Noah’s pov,
Loud whistles interrupted the kiss he was sharing with Lola and before he knew it they were surrounded by excited kids full of energy. He smiled warmly at Lola before he turned around and went into his alpha role.
“What are you all looking at? Make a line right now!”
His voice thundered over the field and the kids didn’t know how fast to get in line. Noah gave every single kid a small car tire and said, “Today we will go for a run in the forest. You are all responsible to carry your tire the whole run. If anyone drops a tire there will be punishment in the form of push-ups or something similar. So, it depends on all of you how long and heavy this training will be. Work as one and if you notice someone struggling then help them.”
Before anyone could respond Noah ran off into the forest and yelled, “LET’S GO!”
He took them through the middle of the forest making sure the terrain was as rough as possible. In the beginning, he could still hear the kids joke and talk but it quickly changed to silence when exhaustion kicked in. Not much later he heard the first tire drop and ordered them to do 20 push-ups. All the kids were annoyed with the one that dropped the tire. The next time someone dropped it Noah ordered them to hold the tired above their heads for 2 minutes. The kids started to get more frustrated with every punishment until after 6 punishments one of the stronger kids took a weak kid’s tire and carried it above his own for a while. Another kid took the lead and ordered others to help when he noticed someone struggling. Noah smiled and decided it was time to head back now that he saw what he wanted to see.
“Come on everyone just a little bit further, give it your all!” he shouted before he started sprinting. The kids followed him out of breath but determined. When they arrived back at the field, he gave them a short break and asked, “Can someone tell me what the point of this exercise was?”
One kid said, “To improve our strength.”
Noah shook his head, “That was not the main purpose of the training but however it is a nice side effect.”
A girl held up her hand, “I think it was meant to show us how much more you can achieve when you work with one mind instead of everyone thinking about themselves.”
Noah nodded, “Very good. In the beginning, it was punishment after punishment, and you all blamed the person that dropped the tire. From the moment you changed it into helping each other you all worked like a well-oiled machine. Remember that for the future.”
Noah looked at Lola who was still watching them and his heart jumped a bit when he saw the proud look in her eyes. In the meantime, it had started raining heavily and the field turned into a muddy pool.
“Put all the tires into a big circle,” Noah ordered.
The kids made a big circle in the mud and Noah chose the smallest girl and the biggest boy to go into the circle. The kids all stared at each other wondering what was going to happen now.
“In this circle, you will fight. You win when you work the other person outside of the circle,” Noah said.
The boy looked at him confused, “But this is not a fair fight?”
Noah stared at the little girl who was standing ready with her hands fisted, “No it is not but you are being trained for war. War is not fair, and war doesn’t care if you are a grown man or a little girl. I need you all the be ready for anything. You need to be able to switch on and off your fighting rage on command. So, show me you have the fighting aggression to fight your enemy but also the control to stop when you need to.”
He shouted, “Start!”
The boy and girl ran toward each other and immediately got into a heavy fight. The girl was fierce but no match for the strong boy. Noah waited until he saw that they were both blinded with rage before he commanded, “Stop!”
Both of them immediately stopped and stepped back panting heavily. They looked at each other while the rage slowly faded. Noah walked to them and put his hands on their shoulders, “Good job both of you.”
He let the children fight each other for hours until he decided it was enough for today. He just wanted to send them home when the little girl from the beginning looked at him with cheeky eyes and asked loudly, “Would you show us how you fight alpha Grey?”
Noah had a hard time keeping a straight face because he was amused by the audacity, “Whom would you want me to fight?”
The girl grinned and said, “Luna Grey.”
The other kids gasped and looked at him excitedly, Noah turned toward Lola to see how she felt but she already walked inside the circle. She raised her eyebrow and said, “What are you waiting for?”
Noah chuckled and walked inside the circle, walking around Lola like he was studying his prey. Lola just stood still and followed him with her eyes and when he leaped at her, she just moved her tiny body to the side. No matter what he did she was always faster than him and managed to stay just out of grasp. After a while, Noah knew her moves and he pretended to leap at her from the right and just changed his direction at the last second. He tackled Lola to the ground and got her covered in mud from head to toe. Then all of the sudden she did something with her legs and turned them around, leaving him laying with his back in the mud. She kept him in position strangling him with her legs and pinning his arms above his head.
“Do you give up?” she purred.
Noah panted, “You win.”
She stood up and held up her hand to help him up as well. With a smug expression, she turned to the children who were applauding her loudly. Noah stroked his strangled neck and laughed before he ordered the kids to go home.
“As you can see it is not always strength that wins a battle. Now that was enough for today. Go and get some well-deserved rest and I will see you all tomorrow.”
The kids walked away talking loudly and excited about what a day they had. Lola turned to face him and grinned, “How does it feel to lose alpha Grey?”
Noah laughed because it was adorable how she was boasting about the fight while she was covered in mud from head to toe. He grabbed her waist with one hand and pulled her toward him with one swift motion. He lowered his face to her ear and whispered, “What do you say about a warm shower and a massage as a reward?”