By the Light of the Silver Moon

Chapter 30 Marigold

"Nope." Stone laughed, popping the p.

"Let's get to work." I challenged him with a look and addressed the trainees in the ring.

Finn had his pack on a strict training schedule which I appreciated. It was a rotating schedule with sessions in the morning, noon, and evening. Stone was in charge of mixing up the trainees. He mixed guard, patrol, and warrior wolves in with omegas to encourage a higher standard of performance; twice a week, the guard, patrol, and warrior wolves had advance training to themselves.

I was hovering above the circle in a makeshift egg chair I created from vines. I was challenging the trainees by throwing my magic at them. I raised roots from the ground, tossed obstacles in their path, made it rain or storm, and anything else I could think of to distract them. I'll admit that they're all getting much better from the first time we did this.

After two hours, I stopped and let them spar on their own without magical inference. I jumped down from my perch and went to check on the second ring of trainees. This ring was reserved for sparing in their wolf form. Finn didn't like me going near the wolves so he asked me to keep my training to the human form. I listened, for the first few weeks anyway. By month two, my curiosity had gotten the best of me.

I felt Stone come up behind me as I hopped the railing to the second ring.

"You know you're not supposed to come here without me." Stone chastised.

"Yes, mom." I grumbled. Stone rolled his eyes but stayed quiet. I didn't usually interfere with the wolf training, I just liked watching them. I grabbed the closest tree branch and pulled myself up onto a new perch. The wolves were so used to this by now that they didn't even flinch in their fighting.

I still haven't seen Finn's wolf. He's told me about Hunter, how he's the largest in the pack and all black, like his tattoos. He showed me a tattoo of Hunter on his right shoulder blade. Sometimes, when Hunter was on his best behavior, he let me talk to him while still in human form.

Hunter was very sweet but animalistic, for sure. I think that's what scared Finn the most about us meeting. Hunter was eager for us to mate. He said it would allow him to feel closer to me since I didn't have a wolf for him to talk to. I felt bad for Hunter, almost like he got cheated out of a mate, but he told me he wasn't upset; he said he could sense my magic and that was almost like sensing a mate.

I wasn't sure why Finn didn't want me to see Hunter or watch him shift, but I didn't press the issue anymore than Finn pressed me to mate.

I watched the brown and white wolf do a sort of dance in the sparring ring, snapping and growling at each other. They were so majestic. I had to admit, watching them fight in wolf form was much more entertaining than when they were humans.

"Hey, Luna! How about a challenge?" One of the omegas yelled up at me from the corner of the ring.

"Watch your mouth, Creig!" Stone snapped. I waved Stone's attitude away,

"Sure, if you get in the ring." I challenged the omega, Creig. Creig grinned and ripped off his shirt and pants. I averted my eyes until he had shifted into his gray wolf. The other two wolves in the ring stepped away.

Creig's wolf barked up at me and I grinned wickedly. I wiggled my fingers and watched as the ground came to life. Roots twisted themselves around the wolf's legs. Creig snapped at the roots, breaking free of them, but I was quick to replace them. In no time at all, the gray wolf was spinning in circles as the roots meticulously attacked him. The other omegas and wolves were laughing hysterically at the poor omega. I clenched my hand into a fist and tied the wolf up for good.