Percy's POV
Waking up with a sudden gasp for air broke my spirits for the day, something wasn't right with my dream but I can't force myself to understand it. "You good dude?" Thomas announced from his side of the room, honestly startling me. "Yeah why wouldn't I be?" attempting to reassure his worries for me but I immediately understood why he was asking that. Looking into the bathroom mirror I saw my discoloured face almost as if I was frozen in ice for a couple of millennia.
"We're gonna need to get down to the training grounds behind the left wing of the pack house", he said knowing my forgetful nature was taking over my thoughts in the moment. "Oh, aren't we supposed to be supervising the pups today during their first runs into the forest or something?". He visibly signs in annoyance then puts his arm around my neck in an older brother fashion then proceeds to drag me towards our bedroom door.
"I'm not even dressed yet and you're wanting me to see people?" I shriek.
"Yeah, got a problem with that? He so confidently states.
"I do, my problem's called having dignity and not being caught in a onesie decked out with wolf prints"
"You know what, that's a pretty good point considering your clear immaturity. But you're gonna be shifted anyway so you'll get away with it this time"
I let him take control of my body and accepted my fate, doom by embarrassment or doomed by being smothered by a guy who looks like he could devour 3 of me. I never did describe Thomas did I? He's roughly 6ft 1 with blond messy bed hair, just a bit older than me at 21 but we've been sharing this room for quite sometime now and his personality's just grown on me in the big brother sense that he's always looking out for me or doing the opposite of what I say. Sometimes for my own good if we're being honest.
Right as we reach the door, it opens and before both of us could react, Chris grabs our skulls like a crane machine and makes us headbutt each other. "Why...was that necessary..." trying to recover from my near concussion. "Cause you idiots were downstairs last night weren't you? I've always suspected someone was late night snacking but, I didn't think a fellow pack member would be dumb enough to be caught by me" he explained almost as if he's been plotting this reveal for months. To be fair it was me yeah, but it isn't fair he actually figured it out.
"Are you just not going to explain what revealed it or...?" I slightly hide myself behind Thomas.
"Your scent is particular, I've only ever smelled it from one other person although it was a brief interaction and they aren't part of this pack"
"And what about Thomas?" I needed to know since I felt bad for being the reason he got hur-why is he staring at us blank faced? "Thomas?" Chris repeated as he looked at him worried with the colour from his eye draining.
Suddenly his head flicked side to side and he clapped his face between his hands almost as if waking himself up again, "I'm good, have we not moved this entire time though? Could of sworn I was just looking through the forest, searching for something" he scratches the back of his head in near confusion at his own words.
"Whatever, get down to the training grounds by 11 am on the dot so I'm not alone with these demons", Chris openly admitting that he's just terrible with kids. With that he makes his way down, an hour ahead of time as a scheduled Beta would do, that or he's mentally preparing to be torn apart. I mentioned that he's not good with kids but I can't blame him, when a wolf is born they come out as a shifted human but, after about 6 months the baby shifts into a wolf for the first time since their bones haven't fully developed they sort of just reposition themselves in the body painlessly. The catch to this is that they're forced to stay in wolf form until at least 3 years old in which they begin shifting back...with 0 human tendencies and instead all animal habits like biting, sniffing, eating stuff that shouldn't be eaten-saying this normal humans do quite literally all of this too, I think.
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Not getting the chance to eat breakfast we make our way down to the training grounds with the help of Thomas holding my hand and guiding me through the pack house, I keep mentioning "House" but it's quite literally a mansion that houses hundreds of members. "Someone always having to guide you to places after you've been here your whole life is pretty sad dude" he states, which I couldn't help but feel that was him insulting me but he was right, I can't navigate this place no matter the directions given to me. "I know and I'm sorry you have to babysit me like this" looking down at our pacing legs to avoid eye contact as best as I can.
"Aaaaaand we're here!" Thomas stomps proudly.
"So it seems we are...yay" I rub the back of my head, admitting defeat.
"That didn't sound as energetic as I wanted it to, try again" Thomas jokingly says knowing I hate when comedians try to hype up the crowd despite nothing but cricket sounds playing in response.
"You two, there's four groups of pups here and some of them are gonna shift soon so hurry it up" Chris announces as his long brown hair gets pushed into his face by the wind, almost earning a giggle out of me
It's sort of tradition where babies shift into pups at 6 months inside the pack house so we try to time it where, when they shift back, they're gonna be in the woods...seems oh so safe doesn't it? In their defence nothing's really going on at this time, the wind is keeping our scents in the other direction and there's usually patrolling guards around every hour.
"So which group am I getting?" I look around between them all.
"Hopefully the troublemakers this time" Thomas snickers knowing I always have the easy ones.
"Can you both be quiet, I know you're fangirls but there's no need to be gawking over my body", Chris begins twitching his pecs trying to impress...someone?
"Chris in all fairness, I forgot you were here but yeah sure, you have a nice body for someone your age" I laugh out at the personal attack. He's not much older than me but damn do I love making young people feel old.
"Before you two make out with your reverse flirting, can we decide the groups already?" Thomas audibly facepalms himself
"Alright fine I'll give someone else some spotlight this once. Percy gets group A full of 8 pups, Thomas you take 10 in group B, I'll take 8 for group C and Yasmine you take 4 for group D"
"Hmmmm D, I like the sound of that" Yasmine murmurs, hiding under her soft afro curls as if we don't have advanced hearing. "I for one, do not trust this lady with pups, can we get maybe...literally anyone else to look after them perhaps?", I say so unconvincingly. In response Chris tells us she's 2nd in command to security around this place, a delta if you would. Deltas are usually trained to be the next in line for the position of beta which unlike Alphas, can be given to someone without a specific bloodline but have to be acknowledged by the previous Beta in order to inherit their strengths.
"Alright so ladies, and Yasmine. Head in different directions of the forest however don't stray too far from the pack house and especially not too close to the boarder of our territory, past there we can't protect you efficiently"
"Yes sir" We say in unison
"Be back within an hour, after an additional hour a search party will be sent out for you so be safe until then if something were to occur" Chris speaks using his authority over us.
And so with that we're off, we take off our clothes down to our underwear and let our wolf forms take over, with the grotesque sound of snapping bones we kneel down to reveal our wolf's fur.
al our wolf's fur.