AVA
I took advantage of his distraction; darting behind him before flinging my massive body at him, knocking him onto his back. This time when Artemis had her jaws around his neck, he had no choice but to submit.
The applause when he did was enormous, and only got louder as we both shifted back and lay on the floor trying to catch our breath. “Good fight, Alpha Jacob,” I laughed, noticing that my ribs were sore from some of the kicks he got in.
“Good job, Alpha, Alpha,” Beta Alexander appeared over us, throwing us both spare clothes since we both shredded everything we were wearing.
“What was the final time, Beta? Alpha Jacob asked, both of us still lying on the floor.
“One hour and forty eight minutes!”
“Jeez, no wonder my ribs hurt,” I laughed, before wincing at the pain.
We both got to our feet, and it was only then that I realised Alpha Jacob had come off considerably worse. I winced when I saw his face. “Sorry about the black eye, Alpha,” I grimaced.
He just laughed, pulling me into a hug. “All is fair in love and war, Alpha,” he replied. “Definitely fair on the sparring mat.”
“Who won the bet, Beta?” I called out, my arm still around Alpha Jacob.
“Our closest bet was… Luna Amelia with Alpha Ava to win in one hour and forty five minutes!”
Luna Amelia jumped up and down, skipping ecstatically, even though it meant she bet against her mate.
“Mate, you bet against me?” Alpha Jacob gave her sad puppy dog eyes.
“Yup, but I was right though, wasn’t I?” She grinned.
“I’ll get you back for this later, Amy,” he growled in her ear, low enough that no one else was meant to hear. Luna Amelia squealed when Alpha Jacob tossed her over his shoulder before sprinting back to the pack house.
I laughed as she got carried away over her mate’s shoulder, her squeals of delight still being heard from across the compound.
“Your laugh…” a voice whispered in my right ear. “It’s addictive,” another finished in my left, a warm, wet tongue trailing down the shell of my ear.
“Boys!” Beta Alexander shouted out. “Hands off my assistant trainer in public, please, none of us want to see this.”
“Sorry, dad,” Oscar and Callum replied, rubbing their faces into the curve of my neck.
I laughed between them, tangling my fingers in their hair, dragging my fingernails across their scalps. Callum groaned against me, shivers running down his skin. Oscar’s mouth moved back to my ear, tugging the lobe into his mouth.
I chuckled, ducking out from in between them, walking back towards Beta Alexander. “Alpha Ava, fancy helping me with a demonstration?”
“It’s Ava, Beta. And sure, what do you need?”
“You technically outrank me, Ava. If I can use your name, you should use mine,” he replied through the mindlink.
“I don’t outrank you though, do I, not really.”
“Ava, you just put the Alpha of our pack on his backside and you have a pack out there that would be yours if you wanted to claim it. You outrank me, you outrank everyone here other than Alpha Jacob.”
I rolled my eyes at him in real life. “Fine, Alex, what do you need?”
“Well, Ava, these guys here want a slower demonstration of how you took down Alpha Jacob at the end.”
I nodded, giving him a smile. “Sure.” I swapped to the mindlink again. “We’re going to have to do this twice, you’ll understand shortly. The first time, I’ll do exactly the same moves, but I won’t actually take you down, you’ll be able to block it.”
He raised one eyebrow, motioning for me to take charge.
“Alright people, Alex and I are going to shift and we’ll demonstrate the end move from when I took Alpha Jacob down. We’re going to do this twice, and then after, I’ll run you through it and explain what I did differently that meant it worked.”
They all nodded.
I nodded to Alex, both of us shifting quickly where we stood, my massive wolf towering over him. We started circling much like Alpha Jacob and I did, snapping at each other and faking moves. “Don’t forget, this time I won’t actually be able to take you down.”
He nodded briefly, just before I pounced, darting behind him before flinging my body at him, knocking him off balance. As I hoped he would, Alex caught himself before I could go in for submission.
“Thanks, Alex,” I grinned through the link. “If we move back apart again to opposite sides of the area, we can then go the second time.”
He nodded again. I could feel his suspicion through the mindlink – he really wasn’t sure what I was about to do.
I held back my smirk as we walked further apart. Once I was in position, I dipped my head to him, and he did the same.
We circled each other again, but this time, I distracted him first.
“After this, Alex, I’m going home with your sons. We’ll try to be quiet, I promise.”
I took advantage of his momentary distraction, knocking him straight over and pinning him with my jaws around his neck.
Once his shock had dissipated, he laughed through the link. “Nicely done, Ava.” I licked his face, before moving back and shifting back, throwing on one of the massive t-shirts I found by the trees. “What did you say to Alpha Jacob at that moment?”
“I didn’t think you’d last this long, old man.”
He laughed so hard it nearly gave me a headache.
Alex was a little red in the face when he shifted back, and he was still shaking his head at me. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
“Okay then,” Alex shouted out. “Any ideas what Ava did differently the second time?”
I stood next to him, trying to look serious, but I couldn’t stop laughing. He was smirking too, but his smirks were broken up by the unimpressed looks he was giving his sons.
The group all shrugged. From their perspective, it would have looked exactly the same. “What she did there was distract me to give her the opening she needed.”
I chuckled, putting my hand over my mouth to try to stop myself descending into full laughter.
They all looked shocked, not sure what I did to distract him that badly.
“Why don’t you tell them what I said, Alex?”
His face was mortified. “Absolutely not. All you all need to know is that it was something I absolutely did not want to hear because it involves my sons.”
I forced myself to stop laughing, wiping away the last of my tears as I did. “Regardless of what I said to Alex at that point in time, the principle would be the same regardless of who you are sparring with. If it is someone you know, you should be able to pick something that you know will bug them the most. If it’s not someone you know, you can go for other methods of distraction, such as faking a dive.”
The group nodded, understanding.
“Anything else, Alex, or am I good to head off?” I smirked, laughing when he scowled, giving his sons evils again.
“You’re good to head off, Ava. Oscar, Callum, can you stay to give me a hand?”
I laughed again, especially at the boys’ shocked faces. “Low blow, Alex, low blow,” I said through the link.
“All is fair in love and war.”