A/N - Dedicated to all the teams who are playing in the quarter finals of the World Cup in Russia this weekend. 

 Because sometimes, just sometimes, winning matters. 

Joel

I was exhausted.

While the four course meal was being served, I busied myself cleaning up the lounge and ballroom, clearing away all the empty glasses, and putting the furniture back, no doubt only to be moved again later.

I also helped out a little in the dining room. Mainly just bussing away the dirty plates.

After the meal, Casper stuck to Miss Hartley like glue. I won't lie - it hurt a little. I told myself it was because I liked Miss Hartley's company and wanted the chance to talk to her again. But in truth I was jealous. I was jealous that she got to spend so much time with Casper.

Why did he have to be so goddamn hot?!

Towards the end of the evening I was stationed back in my cloakroom distributing coats out to departing guests.

I only had a handful left when Miss Hartley appeared at the hatch.

"Hello Miss Hartley." I said, "I hope you enjoyed your evening?"

"Yes, very much," she replied. "I only wish I had managed to spend more time with you. Casper can be a bit......monopolising when he wants to be."

I smiled and blushed slightly.

"Now if you have any problems, you let me know," she said slipping me her card.

I stared at it slightly mesmerised.

"Thank you," I breathed out.

I slipped the card into the pocket of my jacket and went to get her coat. I walked out of my room and over to her to help put it on.

"I never asked what your name was," she said.

"Joel," I replied with a smile of appreciation.

"Joel.....hmmm, yes I like that. It suits you. But then so does Cub."

I looked at her in confusion. "Cub?"

She laughed at my expression. "That's what Casper calls you."

I felt my cheeks start to heat up.

Oh my god, I can't believe he made up a name for me. And Cub? That wasn't so bad. Cubs are cute aren't they?

Emily laughed heartily.

I put my hands over my cheeks to try to hide the intense fire that was now my face.

"You like him, don't you?" she said with delight.

"No," I answered straight back, but I already knew that my lie was pointless.

"It's ok," she said leaning into me. "Your secret's safe with me."

Then she turned and headed to the door. "See you again....Cub," she said, before sauntering away.

*********************

What was that noise?

Oh right, it was my alarm.

Hang on, I didn't need to get up this morning, so why was it going off?

I prized my eyes open and reached out to knock it off.

Why was it still ringing?

I sat up and finally came round enough to realise that it was my phone, not my alarm that was making the noise.

I picked it up off my bedside table and saw the name Lyla splashed across the screen.

"What?" I answered grumpily, dropping my head back down on my pillow.

"And hello to you too!" she said huffily.

"What time is it?" I asked, annoyed that she would think to call me this early.

"It's 11:30. Are you still in bed?"

I checked my clock, and indeed it was 11:30. Wow, I must have been tired.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly, "I thought it was much earlier."

"Soooo how did it go?" she asked me eagerly.

"Ugghh!" I groaned out, as scenes from yesterday came screaming back to me.

"Oh, that bad?" Lyla asked, sounding disappointed.

"Worse," I replied.

I heard Lyla moan. Lyla had been so excited when I got my job at the manor. Working there had always been a dream of hers, but as she wasn't due to turn 18 for another couple of months, she wasn't eligible to apply yet.

She loved to hear about the Bournville family, and more than once I'd had to listen to her plan her fake wedding to Casper.

"So have you nothing exciting to tell me then?" she asked, disappointment ringing through her voice.

I smiled on the other end of the phone, safe in the knowledge that she couldn't see me.

"Honestly Lyla, what did you think would happen? Did you really think that I'd have conversations with Casper, or that I'd sit and chat with the other guests? Did you think that in one night I would become so close to Casper that he would give me a nickname or something?"

"I know you're grumpy because I woke you up, but there's no need to make fun of me," she said, and I could imagine her bottom lip poking out a little.

"Yeah well, can you and Mark meet me at Cafe Rizzo for lunch?"

"Sure, although I'm not sure I'll be able to pull Mark away from his Fifa game marathon that he's having this weekend."

"Oh I don't know," I said, "If he wants to hear what Casper's nickname is for me, tell him he'll have to be there."

There was silence on the line.

"Are you serious?" She finally said.

"Oh yes, it all happened. See you in an hour then." And I hung up the phone before she screamed.

********************

It was nearly 4 o'clock and myself, Mark and Lyla were heading up to the hunting grounds behind the manor house.

Every Sunday all the wolves in our pack would meet up at various times in the day for meetings, hunting, or training.

We were currently heading for our weekly training session. I hated training with a passion.

Training could mean one of several things. We could be practicing running, fighting, hunting or strategic exercises.

I hated all of them. Not because I wasn't good at them, in fact I was rather good at most of them, but I just didn't enjoy any of it.

I hated being told what to do, and I hated having to fight other wolves. It just wasn't in my nature to want to hurt other members of my pack.

I also had the constant worry that I would be noticed, and asked to join the guards. For some reason, my wolf form was very strong, and I could tell that with a little effort I would excel at most of the tasks. But because I hated it, I really didn't push myself.

Lyla was flitting about beside me, still excited from everything I'd told her over lunch.

"I wonder if Casper will come over and talk to you?" she said excitedly.

"Of course he won't!" I replied. "He doesn't usually get involved in the training anyway."

"Oh, that's a shame."

Mark laughed at her. "Have you not been listening to what Joel said. Casper is not allowed to mix with the likes of us. Not while his dad is Alpha."

"Yeah, I know," Lyla said grumpily, "but it would certainly liven up my afternoon if he did."

As we arrived at the training grounds, I noticed that there were more wolves here than usual.

"Oh great!" I said with a sigh, "It looks like it's an assessment day." Every so often, they would merge some of the training groups to have a special event, usually as a competition or form of assessment to see how we were progressing. There must have been over 100 wolves here today.

Jamie, Casper's Beta, soon appeared and stood on his usual tree stump. Hush descended and everyone gathered round to listen.

"Ok, everyone. Today we are going to be doing a group challenge."

I let out a small moan of protest. Mark quietly chuckled beside me.

"We're going to split you into three teams. Red, blue and green. You will wear a collar showing the colour of your team. You need to work with other members of your team to do two things. Firstly you must try to make your way into your enemy's territory and collect as many flags as you can of their colour and take them back to your team's den, and secondly you will have to use your running and fighting skills to defend your territory, or attack an opponent's. If you fight an opponent, your aim is to rip off their collar. If your collar is removed, you are out of the game.

"This challenge will test all of the skills we have been working on in the past month. And today there is an extra incentive to do well."

There was a slight murmur in the crowd and Casper suddenly appeared next to Jamie.

Lyla let out a small squeak next to me and gripped my arm.

"Casper is joining us today to see how far you've all come, and also to fill the empty position in the Guards."

A few gasps were audible from around us.

"You should totally try for that" Mark whispered to me.

Casper began to speak. "To be a part of the Guards is considered an honour, and will give you certain privileges. I am looking forward to....."

As Casper continued Mark nudged my arm. "You should try," he whispered again.

"Not a chance," I whispered back.

"You'd get to work with Casper," Lyla added quietly, in a sing song voice.

I poked her in the side, where I knew she was ticklish and she let out an involuntary shriek.

Casper stopped mid sentence and looked over to us. I held my breath as his eyes scanned over us, looking for the source of the noise. His eyes met mine and I saw his eyebrow raise slightly before he looked away.

"As I was saying, at the end of the competition each team will get a point for every flag they have in their territory, whether it be their own or one from an opposing team. They will also get a point for every member of their team that still has their collar at the end of the 2 hours. Now Jamie will sort you out into teams. Good luck everyone!"

I looked over to Lyla who was still looking slightly pale.

"I can't believe you did that!" she said hitting me on my arm.

I sniggered at her, but abruptly stopped when I saw her eyes go wide.

I suddenly felt a tingle down the back of my neck, which compelled me to turn around and look behind me.

Casper was marching over, a look of determination on his face. I felt Lyla step behind me, trying to hide.

Casper walked right up to me only stopping when he was inches from my face.

"I'll be watching you Cub," he growled, before he turned and walked away, as quickly as he had arrived.

My heart hammered in my chest, and my cheeks started to burn from all the eyes that were now on me. Most of them looked at me with pity, a few were amused. Mark was in the latter group.

"Don't you dare," I moaned at him as I saw the smirk plastered over his face.

"Oh don't worry buddy," he said throwing his arm over my shoulder. "You've just got two hours to try and avoid him now."

I rolled my eyes at him, but already my mind was whirring with ideas on how I could stay hidden for the next two hours.

We saw Jamie coming over towards us. He was giving everyone a number from one to three which would determine what group you'd be in. We'd done this countless of times before and we immediately sprang into action.

The three of us split up. Lyla moved closer to Jamie.

"3" Jamie said while placing his hand on Lyla's shoulder.

Mark was next and he maneuvered around until there was a clear gap between him and the next '1' and '2'.

"3" Jamie said, putting his hand on Mark's shoulder. Mark threw me a grin.

Just me to go.

I saw my chance and slotted behind 2 others.

"1" Jamie said putting his hand on a blonde girl.

Suddenly the potential number 2 took a step back and Jamie's eyes landed on me.

"Hmmm, so you're the one who annoyed Casper earlier?"

"I usually do," I replied. Despite my sassy reply, I kept my eyes low.

Jamie chuckled at my reply but I could sense that he was sizing me up. "I'm a number 2, and I want you on an opposing team, so you can be a 3."

I sighed as he moved on. What happened to being anonymous? All this attention was leaving me feeling drained.

But on the plus side at least I was on the same team as my friends.

I met with Lyla and Mark and we got our green collars.

As we put on our collars, I felt uneasy, like someone was watching me. I looked around and saw Casper, but he had his back to me. And then I saw Jamie step out from behind him and look right at me.

I quickly turned back round.

"Guys, let's head into the woods before we change. I don't want Jamie to know what my wolf looks like."

They both nodded at me, and we headed in to find our territory.

The green team's territory was to the south of the river. I say river, but it was more like a big stream, easily crossable in most places. The blue team, that Jamie was leading, was to the north west, and the red team was to the north east.

We heard a horn sound, signalling the start of the game. Our team was being led by Eric, one of the guards. He was stood by the small tent that had been put up as our base.

"Quick," I said to Lyla and Mark, "let's get out of here before he notices us."

They both glanced over, to see Eric barking out orders to members of the team, then quickly changed into their wolves and followed me as we slinked away unnoticed.

We had several haunts that we used when we were trying to get out of training. I'd studied the map, and chosen the one where I thought it was least likely we'd be disturbed. It was in the blue team's territory, but right on the edge which backed onto a rock face that was impossible to climb.

I figured that no one would be defending it, seen as it was a sort of dead end.

I took a carefully planned route, covering plenty of ground by walking up the river, so we didn't leave any scent trails.

The area we were playing over was quite vast, and it took a good 15 minutes to get there, while running.

When we finally reached our destination, we changed back into our human form and just hung about for the best part of an hour.

We passed the time by climbing trees, seeing who could go the highest, and by trying to construct a rope swing, using ivy that was growing up the rock face.

Mark had disappeared from view for a few seconds before he reappeared clutching something in his hands.

"Hey, look what I found," he said, holding up a blue flag.

"Shit Mark! Where did you find that?" I said, jumping down from the tree and walking over to him.

"It was just over that ridge, over there," he said pointing straight ahead.

"You should have left it where it was!" I said, smacking his arm in annoyance.

"Why? Isn't it the whole point of the game that we're supposed to be collecting these things?"

"Yeah, but we aren't playing, dummy," said Lyla, snatching it off him, and also giving his arm a whack for good measure.

I heard a rustle nearby and motioned for the two of them to be quiet. We quickly changed back into our wolves.

From behind a bush, two figures stepped forward. It was Jamie and Casper in their human form. Casper wasn't in the game, but I could see Jamie's blue collar around his neck.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" said Casper with a glint in his eye.

Jamie surveyed the scene in front of him. I saw him briefly pause when he saw our poorly constructed rope swing.

"It appears that we've found three wolves slacking off Alpha," Jamie said, boring his eyes into us with disdain.

"It's no wonder your team's doing so badly," Casper reprimanded us.

Jamie laughed, and it sounded slightly demonic.

"You could give the other teams 20 extra wolves like these, and I would still win."

I felt my hackles start to rise, but I forced myself to keep low. It was important to keep my advantage. When your opponent underestimated you, you were at a definite advantage.

"Let's see," Jamie continued, "which one of these pathetic beasts shall I pick off first?"

He started to circle us hungrily.

"You," he said, pointing at Lyla, who still had the blue flag in her mouth.

Her jaw dropped and the flag fluttered to the floor.

Jamie suddenly turned into his wolf form in front of us. He may have still been quite young, but his wolf was a very spectacular site. It was all black with blue eyes that matched his blue collar.

Mark immediately bolted. I was about to follow, but I noticed that Lyla was frozen to the spot, the blue flag now discarded at her feet. Jamie slowly advanced on her, and swore I could see her back leg shaking.

I quickly ran in front of Lyla and took on a defensive pose, hackles raised and teeth bared.

My wolf was a light brown colour, with a dark brown v across my chest. It was considerably bigger than Lyla's wolf, and I saw a flicker of surprise cross Casper's face.

I pushed back into Lyla, and she got the message loud and clear, turning and running after Mark.

I kept my eyes locked on Jamie.

"Well this should be interesting," said Casper, jumping up onto a lower branch of a nearby tree.

Neither of us even glanced his way, still locked in a stare off, waiting for each other to make the first move.

Jamie suddenly jumped towards me, but I managed to dodge out of the way, turning back to face him and growling in return.

Jamie lunged again and tried to grab my collar, but I twisted away and lunged at his front leg, giving it a nip.

That was a mistake! I didn't think it was possible but he grew further, all his fur standing on end, and his bared teeth looking like daggers glistening in the the light.

I may have been a good fighter, but being several years younger, I was no match for this soon to be Beta. I needed a plan.

I inched my way backwards, letting Jamie feel like he was getting the upper hand.

He followed me as planned, and I slowly led him around to where Casper was sitting on the branch about 5 foot in the air.

I now had Casper behind me.

Casper lifted his legs onto the branch so as to not get in our way, just as I had hoped.

I backed slowly under the branch, not breaking my gaze with Jamie.

When he was perfectly in position I came to a stop.

I only paused for a second before I leapt up and pushed Casper off the branch, straight onto Jamie on the other side.

I heard Casper cursing loudly, but by then I was already away and running.

And I didn't stop running till I was back at our base.