"Not bad, pups." The she-wolf spoke through the mind-link as she rolled onto her feet. Kai had released her immediately upon submission. "Not bad at all."

The five of us stood in a circle around her. Everyone was dripping wet except Alex, who hadn't needed to swim at all. Lucky bastard. It had taken me half a dozen full-body shakes just to feel a little less like a drowned rat.

"You didn't do so badly yourself," Kai commented.

"Oh, please. I walked right into that trap! I'm Zara, leader of Patrol Eighty-Eight. Now, what are your names? We have a bet going on at the barracks about who will make it through, and I'm going to need to put my money on you lot." She spoke with the same kind of unquestionable authority that Kai possessed. Maybe it was a leader thing.

"I'm Kai. This is Sav, Ben, Becky and Alex."

"Right ... got it. I think I may just invest in you. So as your prisoner, should I return to Evarlin, or can I laugh at my patrol members getting their asses kicked?"

"Actually, neither," I spoke for the first time. "You're a miscreant, right? So I guess there's a possibility we can turn you against your partners in crime."

The look in Zara's eyes said it all. "That rather depends on the price."

"If you help us bring down your friends, we'll put in a good word with the moderator at your trial. There'll be a good chance of leniency. I can also promise the most comfortable cell we have until said trail," Kai offered. It hadn't exactly been planned, but I was really hoping she would agree.

"Who am I kidding? They're all scum anyway. I'll help you on those terms," she agreed.

Zara ran her eyes over Kai, clearly impressed. "You got any experience in soft takedowns? Because you didn't even break the skin on my neck."

"A bit, yeah. I nagged my trainer into showing me a few things." Kai's wolf had been gradually gravitating towards me. So slowly I didn't even notice until he brushed up against me.

"Very useful. You stick with me. The rest of you, spread yourselves out and cut off the escape routes. One of my patrol is heading towards us now."

I was a little disappointed to be demoted so soon, but I also knew I needed to learn a lot more before I could be of real use. In the chaos of open combat, my inexperience could get someone killed, especially if my wolf panicked.

I positioned myself directly to Kai's right-hand side in the shelter of the trees. The others also obeyed Zara, although Becky in particular didn't look very happy about it. And then all we could do was wait.

A bulky wolf came barrelling into the clearing. It looked a lot like he was being chased, but the pursuers were nowhere to be seen. He almost ran straight into Ben, who snapped at his front legs, successfully encouraging the 'target' back in our direction.

After that, it was just a question of watching Kai and Zara thoroughly kick his ass, all without drawing blood. Between them, they brought down the male wolf in a matter of seconds. It was almost scary to watch. He submitted quickly enough after that.

"Meet Eric Rochester, also from Patrol Eighty-Eight," Zara introduced him.

"Traitor," he snapped at Zara through the link. "Why are you helping them?"

Zara didn't sound worried. "What can I say Eric? They made an offer I couldn't refuse."

Eric snorted. "So I suppose I have to help you all with Tobias?"

She smirked at us. "Actually, no. I want to see what this lot can do on their own, without a convenient river to help them."

"Whoa, wait up," Kaeden mind-linked, alarmed. "The deal was you help us with both of them."

"Relax, kid. I'm helping you plenty. Our job is to report to the instructor how well you work as a team so—" She cut off abruptly, as if she had been about to say something she wasn't supposed to. "Anyway, persuading me to help got you a bonus point, but now you need to show a range of skills."

Kai glanced at me, almost as if he was asking for my opinion. I shrugged and gave him a slight nod. "Fine," Kai said. "Stay out of the way then."

Alex picked up Tobias's trail a short way downstream. I couldn't help think of Divergent whenever I heard that name. I also wondered how mad he would get if I called him Four. Probably not a good idea.

A blur of grey amongst the grass caught my attention. Tobias dwarfed the bush beside him. In fact, he dwarfed pretty much everything else as well. If I was standing beside him, I don't think my head would have reached the underside of his belly. Easily twice my size and half again as tall as Kai, Tobias from Patrol Eighty-Eight was a freaking giant.

"Holy shit," Alex whispered through the link.

"What. The fudge. Is that?" Becky demanded.

"Good luck." I got the distinct impression that Zara was laughing at us.

Kai's calm blue eyes flickered around the group. Eventually, he seemed to decide on a plan of attack. And when he told us the plan across the mind-link, even I had to admit it was genius. I wasn't sure if he was recycling some textbook strategy for David and friends vs Goliath, but the plan was still impressive.

We didn't split up and circle around this time, although that would have been one way to go. Tiring him out might have worked, but this was certainly quicker and bolder. It would also show Zara exactly what our team could accomplish.

Tobias didn't run away when he saw our small pack heading towards him. He didn't need to. We were like terriers attacking an Alsatian.

Instead, he kicked up his heels and charged blindly straight at us. For the first time in my life, I understood how bowling pins must feel when the ball is sliding towards them.

We kept running, right up until the moment when Alex dive-bombed to the floor. Becky, Kai, Ben and I scattered to the sides, but Tobias was had too much momentum to stop himself. He ran into Alex and tripped, exactly like we had when we were hunting. And no sooner did the giant werewolf hit the dust than he had four other werewolves pile on top of him, all going for the throat.

It wasn't surprising when I heard a yipping whine. Tobias was down, and we had completed the challenge.

"Go team!" Alex yelled enthusiastically into the mind-link from where he was sprawled on the ground.

I loped back over and nuzzled around his face, trying to encourage him to re-join us. There was some dried blood on his back where Tobias's claws had hit him, but he looked fine otherwise. Alex eventually clambered onto his feet and shuffled after me.

Zara had watched impassively from a safe distance away. Now she checked on Tobias, making sure he was also okay. "I'm going to enjoy having you lot in the field," she said, but it felt like her words were directed only at Kai.

"What do you mean?" Kai asked. The Justin Bieber song chose a very annoying moment to start playing in my head.

"Oh, didn't you know?" Zara asked in a mischievous tone. "It's the job of the previous year's patrol to initiate the new recruits. We'll all be spending about a month on patrol together."

I let out a heavy sigh. She was edging closer and closer the prince, and I didn't like it one bit. There was something about Zara's manner that made me feel like she was interested in him. Maybe she had every right to stand next to him, but it annoyed me. I was officially jealous.

"Great." Kai didn't sound thrilled and for some reason, he rose a thousand times in my estimation.

The eight of us travelled back to Evarlin together. We happened to be the first group back, which meant the changing room was deathly quiet. Zara, Becky and I chose separate corners to shift and get dressed.

For the first time, I saw the guard in her human form. Zara was pretty enough, though not what one would call a great beauty. She was the sort of girl who didn't need to wear make-up or do her hair to get noticed. Her brown hair was unusually short, perhaps out of practicality.

When we returned to the courtyard, Zara made a beeline for Kai. He seemed not to notice her and instead threw a casual arm over my shoulder. The other girl's eyes flickered between us briefly, and I was surprised to see acceptance there.

"Good job, kids," the instructor was telling us. "Zara, Eric and Tobias weren't the easiest targets out there. Was anyone hurt?"

Zara spoke up with all the formality of someone reporting to their superior. "Some mild scratches on one of them, nothing serious at all. They did good, sir. Real good. Sav and Kai caught me in the river, and they made a deal to help them with Eric, and then it was a group effort on Tobias."

"How was the teamwork?" the instructor asked. The emphasis he put on the question made me think that teamwork was the most important factor of the exercise.

"They moved like a pack. If you don't mind me saying, these five would make a great patrol." It was strange, hearing Zara praise us so highly. Most of the time, it felt like we were just stumbling through the activities by a combination of blind luck and the occasional half-decent idea.

The instructor snorted. "You're only saying that because you have bets placed on the outcome, along with half the rest of the guard."

Zara grinned, throwing up her hands in surrender. "You got me — I'm biased. It doesn't make it any less true."

I saw a flicker of motion at the entrance to the courtyard and a pack of mildly beaten up werewolves limped into view with four prisoners in their midst. The prisoners were bleeding from multiple bite marks and looked thoroughly pissed off. Leading the not-so-triumphant procession was none other than Ethan.

His group hadn't just defeated three targets, they'd defeated four. How the hell were we supposed to beat that? There had only been nine to catch in the first place. The last group would be out for hours looking for a 'miscreant' that didn't exist.

The instructor's lip curled into an angry sneer. "What part of minimal harm did you fail to understand, Mr Rochester?"

Ethan growled in response. Bad move, very bad move. Our instructor didn't say anything further or even growl back. His face flushed red, and he smiled in a way that made me think Ethan didn't have very long to live. It looked a bit like high blood pressure to me.

The new arrivals left to shift. Kaeden included me in a mass mind-link message to his friends in the last group. "Ethan stole your last target. Get back here before our coach gives himself an aneurism."

I heard Corban grumble a reply, "What a douchebag. Thanks for the heads up, buddy."

"The last group are on their way," Kai said out loud.

The instructor nodded. "You can all go."

The rest of my group left without hesitation and I made to join them, until Zara tapped my shoulder and retreated a few steps out of anyone else's hearing. "Just to be clear," she said, "I didn't know you and Kai were a thing. So sorry, I guess."

"We aren't a thing." I scratched the back of my neck uncomfortably.

"Yet," Zara added with her permanent smile.

"You sound like Becky," I grumbled quietly. "Last night she said we were her OTP."

She laughed, flashing a set of white teeth. "Look, I'm gonna give you a tip. The last obstacle of the assault course, no one can do it. You got that? No one."

"Got it," I said uncertainly. "So we have to do the entire course in three minutes."

"No, that's not what I—" Zara stopped suddenly. "Shit. I've said too much. Just think it through, alright?"

I nodded, still completely confused. If we couldn't do the last obstacle, it wasn't possible to complete the course without the two-minute penalty. I was going to struggle enough to get my time under five minutes, let alone down to three.

As I headed back to the dorm, Alex informed me that we were forgoing hand-to-hand combat later for rock climbing. Apparently Tammie the councillor thought it would be good for team building. I wasn't quite sure how rock climbing could be a team activity, but then again, I had never climbed anything more intense than a tree.

"Hey, Alex. Are you doing okay?" It occurred to me that for best friends, our communication had been lacking recently.

"I'm fantastic, and I do not mean that sarcastically. Sure this Moon Guard crap is hard and all, but it's also fun," Alex said. "What about you?"

"Also fantastic. You know, I really wasn't expecting to make so many friends here. I'm usually really anti-social," I pointed out.

He smirked. "Oh, sure. Friends. Completely unrelated now, do I need to give you the talk? I mean, you're sixteen and at that age it's perfectly legal to—"

I slapped my hand over his mouth, utterly mortified. "No! You do not need to give me any talks. Please."

Alex kept smirking at me. Every time I tried to move my hand away from his mouth, he would raise his eyebrows suggestively and blurt out a typical sentence from 'the talk'. Finally, I gave up, shoved him down a corridor and ran away with the sound of my friend's laughter in my ears.

I broke down into laughter a passageway later, leaning against a pillar to catch my breath from the short sprint. My face relaxed into a smile. Just as I was about to stand up and return to my friends in the dorm, my innocent by-standing was rudely interrupted. In the span of maybe three seconds, someone seized my waist, covered my mouth with their hand and dragged me into the shadow of the eaves.