Luna Awakening

Training session

Aria’s POV

The footsteps settle at my door, then a knock follows. "Aria darling, are you up already?" Mum says and proceeds to turn the door knob, cracking the door open. She walks in with a maid carrying a tray, which I presume contains my breakfast.

"Good morning Mum," I say, and she pulls me in for a hug.

"Oh my darling. I was scared to death, seeing you in your helpless state yesterday. How’re you faring now?"

I smile reassuringly. "I feel better, Mum." She places her hand at the side of my face.

"Here you go. Your breakfast." Her gaze shifts towards the maid while she proceeds to place the tray on the dressing table. "I feel you might still be weak, so I brought it up for you."

"Oh Mum, you shouldn’t have. I would have come down for breakfast myself," I protest.

"You’re still very weak, why let you bother with that?" She moves over to the tray, repositioning the fork and knife. Mum is a clean freak, always organizing at every chance she gets. I can’t help it either. I have grown to love this aspect of her regardless.

"Now eat your breakfast and have your rest. I’ll call Dr. Blake, the park doctor, to check up on you." I don’t waste another second before retorting.

"No Mum. You don’t have to. I’m perfectly fine." She surveys my appearance, but isn’t quite sure about my claims. When I see she doesn’t look convinced, I try to say something to shift her attention.

"I have a training session with Lucien today," I say, wishing she would let me off her hook.

She takes me by my hands. "Darling, I don’t think Lucien would mind if you decide to sit out this session with him. What do you say I tell him to let you take a break?"

"No Mum," I retort. "Another thing; I promised Raymond I’d watch him practice today. Please Mum… pretty please." I swing her hands in opposite directions, hoping she buys into my plea this time around. Mum flashes me a smile.

"Okay Aria. But you must promise you won’t come back late. We don’t want you falling ill a day before your big day. Okay?" She cups my face into her palm.

"Okay Mum. I love you." I move her hands aside, embracing her as she mutters.

"Love you too darling." We pull away and she makes her way out.

I rush into the bathroom to freshen up, eat breakfast, and get dressed for training.

I make my way towards Lucien’s training ground. It’s an open space, more like a field; nothing really special apart from a few training weapons.

I see him engaging in physical combat, and he isn’t alone. Adrian, his beta, is with him. They are going at each other, sparring like their lives depend on it. Lucien is fierce, sending his spear in every direction, but Adrian calculatively blocks him at every point.

"Good morning guys," I say, trying to draw in their attention. Adrian looks in my direction, but Lucien doesn’t, using the opportunity to send a spear across Adrian’s right arm. He barely misses, dodging the attack as the spear slightly cuts through his skin. He falls to the ground, holding onto his wounded arm as he lets out a whimper.

Lucien gives him his arm in a quest to help him up on his feet.

"Next time, focus. You can’t afford to be distracted while on the battleground. Got it?" Adrian lets out a grunt as Lucien pulls him back up with his wounded arm.

"There’s certainly no distractions over here, Lucien. It’s just Aria," Adrian says as he tends to his wounds. Lucien glares in my direction and returns to practice. I can’t believe he just ignores me like that.

Just as I'm about to give him a piece of my mind, Adrian steals my focus with his warm greetings. "Hi Aria, how is your day going?" I switch my attention over to him, tending to his injured arm.

"Hi Adrian. So sorry about that," I say.

"No problem, I’ll just take care of this real quick." I move past him, making my way towards Lucien. As I close in on him, he stops training with the spear, halting his practice.

He picks up a cloth and cleans the spear. "Shouldn’t you be resting? You’re not strong enough to practice today," he says, not meeting my gaze, still cleaning the blood on the blade.

"You barely even responded to me, Lucien. Is there any problem?" He finally looks in my direction, his expression unreadable.

"That’s not an answer." He puts the spear back in place and grabs a towel to clean the trickle of sweat rolling down his bare chest. He drags the towel slowly against his skin, his muscles flex in an attempt to mop his body clean. It's tempting, No... It's enticing. My stomach flips, my chest tightens, I bite the inside of my lip to fight the urge not to drool. My jaw tenses.... I have to look away. Just when I'm in need of a distraction.... There my eyes fall on a perfect distraction: a sword.

I go to it, pick it up and start surveying its beautiful design. It's intricate detailing, it's beautiful. Once he's done, Lucien moves towards a hanging support and drops the towel on it.

He inches closer, then l hear him say at my back, "I'm still waiting for an answer." I flinch, spinning towards him, forgetting the proximity that our bodies are at. My hand touches his bare chest and I pull away as though I’ve touched something hot.

I try to argue about his nonchalant response towards me, but I withdraw. It was pointless, he’s probably still mad at me from yesterday's altercation.

I inhale, then exhale. "You’re still angry at me from last night. Right?" He leans on a thick wooden pole, while he stares in my direction. "You bet I’m still angry," he says.

"OK, let’s just put all that behind us," he smirks at me, like he totally agrees with me.

"That’s not a problem, provided you apologize for yesterday. Remember you started it, so it's all your fault." I look at him, puzzled that he would even think of asking for an apology when I’m clearly right about Mara.

"Hell no, Lucien. Not when I know I’m right and definitely not over Mara; who wouldn’t give a care if I lived or died." I say as I watch his expression turn sour, lips curl downward. He is about to say something but stops when we hear a familiar voice mutter from afar off.

"Hi Babe."