Mala’s first few days at training were long. She got to meet their head warrior, Ben he went by. A no-nonsense type of man, had many war wounds and stated he’d once been a rogue, had come here nearly dead and they’d taken him in. Now he trained everyone. He scented of Delta blood.
It accounted for why he was so big, likely should have been, or perhaps had been, part of an Alpha Unit once. Not that she asked that was his business, and he’d introduced himself as a warrior, not a Delta. He had assessed her ability to fight. Suki had never had any training, but he and his wolf would work with her on that.
Mala’s skills, on the other hand, impressed him and she was set up to help him train the women and men that resided here in the pack. Most she saw were in their mid 20’s to mid 30’s, there were a few older ones, had mating scars. She was curious about that, but did not ask.
It would be rude of her, she didn’t know them, and for all she knew, they could have been from destroyed packs, had escaped invading forces. Could be that their Mates were simply dead, and they’d left their packs and gone rogue, unable to cope on their own. Could well have been rejected by their own Mate, for any number of reasons.
They all trained 1 hour each over three groups of 100, Mala didn’t think this was enough training, but some seemed to be completely exhausted by that one hour of training and others were not affected so much, she was going to have to talk about the training regime, with the Alpha and Ben. One hour was not enough in her books, not for proper pack defences.
For the past two years, she’d not attended any schooling, so had trained three times a day, for several hours each session and then, with the…took a breath in, did not need to think about how those four wolves had enjoyed hitting her during training. She’d always been covered in bruises, but they had never bested her.
She had always gotten up and always beaten them back, used every ounce of her training and skills, she had randomly switched between her techniques and made sure to hit pressure points and joints, and won. One on one fights against them she could out match each of them.
A lean, mean fighting machine is what Suki had liked to call her. She was lean and definitely a fighting machine, though mean, she’d never been that, just kept her mouth shut till the warrior challenge that was, but she'd been in pain and known it wasn’t going to end. Had turned on her own pack, told everyone she hated them, screamed it for all to hear. Now here she was safe in a pack filled with others just like her.
The rejected, and she fit in. No-one judged her at all, pack members smiled at her and waved hello, it was nice here, everyone in a similar situation. It made for making friends easily, that was nice. Suki got to train every other day with Ben’s wolf Gravel and got to do border patrol.
Suki had been photographed and Alpha Aston had smiled right at her, called her unusual, and she’d told him what her parents were and that she believed that Suki was a blend of the best of both species.
He nodded and agreed, told Suki her Mate was a damned fool. Suki had huffed at him, he’d not pushed to know who their Mate was. Did know where she had come from, what pack. It didn’t matter who he was, and Alpha Aston didn’t push her to tell him, he’d rejected them and they’d willingly accepted it and gone rogue, left him there. That was the end of it. Never would they have to deal with him again. Even if he looked for them, he wouldn’t find her. She had changed her name. Was registered to the Rejected Pack as Mala Luca.
The Rejected Pack, lye north of Silverton, Colorado in the mountains away from the humans but close enough to go to town and get things, though over the weeks as she stayed there, noticed only a few pack members ever left the territory. They were designated wolves to, all male wolves in a large moving truck. They would bring back supplies that were needed.
If she needed anything, she was to write a list and give it to Zane, who organised everything. The truck would leave once every two or three weeks and return to the pack three or four days later. Zane would distribute everything to where it was needed to go. They were very good at what they did, rarely did anything get missed, mostly only if it was currently out of stock.
Most pack members had their own veggie gardens and there were a few fruit trees, a small orchard was being cultivated on the northern side of the pack. The pack members here lived in small log cabins that housed 4 to 8 wolves and the pack house itself housed the Alpha, Luna and their Unit and the highest ranked warriors, about 40 in there. She was offered a room inside it.
But she liked living with Netty and Peta, had been on her own so long and didn’t want that anymore, liked having others around her that were friendly and willing to chat, laugh and socialise with her, sharing meals with them, so opted to stay put in their house with them. They were also happy with this, it seemed.
Everyone here pulled their weight, there were omega’s here but not treated like they would be in a pack, they were simply wolves like the rest of them and even the Alpha and Luna could be seen cooking for the masses once a week, and on the full moon after pack run, they held a massive midnight barbeque and the Alpha and his unit cooked for everyone. It was like a little tight-knit community, peaceful, and Mala wondered if this was how a pack was supposed to work.
Not a single attack on the pack in six months, a few rogues, but if they didn’t want acceptance, they just ran off mostly, the pack lye between two mountains and attacking it was not easy to do, any invading force would be seen coming over the mountains, only from the south down the valley was vulnerable.
Mala had the pack members in a hard training program now. She and Ben had assessed each of them individually, and they had divided them up into those who were weaker and needed to build up strength and stamina, to those who were trained but still could use improvement, and then there were the real warriors, the ones who loved to train, got stuck right into it and took it seriously.
Those that were like her and Ben, each group trained each day. The elite trained in the morning before breakfast for 2 hours of martial arts training and 1 hour of wolf training and then had to do two full laps around the pack border as fast as they could without wolf assistance and then two with full wolf assistance.
The middle ranked wolves, trained after lunch for two hours, in strength training and hand to hand combat and then wolf training for one hour with one lap around the pack border in human form and then wolf form.
The weaker wolves trained before dinner, one hour on stamina building exercises and strength training to build muscle tone, she needed them to have the strength and stamina to actually train before she could put them in to full training on how to fight.
Saturday and Sunday were the days that Alpha Aston and his unit trained everyone, no matter what training program they were in, also ran drills to get pack members into the centre of the pack quickly. Everyone was expected to stand and fight, there was no lock down for the pack house, no children to protect, not even the Alpha and his Luna had an heir yet. That was a little odd, but it was what it was.
The pack she found out had been in existence for 10 years, was considered new and surprisingly enough supported fully by the council. They would occasionally receive a wolf from the council themselves, that was in need of a home for one reason or another.
There were also no mating balls held here inside The Rejected Pack. It was voted on and all in the pack seemed to be in agreement with that. This was a relief to Mala. She did not want to attend one at all.
It seemed that the rejected did not need to or most didn’t want to find a second chance, Mate. Most here were happy enough just living their lives as they saw fit. Though the women out numbered the men three to one currently, there were a few that were in relationships and others just went about having casual sex when the urge took them, and some had no inclination at all to be with another.
Their pack library was small but interesting, held the knowledge of the pack for the past ten years. Alpha Aston and Luna Roberta had been together for 7 years now. It didn’t say if they were goddess gifted or chosen, but she could see that they loved each other and was guessing gifted to each other. Didn’t ask, not her place.
Mala worked hard all day long, every day to get everyone across all the training programs. Ben was with her as well. They worked nearly non-stop all day in the training of the pack, to bring it up to scratch. Assess the wolves every month in the two lower ranks to see if they were improving or ready to move up into the next rank of training.
She had been here a year now, and she was happy. Knew everyone and everyone knew her, smiled all the time. Laughed a lot with Netty and Peta. Still enjoyed living with them, now considered them her family.
No more did they feel the pain of their rejection, that had lasted near on three months, and she was glad when, finally, she and Suki no longer felt it. It was very freeing to not have that ache gnawing away at them, constantly in the background of everything they did.
She got to see some of those couples that were together approach Alpha Aston and asked for permission to be chosen Mates, he granted it always. Never declined a single one, just smiled at his pack members and was glad to see that they were happy and able to start a life shared with one they had come to trust and love.
Each one of them got a small wedding and the whole pack attended to celebrate. Lots of drinking and eating was had, there was dancing and laughing, a celebration that would go all night. Even after the couple would disappear to mark and mate each other.
Pack life here was so very different, so enjoyable, who knew being rejected could benefit one. She had not thought it would, but had opted for it in the small hope that she could find a like-minded group of people she could make friends with.
Now here she was, with hundreds of friends and the life she had chosen for herself was to her wonderful. So happy was she that she returned to the passion she’d had before she was 16, had always wanted to write a children’s book, so did, called it the flightless fairy, a book about acceptance when you were different.
Even found a pack member that was skilled at drawing and together they would sit and discuss what illustration she wanted for the pages, and he would draw them for her. Sent it off to half a dozen publishing companies and got two offers for it. Was more than surprised and asked Luna Roberta for her assistance in picking the right company.
When it was published, a copy of it was placed in the pack library for all to read. There were still no children here but one day her Alpha and Luna were hopeful that soon there would be pups running about the pack.