Nya burst through the glass doors of the building like she was trapped in a balloon with old air in it. She was hoping for some cool breeze but it was a smoldering hot day with not a cloud in sight.

Alpha Vince had a heavy presence, and his glare could kill like a blunt force object. The way his harsh gaze landed on her, it was as if she were caught red-handed in the middle of every bad thing she's ever done. She breathes the fresh air deeply. She has never felt like that before. He was so... Intimidating.

"Hey." She feels a weight on her shoulder and spins around coming face to face with Malina. They were best friends, actually more like sisters. When she was nine Alpha Greyson rescued her from the human world. He brought her to the pack grounds and introduced her to his daughter. They have been inseparable ever since. "How did it go?" She was so worried about it, unlike Nya, who knew whatever was going to happen was going to happen no matter how she felt before but she probably should have been worried.

"You didn't tell me Alpha Vince was going to be in there?" A warning would have been nice. She could have mentally prepared herself- not that it would have made a difference.

Malina looks back at the building with a crease between her brows and back at her. "He was in there?"

"Yeah... he interviewed me." The last thing she wanted to do was worry her sister but it was the truth and they should prepare for it. She was hanging on high hopes that her mate by some miracle was going to let her stay."What's the worst thing that could have happened?"

"You flashed your eyes at him." She says like she wasn't surprised one bit.

"Not on purpose Lee..." She was warned repeatedly not to let that happen, begged, and pleaded with. Made to understand that if he knows about her glitch, she wouldn't have a chance in hell of staying with the Darks. But she just couldn't control it.

"He hates when wolves have a lack of control."

"I know, I'm sorry."

"Excuse us." A couple exits the doors behind them and they realize that they were in the pathway. They step aside and move to a bench that was towards the side. "That's it then." Malina's glistening gaze falls to her lap. "And it took so much begging to get him to even consider."

"You should be smiling right now. He finally asked you to marry him. Whether I get to stay or not shouldn't matter."

"How can you say that? You're all I have Ny... you're not just some low-ranked wolf to me, you're my family."

Her mind circled round and round on what she could say that would make sense at this moment. Lucky for her, Beta Bent's voice comes over the speakers on the top of the building. He orders all of the Slays to report to the training field.

"Come on." Hand in hand they walked right down the road, across from the arena where the training field was. There was a line of wolves and stations set up to test individual skills such as speed, agility, stamina, and strength, and signs posted for where each rank belonged.

She gives her sister a goodbye-for-now glance and joins the seventeen other Ranked 4s waiting in line. She drifted into deep thinking. Where was she going to go? She didn't know much about the human world. Her experience in it wasn't good, and her flashing eyes made her a monster that couldn't hide amongst them. The sound of someone calling her name interrupts her thoughts.

She looks on the line of rank 3s across from her. "Watson." She smiles gently. A member of her pack and her forbidden love. After Lee, Watson was her best friend and her self-designated protector. He was of medium build, was boyishly handsome, and super sweet. She has been in love with him for years but with her rank being 4 and his 3, it was against the rules, so friends it would have to remain. "Hi." She mouths. He was a calming sight after Alpha Vince.

His chocolate brown eyes showed genuine concern when he mouths back. "Are you okay?"

She nods. He loved her too but other than admitting it to each other once, things never crossed the line.

"How did it go?"

She shakes her head. She hated that he and her sister worried about her so much. They practically babysat her.

She looks ahead and soon it was her turn. She signed her name in a book and was then asked by her tester to run from one end of the field to the other. She does it and then was made to do it over again but this time with hurdles.

She didn't know if she was doing well enough but she was getting it done. Maybe this could make up for her failure interview.

Then it was onto the next. She tested her pretty weak arm strength, then she was put in a contraption to test her leg strength. After the individual testing of her body parts, she was asked to climb. She was pretty tired; she couldn't lie, her muscles were almost to the point of aching but she didn't show it.

At the back end of the field, there was a wall that was over fifty-foot tall. All the wolves had to get to the top and then climb back down. It was the last thing to do for all the ranks.

"I just wanna see how far you can get." Her tester leads her to the end of the line.

Although it wasn't expected for her to make it all the way up she wanted to try, if she made it, maybe Alpha Vince would let her stay. Maybe he would consider her some sort of use to the pack. Truthfully she would be okay with being packless. Maybe she didn't belong with wolves. But it was for her sister's sake that she was going to try her absolute hardest to become a member of the Darks.

If there was an upscale high society pack, this was it. It was for the elite and it showed with attention to detail and strict processes. She has never seen a pack run like this. Her pack was free and laid back. She guessed it showed where that type of living got them. They weren't prepared at all when the Rogues attacked.

"Start." Her tester pushes the button down on her stopwatch.

Quickly she steps on a ledge and begins climbing. Whoa. Her limbs and legs felt like cinder blocks. No wonder no one in her rank made it.

Her arms trembled as she grabbed the next ledge and lifted her knee to push herself higher. Sweat beads formed on her forehead and she could feel herself easily capable of going limp.

She glances down. She had only made it up about twenty feet so far. She couldn't give up now. She had to keep pushing and so she did. She thought about Malina and used her as motivation to keep going. She almost fell a couple of times, but with her mind thinking about her sister she looks for her next ledge. She forces herself no matter how hard to keep going and finally makes it to the two feet width of the top.

She was sure her time on the stopwatch was way long but it had to count that she made it. A smile of disbelief grows on her lips. She was exhausted but she did it.

She looks out at the sight. Holy crap. It was exhilarating. The view, and being so high, captivated her in a way where she forgot who she was for a moment. It was like deja vu, but not. She could see a small waterfall and lake, and she could see the tops of houses and trees.

"Go..." Someone yells.

She snaps out of it and realizes she was being tested. Other wolves with higher ranks than her were passing her three at a time and she was in the way of the fourth. With only the thought of needing to get out of the way in her brain, she takes a step back and steps right off.

She didn't scream as she was falling. She closed her eyes and waited for all of her bones to shatter as she hit the grass. Her expectation of the ground never came though; she fell straight in someone's vice grip.

When her lashes fluttered open, Alpha Vince's eyes were beating down on her like the desert's sun. It was intense but immediately she thought about her bad luck. Yeah, it was supposed to be lucky that someone caught her, but she would give anything at this moment to have hit the ground instead. "I'm sorry." She swallows.

She could see in his clenched jaw and the thinning of his lips that he was furious. She tries to get down but he squeezes her suddenly, so close, she could feel his pounding heart.

"What..." he begins but gets interrupted when her sister comes running from between the onlooking crowd.

"Nya." She yells. "Are you okay?"

He sets her down and immediately Malina hugs her.

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" They pull apart.

She nods

"Thank you." Malina hugs her mate's large bicep for a second. "So much. Thank you. She goes to Nya and circles an arm around her neck. "Let's get out of here."

~~~

Vince was left grinding his teeth when Bent approaches. "Why did you catch her?"

He looks to his brother with a side glance. He couldn't answer that question for himself. It was pure instinct. He didn't realize what he was doing until it was done. Showing up at the field wasn't his plan either but here he was. He ended up watching Nya. It was the natural curiousness in him to wonder about her. Why the hell did he imprint on a creature like her? She wasn't fit to breathe near him let alone be his mate. But his muscles flinched each time she nearly fell. His heart took off miles a minute. He was high alert, glaring at her every move. "Finish up here and report back to me." He stalks off.

~~~~~~~

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