. Two of your teammates will be on no man’s land, under interrogation and are badly wounded. Your objective is to cross the land safely and carry your teammate back.” Kieran pointed out. “Blue team, your job is to defend your base and not lose your only hope in surviving this war.”

Kieran gestured for Xavier, who stepped up. He placed the bag on the ground and lifted up in the air a roll of toilet paper.

“This is what you will use to bandage your teammate. You will have to use the roll completely. Remember, this has to be done as quietly as possible, without any of your teammates being taken captive. If you are taken down, you will be the downfall of this rescue mission.” Kieran looked at everybody. He turned to Xavier. “Which team will you pick?”

Xavier’s grin grew as he pointed to my side. “This one.”

Kieran nodded. “Alright, team red, your mission is to rescue your two teammates. Who will you place into interrogation?”

Xavier pointed at two men on Katana’s team. They will be taken out of action and wait for rescue. Katana could feel the excitement build inside of her. She wanted to win.

The two men that were chosen to go with Kieran walked over into the woods with the rest of Kieran’s team. Xavier turned towards us. His eyes sparkled with interest.

“I’m going to come right out and tell you this. I want to win. I want to beat the General’s ass so hard, he won’t see it coming. I want to gloat about it for days. Therefore, if you make me lose, I’ll punish you by assigning you toilet duties for a month.” He informed them.

Katana’s eyes widened and the group started to shift uncomfortably. The pressure was definitely on tight.

“Make sure you don’t get caught and if you get caught, make sure you get your ass out of there as fast as you can. You don’t want to know what I would do to you if you were taken captive.” Xavier continued. “Thomas, Isaac, Kenneth, and I will be going for the two teammates. Everyone else is to devise a form of distraction. Slowly take down each player one by one, you were taught the pressure points to knock someone unconscious for a reason. This is your opportunity to use it.”

Everyone nodded their understanding. Xavier nodded his approval, seeing that he got through to everyone. He glanced at each and every one of them as he spoke his final words. “Keep in mind, the General is not someone to play around with. If you see him, run – unless of course you are with another teammate. If that’s the case, then try to take him down, but otherwise I suggest you to run, because he will come after you.”

Katana felt her gut clench. She totally forgot about her mate. He will smell her. He knows her scent. She won’t be able to go anywhere near her teammates without Kieran noticing.

Slowly, the group began to break apart. The ones who were ordered to devise a distraction started off in a jog into the woods. Isaac, Thomas, and Katana stood with Xavier.

“If I know how the General plays, he will be close by the interrogation room.” He pointed out.

Katana wanted to curse out loud. She wanted to tell him that Kieran could smell her, but then that would indicate that Kieran was her mate. She could feel her heart beating, palpitating in her chest. Sweat was beading on her forehead as she thought of ways to avoid her mate.

A month of toilet duty.

Katana bit her lips. She was not going to do toilet duties for a month.

Slowly, they started jogging toward the woods, where the rest of their groups had gone. They were ten minutes deep into the woods when Xavier signaled for them to stop. They were near the enemy’s base. Katana glanced around.

The woods were quiet, too quiet. Every now and then, they would hear the sound of wind whipping in the air. It was clear that fighting was happening around them with the eerie silence. Sometimes, a few shouts and grunts could be heard. Xavier started to move into the enemy base. Two soldiers stood guarding an entrance to the base. Isaac and Thomas took them down easily. Xavier moved and took down another who was sitting in the tree.

As they entered closer to the home where their teammates were, two soldiers that were walking around caught sight of them immediately and Katana and Isaac had to hurry and take them down. A grunt came from the soldier Katana took down when she knocked him out, with her fist landing on his jaw. Xavier smirked when he saw how she stood over the man.

Everything was going as planned, until they saw Kieran stepping out of the interrogation room. Katana grabbed onto Xavier’s arm. He turned to look at her in question. She shook her head.

“I can’t.” She whispered.

“What do you mean?” He whispered back.

She nibbled her bottom lip as she thought about her answer. “I can’t go in.”

“And why?” He asked.

“Because, he can smell me.” She finally said after a long silence. His eyes told Katana that he wasn’t at all surprised. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“I know.” He smirked.

“W-what?” She stuttered.

Thomas and Isaac stood a fair distance away, guarding and watching Kieran, so they couldn’t hear the conversation going on.

“You are his distraction.” Xavier said.