People are right: once you get it out of your system, it does feel better.

All that crying, followed by a good night's sleep, made me let go of my miserable mood.

Nara and Jenny persuade me to go to the beach in the day. The only times I've been to the beach so far were at night, and we all stayed on the land around a fire each time.

I haven't yet hung out at the beach during daytime. I wear my black two-piece and a black mesh cover up on top of it.

As my friends and I settle in on the beach chairs, I notice Irene. She's standing and talking to her friends in a red bikini.

The jealousy is instant.

One of the reasons why it's so hard to digest the thought of Leon and Irene together, even when Leon claims he likes me, is that somewhere in the corner of my mind I doubt that Irene is a better match for Leon.

I may have my power, my title, even good looks (thanks to my beautiful mother) but I can never have that muscular figure that screams strength – the one Irene has.

With clothes on, my friends and I pretty much match the frames of the she-wolves of Red Peak. But now, in our half-naked state... the difference between us is crystal clear.

The werewolf girls, including Sabrina, have toned bodies – as if they workout every day. However, it isn't the result of any exercise.

I know that because Sabrina is as lazy as me. Any chance she gets, she bunks her training.

Out of us three, Nara is the one who looks closest to as toned as the female werewolves, and that's because Nara works out regularly.

Jenny and I, on the other hand, are very much on the thinner side, which is not something that would've bothered me if it weren't for all the she-wolves in their bikinis I'm looking at in the beach, especially Irene.

Any longer I look at them girls, and it would be akin to checking them out, so I turn my attention back to the book I brought with me to read.

I'm almost halfway through it when I hear Jenny call my name. She, Nara, and Sabrina have started playing volleyball with some of the girls.

Jenny gestures me to come. "Enough with that book. Come play with us. We're one person short."

After stuffing my book back into my bag, I take off my cover up and head for the volleyball court.

Few minutes into the game, I can tell the girls playing against us are pretty good at it. However, it probably got to do with their inhuman strength as werewolves and not their skills. If they had the same level of skills as me and my friends, then they would be winning now, not us.

Witches and wizards may not have the strong muscles to show it but we train as hard, if not harder, than the other races in combat. Instead of focusing on physical strength, we focus on three other things:

First – Agility. There's a saying among werewolves, it's not the wolf that charges first that matters but the one standing last. And that maybe true for them but for witches, she who attacks first, wins.

You should be first at everything. First to act. First to think. First to move. The witch that casts the first spell in a fight will have an upper hand. In fact, if she casted the right spell, then she would've already won.

Second – Aim. It's the hardest skill to master. Aiming is a matter of life or death in a fight. A powerful witch can cast a powerful spell, but if she missed her target, her powers are as good as nothing. A lowly witch might cast a meagre spell, but if it hits the right mark, her opponent falls.

Third – Weapons. It's a skill only high-ranking witches have, witches who can conjure Channels.

When a witch needs to use almost all of her powers, which she'll most likely do in a combat, she needs to concentrate her energy at one point for her powers to become potent. This is done by summoning a Channel: a weapon made of a witch's energy.

Channels look like they are made of lights, and in a way, they are. Every Channel is unique, and they all look like weapons.

And because creating a Channel is complex and dangerous, only the powerful witches like the elders can do it.

As the next chief of my coven, I also have a Channel, and as my two vices, my friends have theirs, too.

Nara's is a whip and it glows blue. Jenny's is a combo of two blades, each in one hand, that are green.

Mine is a staff that glows white.

From a young age, we're taught to control, aim and concentrate our powers using our Channels.

It wasn't easy to learn, but we had each other. Not a single day I spent training with my friends was boring. We cheered each other. Taught each other. Learned from one another. And had each other's back.

But there were also times, I was made to train by myself, so I can fight by myself in case Nara and Jenny aren't by my side.

So, years of training has made us fast, and on point, something you need to be while playing sports, including volleyball.

Our side wins.

Sabrina is the one who's most excited with the result. She slaps on my shoulder and says, "Oh my god! You guys are so good! I'm glad I picked this team."

"Alright, alright. Let's play another game," says one of the girls from the other team.

I shake my head. "I'm done. You guys play."

"If you leave, we'll be short by one person," Sabrina whines.

"I can take her place." Irene stands near the court with a smug smile. "And I'll even be better at it."

I no longer feel the good mood from winning the game. I turn to Sabrina and angrily say, "There you go. My replacement is here. You got nothing to worry about now."

I walk away from the girls, ignoring their plead to stay.

I know I shouldn't get angry at Sabrina but she's the closest person to Leon I've available at the moment to get angry at. She's also a part of the pack that doesn't want me to be their Alpha's mate. Sabrina maybe is friendly with me now, but when push comes to shove, she'll side with her pack and accept Irene as her Luna.

I grab and wear my cover up before I go to a nearby food stall and order a lemonade. Perhaps a cold drink might cool me off.

As I wait, arms crossed and still seething in anger, for my drink, a group of guys walk past me. Just as they cross, the guy closest to me bumps into me purposefully.

They stop and the guy comes to me grinning. "Sorry about that, babe. You okay?"

I throw a glare at him and turn my attention back to the stall.

"Looks like I made you mad," he says. "If you want, you can bump into me in return. Then we'll be even." He smirks and takes a step towards me.

I decide to take up on his offer to bump into him, only that I'll also be tripping his leg while doing that so he would fall on his face.

But before I can carry out my master plan, someone else bumps into the guy's shoulder. The guy instantly falls back on the floor, loudly and painfully. His friends instinctively move back as Leon's shoulders block my view of the fallen guy.

"What's the matter, man?" Leon says casually. "Thought you wanted that."

The guy scrambles up to his feet and goes to his group before they all hurry to go as far from Leon as possible.

Leon turns back to me with a smile.

"Wow," I say sarcastically. "You must be very proud of yourself: scaring away a few kids who were half the size you're."

"Gotta be proud of every small wins."

The stall worker brings out my lemonade. As soon I get it from him, I take a generous sip and let the cold drink make me forget the heat, the bitchy Irene and the arrogant Alpha.

I let out a satisfactory sigh.

"That looks good. Let me have a sip, too," Leon says.

I give him a blank stare before crossing him to go back to my seat on the beach. He grabs me by my waist, stopping me, and leans over my shoulder and puts his mouth on my straw.

"That is good," Leon says after drinking my lemonade.

"Get one for yourself," I tell him.

"But I want this one."

I thrust him my cup. "Fine! Take it."

"No. I want us both to have it," he says with a grin.

As I continue to glare at Leon, I realize that getting annoyed by Irene is much better than getting annoyed by Leon, because at least Irene can be made to forget with a cold drink, but not Leon – he'll get under my skin no matter what.