Chapter 25
“Will you get the pups warmed up, I have a couple more things to wrap up here.” He says to me but
not looking at me. He is genuinely confused about the guy’s presence here.
I grab Sierra’s hand, “Come on, you can help with warm-up.” We walk in the smaller arena. We
have three so we can run multiple training sessions or training styles at a time. This arena also has
an obstacle course at one end that we let the kids run on at the end of class. All the pups start
shouting their hello’s to me and then I watch their eyes pop as they realize who is following behind
me. It was really cute to see them starstruck with the future Alphas, Beta, Gamma and Delta. They
are celebrities at school, but I don’t think they understand what these little kids think of them.
“Why do they all look terrified?” Oliver asks in my ear. I almost jumped not realizing how close he
was to me.
“You guys are idols to them. They’ve never seen you up close before since you spend very little
time with pack members younger than you.” Was that mean? The way the guys are looking at me
makes me feel like I said something wrong. Sierra nudges me with a huge smile on her face and I
shake off the thought and get started. “These are our youngest pups, they range from five to seven.
They are learning basic movements and body control, really.”
I introduce the guys and explain that they are joining us today to see what we have been teaching
and that they better make me look good. That earned a small laugh from the pups and broke the
tension a bit.
We go through our usual warm-ups and Sierra and the guys follow my lead walking around and
giving corrections. The kids must have thought this was the best day ever, based on their faces
every time someone stopped to talk to them. I looked around after an hour and noticed Delta Kyle
never came back, so I just kept on going. We do a lot of games to teach the pups, it keeps them
engaged and they do the conditioning with less groaning if they know we will do something fun after.
Today is tag, but I have an idea to make it more fun for them and for me.
“Okay, today’s game is tag!” An eruption of cheers follows. “Wait though, we are going to play a little
differently than normal.” A chorus of AWW’s has me rolling my eyes. “You didn’t even hear how we
are changing it up.” I put my hands on my hips and look at them sternly. “We are going to see which
leader you can catch the fastest. You are all going to be chasers against one of our future leaders,
work as a team to tag them. Let’s see what you can do. Get together to make your strategy.” I turn
around to the guys and they are looking at me like I have lost my mind. Sierra is openly laughing.
“What, all you have to do is not get tagged.” I shrug my shoulders.
“But there’s like a thousand of them.” Sam whines.
“It’s only 50, you’ll be fine. You can use any means except leaving the arena to steer clear of them
for as long as possible, and just so you know. They take this game very seriously. Don’t let their little
cuteness distract you.” I wink at them. “Who wants to go first?!”
“I’ll go. It can’t be that hard, can it?” Oliver volunteers.
I turn around. “Alright we have our first victim, I mean volunteer.” I laugh. “Future Gamma Oliver is
up. Remember he is going to try and evade you at all costs for as long as possible. Ready? Go!”
The kids all charge at us and the momentary panic in Oliver’s eyes has SIerra and I almost crying
with laughter. I don’t think he expected them to be that fast and they work really well together due to
the team building games we play. At two minutes and 40 seconds they finally cornered him. He
walked back to the group panting.
“Should maybe work a bit on that cardio, less on the weights.” Sierra pats him on the back.
“I really don’t like you.” He says to the ground, but he could be talking to either Sierra or me at this
point.
“Who’s next?” I ask, ignoring him.
“Let’s get this over with.” Mateo grumbled good naturedly.