“Basically.” Nathaniel shrugs. A man of few words, I like it.
As we round the corner from the foyer to the living room, the low rumble of noise lets me know just how many warriors live here. We walk towards the glass wall at the back of the room and I can already see the line forming.
When the Alpha King and Warrior Osiston showed me around earlier we didn’t go further than the kitchen. I didn’t even think about the lack of usable seating in that space. We must be heading to a dining room.
When I get around the corner and through the door, the roar of conversation is almost deafening, and I love it. You can feel the excitement and energy radiating off of everyone in the room. The buzz is almost overwhelming. I get goosebumps and my wolf is even purring.
It is just five after 8 and the room is already almost filled. The line around the buffet styled counter is moving faster than anything I have ever seen before.
These wolves know what they want and understand the time crunch.
“See, we told you, you have to be right on time. This place is a madhouse. Especially when everyone is here.” Wyatt says in my ear and all 1 can do is smile. I love it!
We got through the line and I think every type of food was available. I remember what Oliver said about me being too small and losing weight, so I piled my plate up not wanting to have to deal with being malnourished if training is going to be as intense as everyone makes it seem.
“I think there is enough room for all of us over there.” Lillian points out at the far corner of the room.
We walk through the long rectangular room. This seems to be more like the kitchen, industrial and functional. No decoration or frills here. Made to house the hundred or so warriors that live in the bunkhouse.
We sat at the end of a long wooden table that looked antique, but sturdy, with grooves and nicks and stains all over it. This table would have thousands of stories to tell if it could talk.
‘So you need to tell me what I am in for with Audrina. I need to know how not to piss her off any more than I already have apparently. What does doing my baseline today with Warrior Osiston have to
do with her issue with me today?” I ask the three of them, taking a huge bite of a burger that just melts in my mouth. Alpha Lucas could take lessons. They all look at eachother and must come to some kind of agreement.
Lillian takes a deep breath then starts. “So normally, new recruits do their baselines in front of the whole warrior training camp. It’s like a right of passage to get heckled and basically suck at the thing. Almost nobody finishes, because there is no kind of preparation for it, it’s long and no one helps each other. When we all got accepted after the trials, we were housed in a shack overnight, then given a set of training clothes and brought here, straight to the gauntlet. No directions were given, we were just told to ‘go.’ There were about 50 of us to start, after the gauntlet, when we came to lunch there were about 30 of us. By the end of training our first day 20 were given room assignments. So there’s that.”
I just looked at her confused. I did all of those things, just maybe not in that order and not with an audience.
“Drina is the only other person Warrior Brogen has ever personally evaluated. I think that made her feel special. She was also the youngest recruit, at 17, until you.” Nathaniel supplies around a mouthful of spaghetti.
“My situation is different though, I wasn’t supposed to be here for two more years and it’s more than a month after the trials. Surely she understands that it would be a waste of time to stop everyone’s training, just to give me a hard time, now that the new session has already started.” I try to reason.
“We get that, but he also told you to call him by his first name. That is a rare thing, I’m sure you’ve been told that. Not even Drina gets that liberty. And he has a pet name for you, something she also doesn’t have.” Wyatt looks at me seriously.
