Two months and a half had passed since the opening ceremony. Time flew by for the watcher students who only trained, studied then trained some more. They did not have more days off. And the last day off had left them with a bitter taste, to say the least.

Not only did they suffer from the presence of the girls that intruded during their free time, now they also had to suffer several unfair consequences as an aftermath.

One of the consequences being that because of an unfortunate accident that occurred after the awful dinner that day, they all had detention, and were not allowed to go to the city, even on Sundays.

"That was not an unfortunate accident!" Evan stated with a grave deep tone, as his eyes stared spitefully at Marcus. He was after all the cause of all their problems, in his opinion. Though if Marcus were to know his thoughts, he would beg to differ.

"Ohhh come on! Of course it was an accident." The latter immediately contradicted aggravated. His sincere eyes and convincing tone being the strongest and most irrefutable evidences of Marcus's innocence. They would have made anyone who listened to the story agree that it really had been an accident, just by listening to his version of the matters.

Though with the other members already accustomed to Marcus's short temper, and due to the hard cold evidence for what transpired, no one could really call it an accident.

After all, this was the reason they were being punished these days.

The irony of the matter was that the ones who caused the "accident" were the ones who were feeling most wronged by the turn of events, though the rest of the pack also suffered alongside them. In fact the other members were the ones who were placating the bickering between the two.

Another funny thing was that almost always the argument would proceed the same way. And as this time was the hundredth time they argued about the incident, the other members already knew the words that would follow by heart.

"Pushing those girls out of the car in the middle of nowhere, after making sure you were out of the city, was not an unfortunate incident. It was intentional!" Evan replied. His condescending look and the mocking tone, were meant to imply that Marcus was a fool.

"They are werewolves and I left them in the forest, it is practically their home, wooses." Marcus replied upset, feeling it was really unfair for Evan to speak this way to him, when he was clearly an accomplice. Evan was after all in the car with him at that time.

"Also, you are talking like I was the only one in the car that day. You were with me too. I did not hear you then about wanting to bring them back, you did not say at least afterwards that we should turn back for them. In fact, you actually sighed relieved and never said a word on the whole way back. Or what do you think, should I still bring them back after those nasty words they said?" Marcus continued accusingly, his voice getting louder.

"I did not say that. And did I say we should not react to what they said? Of course we should, but we should have done so with more tact. We should have punished them in such a way they could not have implicated us. And now look, even Alpha has detention, and she wasn't even in the car with us." Evan explained logical, while he pointed towards Celia.

For the first time during their argument, Marcus was tongue tied. Indeed they had all been punished for his actions. He felt sorriest for Celia who was in fact the victim.

After the dinner which ended abruptly, as all of the pack members had lost their appetite, and feigned the need to return to the Academy for their studies, the pack members boarded their cars and started driving back.

Even though Marcus and Evan had wanted to feign ignorance about the distribution of the extra people they brought with them to the mall, or in other words pass on the burden of the two pestering girls to the others, as they hated having them as their passengers on the way back as well, unfortunately the others quickly alighted the cars and drove away, leaving the two no other choice but to unwillingly accept them in the car again.

This wouldn't really be a problem normally, it was not like they would spend more gas money or suffer from their presence physically, beside they would also drive faster and be done with it... this was what they had hopefully thought. But who would have known that the torture would be mental not physical.

Unfortunately, the screechy voices of the two girls kept bothering their ears, without a second stop. One of them especially was just like a chicken... of course he meant no offense to the winged animals.

It was like that damn girl did not even need time to breathe. Did she not care to maintain her life sustaining functions? It certainly did seem that way. And if she did stop talking for half a second, it was only for the other to agree with her, as though her agreeing would make all the difference.

He really regretted having them in the car at that time, regretted not abandoning them in the city. But as they were about to exit the mall, while using the pack link, he had told Celia that they should leave them there and go, and his alpha did not let him.

She asked him to drive them back to the Academy and that would be the end of it. She was not particularly bothered by what they said. From young her sister's friends had said more nasty things about her. Her classmates, her pack members and even her family had never considered her capable. Compared to that, these girls were only childish.

With her position as his pack's alpha, he listened to her and, for half of the way back, he tried to not say anything, he just acted like a driver. But one of the girls, whose name he did not bother to remember, started to say that her father was an assistant to the Council and, if the guys wanted to she could help them take Celia off the watcher course.

Of course, she said this after an intricate speech of how Celia had profited from them, charmed them into the leader position and was only leading them by the nose. She had said that Celia did not bother to just choose one of them as a boyfriend, to ensure they all listened to her. She also stated that she tricked them, as her poker face and somber mannerism were only a mask, so they could do her bidding without Celia being forced to sleep with any of them.

He was aware that pure friendship without other implications might seem weird to others. But they truly got along well as a pack, and he also sensed a camaraderie with the other guys. There were no romantic feelings involved, so naturally the idea of seducing them was preposterous. Moreover, he knew first hand that she had gained the leadership position fair and square.

But to contradict the woman meant that he would give her the opportunity to converse with him even more, as they would debate Celia's legitimacy as the alpha of their pack. Of course, if someone would dare spread rumors about his alpha, he would beat them to a pulp. But these were girls, and frankly for him, girls were scarier than guys when arguing. Any word he might say in Celia's defense could fuel the rumors even more.

So when the words she said crossed the line, he did not bother to correct her. Actually he did not say anything at all, and just left her on the side of the road on the way back. He also left the other girl who, although with a bit more tact, approved and commented on the side.

This generated the current situation in which Lisa's father appealed directly to the Royal Academy to have him leave the watcher course.

But having gained the position of a watcher student, it was not so easy to have him leave as her father had thought. Moreover Celia spoke up for Marcus, saying that it was her responsibility as the pack's leader. The other guys also backed him up, confessing they had planned it together.

The entire watcher pack could not be openly punished, considering their special status amongst the students, so they received detention for a month. That meant that even Sundays when they would usually have a day off, they would have to train, and they could not leave the Academy grounds.

Celia looked at both of them as they were arguing, while trying not to smile. Marcus had disobeyed her and left the girls stranded out, but he did so with Evan's knowledge. But now the latter was trying to avoid any responsibility on his part. It was quite funny. And it was even funnier the fact that Evan did not say that it was wrong to punish the girls, but that they should have done so without anyone's knowledge.

She asked them why they came back alone on that day, but they both said that the girls had alighted the car earlier. It was not a total lie they said later, when she found out just where the girls were actually left.

The second consequence of their mischief, was the current situation they were placed in. And the situation was the fact they were to take part in a new exercise that involved all the categories of students together and counted in their evaluation.

Because of the "accident", as Marcus had put it, the teachers felt that the watcher students must integrate more with the other students. And this would be accomplished by interacting with the other classes, directly helping each other to obtain their grades.

The exercise implied that each watcher student was to become an alpha for a pack formed with others from the first and second grade. Each pack would contain an alpha represented by one of the watcher students, one or two students pack doctors, 5 to 10 trackers, betas, gammas, deltas, normal pack members, etcetera.

In all there were about 50 members for each pack. The "fun part" of it was that each pack would be left in different parts of the forest near the Royal palace, to ensure that the exercise was done in a natural environment, to force them to fend for themselves for 2 weeks. In the same time they would still be protected, considering the proximity of the packs to his highness, the strongest of the werewolves.

But it was the second part of November, which meant it was quite cold and it would also certainly start snowing soon enough. Needless to say, in such conditions no one was excited about the exercise. This was the main reason as to why Evan was upset as he hated the cold.

"Alright, stop arguing! It doesn't matter anymore who was at fault. Anyway, the exercise only lasts two weeks. Next year we will have to endure even harsher environments when the practical training starts. Might as well get used to it." Celia intervened timely, trying to settle peacefully the argument.

And she was right, as students in the second grade, their studies would be diminished in favor of practical training in forests. They would have to visit packs and start learning beside their seniors. Realizing she was correct, they immediately settled down, then started to check their backpacks to see if they missed something they might need.

The packs were picked by the teachers to ensure fairness, thus each student could not decide for themselves. They chose in ways to balance the strengths of the members, and because of this, unfortunately, for Celia, being the alpha of the watchers, meant weaker students. And for the lowest ranked watcher students, stronger members were chosen.

"Alright. Please everyone gather behind your alpha and we will start marching towards the forest." The combat teacher, Riddick Cane, said with a loud voice. He was currently speaking to about 500 students and he wanted to make sure each one heard his words.

Celia's new temporary pack reluctantly gathered behind her. If they had a choice most wouldn't have picked her. Since the beginning of the year many rumors circulated around her. And the general opinion formed was quite bad.

She spent all her time with the guys and because of this she was considered a loose woman, even if it could be seen that most of the time they trained and were actually attending classes, so like it or not they had to be together.

She became the leader of the pack even if she did not look the part. And most girls could not stand her as she had charmed her pack members to help her gain it, in their opinion.

The problem was that most of the watcher training was done behind closed doors, so no one had actually seen her strength. And the video of her winning the melee war, could not be seen by the students, as only the teachers, the Council, the close assistants and the king could actually see it. But the knowledge that only 3rd ranked members could be part of the watcher pack was public information, it was just that this part was ignored by them. They only chose to believe what they saw with their own eyes.

As most rumors don't follow common sense, the first rumor had degenerated in countless baseless rumors, each one nastier than the other.

Celia was not that bothered by their words. Though what she couldn't understand was how could they really think she managed to seduce so many alpha ranked werewolves. In her previous pack there was not one boy who liked her while growing up. Most guys had liked her outgoing sister, instead of her introvert self. Even her mate had felt her sister was beautiful and perfect. It baffled her that everyone thought she had such an amazing ability.

But the fact that she never tried to deny the rumors, actually made things worse. She and the other guys thought it would die down, but it only escalated further. Behind her back the watcher students had even tried to threaten a few students when they caught them whispering and ridiculing her, but it made the matter worse as it confirmed that they were in fact charmed by her.

So the training that they would take part in would be quite difficult for her, she thought. There could be no pack, if the leader was not respected. She sighed and took the backpack from the ground and put it on her back. Well at least she hoped that the training would go without a hitch, though it seemed highly unlikely as the girls, which were about 40 in the total of her 50 pack members, were already hating her guts.