White Rose Pack (Chapter-11)

Colin’s POW

Colin was shouting at the teenagers to focus for what felt like the hundredth time, when a hint of lilacs and lemons came drifting in the air. He turned around and saw Adina standing to the side, watching them.

That woman took his breath away, he thought as he watched how the wind had loosened a strand of her blond hair from her braid, making it flow freely in the light breeze. When he made eye contact with her, she smiled and he returned it without thinking.

He forced himself to turn around and focus on the young wolfs. Ever since he left her in the kitchen, he had missed not having his arm around her. Her waist was just made for him to have his arm around and his hand fitted perfectly to rest on her hip.

With a new effort, he tried to force all thoughts of Adina out of his mind, focusing on what was going on in front of him. One of the she-wolfs had just tripped on her own feet and landed hard on the ground. Colin sighed and made her do laps.

Twenty minutes later, and the training was finally over. Some of the young wolves were getting the idea, so he at least could have hope for them. But a couple of them would never be warriors. Colin sent the teenagers away and could finally go to Adina.

His wolf seemed to settle down when he got close to her, and he put his arm around her waist and drew her to him in a hug. She put her arms around him and hugged him right back. He put his nose at her neck and draw in a breath. He felt content.

“What do you think of our future warriors, little dove?” he asked as he took half a step back.

“Most of them look okay, but the girl with the blond hair in braids doesn’t seem to belong on the training grounds,” she responded. He felt proud that she had spotted the trouble Felicia seemed to have.

“Does everyone train to be a warrior?” Sean asked.

“No, everyone needs to go through basic training as a way of learning to defend themselves. But it’s up to the individual if they want to train to be a warrior once that is finished,” Colin explained and got an approving nod from Sean.

“Do you handle all the trainings?” Adina asked him as he led them around the training grounds, away from the pack house.

“No, Jason handles training. He is our best fighter, besides me, of course,” Colin added with a smile.

“But I like to handle the training for the teenagers when I can. It gives me an opportunity to get to know them and see what personality they have,“ he continued and got a bright smile from Adina.

“Do you train, babe?” he asked.

“Two to three times a week or Sean would kill me,” Adina answered, and Colin liked that. His wolf was thrilled that his mate could take care of herself.

“We usually train in private at least one time per week because of Adina’s… unique fighting style,” Sean added.

“You should join us next time,” he continued.

Colin was surprised by his invitation, but quickly accepted. Adina looked happy that Sean and Colin had put their differences aside. If Adina was happy, he was happy, Colin decided. If Sean made her happy, then Colin could live with having him around. He looked to be a skilled fighter, if nothing else.

“Would you like to come down and spar with our elite warriors some time?” he asked Sean and got a sunshine smile from Adina.

“I would like that,” Sean replied, and he and Colin talked about what type of fighting style the pack used as they walked.

“This is the pack hospital,” Colin said, nodding at a small, square, building.

It was painted white and had a flat, slightly tilted roof. In front of the building there was a small parking lot. A sign on the side of the door showed a red cross with a stencilled wolf’s head in white in the middle of it.

“It’s not much, but our pack doctor, Doc, and two nurses make sure we are taken care of,” Colin said. Adina looked at it curiously.

As they turned and headed down the road towards the village, they heard running and Colin tensed for a moment before catching the scent of Mateo and his mate Julia.

They both came out of the woods wearing their workout clothes. It looked like they had been out running.

“Exercising?” Colin said to his beta, that were panting.

“Yes, Julia wanted to go for a run together,” Mateo answered.

As Julia was a human, the two of them couldn’t go running in wolf shape, but Colin knew they often went running in their human form.

“Julia, you haven’t met Adina, my mate, and her bodyguard, Sean. Adina, Sean, this is Julia, Mateo’s mate,” Colin said, introducing the newcomers to the small woman standing next to his beta.

She had short, brown hair, cut in a pixie style. Her eyes were chocolate brown, and she exuded an air of fragility.

“It is an honour luna” the small woman said, bowing her head to Adina.

Colin was happy with how quickly his beta’s mate had accepted the life in the pack and had taken to their customs. Adina gave her one of her sunny smiles and greeted her. Colin had felt a small squirm from her, as Julia had called her luna. She would get used to it, he thought.

“I’m giving our newcomers a tour of the village. Do you want to join us?” Colin asked. Mateo looked at his mate.

“We would be delighted to, alpha,” Julia said with a small smile.

Colin knew he still made her nervous. But as they started walking again, everyone relaxed and soon Julia was pointing out some of her hang outs in the village to Adina.

The village was quite large and had several shops containing everything from clothes to hardware. There were restaurants, a movie theatre, a coffee shop, a library, and a pub. The main street was lined with the businesses. They were all in small, two-storey houses. On each side of the main street, the residential areas of the village stretch out.

“About one third of the pack lives in the village and the packhouse,” Colin explained.

“The rest are scattered in houses throughout the territory. There are some smaller groups of houses in other parts of the territory, but they mainly comprise of five to ten houses. Nothing like this,” Colin continued as they walked down one side of the main street.

People that they met took a respectful step back to let them pass, bowing their head at the alpha and curiously looking at the beautiful woman that he had his arm draped around.