Lyall's Story

Lucy

I needed to run… if I were human, I’d probably be crying in frustration… why is it so hard for people to understand that women need to be strong too? Guys can’t always save the day… but yet they’ve had years of training on me and I have slim to none… not unless you count using a boxing game on my Nintendo Switch, back home… guess not… I could hear Lykos on my trail behind me.

“Come on, Scarlett please talk to me!” I could hear him whimpering as he was begging me… I slow down and let the snow help me come to a stop.

“Alright, I’m listening…”

“Please, if you really want to train let’s talk about it.”

“What’s there to talk about!? How everyone doesn’t want me to train and just be a damsel? Some creepy dude wants to take me away from you, my family, my pack, my home… and I’m not supposed to defend myself!? Glad I wasn’t the only one that’s upset.

“I know you want to learn, but if you really want to let me have a few rules.”

“Fine… like what?” I cooled off with the idea of him laying down some ground rules… I guess that’s not so bad.

“I want at least one she-wolf with you. Doesn’t matter who but if I had to pick it’d be Aurora, she’s damn powerful and you could learn a lot from her, but if you’re more comfortable with one of our own, I’d say Lyna or Reika. I want to be there to help you learn as well.” I was slowly calming down with his ideas… at least I’d be able to train, but I still needed time to think this over. We slowly start walking to the house, but I collapse in the snow and just needed to sit.

“I need to sit and think… I’ll be inside shortly…” He nuzzles me and licks my cheek and reluctantly goes back inside. Soon he’s replaced with a powerful aura and I thought it was Conall or Lyna, but I look up to see Aurora. I bow my head to show respect to her, and she smiles at me.

“Thanks for bowing Scarlett, I know you can’t help it.” She smiled at me and I just felt a calmness around us. “Lyall told me about your conversation, and I think that’s more than fair. Oliver has the same rules as me. He or Evan has to be with me when I train. I can’t heal myself so if I get seriously hurt, he wants someone to be there to help. I can’t directly mindlink with you, but I can hear thoughts. The only one I can directly mindlink, before becoming luna, was my twin sister, and that’s because we’re twins. So, if anyone inside is watching us it’d just look like I’m talking to a wolf, which out of everything that’s been going on this is the least weird thing.” She had a point. I walk over to her and lay my head on her lap.

“As a healer, I can heal the body, sickness, and energy. If you let me touch your fur, you’ll feel a jolt of electricity enter your body and you’ll feel a calmness wash over you (don’t worry it won’t hurt).” I nod my head allowing her to do this even though it sounds crazy to me. She puts her hands on my back and I felt the electricity. I braced myself for shocks. As it enters my body and instead of shocking me as I thought it, would it felt like it was tingling me, and surprisingly I felt calm. I let out a sigh of relief and she just rubs my furry back.

“I know everyone is scared about this potential kidnapping; I am too, but why don’t you bring back Lucy so we can talk more personally. Not that I don’t like you Scarlett it’s just easier to talk when the person I’m talking to can talk back.” I shift back to myself and she gives me some extra warm clothes to change to. I go to my porch quick to change into a sweater, jeans, hat, and snow boots and we sit on the steps.

“Thanks for the calming shock, I have no idea what that was, but it helped.” I gave her a shy smile.

“So, talk to me, what’s on your mind?” I lean my head on her shoulder like I would with any of the she-wolves in my own pack like I have known her for my whole life instead of days.

“I’m angry that the guys don’t think I can defend myself and that I need them to save me. They’ve been training their whole lives and I’ve got maybe days or weeks until this psycho shows up to take me away… and I have slim to none actual training unless you count a video game which probably wouldn’t help much. Lyall gave me some ideas that he’d want which is that he wants me to learn from a she-wolf either you or Lyna or Reika, our gamma female, and he wants to be there as well which I’m not surprised about.”

“Well, that’s not an unusual request Oliver told me the same which I’m sure he put the idea into his head, but what do you think?”

“My mom gave me her blessing to train, and I see nothing wrong with training, but something that Lyall said to me stuck with me. I’m eventually going to be a beta female. I should be able to protect my pack and my leaders, how can I do that if I’m not allowed to learn? Thanks for listening just wish everyone else would listen too.”

“I’m here for you, not just as your family but as another friend. I’d offer to go for a run but Oliver would have my head if we did and I didn’t tell him.” After she hugs me, we head inside after our talk and I think I’ve decided. Everyone is inside still discussing things when they see me, they stop.

“Hi everyone… it’s no secret to me you’ve been talking about me and what to do…” Everyone just hides their head in shame but they let her continue. “After having someone nonbiased to talk to, I think it should be best if I train. If I’m going to be a beta female someday and help protect my pack and leaders, how can I if I’m not allowed to learn from the best.” I turn to look at Conall, Lyna my will be alpha and luna, to Lyall, to Oliver and Aurora, to Evan and Mia, to my loving parents…

“I want to learn. I feel like I have to learn if I’m going to be a beneficial source to this pack, but I want to learn not just from the ladies, but the guys too. So, here’s what I’m thinking I want to learn from anyone in this room who’s willing.” Of course, Lyna and Conall agree, Aurora and Evan agree despite the ‘here we go again’ kind of look from Mia, my parents of course agree but we’ll see how that goes, Lupe, of course, agree with me wanting to fight which will also be interesting since I’ve never seen him fight. The only one that’s making me wonder is Oliver. I can see the reluctance in his eyes which made me sad and wonder if he was going to say no. He pulls me aside to talk privately.

“On the one hand, I want to help your family, but with everything I put Aurora through (and I put her through a lot of crap this past month), The last thing I want is to get involved in another war. I just want to be with my luna… I want to keep her safe above all else.” I can hear the sadness in his voice and see it in his eyes… they haven’t talked much about what happened but sounds like it was serious. I don’t want to bring up terrible memories for them.

“I understand if you want to leave and enjoy your vacation. Sorry to ruin it… but I’m glad we got to meet. I wish you all the best.” I leave but he grabs my wrist.

“I can tell Aurora likes you a lot and wants to help, so for her, I’ll help, but I’m not going to go easy on you.” I hug him and tears well in my eyes. Despite them being on vacation they still want to help me… someone they’ve known for days. Tears well in my eyes in appreciation.

“Thank you so much! I didn’t expect you to go easy.” We go back to everyone else who’s still buzzing from my news. Aurora pulls him aside to talk and knowing her, she’s probably trying to convince him to stay but it’s going to be a quick talk. I go back to sitting on the porch to clear my head and get away from the commotion inside. I think I made the right decision and yet with this impending doom looming over me I just have to act and not think. I go back to Wild Forest not thinking about what the others would think and went to the gym there and just found the closest punching bag and just went wailing on it… letting out my frustration and anger…

Lyall

After Lucy decided, I saw her go outside to get away from the crowd. I kept an eye out just to make sure she was still there, but when I checked on her again, she was gone. I panicked wondering if that alpha had gotten to her before she was ready to defend herself. I didn’t hear her scream or yell for help so I don’t think that’s the case, but I’m still worried.

“Lucy’s gone!” I cry out to the room. Everyone else had the same panic look as I did.

“She couldn’t have gone far, maybe she just went for a run. With everything going on she doesn’t do well with change or stress.” Her mom spoke up, and she’s probably right.

“We’ll go with you to go find her.” Aurora, Oliver, Conall, Lyna, Ulva, and Lupe step forward to help with the search.

“Be careful, Lyall… you’ll find her.” Her mom gave me a comforting hug, and we left to go find her. Her scent of lavender and sunflowers was fresh, so it was recent. I could trace it back to Wild Forest and surprisingly we find her in the gym beating the crap out of a punching bag and in tears. Thank goodness she’s safe… I’m not sure what I’d do if she was taken…

“LUCY! Thank goodness you’re alright!” I ran to her and kissed her and hug as my worry melted away. I could tell she was crying for a while… her eyes were puffy and red.

“I-I’m sorry I made you worry… I just had to get away for a moment… with everything going on it felt like everyone else was deciding for me on how I should live my life and whether I should be able to defend myself… if I’m supposed to defend my pack how can I have others defend me?” She had a point.

“You had us all scared that you were taken…” I kept on hugging her to comfort her. Lyna took the others to their house to give us some privacy.

“No… I just needed to take my frustration, and feeling scared out on something.” I wipe what was left of her tears.

“You could’ve told me or somebody that you wanted to train right away. I’d be happy to show you.” She smiles a little at me and leans up against me trying to calm down.

“I’d like to go back to your place to freshen up.” She gives me her shy smile trying to hide her embarrassed face. I can’t help but smile at her.

“Sure, come on…” I lead her to my place where we see the others in the window in Lyna’s house almost begging to come out to see her make sure she was ok. She nods her head to let them and they all come charging at once.

“Oh, Lucy, you had us all worried!” Lyna hugs her first and I can see the relief on her face.

“I’m alright everyone I’m sorry to make you worry. With everything going on I just needed to take my frustration out on something and I didn’t want to do it on people I care for.” I can tell she felt bad for running away. Aurora also hugs her as well.

“It’s ok to let your frustrations out, but next time let us know before you go so, we don’t need to have a search party. Luckily your scent was still fresh that we just followed it here, but since we’re here… why not start her training?” Yeah, I guess no time like the present.

“Sure, let me clean up some and change into some workout clothes.” We head to my house and both of us changed into more flexible clothes than our snowy clothes. I’m looking forward to teaching her to defend herself.