Chapter 392 Elephant? What Elephant?
Fighting with blades and wolves when she had perfectly good magic was fucking stupid.
Unfortunately, no one had asked Serena for her extremely correct, highly logical, and deeply unappreciated opinion on the matter.
Two training captains stepped forward.
First up: Captain Calder from Drakenfell who Serena knew well. He was part of the Draken Forces and the Brotherhood of the Hidden Flame.
Second: Captain Thane from Shadowclaw. He had given Serena one blade lesson a few days ago, only to announce to Fin that she fought like a rogue like she wasn’t standing right there.
Damn straight I do.
One from each pack to cover ’blind spots.’ Everyone knew that was complete bullshit. It had nothing to do with training and everything to do with the giant elephant in the room: one girl mated to two Alphas. The attempt at balance did absolutely nothing to ease the thick tension humming through the arena.
Captain Thane approached first, his expression warm and full of deference, clearly honored to be training the Alpha’s mate.
Aurelia: That wasn’t the face he made when he told Fin we fight like a street animal.
Serena: He said rogue.
Aurelia: Same thing. It’s rude. Let’s set him on fire.
Serena: You’ve mentioned that. Several times.
“Luna,” Thane greeted.
The word Luna landed on the arena the way a stone lands on still water.
Every person in the arena heard it. Nobody reacted to the word.
A Shadowclaw captain had addressed Serena with the title reserved for the Luna Queen, and the address was casual, practiced, carrying the comfort of a word that had been used inside Shadowclaw’s walls long enough to lose its novelty.
Emotions from both of her mates crashed through the twin matebonds like a tsunami.
Fin’s was pure pride and uncontainable joy.
Dexmon’s was jealousy and territorial rage in the purest form. Just an Alpha hearing another pack claim his goddamn mate, rolling off the captain’s tongue with an ease that suggested this was old news, because inside Fin’s inner circle it apparently was.
Underneath that, was hurt. Like Serena had been hiding this from him. She had just found out herself.
Serena blinked, swallowing thickly.
She wasn’t listening to Thane at all anymore. Thane, completely unaware, kept talking like he hadn’t just lit a fuse on a very jealous bomb.
Serena: Gods, Dex is so upset right now.
Aurelia: Control the face. Don’t get emotional. We play their game, we swing their stick, we smile, and then they stop hovering and we get to run in the woods where nobody makes us hold things.
Serena: You really hate the sword.
Aurelia: The sword is a personal offense to everything we are.
Serena zoned back in. Captain Calder had been speaking. She had missed the question entirely because she had been in a committee meeting with her wolf while the training was supposed to be starting.
Both captains were looking at her expectantly. Calder had asked something. The something was hanging in the air, waiting for a response she hadn’t heard.
“No, she can’t shift on her own,” Dex answered for her. His voice was professional. His eyes were still molten. Just a mate answering for his mate. No subtext whatsoever.
Captain Thane looked at Serena, his gaze assessing.
“Do you communicate with your wolf? Verbal exchanges?”
Serena’s face flushed. The flush was immediate, comprehensive, because the answer to that question was yes, she absolutely talked to her wolf, full conversations, complete with disagreements and commentary and the specific back-and-forth of two personalities sharing a body and having opinions about the arrangement.
Verbal wolf-communication was rare among most wolves, who operated on instinct and sensation rather than language, and admitting to it in front of a training arena full of warriors was admitting to something that most wolves would consider unusual at best and concerning at worst.
“No,” Elara said from the front row, her voice cutting through the arena like a Beta Luna performing an emergency interception. “She just has a lot on her mind. You know. The artifact. The training. The general state of the continent. Normal princess concerns.”
Serena gave Elara a quick glance that carried gratitude and exasperation in equal measure.
Aurelia: I like Elara.
Serena: Everyone likes Elara.
Aurelia: She lies well. I respect that in a human.
Captain Thane nodded, accepting the answer without further inquiry, because the Beta Luna of Drakenfell had spoken with the kind of finality that discouraged follow-up questions.
“Understood.” Thane pulled a small leather pouch from his belt and opened it. “So you are unaware when you are in wolf form and cannot shift on command. Prolonged silver poisoning before a first shift will do that. We will use reinforcement conditioning to build the association between the shift and positive stimulus.” He pulled a strip of dried chicken from the pouch. “Wolves respond well to chicken.”
Aurelia: CHICKEN.
Aurelia’s voice hit Serena’s skull at maximum volume.
Aurelia:He is going to wave CHICKEN at me like I am a puppy in Obedience school. The Luna of Shadowclaw and Crown Princess of Drakenfell’s wolf! Moon Goddess’s favorite! I am outraged and disrespected.
Serena kept a straight face that required every ounce of composure because Aurelia continued for one minute straight.
Aurelia:He wants a bitch? I’ll be one. I will BITE him. I will shift right now and BITE him, and then I will eat the chicken because it does smell good, but the biting will come FIRST, and I want that to be clear. The biting is a CHOICE. The eating is INCIDENTAL.
Two minutes, actually. Aurelia was on a roll.
Aurelia: And this man. This stick-swinging, rogue-calling, chicken-carrying man wants to CONDITION me. With POULTRY.
Make that three straight minutes of uninterrupted wolf outrage delivered at a pitch and intensity that would have been impressive if it weren’t happening inside Serena’s skull.
Serena: Aurelia. I need you to stop talking so I can hear what he is saying.
Aurelia: I will stop talking when the chicken is removed from my presence. REMOVE IT. NOW.