My Hockey Alpha

Chapter 268: The Drill Sergeant

Nina

That day, Enzo was clearly agitated after the training session. I couldn’t quite tell if it was because I reprimanded him, because he felt guilty for going too hard on the new recruits, or maybe if it was a mixture of both.

However, over the next couple of days the training sessions hardly improved in intensity. It really was beginning to feel as though Enzo was trying to weed out any weak recruits, but I felt as though he was just going too hard for anyone to be able to keep up. Even though the new recruits were all werewolves now with their own healing abilities and newfound physical abilities, he wasn’t giving them time to adjust.

On the third day of training, it was an especially cold winter morning. It had even snowed a bit the night before, and the athletic field was covered in a fine layer of white powder. I had spent the previous night alone in my dorm as I needed to study for our upcoming final exams, and so shortly after sunrise I woke up and quickly got dressed to meet Enzo outside.

By the time I arrived, Enzo was already beginning to have the new recruits warm up on the athletic field despite the frigid weather. I was bundled up in my winter coat and warm clothing, but the new recruits were in their athletic gear. Even though werewolves were less susceptible to cold weather, it was still quite cold and especially windy on the open athletic field, and I was surprised that Enzo wasn’t at least allowing them to warm up inside in the gymnasium.

As I approached, I saw that Enzo had set up orange cones all around the athletic fields. At the moment they were just warming up and doing some calisthenics, but even then he was still drilling them and pushing them to go harder.

“Come on, hustle!” he yelled, waving his stopwatch in the air. “I wanna see some improvement in your times! It shouldn’t be taking you thirty full seconds to do twenty push ups!”

“But the ground is cold and it makes my fingers hurt!” one girl replied.

“You’ll be fine,” Enzo snarled. “You’re a werewolf. It’ll have to be a lot colder than this for you to be affected by the cold!”

I walked up to Enzo and stopped alongside him. A shiver ran down my spine as a particularly cold wind blew across the athletic field, causing my hair to whip in my face and some of the recruits to groan.

“Isn’t it a little cold?” I asked, feeling myself stiffen against the wind. “Maybe you should at least let them warm up inside.”

Enzo grimly shook his head, never tearing his eyes away from the recruits as they struggled through their calisthenics circuits. “The Crescents won’t be giving us the luxury of staying inside when it’s cold,” he replied. “They need to get used to the physical demands of fighting in all kinds of weather.”

I couldn’t help but frown at Enzo’s words. Yes, he was telling the truth, but it still felt too soon to be drilling the recruits like this. However, despite the dipping morale no one was giving up just yet, so I decided to just do my job as the team doctor and pay attention for any injuries.

As the morning went on, Enzo pushed the recruits through hours of more intense training. They did sprints, agility tests around the cones that Enzo had set up, practiced combat training, and even played a game of touch football to work on their strength and cardio. If I had thought that Enzo was a tough coach before when he coached the hockey team, he was even tougher now.

At one point, Matt and the others came to see what was going on. Matt stood beside me with his hands in his pockets, watching with me while Enzo coached the recruits on their sprints.

“Was he always like this when he coached you guys on the hockey team?” I asked, turning to look up at Matt.

Matt chuckled wryly and nodded. “Yeah, actually,” he said. “Maybe not quite this bad. But when we first started out, none of us were very good, and we had some people on our team who weren’t very serious about it. For the first few months, Enzo drilled us like hell. I remember going home and being so sore I could hardly move. It was worth it, though.”

I nodded slowly and looked back over at Enzo. Maybe to him, the new recruits were like the new hockey team to him, and he needed to whip them into shape. I supposed that I should trust him, seeing as how his training methods had resulted in one of the best hockey teams in this part of the country, but it was still hard to watch.

However, as the training session went on, I couldn’t help but get even more worried about the new recruits. They were noticeably fatigued by then, and it just didn’t feel right to stand by idly and watch. When Enzo started to berate one of the male recruits for tripping and falling, I finally had had enough.

“Everyone, take fifteen and have a break,” I said, walking up to Enzo. Enzo whipped around to give me a surprised look, but said nothing. I could tell just from the look on his face that he knew what I was about to say.

While the recruits sat down and drank their water thirstily, panting and moaning, I stopped in front of Enzo with my hands on my hips. “You’re going too hard again.”

Enzo chuckled slightly. “If you think this is bad, then you should have been there for the mandatory training sessions that all werewolves have to go through during adolescence,” he replied, folding his arms across his chest. “This is nothing compared to that.”

“So?” I asked, splaying my hands out to my sides. “Just because you had to train harder than this doesn’t mean that it’s fair to punish everyone. They voluntarily signed up to be here and you’re

punishing them for it.”

“You’re not even taking part in the training,” Enzo scoffed. “So I don’t really wanna hear it.” NôvelDrama.Org holds text © rights.

My eyes widened at Enzo’s words. “What is your problem?” I growled.

Enzo fell silent for several seconds. His eyes seemed to flash with a million different emotions as he ground his teeth together before he finally answered.

“My problem is that, once again, we’re dealing with the consequences of one of your poorly thought-out plans.”

“W-What is that supposed to mean?” I whispered, feeling hot tears beginning to prick at the backs of my eyes.

Enzo shrugged. “First, you ran off the other day with some grand plan to take on the rogue leader on your own. Then, you practically bullied me into going through with this plan to turn dozens of people into werewolves, and you’re not even a little concerned that some of them could use their new powers for evil!”

My eyes widened even further. I felt tears pooling up in them as I stared angrily up at Enzo, obstructing my view of him. I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could, one of the new recruits suddenly spoke up.

“We’re not planning on using any of our new powers for evil,” she said, her voice shaking slightly. “None of us would ever want to do anything bad to our campus. We’re just trying to protect the town that we love. Right, guys?”

The other recruits murmured in agreement. I quickly looked down and wiped my tears away with the back of my hand.

But when I looked back up, Enzo was gone.