Wolf3are by Unknown Page B

a bit shaky, but at least he made the target, landing his arrow in the second circle from the end.
    I had to keep reminding myself that these boys weren't my competition though. While we were all being scored, the men weren't pitted against the women. What I was competing for was the female alpha or beta position. The men's competition had nothing to do with mine.
    When it was the women's turn to begin the skill trial, I discovered that few of the women were any good at marksmanship. Margaret's shot wasn't any better than Devon's, and Terry missed the target completely. She cursed under her breath as she walked away, handing me her bow. Surely, that meant she was knocked out of her alpha position.
    As I stepped up to the firing line, I glanced to my right. Sasha stood there, the Russian girl who seemed to have her eye on Chris, and she was pulling back her bow as if she'd done it a million times before. I tried to show no emotion as I returned my attention to my target, but I would have given anything to beat her. Hell, to be honest, I prayed that she would miss. All that mattered in that moment was destroying her as my competition.
    When the compound staff told us that we could shoot, I thought back to every movie I had ever seen that had an archer in it. Still, it didn't seem to help, considering that I hadn't shot a bow since I was about ten years old, and all of those times, it had been a play bow and arrow, nothing in comparison to what I held in my hands now.
    I took a deep breath, pulled the bowstring back to my cheek, and let the arrow sail. Thwack! But it wasn't my arrow that made that sound. No, my arrow sailed past the target, landing in the grass several yards away. It was Sasha's arrow that hit its mark. A square on bullseye. She raised her bow in the air, commanding cheers from the other werewolves. Sasha was the only woman to get a perfect bullseye that day.
    I sulked as I walked up to Chris. The hierarchy trials suddenly became a lot less fun for me. What would happen if Sasha became the female beta . . . or even worse, female alpha? Then she'd really have the right to go after Chris. And knowing that she was in a place of power and could offer him a better life, he'd likely fall right into her hands. The thought was depressing.
    “ Archery isn't your forte, I see,” Chris joked.
    “ Oh, shut it,” I barked at him.
    “ Well.” He straightened himself. “At least you're not doing this for real. No matter how you place, you won't lose your suite or your allocated job points. So, just relax. It's all in fun.” Chris offered me a weak smile, and it did calm me a bit.
    In the end, he was right. These trials meant nothing to me. I shouldn't be getting so competitive over them.
    The final challenge of the hierarchy trials was the strength challenge. After my poor run at the skill trial, I didn't have much hope of placing high on the werewolf hierarchy. I had the strength of an infant, so I would surely fail this one as well.
    After a short recess, we were led to an area where the compound staff had spray-painted the dirt with white lines. Draped across the lines was a thick length of rope. As soon as I saw it, my stomach filled with dread. Tug of war. This was definitely not something that I was going to be good at.
    They matched us up according to weight. As luck would have it, I was matched with Sasha. There was no way that was possible, I thought. She was thin, sinew and muscle and bone. And I was . . . well, not in the best shape of my life, that was for sure. Damn you freshman fifteen, I chastised myself for weight gained long ago that I hadn't managed to get off. Since muscle weighed more than fat, I knew exactly how our weight would be balanced.
    The look in Sasha's eyes when we were placed at opposite ends of the rope was enough to frighten me. She seemed like an animal, hopping up and down before bending to rub her hands in the dirt for better traction. All the while, Sasha made strange huffing