Page 44 of Alpha Gray

“That said, we’ve come to a decision that the offending recruit will be permitted to stay at training camp.”

Some of the trainees look surprised, and several comment to one another in low whispers. Hannah looks absolutely livid. I hold up a hand to quiet them.

“She’s assured me it won’t ever happen again, but while you all practice this morning, she’s going to be running suicides as penance.”

That gets her attention. Fallon snaps her head to look up at me, the silver of her wolf swirling behind her eyes. She doesn’t hold my gaze, though- she quickly looks away, which fucking kills me.

“Alright!” I clap my hands together. “Warm-up laps, let’s get to it.”

The recruits jog off, and I can’t help but watch Fallon’s ass in her cute little shorts as they do. I wish I could make things right with her somehow. It feels like she’s running away with a little piece of my soul, a side of me that I didn’t even know existed.

Her words last night come back to me, playing over and over in my mind. ‘It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted, until you’.

Even though they were her words, I feel them so intimately, like they could be my own.

Fallon

My legs are like jelly after running suicides all morning. Even though I know I deserved it, it was a particularly cruel and unusual punishment. When the afternoon session rolls around, I’m glad to join back in with the other recruits. I’m itchy with anticipation at what the alphas have in store for us when they return to the field with the whiteboard and call us over.

“We’re gonna switch things up this week,” Reid announces.

I crane my neck to see the whiteboard behind him, and it looks like a sports bracket is drawn on it. No names have been added yet, but there are lines going down each side of the board in columns, reducing each step until two remain in the center.

“We’re going to have a little tournament. You’ll go head to head, single elimination, until we have one last matchup. A main event.”

The excitement that rises among the recruits is palpable. We start looking to one another, grinning, eager to get started. We’ve all enjoyed sparring with each other during training, but there wasn’t much at stake. Now that there’s an actual challenge set up for us and the stakes have been raised, we’re fuckingstoked.

Reid clears his throat to get our attention again and the chatter amongst our group dies down. “We’ll do these in the indoor arena, and you’ll have eight minutes to give it all you’ve got. The five of us will decide the winner, and the winner will be moving on to the next round. You’ll all get to observe the matchups, so hopefully when you’re not in the arena fighting, you can pick up some things from your fellow recruits.”

He throws a thumb over his shoulder, pointing at the whiteboard. “We’ll draw names at random for the first matchups and whittle things down from there based on performance.”

I nod enthusiastically. I’m actually glad they’re drawing the matchups at random rather than just throwing us in with our partners. I mean, I know I’m good, but Judd’s an intimidating opponent.

“Oh- and one more thing,” Reid adds, grinning mischievously. “We’ve already seen you fight in human form, so in this tournament, you’ll be fighting as wolves.”

I hear Vienna draw a gasp beside me and I just chuckle to myself. I’m practically giddy- I know I’m a good fighter on two legs, but I’m evenbetteron four. With my place in the squad being recently called into question, this tournament couldn’t have come at a better time.

Reid shrugs in response to the sounds of astonishment coming from our group. “You’ve gotta learn to fight both ways, right? Why not mix it up.”

It’s smart, really. We’ve all been watching each other for weeks on the field, so we’ve got a loose idea of what everyone can do, what their best moves and tactics are. None of us have squared off as wolves, so it’ll be a totally clean slate- we won’t know what kind of skill level we’re up against and anything can happen.

“Crap!” Vienna whispers, and I turn to look at her. Her eyes are thrown wide.

I nudge her side to get her attention and raise my brow in question.

Vienna shakes her head, looking discouraged. “I’m not very good as a wolf,” she mutters quietly. “Haven’t had a lot of practice. And my wolf’s so small…”

“Aw, you’ll be fine,” I breathe, offering a reassuring smile. “You don’t even know who you’re up against yet! Just stay confident, you’ve got this, girl.”

She forces a small smile, but she still looks anxious.

“Now for the matchups!” Theo barks, stepping forward with what looks like a shoebox. He reaches inside and pulls out two slips of paper, handing them to Jax.

Jax unfolds each one, reading them. “Connor and Shay!” he announces. Brock goes over to the whiteboard with a dry-erase marker and adds their names to the first two lines.

The process repeats and Brock fills in more and more names on the bracket. Davis got drawn to go up against Judd- that matchup is going to be a doozy. They’re two of the biggest guys and their skill levels are pretty similar, so it’ll be an exciting one to watch.

They’re about halfway through assigning the matchups when I hear my name called.

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