Temper, Temper: Chapter Eight: Puppy In Training
"She's worse than me, I hate her, I want her to leave and should she talk to me again I am going to punch her in her God damn face" Alex was ranting profusely, pacing back and forth in her varsity top and jean shorts over the Uley's wooden floor.
"Give her time she's only just turned, it takes time to adjust" Emily cooed leaning on the counter and watching Alex with an amused expression.
"Time? Give her time? She's lucky I don't give her a black eye-"
"Say Paul, you know when cartoon characters get angry and turn red, with the steam coming out of their ears? Watching the stray is kinda like that" Leah's voice filled the room as she, Sam and Paul walked into the kitchen.
The Stray – That was the nickname Leah bestowed upon Alex when the others had informed her with every reason Alex had taken up housing in the La Push land. It had the ability to make Alex's blood turn to scorching volcanic lava, in fact Leah didn't even have to talk to make Alex's temper flare up, her face was provoking enough.
"I'll show you angry, motherfu-" Alex advanced to where they all entered the room, her eyebrows almost meeting in the middle while she frowned and pushed up the sleeves of her shirt.
Paul's arm barred her from moving closer to Leah, who was smirking, triumphant over having the ability to infuriate Alex so much, she scowled when Sam spoke though.
"Leah button it. Alex, calm down" Sam instructed, watching Alex warily as she pushed the arm barring her way down and walking back a little to rest her folded arms on the top of the dining chair. She waited for Sam to continue speaking, now that he was satisfied she wasn't going to go from teenage girl to 'wild animal'.
"You're taking over the next part of the shift anyway" He informed Alex who was agape at the change in scheduling for today,
"But it's Scruff's turn to patrol today!" Her arm flared out in the direction of Leah, making sure knew exactly who she was referring to. The alpha didn't care for her arguing though,
"She's getting the mark today Alex, Will couldn't fit it in any other time" Will was one of the tattooists' who did the Quileute tribe tattoos on the wolves, they all had one on the side of their arm.
A sickly sweet smile came over Alex's face when she realised it was pointless to make Sam change his mind, the sweetness dripped into her voice.
"Well, we can only hope the ink doesn't poison her" Hearing Alex's malicious comment Emily covered her eyes with one hand and sighed exasperated by the tension in the room. As Alex made to leave, the two female wolves never broke eye contact until their shoulders connected, Alex barging past, out of the door and jogging into the woods.
"Lovely girl you've picked there" Leah said to Paul, who just made a face at her comment.
"She is when you're not around" He defended her, straining his out to see if they could still make out her slender frame before the trees protected her image.
'JACOB!' Alex bellowed when she was in her wolf alias again, searching the forest for the person she was patrolling with today, she had assumed it would be Jacob. Another wolf appeared out of the trees instead though, a smaller wolf, with big paws. Could you really call him a wolf when the animal was clearly a puppy?
'Nope, it's Seth' The dusty brown wolf, scampered over to her boldly raising his head inhaling her scent so he could recognise it in the future.
'Oh' Alex sounded out, her eyes analysing her partner 'Leah's brother'
'Yup' The young wolf had a lot of energy, his paws hopped while he popped the end letter of his sentence. Plucky little thing Alex noticed, she gently jogged to the boundary with no real energy or urgency to get there. Seth was shadowing her as she progressed. When Alex got the boundary lazily she fell to the floor and yawned out a small wolfy bay which revealed all her white sharp canines in the little ray of sun that shone on her fur, warming her with comfort.
In her state of relaxation, she closed her eyes peacefully, not even opening them when Seth's voice entered her head disruptively. He was stood at her side, eyes darting from Alex to the left and right and back again.
'Shouldn't we be running laps or something?'
'If you want to run laps for five hours, I won't stop you kid'
Seth whined a little, this was his first patrolling session; he didn't want to spend it sleeping on a rock in the sun. 'But what if vampires come? We won't be ready'
Alex murmured out a groan of pleasure, enjoying the sun far too much, she rolled onto her side, allowing the rays to shine and warm her belly.
'If there's a vampire you'll smell it before it's too close' Alex answered him tiredly
'What does it smell like?' Seth finally sat down close to Alex, his front legs against her back supporting and preventing her from turning over anymore.
Comparisons filtered through Alex brain before she could decide on a final comparison to give her young partner.
'Like a pack of vegetables that have been lost in a cupboard for a month or three, with like a coppery blood ting to it' Alex thought it was a pretty good analogy as she saw Seth crinkle his nose in disgust at the imaginary scent. After a few minutes of waiting for another question to come Alex assumed Seth had calmed down and would allow her to rest for a while, but as soon settled again after rubbing her face into the grass, attempting to get comfy, a paw rested on her shoulder blade lightly.
'Come on, show me what we do Alex' Seth urged her, putting more pressure onto his paw trying to stir some energy in her.
By 'we', Alex assumed he meant wolves in general but brushed him off, 'Can't you get one of your Quilt people to do it?' she countered.
'You're as good as'
This sentence stirred her, Seth put his paw back on the floor as she stared at him curiously. Leah really was nothing like her brother, and Leah's brother was nothing like her. That was good for him, because if he had his sister's attitude, Alex would have given him a real taste of what wolves could do.
Seth's tail began to wag happily when Alex lugged herself to her feet and vigorously shook her fur out, flinging away loose grass that had clung to the strands.
'Come on then'
Patrolling was easy on this shift, Alex made sure the pair stayed reasonably close to the border in case, but she would be easily able to smell a vampire if it came anywhere near the boundary line, she enjoyed having Seth as company.
They were at the furthest point of their territory now, on the cliff edge staring out to the vast grey sea that was choppily hitting the rocks.
'Okay, use the surface to run. If there's any uneven bits use your legs and push ahead, the force will make it easy for you to pick up speed – Let's go' Alex started to jog lightly, making sure her partner was at her side before she accelerated, watching him keep pace with her. 'You're fast kid' Alex commented, making Seth raise his muzzle proudly.
'Now when you really need a quick burst of energy, most likely if you're chasing something, curl your legs right underneath your belly. When you've got a longer stride you'll be able to catch up to your target easier'
Seth watched Alex as she demonstrated what she had just explained, in a matter of seconds she had changed her stride, putting her legs right under her, almost touching her forelegs at the peak of the stretch. With a quicker pace, Alex had loped ahead but Seth was a quick learner and Alex only needed to slow down a whisper for him to perfectly keep pace with her, their paws hitting into the ground at the same exact moment.
Seth was panting deeply when they finally slowed down to a steadier pace, halting finally by a rock that jutted from the grass bank which overhung on the crack separating Cullen's from Quileute's.
'I love being a wolf' Seth commented when his breath was more under control and he was able to raise his head and look at Alex, his long dog tongue hanging from the side of his mouth.
'Me too, think you can manage the rock face Seth?' Alex asked, looking over the ledge to the quiet river that ran between the two territories and back to Seth for an answer. When he nodded she internally smiled, 'Good, I'm thirsty'
'You alright?' Alex asked, turning to look behind her slightly. Seth didn't look positive as his larger paws knocked away some of the loose stones, Alex laughed lightly to reassure him.
'Trust your instincts, you were born for this' Saying that, Alex turned back to her own path and nimbly jumped to a lower rock, whirled around and bounced from the surface into the river with a splash.
'Show-off!' Seth shouted down at her,
'Come on. Follow my path, you'll be fine, just go with it' Alex said in between her laughs, Seth really was good company. The dusty brown wolf did just that, and although he lacked the grace that Alex had grown into, he landed into the river without harm, though Seth did shower her face with cold water from the splash.
Alex didn't care, he was learning and she merely shook of the liquid before taking a drink.