Silver Moon Huntress

Emma

I woke up at dawn to see that Vesper was already brushing her teeth, her bed made. I could still hear crickets chirping, and the sun was only just starting to peek over the mountains.

Vesper showed me our closet, fully stocked with various uniform pieces in each of our sizes. I pulled on a dark grey sweatshirt and black leggings, paired with plain black athletic sneakers. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about shopping anymore, I thought wryly.

We ate eggs and bacon in silence and Vesper read the pack newspaper. When she was finished, she balled it up in her palms. It began to smoke lightly, then suddenly burst into flames.

“What the hell??”, I screeched, jumping up and backing away.

All that was left was a little bit of ash on her plate.

Vesper grinned, and said, “I can make fire with my hands. It’s my gift from the Moon Goddess.”

She said it so casually, as if it were totally normal.

“I’m sorry, WHAT?”, I said incredulously.

She just shrugged.

“The Moon Goddess gives each of us a gift to help us protect our pack.”

“I don’t have a gift”, I said, staring wide-eyed at her plate.

“You do. You just haven’t discovered it yet”, she replied simply. “Training will help with that. Speaking of which, we should look at your schedule.”

We walked back to our room and I pulled out my schedule. I had training for the first half of the day, then guard duty.

“We each have a schedule buddy”, explained Vesper. “You do all of your duties together for the whole month, then you get a new schedule and a new buddy. You’ll meet yours when you get to the arena.”

“I just assumed I’d be working with you”, I said, scratching my arm nervously.

“Nope”, she replied. “I have an intel operation starting today. I’ll actually be gone this whole week.”

Only then did I notice a duffel bag at the foot of her bed, fully packed. I gulped. It was going to suck trying to navigate this new place without her.

“Relax”, she said, soothingly. “We look out for each other here. Your partner with help you.”

I nodded, still unconvinced.

***

Vesper walked me to the arena, where her partner was waiting with an identical duffel bag.

“Archer, this is Marren. Marren, Archer”, Vesper introduced us.

“S’up newbie”, said Marren, with a lopsided smile.

I waved in greeting.

“Ready to go?”, he asked Vesper, raising a fist.

She bumped it, saying, “Hell yeah! You gonna be okay Archer?”

I turned toward the arena door and saw Zander standing inside, waiting for me. I groaned internally.

“Oh yeah, totally. How could this not be fun?”, I muttered.

“That’s the spirit”, Marren said with a chuckle.

As they walked away, I heard Vesper say, “I’m driving!”

“You wish slowpoke!”, Marren replied, taking off at a sprint toward a group of vans parked near the mess hall. Vesper laughed and followed him, chucking her duffel bag at him to trip him up.

I watched them wistfully before turning back to the arena door. I squared my shoulders and held my head high, marching up to Zander.

“You’re late”, he said.

I scowled.

“Sorry. I was busy having no idea what’s going on”, I said with a glare.

We glared at each other for several seconds before he said, “whatever. Let’s get warmed up.”

I rolled my eyes but started running. Usually, I’d only run a few laps, but I didn’t even feel winded after ten.

Zander took off his shoes and started stretching. I followed his lead, noticing the intricate tattoos covering his heavily muscled arms. Leaves and vines snaked their way under his shirt, and I found myself wondering how far they went. For a second I thought about tracing them with my fingertips. What would it feel like to have those strong arms wrapped around me in a loving embrace?

I blushed, thankful that Zander hadn’t caught me staring. His head was turned slightly away from me, but for a second I thought I saw the corner of him mouth turn up in a smirk.

I physically shook my head, as if that would dispel the strange thoughts I was having. I literally just met this man and I was already lusting after him like a b***h in heat. Pathetic. But did that mean I was finally over Caleb? Nah. I’m just desperate. I sighed.

“So are you going to teach me some crazy Hunter fighting style?”, I asked curiously.

“Nope. We have elevated speed, strength, and endurance, so we just naturally train longer and harder. You probably did two hour training sessions before. We’ll train for five.”

“Five??”, I gasped. “That’s insane.”

I can’t fight for five hours, I thought. I’ll die of exhaustion!

Zander gave me a look and said, “you need to trust your body more and get used to your power. We’re not ordinary wolves.”

When I looked unconvinced, he added, “we’ll do a variety of exercises. It’s not just hand to hand the whole time.”

“Fine. Let’s get this over with”, I said petulantly.

Zander crouched into a fighting stance and I followed suit. He sprang at me with such speed that I didn’t even have time to react before I was dumped on my ass.

“Again”, he commanded.

I got to my feet with a grumble and readied myself for the next assault. This time, I was quicker. I dodged his first attack, but he spun around and kicked me hard in the back, knocking me to the ground again.

We continued like that for more than an hour. I never got more than a few punches in before he took me down, and by the end I was seething.

“What’s the point of this?”, I said angrily. “How is getting repeatedly knocked down making me a better fighter?”

Zander shrugged.

“We all start out like that in the beginning. It just takes time to get accustomed to your strength. Let’s do some speed exercises now.”

We spent the next hour doing a variety of sprints on the track. I wasn’t quite able to keep up with Zander, but it wasn’t as pathetic as the fighting.

We switched back to hand-to-hand combat, and I could already see my improvement. I moved faster and dodged more of Zander’s attacks, landing more of my own. Still, when Zander landed a punch or a kick, it felt like a ton of bricks was being dropped on me. In contrast, he barely seemed to notice it when I punched him.

“You’re already improving!”, Zander said encouragingly. “Let’s go outside and work on punching with more strength.”

I followed him out to the rows of wooden pillars. Up close, I noticed there were large gouges in the wood at different intervals. I looked at Zander, who was positioned in a punching stance in front of his pillar. With a swift movement, he punch the wood, and I heard the light tinkling of a bell. I looked up and saw that each pillar had a small bell suspended out from it by a metal rod.

I raised my fists and gave it my best punch. My hand collided with the wood and I felt my knuckles shake. No bell. I tried again. No bell. I could tell I was already bruising, and there wasn’t even an indent in the wood.

“I think mine is defective”, I said to Zander.

He chuckled and said, “nope. You just have to punch it harder. The bell will ring if your punch is strong enough to send vibrations to the top of the pillar. If not, nothing.”

I stared at him, temporarily distracted. I hadn’t heard him laugh until now. Something about it seemed off, like it didn’t really fit his no-nonsense exterior.

This time he definitely smirked at me.

“Get back to it, newbie.”

I glared at him but complied. At the end of an hour, my hands were bleeding. I stopped and watched my blood clot. My skin sealed and I was left with a new, shiny layer of callus.

“Over time your hands will build up enough calluses that you won’t bleed anymore”, Zander explained. “Let’s stop early and have lunch. Then I’ll take you to tour the army base before guard duty. Laurier said she didn’t have a chance to show you yesterday.”

I nodded and followed Zander to the mess hall. We ate in silence. I was getting the feeling that he wasn’t much in to small talk.

After he finished eating, he stood up and walked toward the door, saying, “I’m going to shower. I’ll meet you in the dorm lobby in 15 minutes.”

I gave myself a sniff and winced. I stunk. I washed my dishes, then headed up to take a shower. I then checked my welcome packet and saw that we had a specific uniform for guard duty: a black long-sleeved shirt, dark grey BDU style pants, and quick-zip combat boots.

I put on my uniform and surveyed myself in the mirror. I had to admit, I looked sharp. Putting my wet hair into a quick bun, I turned off the lights and headed down to meet Zander.

We drove to the army base, located outside the pack house grounds to the north.

“We’ll just do a quick walkthrough today”, said Zander, parking and getting out.

The attendant at the gate must have recognized Zander, because he opened it without saying a word, and we walked onto the base.

It looked very similar to our compound, but it was much larger and lacked the green grass and pretty shrubs. Zander showed me the barracks and mess hall, then walked me into the arena.

A hundred soldiers in uniform were paired together, fighting hand-to-hand. Locklear and Aukland, two Hunters that I recognized from Vesper’s tour yesterday, were walking among the pairs, giving tips and adjusting stances.

They saw us enter and waved, before walking to the front of the room.

“ATTENTION!”, they yelled in unison.

Immediately, the soldiers stopped fighting and turned to face them. They moved as one unit, falling into line with their arms at their sides.

“We’d like you to meet our newest Hunter”, said Aukland, gesturing to me.

Zander poked me in the back and I stepped forward, blushing. It was uncomfortable to have so many eyes trained directly on me.

“This is Archer. You’ll be seeing her here next rotation”, Locklear called to the room. “As you were.”

Dismissed, the soldiers resumed fighting.

“They’re looking good, guys”, said Zander.

Aukland nodded in thanks.

“They’ll a little rough, but we’re whipping them into shape”, joked Locklear.

He turned to me, saying, “how are you liking it so far?”

“It’s a lot”, I replied.

He smiled genuinely, and said, “don’t worry, it’ll get better. Just hang in there.”

I could tell we were going to be friends, and I immediately liked him.

“We have to get back to work, but we’ll see you at dinner!”, said Aukland, turning back to the soldiers.

Zander nodded and starting walking from the room. I waved and followed him. He drove us back to the pack house and parked in one of the spots designated for Hunter vehicles.

“What, no secret passage today?”, I asked.

“Nope. We only use that for emergencies. Which is pretty much never.”

He got out of the car and marched inside like he owned the place. I walked behind him, feeling weird. Being allowed in the pack house was going to take some getting used to.

When I entered the main hall, I immediately caught a familiar scent.

“EM!!”

I turned to see Caleb walking toward me. He caught me up in a huge bear hug and said, “it’s so good to see you! Tell me everything.”