Fate of Existence | Book 1 ✔️

[3]

Training these pups is annoying as hell. They are whiny. They don't listen. They are so weak and stubborn. I've been working with them since my talk with Allison and they still have yet to show any progress or promise for the matter.

"It's nightfall. The perfect time for attack from another warring pack. How do you think you'd fair?" I look down on them pacing slowly back and forth amongst them as I make them sit like dogs on the ground. They haven't earned the title wolf.

"Do you think you would win? Or better yet survive? What I am teaching you is not some useless information like you probably all are thinking. This is about your life, your future, that you fail to take seriously. As the future of this pack... this is utterly disgraceful!"  I say it with so much force some of my power began to leak out causing them to whimper.

"Until you put in more practice. . and take what I am teaching you seriously you will not be able to change out of your wolf forms." I hear more whimpers as I say this.

"Hate me. Loathe me. I don't care. I am responsible for your lives. Your mistakes are my mistakes. You all are dismissed." They walk away with their wolfy heads hanging down as I growl disdainfully.

"Really, Lance? They are only twelve," Matthew says like that's supposed to mean something.

"Yeah, not too young to die though," I retort back.

"You had them training for six hours non-stop. Of course they would regress."

"Stop making excuses for them. When I trained with my father he punished me countless times, always at the end of every training session he stated, 'Failure isn't an option'. Same goes for them."

He sighs. "It's useless talking to you. It's like talking to a brick wall."

"It's useless listening to you. It's like swatting at a net that never seems to go away."

"We live in a time of peace-"

"Awww shut up already with that philosophical bullshit. No we don't. Anytime that treaty could be broken. They need to know the essentials of how to protect themselves if worse comes to worse. Stop making me out like I'm the bad guy,"  I mutter incoherently.

He gives me a small grin before nudging me. "Let's just say, we agree to disagree."

"As always."

Even though he irritates the shit out of me with his " Everyone is beautiful. .. world peace... don't kill bullshit." I get along best with him. Because we disagree so much, I feel like I can trust him just a bit more than anyone else.

He yawns, almost howlish. " It's close to midnight, Matt. You should go rest. I will clean up here a little before following behind you."

He looks at me as if peering through my soul. "Lance, you're terrible at hiding your emotions from me."

"Who said I was hiding it from you? I just don't feel like talking about it. Go get some rest." He sighs and nods then trots off to the pack house.

Damn... does everyone know what happened to me? I will definitely make him get down on his knees and grovel at my feet. Messing up my reputation like this.

I smack limbs of the tree to the side as I venture further into the forest. Training those pups is having a serious toll on me. I wonder if I was that bad at their age. The moment I come across the waterfall I love to visit I sit down on one of the nearby rocks and inhale deeply.

I wonder...

"What would become of me if I decided to leave. . . Would I be a rogue hunted by my own pack? Live my life in complete solidarity?"