Emerald Luna

Esme

Alarick showed me around and it was a nice packhouse for being in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the Smokeys. I eventually found the training room by myself for the first time. Accalia was texting me almost every day asking if I was training and making friends. I tried to remember the things she taught me. I did my morning run, my 10mi in human form and Mera got to run too, at around 7 am, sometimes later, like I did at home. I kept up with my boxing and my hand to hand. One morning I came to the gym as usual after my run and I felt I wasn’t alone.

“Who’s there?” I tried not to sound scared, but I tried to focus on my training. I take a fighting stance as I look around my surroundings.

“Relax Esme it’s just me, Koa.” He puts his hands up in surrender.

“Oh, beta Koa you scared me.” I relaxed when I saw him and breathe a sigh of relief.

“No need for formalities when it’s just the two of us. Doing some training?”

“Yeah, wanted to keep my skills up. My former beta makes sure I do my morning run every day.”

“Remind me what your routine used to be?” He genuinely seemed curious. Nobody was ever curious about what I was up to except for my parents and my friends.

“20mi run, 10 in human and 10 in wolf, stretching, boxing, hand to hand, sparing. You can be great in your human form, but if your wolf is lazy then how good is she going to be in battle or when someone needs me?” He genuinely seemed impressed.

“Not bad. I can help you with your sparing.” He had that same Cheshire cat smile Accalia had. What is with betas and torturing us in training!?

I’m pretty sure Alarick said he wanted to do that himself.” Trying to come up with a way to not do this. I knew I could do it myself until Alarick showed up.

“He’s going to be in meetings all day, so I’m sure he won’t mind if I help.” He gave me that same devious smile, and it always made me nervous.

“Yeah, I guess that’s ok. No harm in trying to be better. If I’m going to be someone important to this pack, then I want to be the best.”

Koa shows me what they’ve been training with, and it was just as good as Accalia’s training except they didn’t run as much. He seems impressed with how well I’m learning. We go between hand to hand and sparing for hours and while we were in the middle of some sparing when I smelled the best smell ever, the smell of a forest after a summer rain, which distracted me long enough for Koa to tackle me.

“Let no one distract you…” He smirks at me as I have a worried look on my face.

“Alarick is here.” I could smell him getting closer and faster. I hear the gym doors slam open and at first, it was a friendly smile, but I can see it fading real fast.

“You bet I am! What the hell is going on here!?” He was fuming mad at us, and I learned to never make an alpha mad at an early age.

I look at us and Koa is on top of me from tackling me and pinned my hands above my head… and I look at him embarrassed. I could tell he was almost seeing red. Luckily; I like to dress more modestly than most women do for working out when I train otherwise this would be bad. I could see his eyes changing from his normal greyish blue eyes to his wolf’s jade eyes. He was fighting it hard to gain control over his wolf and if I didn’t get off of him soon, this would be an ugly battle between who I presume would be good friends.

“It’s not what you think! We were just sparing! I was originally in here by myself and Koa found me. We’ve been training this whole time!” I push Koa off of me and let Alarick smell my scent to calm him. After hugging me for a few minutes he seemed to calm down enough to think rationally. His eyes were changing back to his normal greyish-blue, and I let out a sigh of relief.

“Alright, as long as that’s the only thing you’re doing. I was going to train you myself, but sometimes I cannot do it with my schedule. So, Koa you can keep helping her with training. After all, if she’s going to be Luna someday then she needs the strength of one.”

Great, at least we’re on the same page. Maybe we’ll get along after all. Since I’ve been here, he’s been so busy that I haven’t gotten to know him yet.

“Wait, Alarick… as long as you’re here… would you… like to go for a walk with me? I’m not familiar with the area and with it getting dark soon I don’t want to be out alone…”

I blush as I ask him since this is our first date… I know the cliché is supposed to be the guy asks the girl, but come on he’s been busy since I got here a few days ago and I practically know nothing about him. If we’re supposed to be mates, this isn’t a good start. They have cooped him up in his study with whatever he does and doesn’t visit me. So, I figured I should make get this ball rolling, and Mera wants to meet her mate too!

“Sure. I just got out of my last meeting of the day. I was looking for you, anyway.” He gives me the first genuine smile for the first time since I’ve met him! Damn, he has such a handsome smile.

“You were?” Didn’t expect that to happen…I got excited maybe too excited when I asked. Hopefully not sounding desperate.

“Yeah, come on let’s get out of here. I’m sure Koa needs to work on his technique…”

He glares at him as we leave but he wraps his arm around my waist as he guides me out of the gym and to the woods. At least he didn’t care that I’m still all sweaty and gross from training with Koa. The late spring evening with the sunset behind the trees and the mountains in the distance so romantic… I could get used to this if all our dates were going to be like this.