My alarm rang at 5:00am and I managed to pull myself out from my pile of sleepy mates. I made sure to ungracefully clamber over them so that they were all waking up by the time that I jumped off the bed.
“Why is your alarm going off at this ridiculous hour?” Kyle sleepily grumbled.
I snickered at them “About that, you remember volunteering to join my training program?”
“Oh gods, what have we agreed to?” Sykes moaned trying to snuggle back under the covers.
“Surprise! This is your new morning routine!” I cheered. There was a collection of groans coming from the bed and not of the good variety. “Come on boys its only fifteen miles.”
“Only fifteen miles!” Sykes scoffed before rolling over without realising that he was on the edge of the bed and falling out.
“Time to get you’re running shoes on boys, we’re meeting down on the front steps in the next twenty five minutes.” I said glancing down at my watch. Kyle and Liam climbed out of bed and started getting dressed without a word. I wasn’t quite sure if they were even awake. Sykes however was still laying on the floor groaning and I was beginning to be concerned that he had somehow hurt himself from falling the whole one foot down to the floor from the bed.
“He’s not a morning person.” Liam said coming to stand next to me now fully dressed.
“Don’t worry Sykes you’ll be wide awake once we reach mile five.” I snickered again. Who knew that this was going to be so much fun?
By the time that we made it down to the front steps the girls were already waiting for us even though we were five minutes early. “Alright, for those of you that are new,” I said winking at my guys, “one lap round the building is five miles. If you are running a lap you finish a lap, no excuses. You can stop at five or ten. The goal isn’t to kill yourselves trying to hit fifteen. Don’t forget that you need to be able to run this every morning. Having said that, I expect you to try and I expect you to push yourselves. Okay then, let’s go.” And with that we all started to run. I tried to stay towards the back of the pack like I always did for the first lap. I liked to be able to see how everyone was faring. I could pick up the pace in the last two laps which I always ended up doing alone. The girls had been doing this for four days now and I was surprised at how far they had come in such a short amount of time. No doubt it was due to their magic and other abilities. A few started to lag a bit towards the end of the first lap but I was pleasantly surprised to see that four of the girls and my three guys ran straight into a second lap without any hesitation. I lingered at the door to congratulate those who were finishing at five miles and sending them off for breakfast and showers. We didn’t have combat this morning so I reminded them about training this evening and then set off to catch up with the rest. I was actually quite proud of my three guys that they were pushing for the ten miles in their first run. By the time we were nearing the end of the second lap I could see that they were regretting it but it was a good effort for their first time out and they should see it as the achievement that it was. The third lap I ran on my own even though it took some convincing for my mates to stop at ten miles. They definitely didn’t have another five miles in them. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to truly push myself for the last lap and take it as a sprint. I needed to work off some of the magic that was flowing through me. I was starting to feel the burn already and I needed to try and take it down to a calm simmer. There was something about the pounding of my feet against
the ground that always calmed me. By the time I had looped back around and finished my third lap a freshly showered Sykes was sitting on the steps waiting for me. In his hands he had a bottle of water and a paper bag that smelled delicious.
“I figured you might be hungry” he said.
“I’m always hungry” I said flopping down onto the step beside him and greedily looking into the bag. They looked like some kind of breakfast sandwiches and there were four of them. I pulled one out, unwrapped it and then literally just shoved it my face. While I was chewing my first mouthful I offered him the bag to see if he wanted one.
“Don’t worry I already ate. I don’t think I’d dare put my hand in that bag anyway for fear of what you might do to me if I took food away from you.” He smirked at me and I just grinned at him with my cheeks stuffed with sandwich. It was not one of my most attractive looks but right now I didn’t care. I wasn’t sure what was in this sandwich. Some sort of meat with melted cheese. Basically it was amazing.
Once I managed to eat two of the sandwiches and down half the bottle of water I felt more like a person again. “Where are the others?” I asked unwrapping the third sandwich. It was truly a beautiful thing and I sighed as I inhaled the delicious smell.
“I got first shower so I had time to win points with my beautiful mate by bringing her food.” He smiled throwing an arm around my shoulder.
“I need a shower” I said standing up and offering him one hand to help him stand while still eating my third sandwich with my other hand. He let me pull him up and then pretended to stumble into my arms so he could steal a bite of my sandwich. “I’m going to make you all sweaty.” I laughed at his playfulness.
“That’s the aim, I want to go through the day covered in the scent of my mate.” He purred nuzzling against me.
“Urgh, don’t that it so gross. I stink right now.” I said cringing away from him.
“You stink beautifully” he said dreamily at me.
“That’s really not attractive.” Playfully slapping his shoulder, I turned towards the front door to head back inside.
We walking back into the academy hand in hand while I continued to eat. I was a little concerned about the size of my appetite right now. Sykes came up to my room and waited for me while I quickly showered and changed. Classes started at 8:00am and I only had half an hour to get ready. When I came out of the bathroom Liam and Kyle were in my room talking to Sykes.
“We should talk about the room situation.” Kyle said turning to me and watching me pull on my socks and knee high boots to go with the terrible uniform..
“What about it?” I asked distractedly rummaging through my dresser drawers looking for a black hoodie.
“Well we would like you to move into the pack room?” Kyle said awkwardly.
“You want me to move in with you guys?” I said turning around. This seemed like a conversation which needed to be had whilst actually looking at each other. Rather than me busy looking for clothes and apparently Sykes
staring at my ass. He just grinned at me when he realised that I had caught him. There wasn’t even an ounce of embarrassment. Typical.
“Well you are our mate and … well … yes. We want you to be with us Aria. If you aren’t ready that’s okay, we can wait.” Kyle mumbled. It was adorable when the alpha got nervous. He was always so confident in life but he definitely had a softer side when it came to me.
“Of course, I want to.” I smiled at him. Not even a week and moving in with three boys. Yes, it probably was a bit quick. But we were mates and it’s not like there was ever going to be anyone else for us.
Kyle strode over to me and pulled me into his arms. “I’ll have the necessary arrangements made. Maybe we could get a bigger room.” He said looking over at Liam.
“Your room is enormous, do they even have bigger rooms?” I asked laughing.
“Some packs have up to six members,” Liam answered. “Our room is relatively small compared to some of the pack rooms. I’ll make enquiries with the administration office.” He said getting up and leaving.
“Isn’t he coming to class with us” I asked as the door closed behind him.
“He’ll join us there later Aria. This is more important. I will let Professor Octavia know where he is. She will understand. One of the original reasons for these academies were so that shifters could meet their mates. It puts all of the young shifters together in one place. That’s why the majority of this particular academy are shifters. It is rare in our world that fated mates find each other, but once we do, they understand that it takes priority for us.” Kyle explained.
“Will it cause problems that I’m not a shifter” I asked nervously. This was something that we hadn’t discussed yet but it had been playing on my mind a bit recently.
“No, whilst it is rare that fated mates are of different races, it isn’t unheard of. Anyway we don’t exactly know what you are yet. Maybe there is some shifter in you somewhere.” He smiled down at me holding me tightly, before taking my hand as we walked out the room. Sykes scooped up my book bag which was laying by the door and then closed the door behind us. As we walked down the corridor I noticed that he stayed a step behind us rather than walking at my other side. I glanced back every so often and it was clear that he was keeping an eye out on our surroundings. I wondered if he was even aware that he was doing it.
As we drew close to the classroom I couldn’t help but ask “Will you be disappointed if there isn’t?”
Kyle frowned for a minute not quite realising what I was asking. We had been walking in silence for a short while and it was like he was trying to rewind the conversation through his head. When he finally got there his brows lifted in surprise and he pulled me off to the side rather than walking through the classroom door. He cupped both my cheeks with his hands and stared deeply into my eyes. “I don’t care what we find out Aria. You are perfect. You are my mate. You are exactly how you are supposed to be. I am honoured to have you by my side.” He kissed me gently and I sighed against his lips. Damn this man was smooth. He gently rubbed the tops of my arms as he leaned his forehead against mine and we took a moment. When I looked up Sykes had his back to us and was facing off into the corridor. It was kind of adorable that they thought they needed to protect me. Kyle took my hand and we went to go into class. I made sure to give Sykes’ ass a pinch on the way past and he let out a high-pitched squeak that was quite frankly hilarious. Kyle and I both burst out laughing and he glared at me mouthing “retaliation” to me. I snickered and jogged into the classroom where I assumed I would be relatively safe. Professor Octavia
looked up from her desk and smiled gently at me. I gave her a quick hello wave as I made my way to a group of free desks. Kyle walked over to the professor and they began talking while Sykes slipped into the empty desk on my left. There was one free to my right and the one in front was empty as well. He passed me my bag and I smiled in thanks at him. I hadn’t realised that Witch Bitch was sat a few rows behind me with her group of friends until I heard them giggling and her making a gagging noise. One glare from Kyle as he took up his seat next to me silenced them but I had a feeling that they were going to be an issue. Britt and a couple of my running group came in next with Mae and Aeryn. They waved across at me while they took some desks at the other side of the room and I happily waved back at them. I like Britt, I’d learnt from our training sessions that she had the brutal kind of honesty that I appreciated and I was glad that we were becoming friends.
Professor Octavia had barely started when Liam jogged into the classroom and took up the empty desk in front of me. He quietly turned to Kyle and told him “All sorted, we move this afternoon.”
