Chapter 3 Meeting the alpha
Zoey
We arrived at the address that Rysen had given us and there was no one there. "So much for 'Someone will be there to pick you up.'." Aphrodite said. Then we heard some leaves rustle and looked at the spot where the sound had come from. A wolf came walking out of the bushes and shifted back. "I can't just stand out in the open until you arrive, can I?" We all stared. Stark and I hadn't seen Rysen shift because she had simply left on her motorcycle. All of us hadn't known what to expect from shifting. Rephaim maybe knew a little about shifting but with him it always hurts. This wolf didn't seem in pain. The wolf was a female of average height and she had auburn hair. She had a little tan and that made her green eyes pop out. Her clothes were simple. Green shirt and khaki pants with sandals. No weapon or anything out of the ordinary. "I'm Leone, Rysen was a little busy so she sent me to get you. Any questions in advance? Feel free to ask whatever whenever." Leone seemed nice. I could see the others thought the same. "How far do we have to walk?" Aphrodite asked. "Not that long. I was here in two minutes while running and I didn't even run that fast. You won't be sweating when we arrive, I can assure you." Leone already picked up on Aphrodite's personality. Interesting. We walked for five minutes in silence until we saw some tree houses which were connected to each other with bridges and some people were watching us closely. "Those are guards on one of our perimeters. That are the houses they live in. We all choose what we want to do so they are there because of their own free will." Leone explained. "Hey Leone, the vamps I suppose?" One of the males above us said. "Yup." She answered. "They really have only three warriors?" someone else said. "Yeah, and then the other can kick your butt with their elemental affinity only that blonde over there has no powers that could protect her in a fight but she has one of those warriors bound to her so I wouldn't underestimate any of them, Kay. But you always seem to do that with everyone." I was surprised Leone knew this much about us. Did they gather all that information on us or did she simply know form being around us for a few minutes? I was impressed nonetheless.
We continued walking and found another perimeter station, as Leone had called it, to our left. They watched us but didn't seem on their guard. They simply watched their incoming guests. "Why are none of them on their guard." Stark asked. "I thought Rysen said that we were natural enemies?" Leone smiled and answered: "They are all fast enough to act when they need to. Wolves communicate through body language and normal speech so even if it seems like we're not on our guard we could still be watching you very closely. And you're here to talk about how to save the world and you know that you need us as much as we need you. Pick a fight and you won't walk out of here alive." She said that last sentence so cheerful that you almost wouldn't notice the threat she made. I reminded myself that she was just making sure we wouldn't do something stupid.
After a few more minutes of walking we heard more voices. We walked onto a path that was wider than the paths we had been on and we looked around. There were a lot of treehouses with massive bridges and on my right the path led into what I assumed were main grounds. "Beautiful isn't it?" Leone asked us. We all nodded. "Come on, let's go to the alpha." We followed Leone over the grounds. There were some wolves that stared but most went their own way. Leone was greeted by many wolves and she made sure to greet every single one of them back. "I know everyone's name, where they come from and what they want to do when they finish their training here. That way they always have someone to talk to. I'm pretty much the guidance counselor here."
After another two minutes we arrived at a large field with sparring rings, weapon racks and everything that a warrior needed for training. All of the rings were empty except for one. Rysen was fighting a male wolf who looked like the ultimate warrior. He was muscled all over, shirtless, blue eyes, dark hair, tanned skin, he looked like someone you don't easily mess with. We approached them and Stark whispered to me: "He's quite impressive, he must be the alpha." Leone started to laugh. "Don't repeat that, his ego is already big enough as it is." I looked at Leone with a confused look on my face. A look that all of my friends had. Rysen threw to warrior to the ground like he was nothing more than a sack of potatoes. "Hi guys, I'm glad you all came." She said when walking out of the ring and grabbing a towel and some water. "Rysen is our alpha." Leone then said. I couldn't believe it. "That's why you reacted on my scent at your grandmother's farm. The alpha is stronger than any wolf of its pack as long as the alpha deserves to be the leader of the pack or in our case the leader of the community." Rysen added. "I didn't mention it because at that moment I didn't know how you would react but you came here without knowing who our alpha was so now I know I can trust you."
"How are you stronger than him?" Stark asked. Rysen smiled. "She's stronger because she is the most skilled warrior among us. Even if she doesn't look like it." Rysen growled at that. It was a strange sound but it didn't make me want to run away from her. It was just the way they communicated and it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. "This is Jaerah by the way. He is one of the best warriors around and he's my warrior as well. Yes, we have oath bound warriors as well. He is also my insufferable brother. Key word here being insufferable. We can bind more than one warrior to ourselves so you'll meet other wolves soon that are bound to me as well. Male and female." She took another sip of her water and said: "I'll go take a shower and put on some more fabric and Leone will show you to the place where the meeting will take place." Rysen had been wearing shorts and a sports bra and nothing more. She was truly beautiful. Hair black as the night sky, eyes blue like sapphires with a darker blue ring around the pupil, tanned skin and a perfect body. "Leone make sure the rest is notified of the meeting. Fifteen minutes and then it will start. Jae, get in the shower and go to the meeting place as soon as you're done." Rysen ordered. "See you guys in fifteen minutes." She said and then walked away.
