PART II: Twenty six

The day was becoming bright as the dark blue sky slowly changed into a much lighter blue. The chirping birds flew happily in the sky and the already busy people roamed around doing their duties and whilst some prepared for the long day ahead.

Kira yawned carelessly before she got up from her bed and stretched every part of her body. Her entire face looked like a hot mess with her hair disheveled and all over the place and her eyes swollen from all the reading she had done the night before. She also had a headache as she had stayed up almost all through the night, reading from one scroll to the next.

After the discovery of what really happened ten decades ago, she could not help but be curious to know more and this led her to reading more and more scrolls to understand what had really happened and put the pieces back together. She could literally envision how Alpha Alberto had convinced Alpha Lionel to attack her people and how the entire situation ended up in regret as Alpha Lionel ended up finding out he was only used by Alberto.

As much as she would love to tell Damien about everything, she knew he wasn't the type to take anything she said seriously and even if he did, he wouldn't act on it as he was too egoistic to accept anything that would require him to apologize or feel sorry. As she thought about him, her mind travelled back to Damien and how he had disrespected her and her privacy and even went as far as saying that she was less of a woman to him.

After his harsh words, she had made sure to look at herself in the mirror to see for herself if truly she lacked the right features of a woman and unsurprisingly, he was simply bluffing. For a woman, she wasn't even flat chested, although her breasts were not too big but it was definitely big enough, moderately round and perky.

She had an hourglass shape too and looked more of a woman than many other women that she knew so she couldn't help but wonder why he had said what he said so carelessly.

As much as she didn't want to be bothered about his opinion on how she looked, she couldn't help it and that fact alone irritated her a lot.

A sudden knock on the door distracts Kira from her thoughts and when she asks to confirm who it was behind the door, it turns out to be none other than Marianne herself.

"Come in Mari," she invited and Marianne immediately walked in.

"A very good morning to you Alpha Kira. I suppose you had a wonderful night's rest miss," Marianne greeted in an overly excited and polite tone.

"Uhm, good morning Marianne. Is everything okay though? What exactly is so good about the morning?" Kira asked, wondering why her friend seemed to be in such a good mood.

"Nothing extra special Alpha Kira. It's just the excitement of anticipating a busy day ahead," Marianne replied and Kira scoffed.

"Who in the world anticipates a busy day with excitement and what's with the sudden addition of my title? I thought we both agreed to stick to the first name basis?" Kira asked, uncomfortable with her sudden politeness and Marianne chuckled.

"Don't be such a pessimist Kira dear. I anticipate a busy day cause being busy is what makes me happy and fulfilled and I'm too much of a hard worker to actually enjoy being less busy and as for the sudden turtle addition, I'm actually just trying to get used to it cause we're both going to be busy and I can't afford to call you out by your first name in public," Marianne explained.

Kira stared back at her with a deep frown, "what do you mean by I'm also going to have a busy day? I don't remember scheduling any activity with you, at least not for today." Kira responded, hoping whatever Marianne was on about was simply a miscalculation.

"Permit me to ask this Kira but when was the last time you actually went through a proper training exercise?" Marianne asked.

"When was the last time I visited my pack and was actually free and at ease? If you can figure that out, then you have your answer," Kira replied boredly.

Sighing, "That's exactly where I'm getting at Kira. You haven't trained in a really long while," Marianne reminded.

"I get the part where I haven't trained in a while but what exactly does that have to do with this conversation?" Kira questioned, earning another tired sigh from Marianne.

"Well, I actually believe you may get a little rusty if you keep staying indoors and indulging yourself in reading, heaven knows what, so I've decided to take it upon myself to make sure you get back to training and your session officially starts today!" Marianne exclaimed excitedly and nothing about anything she had said sounded pleasing to Kira.

"The fuck are you talking about Marianne? You know very well that your crappy Alpha has banned me from publicly showing my face around his territory, at least not without his permission. I honestly get that you feel bad for me but trust me, I'm fine with being indoors. I've been training my whole life already so a few weeks of idleness won't exactly kill me," Kira assured her confidently.

"Well, it would interest you to know that Alpha Damien was the one who suggested the idea to me, so...," Marianne drew a reply and Kira deadpanned for a few long seconds.

"Wait, what? He asked you to help me train?" Kira asked, wondering if she had heard wrong.

"Yeah, he actually did. According to what I heard, he thinks it's okay for you to do a little training once a while so you don't get bored sitting all by yourself in your room," Marianne confirmed and Kira scoffed.

"Since when did he start to care about whether or not I stay bored?" Kira hissed, wondering what in the world Damien was up to now. The Damien she knew could never be considerate at least not without reason.

"I think that question should be directed at him, not me Kira. I'm only here to help you get your lazy ass up so we can get to training. I don't even want to imagine how terribly you're doing physically," Marianne replied, wearing a displeased look on her face as her eyes travelled down Kira's body.

"Why the fuck are you staring at me like that?" Kira hissed, hating the look on Marianne's face.

"No offense Alpha Kira but, you look a little bigger than you did when you first got here and don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you're fat or anything. I'm just implying that you may or may not have gained a tinnie tiny bit of weight and I'm of the opinion that your sudden change in daily routine is responsible for if which is why, I need you to get dressed and prepare for a few hours of heavy training," Marianne replied and Kira becomes even more self cautious.

"Do you mean it Mari? Am I really gaining weight or are you just trying to get me to train?" she asked.

"I wouldn't dare come up with such a lie Alpha Kira," Marianne assured and Kira let out a frustrated sigh.

"Give me ten minutes to prepare myself," she replied before heading towards the bathroom immediately to get ready.

*****

"Heard you're letting Kira train today Damien. Do you have a reason for it or are you really just being nice?" Draco asked as soon as he walked into Damien's office, where Damien had buried himself in his work.

"Why do you always find it hard to believe that I can actually be kind to her? Letting her train is really no big deal," Damien replied defensively, getting sick and tired of having to explain himself every time he happened to do something unexpected.

"Exactly the point bro, it's no big deal for any perfectly normal person but not you Damien. I already suggested you let her train a thousand times but you adamantly refused so what exactly made you change your mind overnight?" Draco persisted, not exactly buying Damien's actions as an act of kindness.

"There is no reason for Draco," Damien denied.

"Oh for goodness sakes, just tell me the truth Damien! What did you do?" Draco asked persistently, already clocking the fact that his best friend's act of kindness probably stemmed from a place of guilt.

"Stop asking me what I did wrong Draco. Just take my words as it is and believe them," Damien replied in frustration, embarrassed by the fact that Draco still didn't believe a word he was saying.

"Come on Damien, I'm your best friend and who better to tell the truth besides me? You don't have to lie to me and trust me, I won't judge you or anything like that," Draco said assuringly, hoping his friends would finally just spill the beans.

Damien groaned, "You know what I hate the most? It's the fact that you always get things out of me one way or another. Anyways, you may or may not be right about my sudden decision to let Kira out in the open having a reason," he replied, drawing out the last part in a lower tone.

"I knew it! You can't fool me easily buddy. Now, spill bro. What did you do to upset our dear Kira?" Draco questioned, not hiding his excitement and Damien frowned in irritation.

"Dear Kira? Oh please! I didn't exactly do anything too terrible except maybe saying some unnecessarily harsh words to her after barging into her room unannounced," Damien muttered, recalling the way he had reacted to Kira's outburst and feeling embarrassed by his actions.

"Oh! So let me guess, you're too embarrassed and too proud to offer her a proper apology, hence, the stupid idea to compensate her by simply letting her train? Can you be any more ridiculous?" Draco hissed, not exactly surprised by Damien's silly idea of an apology.

"I know it's ridiculous but what else am I supposed to do? I can't even look her in the eye right now after everything I said to her last night and the last thing I want is getting punched in the face for attempting to offer an actual apology," Damien replied and Draco sighed, thinking of how he could help fix his friend's mess as usual.

As much as he found Damien childish at times, he knew his friend didn't mean whatever it is he had said to her and if it was as bad as he made it sound then directly approaching an upset Kira would most definitely be a bad idea.

"Okay Damien, I have an idea on how you can officially apologize to her and make up with her but promise me you'll accept any suggestion I make to you no matter how ridiculous it sounds," Draco said and Damien let out a tired sigh.

"How ridiculous is your ridiculous idea?" he asked.

"It's not actually ridiculous in my opinion but for a proud ass like you, it may seem a little too much to take in but since you're trying to apologize here, you need to be willing to let go of your pride and make sacrifices. I know you claim to hate Kira and all but you can't disrespect her whenever you please. She's still an Alpha and she deserves to be treated with respect," Draco responded in a more serious tone and Damien mentally rolled his eyes.

"I know, I know. Just let me hear what your idea is," Damien replied.

"How about you and I push this conversation to a later time? I don't know about you but I'm pretty curious to see how Kira trains. I've heard a lot about how strong she is but I haven't had a chance to witness it, so I'm actually in a hurry to watch her train at least for a while." Draco said, hoping Damien would agree to watch with him.

"I just said I can't even look her in the eye so how the fuck am I supposed to watch her practice?" Damien hissed.

"We're only watching from a distance Damien. Stop trying to make excuses and let's just go. I know you're just as curious as I am." Draco drawled, and after a few long seconds of contemplating, Damien decided to tag along. Like Draco had mentioned, he was also curious to see how Kira would train although he already witnessed how strong she actually is.

"Okay fine, let's go and watch but only for a while."