"Eidis?" I said to myself.

Why her?

"I knew Sylvia would do something like this. What did she come to say?" I asked Kristján.

"She told us that she would like Eidis to start training for Luna soon, as she is both suitable for Valente by age as well as status," he said.

"Of course. They're the late Gamma's children. Sylvia would want Valente to choose a girl from a higher ranking family," said Ima.

I sighed.

"What did you say to her?" I asked him.

"What was I to say? Mom and Eidis both readily agreed," he said. "Valente doesn't know about this still. I don't know what will happen when he finds out."

My heart hurt to think of Valente with someone else. I wished I could talk to him but I still couldn't reach him.

"Wouldn't you want your sister to be Luna?" I asked him.

"My loyalty is to my Alpha first. That is what my father always taught me. I wouldn't want anything that would be against his wishes," he said.

His words eased my heart a little bit.

"When is Valente coming back?" I asked him.

"He doesn't tell me when he leaves, Rayne," he replied, a little dejected. "But I can guess he will come back by tomorrow night."

I raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"The full moon. Frida will hopefully shift for the first time, given her body is strong enough to endure it, now that she's eighteen," he said. "It is important for the Alpha, or in this case the future Alpha, to be present for a shifting ceremony. He will have to be back by then."

I nodded my head.

"What are you going to do about Sylvia?" he asked me.

"What can I do?" I said.

"You can punch her in the face a few times?" said Ima.

"Ima stop it," I said back.

"I don't think it would be wise to say anything till Valente comes back. It's his choice in the end after all," I said to him, trying to talk some confidence into myself.

"Well, okay then," he said. "I gotta get to class. See you around Rayne."

Kristjan walked out of the gym leaving me alone with my thoughts.

"It's his choice in the end after all? Are you kidding me Rayne? Whatever happened to your warrior spirit? I swear if you don't take your man, I'll do it myself," said Imadis.

Clearly my aggressiveness came from my wolf.

...

After the rest of my classes, it was time for training. The girls in the locker room gave me the usual odd looks and Eidis just smirked at me the entire time. She thought that I didn't know what she knew.

But in all honesty, her actions didn't bother me.

Even though I did want to punch that smirk off her face.

"My thoughts exactly," Ima said.

I quickly changed into some sportswear and walked outside with Dilja, Irmelin, and Gló.

As I did, I immediately wanted to walk back inside.

Sylvia stood with Delta Osvald in front of everyone else, talking in hushed tones. Although it did seem like Sylvia was doing most of the talking.

As we stood in our rows, I avoided looking at her, waiting quietly for instructions.

"Everyone's here. Good," Delta Osvald said, looking at me. "Begin your warm-ups, same as last week, then we'll do the drills."

As we did the warm-ups, I could hear someone being unnecessarily noisy.

"Umph, hmph, hmph," Eidis was grunting as she did the exercise. I couldn't tell if her intention was to impress Sylvia with her really intense jumping jacks or just make everyone else cringe at how hard she was trying already.

Sylvia didn't seem too interested though, her eyes were on me. And her stare was seething.

I tried to ignore her angry stare and thankfully survived the warm ups without a word from her. The drills were the usual, just as we did last time.

I switched partners between Dilja and Asael so that I wouldn't have to hold back too much as I did for the other girls.

After most of the students were exhausted and resting during the water break, Delta Osvald called us to stand in our rows again for hand-to-hand combat.

"Put your best fighter against Eidis," I heard Sylvia tell the Delta. "She's training for Luna now."

I could suddenly feel many stares on me from all around the training field. Although Valente and I had never been close, nor did he show me any affection in public, many here still had an idea that we were involved in some way.

Was it really that obvious?

"You stare at each other all the time. What do you think?" said Imadis.

Even Eidis turned around to see what my reaction would be, but her curiosity quickly turned to disappointment at my complete indifference.

This wasn't news to me.

I could tell the sound of Eidis being their Luna brought out scowls on many faces as well. She walked in front of the first row, her head held high in haughtiness, before the Delta and Sylvia, awaiting her fighting partner.

Delta Osvald didn't even take a look around the class before settling his sharp gaze on me, and beckoning me with a nod of his head.

"Come on Rayne."