I smiled as I shook her hand. "Thane wasn't exaggerating, you're gorgeous," The fiery redhead grinned, and something about her seemed extremely genuine, like she was actually a nice person, not someone who was just pretending to be nice because I'm an Alpha's mate. It was refreshing.

I couldn't help the blush that splayed across my face. "Stop hitting on Thane's mate, Gwendolyn," I was surprised to hear Leo scoff at her. Leo never backtalked to anybody. Scratch that, he hardly talks to anyone, period. Much less roll his eyes in annoyance.

"Sorry Beta," Gwendolyn said without missing a beat. "Is someone a little butthurt no one is flirting with you?"

I pressed my lips together, trying not to laugh aloud. "Jesus, Gwen," Axel sighed in exasperation, as if he were used to having to reign in his friend. "You're a guest. Please mind your manners."

Gwen rolled her eyes at the buff male and snorted. "Ohhh, but Ares can break Cain's jaw in the living room?" She challenged him. I mean... a valid point in my opinion, although I wasn't sure how she knew about that, unless if Ares had been gossiping with her. Though Ares didn't seem like one who cared to gossip that much. 

I was shocked when Leo taunted Gwendolyn by challenging her to break his. The smirk on his face said that he was well aware that it would be a failed endeavor. Goddess, what is wrong with all of these wolves always trying to fight each other?

Thane was undisturbed as he apathetically said, "If you guys feel the need to fight, please do it outside. I just had the house remodeled."

Gwen's eyes lit up. "I could use a little bit of training. The car ride was so long my legs were beginning to atrophy," She complained.

The Gamma of Blood Lake rolled his eyes and quietly pointed out that she could have taken a turn driving. My mouth curled into a smile. He didn't really ever say that much when he was here with Cain, with the exception of a couple of cutting retorts that always made me laugh. I looked him over, noticing that his beard was more full than it was the last time I had seen him, even though only a few days had gone by since Cain and his men left. If my eyes didn't deceive me, he even looked more buff than the last time I had seen him, which was saying something. The guy looked like he popped steroids with his Coco Puffs every morning. 

Gwen suggested going to the training center, and I internally cringed. Not only had Axel completely exhuasted my body during training this morning, but I was wearing a sundress that certainly was not very practical in terms of training. Even Gwen wasn't wearing typical training gear. She wore tight black jeans, a low-cut lacy red tank top, and black stilleto boots. She looked so hardcore, yet girly at the same time, I couldn't help but feel inadequate in her company. I wondered if she had a mate. Lucas didn't seem to like her very much, so I would assume they were not mates.

"You're welcome to go. I would join but I have paperwork to deal with," Thane said, and I wondered what sorts of responsibilities he had as an Alpha. He always seemed to be working, and I never really knew what he was up to. 

"Whaddya say, Onyx?" Gwen asked, her green eyes gleaming. 

"Umm," I hesitated. Training with four Blood Lake pack members was somewhat intimidating.

Sensing my trepidation, Axel coaxed, "You wouldn't have to actually train or anything, you could just watch and jump in if you wanted to. You already met your training requirement for the day, I'm sure Ares wouldn't mind if you just observed." 

Ares didn't say anything as she flicked a piece of lint off of her cloak sleeve. She either wasn't listening, or was mindlinking someone else. It was always hard to tell with the mysterious Luna.

"Come onnnnn," Gwen begged. "It'll be fun. I'm dying to get to know the future Luna of Blue Moon."

"Okay," I acquiesed, only because I knew she wouldn't accept no for an answer. Her brilliant smile at my answer soothed whatever doubts I had about attending.

She squealed, and Leo winced. "Are you sure you're part wolf, and not part banshee?" He grumbled.

Gwen narrowed her eyes and pulled out a knife that must have been tucked into the waist of her pants. "If you ruin my mood then I won't hesitate to ruin your face," She warned, but the smirk on her face told me that she wasn't actually serious about maiming the Beta, unlike Ares' stoic threats.

Thane just sighed in mild annoyance. "Gwendolyn, what part about not spilling blood on my new carpet was unclear?"

****************************************

By the time we got to the training center, my stomach was hurting from laughing so hard. Gwen was incredibly sharp-tongued and quick-witted, which made for perfect jokes that landed every time. Despite how happy of a person she seemed to be, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her about her deceased mate. She seemed to be highly unbothered by the whole situation, even making a couple jokes about how she's bagged two Betas, a "highly impressive feat", she joked cockily. I couldn't deny my surprise when she told me about her and Leo's hookup. He never really struck me as the hookup type, especially with someone so outgoing and eccentric.

Gwen opened the doors to the training center like she owned the place and we walked in, her heels cliking along the linolium floors. She immediately went over to the corner of the room that had punching bags, tragerts, and human-like target dummies. I had never really paid much attention to that section, since all of my training so far had just been hand-to-hand combat. 

The boys went to work on the punching bags, and seemed comfortable enough with each other, cracking jokes left and right. 

I say down on the floor and watched as Ares and Gwen took turns throwing knives that Ares manifested into the target dummies. It didn't take long until two of them had knifes deeply embedded in every inch of them. 

I watched in fascination at the two shewolves in front of me. With Ares, her motions were clean, precise, and quick. She didn't hesitate before throwing, and never failed to hit wherever she was aiming. 

Gwen, however, was much more chaotic. Her movements were harsh, jerky, and erratic. She was almost as good at aiming as Ares, even though some throws were slightly off, and the ones that were, Gwen never failed to curse out the knife in a flurry of swear words that made Ares laugh and Leo scowl.

Even the boys stopped their brutality against the punching bags to watch the two deadly females. I couldn't help the smile that crossed my face as I noticed that Leo's eyes never left Gwen. 

When the two targets had not a single inch left of space to be penetrated with a knife, Gwen turned towards me. "Come help us piss off Thane by running all of his dummies."

"Umm, I think between the two of you, you guys have that covered," I laughed as I deflected her offer. 

Gwen pouted. "Come on, Nyx. It'll be fun. Quality bonding time."

I hesitated, and Ares mindlinked me. If you come learn how to throw knives then I'll excuse you from training tomorrow, she bartered.

No getting my butt kicked and getting to sleep in? "Count me in," I laughed as I got up from the floor and smoothed my dress. 

"Knife?" Gwen offered and held out a knife, which I accepted. "Whiskey?" She offered a flask she pulled out from her back pocket.

My eyes widened. "No, thank you."

She shrugged, "Suit yourself. It makes your aim better." She took a large swig of the alchol without flinching, and passed it to Ares, who also drank from it. 

"Alcoholics," Axel muttered. "Hand it over," He commanded, and Gwen's eyes twinkled mischieviously as he also drank the alcohol. 

Leo rolled his eyes, but couldn't quite surpress his smile. Even Lucas, who always seemed generally unamused, chuckled at their antics.

Axel passed the flask back to Gwen, who chugged the remainder of its contents and haphazardly threw the empty container at Leo, who caught it and scowled. 

"Okay, so stand here," Gwen ordered and grabbed my arm until I was standing in the exact location she wanted. "Left foot in front. Grip the blade like so," She demonstrated with her own knife. "Okay, good! Now put the blade slightly over your shoulder, and when you throw it, make sure to flick your wrist slightly or the blade won't embed in the dummy. For clarification, I mean the target dummy, not the Beta dummy on your left."

I giggled, and even Ares snorted that Gwen's comment about Leo. Gwen and Leo clearly still had feelings for each other, the tension was thick enough to, well, cut through it with a knife. 

"Anytime you want to put down your little knives and spar, I'll be ready, pup. We'll see if you're so sharp-tongued then," Leo smirked, letting his canines drop slightly. 

Gwen gave an identical smirk, her eyes darkening. "Stop hitting on me, dog. I'm trying to train your future Luna, I need to focus."

"And you drank 10 oz of alcohol to, what, help your focus?" Leo snorted, his canines descending even further. 

Gwen was about to shoot back with an equally snarky comment I'm sure, when I decided to disrupt their squabbling before a full-on brawl happened not even hours after Gwendolyn arrived. 

I threw the knife, hard, into the target dummy, making sure to do as Gwen instructed. To my surprise, the knife actually hit the dummy, right in the shoulder. It wasn't the heart, but it at least landed. 

Gwen examined the dummy and grinned. "Not bad, little wolf. I'm a pretty good teacher, if I do say so myself."

Don't release the knife so soon. Wait until its a little bit lower so you can hit the torso, Ares offered no words of praise, only instructions.

I nodded, and took another knife that she offered me. I tried again, and this time, the knife hit the dummy slightly lower, but still to the side. 

Ares once more corrected my form, and I did as she said for the next throw, which was more centered, but the knife had barely gone into the dummy. 

"Please, throw harder Onyx. Remember: The goal is to disfigure the dummies so badly Thane bans us from his training center," Gwen encouraged with a wink. 

After a couple more throws, I finally started getting decent at getting somewhat close to the mark. 

"Good job, Nyx. We may make a professional killer out of you yet," Gwen laughed, and I smiled, but it didn't quite reach my ears.

*****************************************************

The rest of the night was fairly ordinary. We had dinner, which mostly consisted of Gwen saying something outlandish, Leo chastising her, and then Axel trying to diffuse the situation. 

I was completely exhuasted by the time Thane and I got into bed, my muscles aching all over. Thane offered to give me a massage, which I gratefully accepted. Thank the goddess that Ares gave me tomorrow off, because I wasn't sure I would be able to move any limbs tomorrow.

"I wish you were there," I mumbled as I told Thane about how good I had gotten at knife throwing. 

Thane sighed. "I know, I'm sorry, little one. I know that we haven't spent much time together lately. Things are just a little... crazy right now."

"Crazy how?" I asked, groaning as he massaged deeply into my upper back. 

Thane hesitated. "Just... Busy. There are territory issues with Red Crescent that I'm trying to help Cain figure out. Not to mention I'm quite preoccupied with trying to track Wilson, who seems to just barely slip through my fingers anytime I get close."

I sighed as I flipped over on to my back and looked up at him. "I get that... I really do. I know it has to be hard running a pack but..."

His head tilted to the side and he cupped my face gently. "What's bothering you, little one?"

I looked to the side, too shy to meet his concerned eyes. "It's just... I don't know. It doesn't seem like we've spent much time together. It's just... we're mates, and I feel like I don't even really know that much about you."

I couldn't help the yawn that escaped me, and Thane laughed gently as he turned out the light. "Don't worry, little mate. Once some of the chaos dies down..." His voice trailed off, and I knew by chaos, he meant when the challenge was over. "Things are just messy right now. It'll get better. Don't worry about it."

He kissed my forehead, wrapping me tight in his large arms, and most of my worries melted away as I gratefully accepted the peace that came with slumber.