Thea woke up to her alarm clock in a perfunctory manner—not that she liked getting up at ass-end o'clock, but years of discipline demanded that she kept her unruly opinions to herself. Frankly, if she answered to herself alone she'd not see the outside of her bedroom until well after noon—and didn't, most days at Procelleraum. She did take a quick shower—the exhaustion of surviving the Alpha's exploits didn't allow for much cleaning, the night before. Hopefully he had some self-control, otherwise he'd never get any work done.

         Of course, that had her downstairs a good 15 minutes before practice—which really depended on the trainer as to how they felt about it. Given that there wasn't many people roaming the packhouse, she had to assume that her instructor demanded early attendance, which had her snagging the nearest wolf to ask for direction, without bothering for an introduction.

          Of course, this was a huge male—too sure of himself as he looked her over. "10 minutes Southwest at a jog. Do you need me to escort you, little girl?"

        So many things to bristle at. There was nothing about her appearance that screamed she was a child, nor was she even remotely short for a female wolf. And then on top of that, like a trained wolf wouldn't know directions instinctively, and even if she didn't that didn't require some male to escort her with that damned look on his face. Thea fought against her natural dominance to grit out, "No thank you." before bolting out the door.

         It took seconds to orient to the needed direction and jog into the woods behind the packhouse–of course, she broke into the clearing a tad faster than the 10 minutes. Possibly the wolf who told her was slow, or had underestimated her—more to be pissed off at, if she had the time.

        "You're late." This were was massive, larger than the Alpha—who was merely tall and typically built. This one reminded her of her father, more: wide as a barn and likely to pin you down like a barn fell on you, too.

        Oh, and of course he's one that wants students to be early. "How early do I need to be?"

        "I'd prefer you here at 4:15. Now, pick a sparring partner, we'll see what you can do."

        Since it was still before the official start time, most the more serious wolves were doing stretches in human form. Others were gossiping, possibly flirting—never could tell. The field was littered with females, though, and the males present were slightly gangly. Not that wolves were beanpoles, but they lacked the bulk of a grown male, such as their instructor had.

        "Unfortunately, none of them are worth my time, save you."

        That got a chuckle out the man. "You are precious, miss. I have my instructions—either you choose or I pick for you."

         Thea sighed, at that. "You know why I'm here?"

        "Somewhat."

         "Then I suggest you don't partner me with a female. My wolf will be out for blood, for no good reason. You're more likely to have your student survive that way."

         The giant smirked at that, choosing one of the more modestly built males, then bellowing out to the rest."Alright, laps!"

       After even the most sluggish took to the trail through the trees, the instructor bellowed, "Face your opponent and bow."

        They both dipped their head, then assumed a fighting stance. As soon as "Fight" was called, the boy rushed her, aiming for some sort of face hit. Normally, she'd get her arms up to guard from a blow, but the young man put too much momentum in his move, leaving a block as a waste of effort. He'd push her back too far. She sidestepped him easily, swinging with both her fists placed close together, aiming for his spine at the base of the skull.

        The connection was deafening—a loud crunch. Clearly, she broke a bone—whether it was his or hers, she wasn't sure of until he crashed to the ground. She knelt beside him, looking him over for a second. "This isn't good."

       "I've already called a medic, miss. Why would you use that move on someone clearly less skilled than you?"

        "I was trained to kill, not play around. It's basically instinctual at this point." The Gamma's daughter huffed out a strangled groan. "If this had been a human, I'd guarantee he'd be at least paralyzed, if not dead. Internal decapitation isn't even easy for us wolves, as it is. It's blood on his hands for either not fucking asking someone what my skills were or assessing them himself. And then he's going to send me to a school full of humans when I don't know how to play nice. I'll be risking exposing what we are if I take on some bully in a fight."

        Thea regained her feet when the medics came out with a stretcher, and allowed the instructor to discuss what had happened with them. It didn't take long to clear up everything, on that end.

         "What rank are you?" his question cut across her wandering thoughts.

         "We held to 5 ranks: tier 1 being highest and 5 the lowest. I'm stuck right between 1st and 2nd tier."

         "Why between?"

        This time she couldn't help the "are you stupid" look that crossed her face—thankfully briefly. "When is the last time you've seen a top ranking female?"

         "Germany, 2 years ago. Of course, she could look me dead in the eye and was nearly as wide as me. I call her cousin." The barn-sized male laughed at that. "But then, she's one of the rare female Alphas."

         "Alright, then, you're talking about a woman who has the bone structure to hold a man's muscle mass. I don't have that, although I'm nowhere near a pushover. So...yeah, not enough strength to easily overpower a tier 1, and by that point, speed isn't an advantage, if you can't prevent a hit. Part of the reason why my training has been geared towards brutally quick endings instead of endurance, so that way I lower the risks of being incapacitated."

         The instructor stepped back, and looked her over carefully—if he had leered, it would have been invasive. But then, if he had been disapproving, it would have been insulting. "You need more weight training. I think I could get you to your pack's tier 1. I'm not so sure of our classifications, as we are 6 ranks, and the classes are ranked with the smaller number being of lesser rank. I'd bet you're solidly a 5th rank, but my instructions are to not let you test out of each until you are ready to, and if you're going to nearly kill the rank leader, you're not ready, for all that you're clearly outclassing them."

         Thea sighed. "I figured it would go like this. He doesn't really leave you room to do your job, does he?"

         That caused the giant to laugh. "I'm going to get my way on this, anyway. You may be stuck in the wrong training schedule, but I have the kids run the 1st hour and fight the 2nd. You'll just be inverted, as you need training to assimilate, by your own rant."

         Thea bowed her head, for that much, and assumed an at ease stance, waiting to see what else he threw at her.

          He simply held his hand out to give her a handshake. "I'm Epsilon Fritz."

         "Gamma Thea," she smiled as she clasped it. "Is it a last name or a 1st?"

        "1st. Father still trains the upper 3. Not that I couldn't beat him out for the title, but we definitely could use more than 2 trainers, out here."

         "So, why haven't more been appointed?"

         "Tradition, mostly." The mild irritation that crossed his face was hard to miss. Apparently, there wasn't a full accord in the hierarchy—not that surprising. "Not that what we are doing is wholly insufficient, but I suspect that whatever training you've had would be beneficial to at least our girls. Teaching them from a male oriented perspective is why I still train most of them. Your females must be tough."

          That caused the Gamma's daughter to chuckle. "No. My father had me taught separate from regular training in Procelleraum. In fact, I'd bet that your weakest female has more training than any female that didn't come in from another pack, outside myself. I've never been left alone with so many unmated males in my entire life. We still kept plenty of Omegas, and I've not noticed a single 1, here, yet."

        That caused Fritz to slightly step back. "One of those really old-fashioned packs that treat a woman's virginity as a commodity?"

        Thea snorted in dark amusement. "Of course. That doesn't mean you have to back off like you're forgetting that I can handle myself."

         "Thea, I'm stepping back because it's appealing, and I know my place." He smiled softly, at that. "It won't affect my ability to train you—just that it's a bit of a shock, in the moment."

        "Open honesty." She dipped her head to honor it, a modest bow. "What would you like me to attend to, for the rest of this time?"

         "Head back East, to the infirmary. Kyle's too young to have a mate, and being in contact with the opponent who bested him may help his wolf surface—he'll need it for a faster recovery. Shouldn't take more than an hour."