“If everyone here is being punished with a third floor room then Cole should get one too. He’s one of us.”

“Oh, is he?”

I freeze in shock at his attitude. I stand slowly with my bag in my hand watching and listening to the alpha’s next moves. It was common for the lead alpha to treat a visiting pack as a single unit instead of trying to figure out the good prospects from the bad.

“And what exactly would make me think he’s one of you?” He asks surprisingly slowly and deliberately, waiting for someone to answer.

“He’s the alpha’s son. Of course he’s a member of Red Fang.” Dallas, one of the other troublemakers, responds.

“Who his father is doesn’t automatically make him one of you. Never, in all the years I’ve been in this program, have I seen a member of a pack treated with such demeaning, humiliating disrespect. To purposely degrade not just another wolf but a wolf you likely grew up with by attempting to destroy his belongings is NOT treating him as one of you. So, since all of you are so keen to show me your rejection of him so early in your stay here, I think it would be smart of me to do the same.”

My breath gets stuck in my chest as I have no understanding of what he’s about to do. Am I about to be rejected from the program? I’ve been told many times that if you get rejected from a pack’s warrior program in the first week of arriving on their territory that it’s an automatic rejection from the program. That the council will not approve of any other requests to go on another run.

I feel Damian’s hand on mine as he takes the heavy duffel bag filled with wet clothes from my hand.

“Come on. Let’s get closer so we know what’s going on.”

I’m a bundle of nerves now and I can’t hide the tremors in my hands or the fear in my eyes. Damian stops and studies me briefly before whispering.

“Cole, what’s going on?”

My eyes meet his as I whisper as well.

“I’m not ready to leave. I just got away from there.”

“My father wouldn’t do that. You’ve done nothing wrong. Just stay with me, you’re doing fine. You seem to get very anxious very easily. Do you take meds to help you with that?”

As much as I didn’t want to admit that I’m a nervous wreck when I’m in the attention of anyone higher than a gamma, I don’t want to lie to the alpha’s son either. At least, not a complete lie.

“I usually take several medications to ease my social anxiety and ocd. Xanax if things get really bad during the day, I’ll take that at night.”

“Obviously you’re not on it now, why?”

“Drug test. I didn’t want you thinking I was a nut job when it showed up.”

Alpha Damian shakes his head with a slight chuckle.

“All you had to do was tell us. It’s right in the application.”

I shake my head while keeping pace walking with Alpha Damian heading back to the rest of the group.

“My dad is extremely controlling as to what packs I go to for training. He’s the one that fills out the application each time and submits it to the council. He knows I’m on medication but insists that I stay off them. Dr. Carter makes arrangements at Red General to make sure I can get the medication but I can’t always get there so my ability to take it is inconsistent.”

Alpha Damian stops in his tracks forcing me to stop as he turns to face me. He looks me in the eyes to which I look away, down to the ground.

“Talk to my dad, Cole. If you know what you were on he can get you back on it.”

He starts walking again after I nod my head. He motions for me to head off to the side of the rest of the group, standing with me so I’m not alone.

I watch silently as one of the men accompanying alpha picks up a bag. I immediately recognize it as mine. I sigh in relief that they didn’t find that one too.

“Cole Redmen,” the wolf calls out.

“Here.” I call back as I wave my hand lightly.

“As I said earlier. Since everyone here is so keen on rejecting Cole from the pack it wouldn’t be proper, as the lead alpha of this territory, to treat him as a member of your pack. For the duration of his stay here Cole will be recognized as a member of the Red Fang pack…”

I can see the smiles spreading across all of my pack members’ faces as he spoke.

“But that will be for the sole purpose of documenting and reporting back to the council. I prefer to treat everyone as an individual and that is what I will be doing with Cole. Any benefits or penalties that he receives will be between him and the one giving it out, thus it will be none of anyone else’s business to know.”

I’ve never seen faces of shock happen as quickly as it did when he finished his decision about me.

“Only half of the twenty-four wolves here are actually from the Red Fang pack. The rest of us are from the Crescent Moon pack. Why are we getting sucked into Red Fang’s consequences?”

“While I do apologize for the inconvenience that it’s causing, I was only alerted a few minutes ago that the Crescent Moon pack was unable to complete their registration in time to attend this run so Alpha Redmen filed all of the applications with the council in a way that lumped all of you together as a single pack. It is quite common for packs in close contact with each other to band together for the purpose of the program especially if they have only a small number of wolves attending the run from each pack. It will take me some time to work out who is from which pack so I am going to ask for your patience with that.”

I can’t help but cock my head, studying the alpha as he approaches me. Instinctively, I take a step back when he stops within a foot of me, quickly averting my eyes away from his.

“Relax. I mean what I said.”

I nod slightly but keep my head and eyes down in submission. Without warning I feel his hand on my chin. Without thinking I overreact to the alpha’s touch, fighting to get away from him. Very quickly his hands have both my wrists and he’s pressed them against my chest. I can hear the rest of the prospects laughing and jeering at me.

“Alpha’s son is such a baby, so weak he’s afraid of the alpha.”

“Enough! I do not tolerate bullying of any sort!”

I can’t help but cringe away from his booming voice with the alpha aura. Even with his strong aura still present he manages to lower his voice to a more comfortable level when he speaks directly to me.

“Though it does seem that you are very much afraid of me as this is a very strong reaction. I’ll let go when you relax and show me control.”