Xander strode forward. "Katie, I wouldn't have expected that you would insult Maddy."

"She is a human interfering in werewolf matters. I don't see why we should waste our energy protecting her just because you want to date her or something."

The entire pack froze. Accusing Xander of something like this, could lead her to being thrown out of a pack and become a rogue. Katie too seemed to realize this as she immediately apologized.

Xander frowned. "Actually, Maddy is the one helping us. She is definitely the smartest here and she has silver immunity. We all are powerful because we are werewolves but she has been training with wolves all her life. Give her more credit."

As much as the words touched her, Maddy didn't want him to fight her battles. Maddy hated the fact that Katie thought that she only wanted to date Xander. Sure, she liked him and wouldn't mind dating him but that's not the only reason she is talking to Xander. Xander was her best friend before anything else ad nothing would change that. The way Katie was looking at her, it looked as though Maddy was a sex slave.

"Look, I thought I would introduce myself but since you don't want to be nice, I'll go. Just saying, it doesn't hurt to let go of your inner bitch and be nice once in a while," Maddy said.

Alexa whistled as the five of them walked back to Alexa's house. "Dayum girl! That was amaztastic."

Maddy wrinkled her nose. "Amaztastic?"

"Amazing plus fantastic. Get it!?"

"Sometimes, I wonder if you and Xander share a brain cell," Jeremy said shaking his head.

"Hey! Don't hate on me just because I am twice the person you'll ever be," Alexa replied, cheekily.

"Don't heed Katie's words," Jeremy said, trying to comfort Maddy.

"Yeah. She's a weirdo. She disappears once every week. No one knows where she goes. There are rumors that she either works in a fight club every week," Alexa said.

Maddy frowned. "What's so wrong about a fight club?"

"Werewolves in general aren't allowed to participate in a fight club because we have an unfair advantage and sometimes get too carried away, resulting in the death of humans."

"You shouldn't believe in such rumors," Xander scolds her.

Alexa scoffs. "Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate."

Maddy grinned. She could get used to these friends.

***

The next day at noon, when Maddy was sitting in her room, updating her story on Wattpad using a borrowed computer, when she was called for her first physical training class- 'How to Kill a Werewolf 101'. Whoever came up with the name was clearly very creative.

Maddy quickly changed into a shirt made of synthetic fibers and a pair of yoga pants. One annoying thing about doing any physical exercise, was the fact that two minutes were all it took for Maddy to start sweating profusely. After putting her hair into a high pony, Maddy made her way out towards wherever the gym was.

After fifteen minutes and a number of wrong turns, Maddy finally found herself in front of the gym. She pushed the door open and to her surprise, found Jeremy standing there, leaning on the wall. Maddy had expected some trainer to train like what she did back in New York, but clearly the Amalthea Pack did things differently. On seeing Maddy, Jeremy walked up to her with a smile.

"Hey! We will wait for the others for a few minutes."

"Others?" Maddy asked.

"Yeah. Leia, Xander and Alexa will be coming too."

Great! Now all her friends are going to see her embarrass herself. After two minutes Jeremy got tired of waiting and decided to start without them. He gestured to the huge mat in the center of the gym.

"Shouldn't we do warm up first?" Maddy asked skeptically.

"Rogues won't let you warm up. The rules are simple. I'll attack and you either try to overpower me or at least try to stay alive."

"Alive? What do you mean stay alive? Are you going to try to kill me?" Maddy asked.

Jeremy smiled. "I won't try to kill you. Obviously not. Leia will kick me all the way to Africa if I hurt you too much. It's metaphorical. I am the Rogue and I'll try to kill you."

Maddy nodded and started bouncing on her feet to get her body moving. She had defeated werewolves before. Defeating Jeremy should be easy.

"We'll start in 3... 2... 1!"

Before Maddy could even move into a proper stance, Jeremy had swiped her feet off the ground resulting in her falling on the butt. She tried to get up, but was stopped by Jeremy wrapping his fingers around her throat.

"You'd be dead by now," he said and let go of her.

Maddy gaped at him. Not even a minute had passed, and she was already on the floor. All thoughts about ever defeating Jeremy flew out of the window then and there.

"How did you even move so fast? The rogues didn't move that fast."

Jeremy chuckled and helped her stand up. "That was werewolf speed at its extreme. I believe that the rogues went easy on you because you were a human and they wanted to capture you, not kill you."

Whatever little pride Maddy had about being able to defend herself against the rogues, disappeared.

"What? They were going easy on me?"

"That's what I believe. But don't worry. It's because you weren't trained to kill werewolves. This training should turn you into a killing machine."

"Not a killing machine. More like a knocking out machine."

The two of them took their positions once again. This time, on the count of three Maddy immediately darted sidewards. Her objective had changed from defeating Jeremy to try and stay alive. She was able to keep Jeremy busy for about a few more seconds she was cornered once again.

This went on for half an hour. By that time Maddy was so tired that she could hardly move but Jeremy showed no signs of stopping. He wasn't even sweating!

"One break," Maddy pleaded as she lay on the mat.

Luck seemed to be on her side as at that moment, the doors of the gym flew open and in came Xander, Alexa and Leia.

Jeremy nodded. "Two minutes and then we'll start once again."

Maddy closed her eyes with relief and nearly fell asleep.

"Wakey, wakey!" Alexa's cheerful voice woke her up.

Maddy got up and walked up to her water bottle. After drinking up half the water bottle, she turned to Jeremy.

"How much longer do we have to do this?"

"Until you are able to win against us," Xander replied.

"Us?" Maddy asked with panic. "I will have to fight four times? That will take forever!"

"Not four times," Xander said, smiling sympathetically. "You'll have to fight all of us together, sweetheart. Four against one."

Maddy paled. "Four of you at once? You've got to be kidding me."

"Unfortunately, he is not kidding," Leia said. "That is how all werewolves are trained."

"But I am not a werewolf!" Maddy complained.

"If you are going to fight a werewolf, you need to be trained like one. Now, come on," Jeremy called out loudly.

All five of them went to the mat and took their positions. Maddy stood in the center of the mat with the four of them surrounding her in a circle. And then the match started. Maddy nearly went crazy dodging all the attacks. They gave her a total of about one second to dodge the attack before someone else tried to hit her from a different direction. In thirty seconds, Maddy was flat on the floor.

"You know," Xander drawled. "When I imagined you sore and panting in front of me, it was under different circumstances."

Maddy groaned. "Shut up. You guys are already trying to kill me. I don't need your horrible flirting skills to be added to the mix."

Maddy got up slowly. Her legs were wobbly and she was sure that she wouldn't be able to move the next day. The moment she was standing properly, they started advancing towards her without warning.

This continued for another hour until Maddy couldn't feel her limbs any more. Finally, Jeremy spoke up.

"I think Maddy has practiced enough for today. We'll start again tomorrow."

Maddy nearly started crying with relief.

"You did better than I expected," Xander said when they were going out of the gym.

Maddy snorted. "Yeah, yeah."

Xander smiled. "I still remember the day when we all received this training. It was two years ago. Alexa started crying which pissed my dad off. It was hilarious."

"Xander started bawling too," Alexa said as she joined in the conversation. "He acts like a macho man, but he is a baby in the inside. Xander had this wolf soft toy hat he really loved and one day it tore. We were about 8 years old and Xander wouldn't stop crying until dad bought him a new soft toy."

"Alexa," Xander growled while Maddy started laughing.

Yeah, she could definitely get used to these friends.

Make sure to vote, comment and share this story. -Aroha