Rogue To Luna

Chapter 19

"Of course." I try to make her feel better about the situation. "Thanks for being my partner I thought for sure I would have to sit out or worse be stuck with Emeric." I nudge her with my elbow. She giggles quietly as if trying not to get caught.

"I heard that." Emeric grumbles through our mind link. I look over my shoulder to see him with his arms crossed observing two warriors sparring.

"I hope you paid attention because I have no clue what we are doing." I look around at everyone else to see they are sparring with each other.

"We do this everyday. It's usually to help you more so get your technique down than it is to actually fight each other." That's really smart. You don't want to have your warriors injured because you were stupid enough to have them actually fight.

"Alright let's do this." Annabella and I work together for the next hour or so on perfecting her punches and kicks she just hasn't gotten the hang of yet. I must say I'm impressed at how young she is and how high she's managed to climb in terms of warrior status. She still has a lot to learn, but she's still very advanced for her age.

"You guys can go home early today." Emeric's voice cuts through the field. I turn confused thinking we still had another hour or so left.

"Is everything okay?" His head snaps up in my direction, and once his eyes meet mine he gives me a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, Alex needs help with a paperwork issue, and I don't want the warriors to think this will happen every time we are short staffed." I give him a knowing nod.

"So do you want to go grab some lunch?" This is my attempt of making us more than training friends. Even before becoming a rogue I never had close friends. Raven and Blake always said to keep people at a distance and never to trust anybody.

"I would love to." She perks up walking alongside me on the path to the pack house.  I get stopped by a few times by others to say hi and ask how I'm doing. By the time Annabella and I make it upstairs I'm starving.

"I can make us some sandwiches or cook us some pasta." I grab two water bottles out of the fridge and hand one to her.

"Sandwiches sound delicious." She unscrews her cap and drinks half the bottle. I take a sip of mine and then grab the ingredients from the fridge. A couple minutes later we are sitting at the table devouring our food.

"Can I ask why you were a rogue?" She looks apprehensive about speaking up. I don't want her to get the idea that she can never ask me questions about my past.

"I'll be holding a pack meeting soon to clear up the air on that, but I suppose it won't hurt to tell you." I push my plate aside not feeling as hungry now.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't feel comfortable. I understand that it most likely isn't easy to talk about." I can tell she's being sincere by the look in her eyes. It will be good practice for when I tell the whole pack.

"My parents are an Alpha and Luna, and lets just say they aren't the most qualified candidates for their jobs. I'm not actually sure how they ended up with their positions in the first place." I start to lose my train of thought distracted on trying to remember the story my mother told us on how they became Alpha and Luna.

"Anyway they told me that my mate had died." She looks utterly confused. "Where I come from we learn at a young age that if your parents are highly ranked they can identify your mate." Annabella looks shocked with her eyes wide and mouth hanging open.

"I left because I felt the pain of the death, and I was sick of how my parents were running the place. When I arrived here I found out that my mate hadn't died obviously, and that the pain I felt was actually forced pack abandonment." She stands up walking around the table to pull me into a hug. It stuns me for a second because I'm not used to this sort of reaction to my story.