Page 12 of Escaping Wildfire

Alpha Kedrick sighed. “Well, I was trying to put it nicely. I thought we weren’t doing the whole slut shaming thing anymore. Being pro-women and all that.” He waved his fork in the air as he talked.

“Well, of course, but sometimes you just gotta call it as you see it, and there’s a big difference between sexual freedom and social climbing and gold-digging and that girl is certainly more the latter than the former.”

“Mommy, what’s a slut?” Oren chimed in.

Alpha Kedrick choked on his drink, but Luna Ellis didn’t miss a beat. “It’s a type of girl you need to stay away from, eat your dinner, Oren.”

I chuckled at the interaction between the Alpha family. As we continued to eat, the Beta family came and sat with us. We met Beta Gabriel’s sons and mate, Arlo, Luke, and Clara. Everyone so far had been very welcoming, and I was looking forward to getting to know the pack better.

Jordan and I made our way to the dessert table, and a few of the female pack members looked our way as we walked. “Dude, Cristian was right about the thirsty females. Never seen them this bad at our pack.” Jordan commented.

“Yeah, but I’m happily taken.” I picked up a plate as I looked at the options on the table. “Hey, what was up with Neo earlier? Is he doing better?”

“I don’t know, he thought he smelled something, but he closed up again after that. I’m starting to wonder if you were right about the mate thing, but it’s not any of these girls.” I nodded my head as I got a slice of pie. I scooted over to get some fruit when a girl came up beside me.

“Hi, I’m Evie.” She looked up at me through her lashes and put her hand on my forearm. “Your name’s, Noah, right, and your friend is Jordan?”

“Yeah, that’s us,” I said flatly as I shifted my arm away from her.

“Well, I’d love to show you around the pack sometime. I know all the best places to hang out.” She said, trying to sound flirty, but it came off more as desperate.

“Listen, I’m sure you’re nice and all, but I’ve got a girl back home, and I really want to just focus on my training while I’m here.”

She craned her neck at me. “I don’t see a mark on your neck, is she your mate or just a girl?”

I took a deep breath before saying anything, “I don’t need a mark to be faithful, now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get back to my table.”

Now I know why Alpha Kedrick warned us away from her. I have a feeling this girl is going to be trouble.

5 First Day

NOAH

They had us on a pretty rigorous schedule. This week was a 5 am workout followed by breakfast and combat training until lunchtime. The afternoon would be virtual surveillance and tech training, and then we’d have supervision check-in after dinner with either Beta Gabriel or Alpha Kedrick. Next week, we’d switch out to physical surveillance and night watch duty. We were just settling in for lunch, and I was already beat.

“You guys did great out there today.” Luna Ellis encouraged us as she sat down with her food. Everyone at Harvest Moon was expected to go through training, but Luna Ellis was a beast out there, helping Gamma Isaiah, Alpha Kedrick’s younger brother, lead training. “I know it’s a lot on the first day, but it’ll get easier from here.”

The Alpha, Beta, and Gamma joined us as well with Oren following behind them. He seemed upset as he talked to his father. “But Aunt Liyah said she’d be here for my birthday next week. She promised!”

“I know, Buddy, but she ended up having to take an extra shift and wasn’t able to get away like she wanted. She’ll be back in three weeks though, and we can always have another cake for you when she gets here.” Alpha Kedrick told Oren in an attempt to calm him down.

“Okay, but can we call her later?”

“Sure, Bud, how about you go get Auntie’s wolf she asked you to look after, that way you can tell her he’s safe when we call her.” Oren ran off after that and Alpha Kedrick sat beside Luna Ellis.

“Aaliyah can’t come then?” She looked towards her mate.

“No, she can’t get the time off.” Alpha Kedrick looked our way and explained. “Aaliyah’s my little sister, she just finished her first year of premed, and she’s been interning at another pack this summer. She and Oren are really close, so he’s pretty upset about her not coming for his 6th birthday next week.”

Oren ran back into the dining hall carrying a stuffed wolf and sat down across from Jordan. Jordan’s eyes immediately widened and flickered blue as Neo came out. His nostrils flared, and he clenched his fist under the table.

Jordan pushed his chair back. “I’m sorry, but I told my mom I’d call her today. I’ll just meet you guys at the tech building later.” He quickly took off before we could say anything.

‘What was that about?’ Cristian mind linked me.

‘Don’t know, but did you see Neo?’

‘Yeah, should we go check on him? Neo’s not usually this erratic.’