no pity for the weak

Vanessa’s pov,

The next morning, I woke up to a knocking sound on my door. I immediately jumped out of bed and opened the door suspiciously. I saw a muscular, blond man with lots of scars on his face, standing outside my door. He did not smile when he said, “You must be Vanessa. My name is Blake, and I am the trainer of the pack. Tomasso instructed me to get you personally and bring you to training.”

He looked at my pajamas, “You should get dressed.” He handed me some black jeans, black boots, and a grey sweater. I felt happy that he gave me some clothes because honestly, I had almost nothing myself. Training would be much more comfortable in these clothes. I quickly got dressed and walked outside the room. Blake had a quick pace and I had to do my best to keep up with him. While we were walking, he started talking to me, “So now that you have climbed rank to the normal pack there will be lots of training for you to attend to. All of us work in protection work but the assignments you will get depend on your skill level. You will start training at the lowest level. They do assignments like smuggling and patrol work. The middle level works as bodyguards and the highest level does the secret spy missions. All levels get trained in stamina, fighting, spying, and gun shooting. It is important to both train your wolf and your human form so some days the training will be in wolf form and other days in human form.”

He walked to the edge of the forest where a group of 20 people were waiting. “Today we will train in human form starting with stamina. We are going to do a run through the hills and forest. You have to keep up because everyone is instructed to not wait for the ones that fall behind. Normally a pack stays together but if you can’t keep up you shouldn’t be here, to begin with.”

I was still busy processing the information when Blake sprinted into the forest. The group immediately ran after him, and I tried to catch up. I had some stamina, but the terrain was very uneven, and I fell over tree roots a few times trying to not lose them out of sight. I ran as hard as I could but already after 10 minutes, it felt like my lungs were burning. I was stubborn though and didn’t want to give anyone the satisfaction of seeing me fail. I ignored the pain in my sides and lungs and just kept going and going. I focused on the person in front of me and thought about nothing else than following her. After an hour-long run, we returned to the entrance of the forest, and I was sweating and panting more than ever. I felt proud and relieved that I had been able to keep up and I thought I would now get a well-deserved break.

Unfortunately, Blake had other ideas and immediately commanded everyone to head to the gym. They all went in running pace and I hesitantly followed. At the gym, Blake told everyone that today for fighting training we would focus on kickboxing. I had never done that before so I hoped they would go easy on me. At first, it was fine because Blake was showing us moves to practice on boxing bags. I tried to follow the instructions, but my body was already exhausted. Blake noticed my weak kicks and with a displeased tone he shouted, “Everyone gather around the boxing ring.”

I knew immediately that I was about to get my ass kicked. Blake walked toward me and said, “If you think not giving your all is accepted here. Then you are wrong! Now show me you deserve to be here. There is no place for weakness or pity.”

I swallowed and tried to walk into the ring with confidence. My confidence quickly disappeared when Blake chose my sparring partner. A huge man with tattoos that looked like he could crush me in a second. Blake looked at us with no emotion, “The match is won if your opponent falls and doesn’t get up. Everything is allowed except the face. I have been told that our princess here needs her face intact.”

The tattooed guy looked at me with a sly smile and I could see he thought this match would be over in a matter of seconds. He came at me in full force, but I managed to dive away. I was faster than him, but it didn’t take long for me to slow down due to exhaustion. Before I knew it, he kicked me against my upper leg, and I fell down. He put up his arms in victory, but I ignored the sharp pain in my leg and got up. He looked at me annoyed and not soon after his fist found my stomach. I fell to the ground again coughing but I managed to get up again gritting my teeth. My opponent seemed to get very annoyed by the fact that I would get up again. He became more reckless from anger and now came at me like a wild bull. I took the opportunity to dive to the side and pull out my leg at the same time. He fell over my leg and his head hit the ground with a loud thud, leaving him unconscious. I was standing there looking at the big man and I couldn’t believe I actually won. As soon as the adrenaline faded all the pain came back and my sight got blurry. I held myself to the sides of the boxing ring and looked around me.

Everyone was looking at me with open mouths because no one expected me to win. Then one started clapping and all of them joined. My heart jumped in my chest, but Blake quickly told everyone to be silent. He came into the boxing ring, and everyone watched with anticipation what he would do, “You should all take this as a lesson to never underestimate your opponent no matter how weak they appear. Besides that, keep your emotions under control because they will cloud your judgment.” He gave me a small nod, “You did well. Don’t make me punish you again.”

When I left the boxing ring, everyone, I passed gave me a clap on my shoulder and I knew I gained some respect today. It was then time for lunch, but I was too exhausted to talk to anyone, so I just quickly ate my food and took the time to rest. After lunch, it was only gun training left and I felt utterly relieved when I found out I actually had some talent for it. Blake left me alone the rest of the training and at 5 we were all allowed to leave.

I dragged myself to my room and wanted to just lay in bed and die but then I remembered that I had a date with Duke in 2 hours. I realized I didn’t even have anything to wear but I couldn’t wear the stinking training clothes of today. Just when I started to get stressed out, Lianna her head appeared in my door. She looked shocked when she saw in what state I was, “Seems like you had a tough first day of training.”

I sighed, “You have no idea.”

She walked into my room, “Why don’t you take a nice shower and go to bed.”

“I want to, but I have to meet with the sheriff in 2 hours and I don’t even have anything nice to wear.”

Lianna raised her eyebrow, “Meeting with the sheriff? Hmm, I think you have a lot to tell me. I can get you some clothes though. I think we have the same size.”

I smiled relieved, “That would be great and yes I will find you tomorrow and tell you all about it.”

Lianna pointed at the shower, “Go get a nice hot shower. You deserve it. I will get some clothes for you now.”

I went into the shower and enjoyed the sensation of the warm water on my sore body. I stayed in for at least 30 minutes and felt refreshed when I came out. On my bed, there were laying some tight jeans, a light blue crop top, and some white heels. I put everything on and brushed my hair. When I looked in the mirror, I felt satisfied with the way the clothes embraced my body. The top brought out the blue in my eyes even more. I looked at the clock and realized I had to go. While I walked out of the mansion my nerves started to kick in. I had never been with a man alone before so I hoped I wouldn’t make a fool of myself.