2-105 “I think both. He made it clear he was having s*x with several girls, trying to get them pregnant, but he was different with Sky.” Jena clears her throat.
Xander rolled over so fast, it was a blur and he was hovering over my face before I could even react.. “You said he didn’t touch you!” He spit at me. “Doc Sylvia said she didn’t see any sign of…that!”
“And she wasn’t wrong, I didn’t have s*x with him, if that is what you are asking, he never got that far with me.” I said it loud enough for them all to hear so I didn’t have to repeat it. I didn’t have any fear of evesdroppers inside the maze and I really wanted this part of the conversation to be over. “And I won’t be the only target, especially if they want Alpha Reggie’s title. Xander and Oscar, you will be a natural target as well as your Luna when you find her.” I say looking right into Xander’s eyes. “Which means we all need to be on the lookout for any signs of their female mate as much as the rogues probably are too. Once you find her, all three of you will gain your full powers which will help with the kingdom’s safety, but also put you at a huge risk.”
“You think we are just going to slide past the no s*x comment? What did he do to you Midge?” Oscar is getting more bold the longer he is with Xander.
“Far enough for it to be memorable and to still have nightmares.” I look back over to Jena, whose nightmares end in screaming and waking up in a cold sweat. I can’t complain, because my pain is nothing like hers, it can’t compare. She looks at me and blinks once then looks back to the sky. We both want to pretend that those things never happened and agreed that if we ever have to talk about it, we stick to the absolute bare minimum facts, no emotion or feeling of any kind.
“What did you two just do there?” Nathaniel asks. “You had a conversation, but without words and you didn’t mindlink.” He looks not quite offended, but not quite amazed either. Somewhere in between. “When you share a dark stone cold cell, chained to the wall by your ankles and wrists with sliver manacles, lying in your own excrement, constantly given different kinds of poisons to suppress the inner wolf so mindlinking isn’t a possibility even if we were connected. And then to be subjected to and witness the kind of tortures that we did. A bond is forged in that kind of fire, that no one else can ever understand. Talking about it and reliving it is something neither of us want to ever do again. Please don’t ask anymore about our personal experience in that level of hell.”
There was a long moment of silence as her words sunk in.
“You have my word.” Nathaniel rolls over and gets up dusting himself off then puts out his hand to help Jena up. The rest of us follow suit.
“Well, speaking of hell, are you ready for the next version?” Xander asks, putting on and buttoning his shirt. “It’s time to get ready for lunch and I told Olympia and her father she was not allowed to attend due to her behavior last night.”
“Oh sh*t! You took our advice?” Mina sounded surprised.
“You were right. It’s the best way to start setting an example. Then we can say we have tried gentle discipline if it continues and then I can ban her.” His smile grows wide at the idea.
“I like the sound of that phrase, ‘you were right,’ it’s music to my ears.” She laughs taking his arm. “In that case I think we should attend lunch like this, showing that training is important, even though we have social obligations.”
“My father will laugh, my mother will pretend not to care and we should take bets on which elder mentions it first.” Xander replies laughing along with her.
Lunch was exactly as we expected. Alpha Reggie was giddy watching us walk in, clearly disheveled from training, although we all did try to minimize the amount of dirt we tracked in. At least the maze was dry and not muddy. Jena, Mina and I all attempted to tame our now tangled and unruly hair. Luna Anne rolled her eyes, but didn’t say anything to the warriors about our appearance. Xander, however, she gave a hard time about his shirt being tucked in properly and his jacket being wrinkled, adding that if he was going to train, not to do it in his nice suits.
Elder Bastian was the first elder to cite favoritism and mentioned inclusion of more people at an informal get together like this. He did stop his endless ramblings when Mina cut him off.
“That is an amazing idea!” She shouted. “We should invite different villagers to join us. They would have the most insight into the inner workings of the territory and how the pack is really doing.” She smiled at him, but gave me a wink.
“These meetings are serious affairs that ranked and decorated members are invited to only…”
“But that’s the thing. All of you are so busy in meetings and whatever else you do, that none of you have time to venture out into the pack to help with any of the labor. This would be a way to bring that to you all. It would give you a chance to understand your pack’s needs so much better.” She interrupted him again. “We should even do tours into the different parts of the pack and work alongside all the laborers. Then we would really understand their needs.”
“Work? Like, outside, with common people.” Charlene asked and then yelped as if someone pinched her. At least one of her parents understood the trap that was set by Mina.
“I think that idea is excellent, Mina. We should work on that together.” Luna Anne praised her and you would have thought that someone put a sour lemon in Charlene’s mouth and both her father and Elder Bastian looked appalled, but were smart enough to keep their mouths shut.
After that, talk was mundane, but pleasant around the large ballroom. We all got up to leave, saying our goodbyes to Alpha Reggie and Luna Anne very informally in front of everyone present.
“Mina? Would you mind staying? I have a few other things to discuss with you before we send you back to the training compound.” Alpha Reggie announces.
“Of course, sir. I’ll see you guys later.” She hugs us all and sits back down while we head out.
