Bonus （Jasper POV）
A Delta goes through a series of training over the course of several months in order to learn all that encompasses being a successful number 3 lead member to his Pack.
Everything from enemy strategizing, to hand to hand combat, and the paper side of things like learning territory names and leaders. They teach us how to understand a grid and which Pack’s to worry about and which we share treaties with.
We learn the history of things beyond the basic stuff all wolves learn in regular school.
They test our strength and abilities in our wolf forms and I am responsible for passing each test on survival, combat, hunting, the use of our senses for things like proper tracking techniques.
It’s a lot of different things to make me a well rounded wolf and human leader.
It’s so I can memorize the hundreds of different Wolf Packs around the country. To understand things like trade between many of the surrounding groups with other resources than what is found in our own region of the mountains or even state by state.
I’ll get to be with some of my buddies during different training sessions, for example, this week is survival/ hunting work so I’ll get to be with Trevor as his role in this Pack is a runner/hunter.
The problem is that I will also be with Nealin for the ‘paperwork’ side of things like the grids I had to accompany him with last time.
Only this time I’ll be taught how they're properly done and I'll be expected to demonstrate how to read and create grids. Those grids are for the purpose of mapping territories, landmarks of significance, but also for marking important resources.
Nealin has passed his training which means he is qualified to teach now and he’ll be teaching me. Well, a small group of us, but still I will have to be around him and that stresses me out.
The last I'd seen or spoken to him was when I shared our second ever sexual experience together. I hated that I let myself fall into that again.
I even cuddled the damn guy because he begged me not to run away this time and I caved to his whims and stayed overnight by accident.
We fell asleep together and I had to jump out a window to hide the fact that I was in Nealin’s room with him when Mira got home in the morning.
I’ve seen him around town trying to subtly get my attention and I know it’s because he wants to talk to me. I’ve blocked his mindlink access to me which means he can’t just speak to me without a choice.
I know it’s mean but I just have to stay away from him. Clearly there is something wrong with me and I'm reacting to him in an inappropriate way.
If I was gay this wouldn’t matter but I'm not gay. I have never been attracted to a guy in my entire life. Ever.
So how could any of this make sense? It doesn’t. My wolf gets confused when Nealin is present. How can I train with the guy?
I can’t just request to work with someone else. That’s not how these things operate. I just have to suck it up and get over this bullshit. I say that and yet my heart is beating out of my chest even at the thought of having to go through with this.
If I tried talking to him about this to clear the air again I’m afraid it’ll end up like last time, and instead of clearing the air, he’d be cleaning out my balls.
I don’t know how the guy can get me so hard and so turned on. I don’t know how he gets me to cum harder than I ever have. Thinking about his warm mouth makes me twitch in my pants and I wanna punch myself in the face for it.
“Delta, it’s time for a run” one of the guys with a crew cut called me out of my twisted thoughts. I nodded to him and stripped down.
We’re being timed on how quickly we shift and run the course. I’m good at what I do. This is just formal training because every new rising leader has to prove their standings or they can be challenged for their position.
That hasn’t happened in many many years but it has happened before where someone challenged the position of their Alpha, or beta, or Delta. It’s a fight to the death but they could win and the Pack is forced to acknowledge them as leader. It’s a messy business.
With order and training we’ve been a successful Pack for generations.
Once we stripped down a howl rang out and I shifted quickly. The heat of the wolf ran through me as my bones shifted into place and my paws hit the hard ground.
My vision changed over to that of a wolf and I was suddenly focused on the sights and smells even more prominent to me in this form.
I can run over difficult terrain with ease and my strength and balance improves further. I ran fast and weaved through trees and lept over rocks or fallen logs. I know this track well because I learned it last week in my previous training.
Some of the guys howled out as we enjoyed our wolf run.
Some of the guys would fuck around and try to trip up their buddies for fun but I had less of a luxury to do so. I was meant to be an example to the young wolves and show my position of power.
My claws bit into the earth as I picked up speed and I was first to run across the finish line. The crew cut stopped his watch clock and muttered the numbers to a little guy beside him with a clipboard.
Trevor and two others came in behind me and their scores were marked too as the rest caught up to the finish line.
That’s the other thing about Nealin coming for this next training. When we shift we are naked. I never minded being naked in front of the other guys. We are all accustomed to the fact that wolves have to be out of their clothes to shift forms.
With Nealin, knowing his hands and mouth have been on my dick and knowing he might look at my naked form bothers me. I want to shy away when I never have before. I also don’t want to see him naked. I can’t.
I’ll be here all week. Nealin is meant to arrive in two days. The time is ticking down in a torturous way.
“Aye buddy, looking good out there” Trevor slapped me on the back. We shoved each other around being typical dudes as we redressed and went over for some water bottles lined along the ground waiting for us.
I cracked the top and chugged a few mouthfuls of water before wiping my wet lips with the back of my hand. Why did a wet mouth just give me a flashback to someone I'm actively trying not to think about?
I was glad when Trevor distracted my thoughts with his own problems. “Jasp, I’ve been finding the balls to bring this up all week. It’s about Mira” he side eyed me to see how I’d respond.
I nodded for him to continue and he capped his water and tried standing with conviction as we lingered around the course's finish line.
“I know a lot of shit has been going on so my time with her keeps getting fucked up but I wanna know if I should pull the trigger on this or not. Has she mentioned anything? Is she into this? With Dev...” he trailed off like he regretted starting his last sentence.
“What about Dev?” I was curious. He chewed the inside of his cheek, thinking.
“Don’t bring it up to him..or her for that matter, but he kinda pulled his usual bullshit and threatened me” he rolled his eyes but I could see the nerves behind them.
He’s playing tough but everyone knows Devran is strong and aggressive when he wants to be. He’s not someone you wanna get your ass kicked by and Trevor’s already experienced that once.
“Threatened you about seeing Mira?” I was surprised to hear it.
“Yeah man. He rejected her bond and I guess that’s sorta calmed him down, but he isn’t as indifferent as you all think he is. He ruined both our dates. And like I said, he made a threat about...
well I guess it was more like a vague warning but-” Trevor was rambling so I snapped my finger to get him back on track.
“He said: ‘think real hard on who you wanna spend your time with. You might not like the outcome’ and what else could that mean other than him telling me to back off Mira...unless it’s you who likes her or something?”
I almost choked on my water.
“Nah man, it’s not like that between us. You know for yourself we have a bond like an affinity-link. If he said that shit to you it was definitely about himself. I don’t understand why he should care who Mira is seeing when their bond is broken” I tipped my head in thought.
I guess I’ve been too preoccupied with my own problems to pay attention to my two best friends but was Dev not over this Mira thing?
He had only been possessive of her because his wolf was hollering out for their Mate bond...so is he just being a prick and not wanting his buddies to hook up with his ex-mate?
Who knows with Dev.
“He has no right to her so you're welcome to do as you please. If he acts up I’ll put him in his place because he’s not about to control Mira while I’m around” I cracked my neck in annoyance.
He nodded and studied me for a second. “So she is into this?” He reiterated his original question.
I thought back to the night of the storm and what transpired between them. It was drunken kissing though. It hadn’t gone any further than that and she made it seem like it never would.
“Yeah, she’s into it” I assured my friend. It didn’t exactly sit right in my gut. I wasn’t sure why but I suddenly felt like the answer I gave him wasn’t true at all.
It was too late though because he slapped me on the back and walked off once he heard the answer he was hoping for.
Mira and I are making some dumb choices lately. She should stay away from Devran just as much as I should stay away from Nealin.
-
The sleeping quarters here are sort of like barracks on a military base. There were six to a room, bunk bed style, and a shared bathroom. We had about a dozen of those along a line.
One of the sleep quarters wasn’t full on the very end and since I'm Delta I rank higher than all these fools and I was granted access to it with only one other guy of my choosing which was Trev.
Spending 13 or 14 hour days with a bunch of men was too much testosterone for me and I was very thankful I had my own space come night time.
The other barracks are always buzzing with guys pulling pranks on each other or some idiot clogging up the toilet with too massive a shit that stinks everything up. People snore too and I despise that.
Me and Trevor slept on bottom bunks at completely opposite ends of the room which was perfect.
Every guy probably jerks off in the shower either in the morning or at night when they finally have privacy to unwind. Any dude who says he doesn’t jerk off at least once a day is a damn liar.
We’re all horny pigs and I need the pipes cleaned out or I can’t think straight.
It was about midnight when I heard our barrack door open and the shuffling that came after. I shot up in bed to see what was going on.
In adjusting to my night vision--because there weren’t any lights on anywhere in or around the sleeping quarters--I saw the figure of a guy pulling a bag through the door. Not a guy...Nealin.
“What’re you doing here at this hour?” My voice came out like sand paper for having just been asleep. He swallowed at the sound and my wolf stirred awake.
“We had a minor issue oo-on the way over. It d-delayed our arrival, Delta” he bowed his head. I sucked in a long deep breath and released it to find patience. Of all barracks, why here?
I knew the answer to that was because the rest of them were already full, but still.
“What issue? Is everything resolved?” I asked him in an official capacity. He nodded his head making his shaggy brown hair fall over his forehead.
I was already sitting up in bed and I just sat there looking at him without knowing what else to even say to him.
I saw Nealin acknowledge we aren’t alone and quietly walk further into the room, dropping his bag on the end of the bed next to mine. I grit my teeth when I realized he was going to be sleeping next to me.
Not that he had a choice. It was three bunk beds in one straight row and Trevor was on the other side.
I could feel Nealin’s mindlink pushing through and he stared at me. He couldn’t talk to me out loud, but he wanted to talk to me so I let it pass through, afraid he’d just speak aloud if I didn’t.
*Jasper, I don’t want things to be weird between us. I can remain professional while I'm here. You don’t have to worry that I'll do anything in front of your friends and Pack members* He promised me.
*What we did needs to stop* I told him and watched as his face dropped. He was sitting on the edge of his mattress looking at me. I wished he’d turn the other way.
*Jasper, please...I know you feel this connection between us.*
I grit my teeth at his words. *There is no connection* I snapped.
My mind went quiet as he hesitated to respond with another mindlink. He removed his shoes and slipped under the sheets but still he faced me when his head hit the pillow.
We were laying on our sides looking at each other.
*It’s normal to explore your sexuality...but this feels like more and I’m sorry but I can’t ignore that.* I noticed through the link he spoke more clearly and less nervous than when he was actually speaking to me.
*You...you’re out of your mind* I denied his claims.
I rolled on my back and looked at the bunk above me so I wouldn’t have to look at his damn cute face...His what?!
*I wanna know you* He whispered in my mind. It almost made me shiver.
I didn’t answer. I just continued to look up at nothing. My mind was reeling. I refused to look until I heard him sniffle and then my eyes shot over to him without me even thinking about it.
Nealin wiped one quick stray tear and turned away from me so he could hide the fact that he was crying. It ripped something straight through my insides that almost left me breathless.
I was left starting at his back and I ached to reach out and touch him for comfort. I didn’t mean to make him cry. It’s not what I wanted.
*Nealin, I’m sorry* I tapped back into the link.
The boy remained silent.