"You're late." Emmet drawled, as I passed him on the field.

I rolled my eyes in reply, stepping forwards to join the other fighters.

I hadn't been back to training since my first day at the pack, but back then, I felt as though I had something to prove to these people.
Whereas now, I was just here to kick some ass and let out my frustration on others.

-Lovely, I know.

"Today, we're doing fights to determine who is and who isn't attending the annual ball." He paused for a moment, before meeting my eyes, "Only the top three fighters will be attending."

The air was filled by the murmurs of the others.

"This is the Altum ball we're talking about, right?" One girl drawled lazily from behind me, her voice strangely yet irritatingly familiar.

I turned to face the girl.

My blood turned cold.
My heart stopped beating.

How was this possible?

"Yes, every Alpha in the country will be attending, along with their Beta, Luna and top ranking warriors." Emmet said, though my eyes didn't leave the redhead before me, "So Amelia, you don't have to compete if you don't want to, you'll still be attending as the Luna."

'What the fuck...' I whispered, more to myself then my wolf.

'What the fuck indeed.' My wolf growled.

-Esmeralda.
This was impossible,
I killed her.

-I must have done...
She killed the child,
And in turn, I killed her.

I lost control, blacked out.
That's why I don't remember, but I'm sure I did, though I never found the bodies.

I turned back to face Emmet, it would look suspiciously if I kept staring at her for any longer.

She didn't even have a scratch on her, when I last saw her... her bones were broken, her hair matted with the blood of the child.

'Lycanthrope healing.' My wolf grumbled.

"What are we going to do?" I whispered to her through mind link, "What if she remembers that night?"

'If she remembers, then we kill her... And if she doesn't remember then we can still kill her anyways, but do it properly this time. However, she hasn't said anything yet obviously, or else we probably would have been exiled or executed.'

But what if she did remember, the that girl with the striking red hair and bright green eyes was simply a ticking time bomb, just a matter of time until she exploded, taking everything down in her path. Causing death and destruction.

"Amelia." Emmet snapped, ripping my attention from my own paranoid thoughts and back to reality.

"What?" I grumbled.

"Pay attention."

I rolled my eyes in response and raised my lip in a slight snarl, a sign of disrespect that Emmet completely ignored, instead turning back to address the rest of the fighters.

"The ball will be in three days, so fight hard. The Alpha will be here in a minute to pair you for your fights."

I groaned, I had been trying to avoid Hades since the incident early this morning, but I guess I would have no chance but to face him now.

Strips of sunlight beamed down upon us through the dense covering of trees as we began the gruelling warm up.
My muscles burned and my lungs ached, as we ran through the woods, Emmet had instructed us to run the perimeter of the pack whilst we waited for Hades to arrive, with no shifting into our wolves, running only in our skin forms.

My footsteps thudded against the leaves that coated the woodland floor, and I let out a slight grunt as I jumped over a fallen tree. I was ahead of the others, but only because they were taking their time in socialising as they ran, I had no need to communicate with those morons, so I focused on the task at hand Instead.

The end of the wood was fast approaching, opening out into the vast field, the home stretch, I pushed my legs to run faster as I came out of the woodlands cover, sheltering my eyes from the blinding midday sun.

I could see two figures at the end of the field, one was Emmet and the other must have been Hades.
-Be strong.

After early this morning, a chink in my armour, A moment of weakness. It would not happen again.

I could not cry.
I wouldn't even flinch, I would remain strong an unmoving, as though earlier never even happened.

It would never happen again, that much I would make sure of.

Because the moment you show the slightest hint weakness, you become weak.

I would show him.
I would show him that I was not weak.
Even if it meant whooping his ass myself.

I would be in the top three.
I would go to that stupid party, just to show him up.

"Well done," Emmet smiled, as I slowed to halt infront of the two men.

Just ignore him.
-don't even look at him.

"Amelia, you will not be fighting today." Hades said, causing me to raise an eyebrow,
"Like hell I will."

"Excuse me? You are the Luna of the pack, you have no need to fight for a space at the ball."

"Try to stop me, I'm not your Luna. I will attend the hall as a warrior of the pack, or not at all." I snapped, ending the conversation by turning my back on him.
I could since he was having a battle of dominance with his wolf behind me, but I didn't care.

Whilst training, all of the men were topless, clothes were kept to a minimum, as it was two hot to be all dressed up, the females wore shorts and sports bras, or if they wanted they could cover up with a T-shirt, like I was at this particular moment in time.

However, it seemed as though the air kept getting hotter and hotter by the minute, the T-shirt sticking to my slick skin.

'Just take it off,' My wolf snapped, 'Don't make me suffer too just because your too stubborn to take off a damn shirt.'

'Shut up,' I growled back, deciding to take it off anyways, not because she told me too, but because I wanted too.
Stubborn, I know.

I slid the material over my head, feeling heated eyes on me the entire time as I did. A low growl rumbled, no doubt from Hades as I threw the shirt on the floor.

"What are you doing?" He hissed, but I didn't turn to face him, Instead I focused on stretching out my legs and arms in preparation for the fights that would soon occur once we were joined by the rest of the group.

"Stretching, what does it look like." I snapped, turning to glare at the man as I continued to stretch out my back and arms.

Don't let your glance wonder from his eyes.
Don't look down.
Don't get distracted.

I couldn't even listen to my own advise, I let my eyes stray, down his heavily muscled chest and abdomen, and I picked up on the notable scent of his arousal that was prominent in the air.

I turned back around, not wanting to face him whilst his scent was so noticeable, it would only make me want to jump on him even more.

-Ignore it.

People slowly started to poor onto the field from the woods, slowing their jogs as they all gulped down bottles water and began stretching as I was.

Emmet cleared his throat from behind me.

"Attention everyone," He paused, waiting until everyone had stopped what they were doing and facing him, "The Alpha will now choose the pairs for fighting."

Hades stepped forward, and his eyes met mine for a brief moment before moving to stare into the crowd.
"As you all know, the annual Altum ball is fast approaching, and only three of you will be able to attend." He paused before continuing, "The pairs will be as following..."

"Colton, against Deane,"

"Jane, against Marie,"

"Esmeralda, against Amelia,"

I stopped listening after that.
What could I do? I risked being exposed.
I could let her win, and not go to the party, or I could win, go to the party, only to have her snitch.

Maybe if I won, I could beat her badly enough to make her forget.
-Or, I could just kill her. Ridding myself of the problem together, but it would be in front of these people, but it would be labelled as an accident...probably.

Either way she had to go.
Be it sooner or later.

She would die.
And nobody would question it.

***
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