Latham looked up and smiled. "You're here."
The young shifters from the Kendall pack turned around, curious to see to whom Latham was talking to.
Makena walked out from the bushes, a gentle smile on her face. Behind her was a group of unfamiliar young men and women, who seemed to be following her. Together, they walked towards Latham, who stood waiting for them to come closer.
She then gave a little bow of respect to Latham and then turned around to introduce herself and her group to the Kendall pack. "Hello. My name is Makena Cairin from the Cairin pack. You can just call me, 'Makena'. We'd like to thank the Kendall pack for giving us the opportunity to train together," she said.
Immediately, there were sounds of animated murmurs and whispers around the Kendall pack. Most of them rarely meet shifters from the other packs. Especially those from the Cairin pack, which was rumoured to never associate with the outside world. Hence, they were quite surprised to see them here.
Latham looked at Makena and the two exchanged pleasantries.
Makena nodded as she listened to Latham. She then told him that they arrived a couple of hours ago and were staying at a nearby bed and breakfast place. And they will depart early next morning.
Hamish immediately stood between them, giving Latham his back. He then grabbed one of Makena's hands and rubbed the top of it with his thumb lovingly.
Latham rolled his eyes at Hamish's possessiveness and jealousy. He then faced the crowd and clapped his hands together, trying to get everyone's attention.
"Alright, everyone! Let's not get too excited!" he announced. "So, the Cairin pack will be joining us for the training every once a week! With this, we'll be able to practice our skills and techniques and also to share our knowledge! Let's see this as a training camp for everyone!"
He then turned to look at Makena and turned back around. "At the end of tonight's training, there will be a competition between the two packs. Although they have just arrived, they do not mind having battle between the two packs. So, the rules are that three members of each pack will fight on behalf of their pack. So there will be no repetition of the same shifter. Makena here will be the leader for the Cairin pack and…" he stopped to glance at Erick and continued, "Erick will be the leader for the Kendall pack."
"I'll give each pack some time to prepare and then we will continue with the training," Latham ended.
He then nodded to Makena, who nodded back. She then turned to the Kendall pack and said with a bow, "Please guide us well."
Cheers resonated throughout the forest as each young shifter was excited for the battle to begin.
Makena then turned to Hamish, who was still holding her hand with a smile. "So, will we see each other in the battle?"
Hamish immediately shook his head. "I would never go against you. Even if it's a practice match," he rejected.
Makena let out a light laugh. "How will we improve then?" she asked teasingly.
Hamish gave her a rare smile. "I'll battle the others, but not you."
Before Makena could reply, Erick had already dragged Hamish away, headlocking the latter underneath his arm. "Let's go, loverboy."
Hamish growled angrily, pissed at the fact that he got separated from his mate.
Makena just smiled and then turned back to her pack to discuss the strategy.
After they arrived at their side of the pack, Erick released Hamish and then said to the others, "Alright. This may be sudden but we had practice earlier and we should be able to learn from our mistakes. Although some of us have some battle experiences, we still need to improvise ourselves."
He turned to Dex and Jeayan and said, "Perhaps you two can take a break since you've just had your battle earlier."
Dex rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms across his chest. "Are you saying that I'm too weak to go for another battle?" he retorted.
Erick frowned. "No, but I'm just saying this to give other people a chance. You're one of the people who have battled outside training sessions. You even battled against other types of supernatural beings before," he snapped back.
Jeayan immediately placed a hand on both Erick and Dex's arms. "Alright, you two," she said. "Cool it."
She turned to Dex and said, "You know Erick doesn't mean that." She turned to Erick next. "And you, calm down."
After the two shifters have calmed down, they began to discuss their strategy. Although it was just a practice match, they too wanted to win their 'first' battle against the other pack.
A few minutes later, the practice match began. And because the night has gone late, they were given fifteen minutes to battle it out.
Nearly an hour later, they were finally done to the final battle. At that moment, both packs were at a tie, with one win and one loss.
For the final battle, the Kendall side had decided to send Hamish to the field.
The other shifters stood in a circle, surrounding the participants, who were going to fight. Hamish stood in the middle, alone as he waited for his opponent to step forward.
His eyes widened in shock when he saw Makena stepped forward and stood in front of him.
Ignoring the smiling Makena, Hamish turned around to glare at Erick, who looked away, pretending to not notice his friend's scowl.
"Hamish?"
Hamish reluctantly turned back around to look at the confused-looking woman before him. "Makena…" he said sadly.
Makena's face turned serious, saying, "I won't forgive you if you look down on me and do not give me your all." After saying that, she took off her clothes unashamedly and immediately shifted into her werewolf counterpart.
Before Hamish could react, Rae had already appeared before him. Her arm was pulled back and was about to hit the former in the face.
But Hamish managed to dodge it by jumping back a few steps. His eyes widened in surprise as if he did not expect his mate to attack him. He felt a sting on his face. He touched his cheek and saw that there was blood on his hand. Apparently, Rae managed to scratch him and she was serious in this fight.
"Bring out Kaius, Hamish," Rae said in her raspy voice.
Hamish narrowed his eyes. He then stripped out of his clothes and changed to Kaius as Rae wanted.
Once Kaius appeared in front of everyone, without further ado, the two mates came into blows.
Paws after paws were exchanged between the two shifters, sending dust flying around them. However, the people who surrounded them took no notice of the dirt as their eyes concentrated on the two shifters fighting in the middle.
It seems like the two shifters were of equal power. It was unsure who would win or who would lose. However, from their understanding, they believed that Rae would win because she has the healing power, making it easy for her to reduce fatigue and decrease pains and wounds.
While the two were exchanging blows, at some point, Rae noticed the pain in Kaius' eyes and she took the opportunity to sweep her legs, making the latter fall on his back. And without giving him a chance to retaliate, she was about to land a blow towards his stomach.
But apparently, she was too slow. Just as she leaned closer, Kaius managed to scissor lock her head with his legs and toss her behind him. Rae went flying, upside down, making the people who had surrounded them to move aside to avoid the collision.
Before she was about to hit the tree behind her, she managed to put herself into a horizontal position and used her legs against the tree to propel towards Kaius once more.
However, before she could reach her mate, a voice called out to them.
"That's enough!"
"That's enough!"
Rae's eyes widened in surprise at the command to stop. However, because she was currently propelling towards Kaius in mid-air, she has no way to stop.
Kaius immediately went into a position, his arms wide open, ready to catch Rae.
Just as Rae was about to collide with Kaius, the latter quickly grabbed her in a hug so that she wouldn't get hurt. However, the force from the launch was quite strong, Kaius also went flying together with Rae. Kaius quickly stretched out one arm behind him while another hugged Rae in his embrace and placed his claws onto the ground. The soil underneath them was torn off due to Kaius' claws. He then turned his body around, still protecting Rae in his arms as he placed his feet onto the ground to brake.
Kaius gritted his teeth from the pain of the frictions of the ground.
When they finally stopped, Kaius looked up at Latham with a glare. "Why the feck did you tell us to stop?" he roared.
Latham walked over to them, with his arms crossed and said, "I was testing whether you can test your response when it comes to command. Whenever shifters get engrossed in their fighting, they would not be able to listen to the orders and this would bring problems to their packmates and most especially to their Alpha."
Kaius growled. "Even so…" he said raspily.
Latham turned around, ignoring the shifter's mumbling and complaining. He looked at the other shifters around them and announced the end of training.
When he turned back around, both Kaius and Rae had already turned to their human counterparts. Standing beside them were Jeayan and Erick, who brought them their clothes to change.
Once the two have already dressed, Latham asks Makena whether she will be going to the B&B place straight away.
Makena nodded. "Since we'll be going straight home tomorrow, it's better we get some rest before we go," she said.
She then turned to Hamish and gave him a kiss on the cheek. She pulled away, looking shy.
Hamish's eyes widened in surprise. He never thought that she would kiss him in front of everyone, knowing her personality.
Both Jeayan and Erick inwardly rolled their eyes behind them. Erick then leaned closer to Jeayan, asking softly, "So, this is how you usually feel?"
Jeayan nodded. "Yep," she said, clicking her tongue.
Ignoring the two lightbulbs behind him, Hamish smiled gently down at his mate. "So, shall I bring you back home?" he asked flirtatiously.
Before Makena could reply, Erick had dragged Hamish away by the back of his collar. "Let's go, lover boy. We got school tomorrow."
"The heck, Erick! Let me go!" Hamish roared.
The other shifters stepped aside, giving Erick some space, letting the latter walk past them.
Makena just smiled as she watched them leave.
Jeayan walked over to her and placed a hand on her arm.
Startled by the sudden touch, Makena whirled her head towards the other girl, her eyes widened.
Jeayan immediately pulled her hand away and raised both her hands up as if to surrender. "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to startle you."
Makena smiled at her as she shook her head. "No worries. I'm just easily surprised," she said.
"I didn't expect that you and your packmates would come here," Jeayan commented. "Did Hamish know?"
Makena was about to answer her when Jeayan answered herself. "Nah, that's impossible. You probably told him earlier, right?" she asked.
Makena smiled secretly at Jeayan. "Actually, he didn't know. I didn't tell him about it. I was planning for this to be a surprise," she said.
Jeayan's mouth dropped to an 'o' shape. "No wonder," she said. She then giggled. "Good for him."
Before the two of them could talk more, Latham had clapped his hands together, trying to get everyone's attention. "Alright, everyone! Let's break it up here and we'll see each other in the next training session."
He turned to Makena and said, "Thank you again for your participation. We hope to see you and the others soon! Have a safe journey back home."
Makena nodded and thanked him as well.
-----
Krys nestled deep underneath the branches and leaves as he watched the two young shifters below him. He was squatting on top of one of the branches in a nearby tree where the Kendall shifters had their training. He was surprised when he saw unfamiliar shifters joining their session.
After he heard Makena's introduction, it was then he knew that the Kendall and the Cairin packs have come into an agreement and partnership. And they were now training together.
He was planning to stay a bit more to listen to the conversations below when Erick, who was dragging Hamish by the collar, suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked at the tree where Krys was hiding.
Krys immediately cursed softly, thinking that perhaps his scent spells have worn out. The scent spell was one of the warlocks' spells that enable one to hide their scents from anyone, even from shifters. He could not risk exposing himself in this den of shifters lest he could get killed. He quickly cast another spell on himself.
What he didn't know was that Erick did not actually sense his smell. It was more of his instincts were telling him that someone was there.
Coincidentally, just after Krys casted a spell on himself, Erick turned back around and continued to drag Hamish out of the forest.
After the two young shifters have left, Krys turns to look at the training area where Latham had just dismissed everyone.
Krys continued to watch from behind the leaves. He narrowed his eyes as he watched Makena and her other packmates left the area. Earlier, before he left for Burkendall town, he was baffled as to why Rehan had told him to not chase after the woman, saying that they did not need her anymore.
Krys knew how valuable and precious her blood was, hence he was confused why Rehan told him to ignore the woman. Instead, he told him to keep an eye on Erick.
Yet, seeing how Erick seems to be suspicious of his surroundings, Krys could only abandon his plan to follow him out. He wasn't sure why Rehan wanted him to follow the young shifter. He knew that Erick was suspiciously getting stronger day by day. He could not put a finger on how the latter managed to strengthen himself up. He suspected Rehan probably knew something but just needed confirmation.
He doesn't know what Rehan was looking for. But perhaps the information of the two packs working together would still be good.
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