Free Balance by Leia Stone

flying
across the room to hide behind a potted plant.
                    “Kai,
you scared her!”
                    He
smiled. “Just having some fun.”
                    He
kissed my cheek. “I should bring this matter of the tagging to the council. Can
you run the pack training session tonight?”
                    I
nodded.
                    After
he shut the door, I pulled Luna out from behind the plant.
                    “Don’t
let the big, bad werewolf scare you. He’s harmless,” I told her.
                    “No,
I’m not!” Kai said from the hallway.
                    I
laughed but it sounded fake. I couldn’t forget what Kai said on the phone about
tagging us, like animals.

Practice
                   
                    We
were gathered in the barn, all of the wolves and a hundred militia. A month
ago, we had paired up, one wolf to one human, and we were teaching them how to
fight. Teaching them how to kill vampires. Some of them had become friendly,
would chit chat after practice, but some just came to learn and left. I guess
you couldn’t expect everyone to be on board but it saddened me to see wolves on
one side of the room and humans on the other. Max walked up on stage with me.
                    “I
like when Kai’s gone and you’re in charge,” he said.
                    I
chuckled. “Oh yeah, why is that?”
                    “Because
it makes me second again.” Max was back, all of my witch wine drunken rant
forgotten.
                    I
rolled my eyes. “Well, get ready because I’m going to shake it up a little. We
need some bonding time.”
                    Max
looked at me like I was an alien. “Please tell me you did not just say
bonding.”
                    I
whistled loud. “Listen up!”
                    The
murmuring quieted and I held my hands up. “Kai had business to tend to, so I
will be leading tonight’s sparring session. Since I’m in charge, I thought we
could do something different for a change.” I raised an eyebrow.
                    Max
frowned and I scanned the sea of confused faces.
                    “Who
wants to play flag football?”
                    My
question was met with a resounding cry of support.
                    Max
looked at me, impressed.
                    “We
will start with two thirty-minute games. Rotate every thirty minutes for the
next two hours.”
                    “Humans
against werewolves?” someone shouted.
                    I
shrugged. “Up to you. Who wants humans against werewolves?”
                    The
humans started chanting. “Human, human, human.”
                    I
laughed. “Okay! You got it. Humans against wolves.”
                    People
began high-fiving and talking crap to each other. As they turned to leave, I
shouted. “Wolves!”
                    Everyone
turned back to me. “Go easy, they’re fragile.”
                    Earl
gave me a grin and twisted his mustache. “It’s on.”
    *
                    There
was a football field at the high school in Welches. We were still technically on
Mount Hood but farther away from our homes. One of our wolves worked as a coach
for the school and opened up the locker rooms for us, which had everything we
needed.
                    I
sat on the bleachers looking out onto the game. It was the fourth quarter and the
humans were winning. This was doing exactly what I had intended, boosting morale.
Even though we were playing humans against wolves, the two teams were smiling
and high-fiving each other after good plays. There