Over the next few days, Alex filled her time with attending training, continuing to offer her assistance to Kit, much to his annoyance and sparring with her new found partner Marcus. He was an excellent fighter, both in wolf and human form and she was delighted to be keeping her skills at their optimum position.

She also began meeting with some of the community leaders; the school principals, the hospital director, the pack house Manager as well as some of the leads who were in charge of things like evacuation plans and town planning. Anyone who could have any influence over the pack. She gave everyone the same brief. She was interested in assisting the community in better protecting itself and in providing the training that could do this. She met consistent challenges from everyone she spoke to which centred around there never having been any issues before this so why did they need to make any changes. Again and again, Alex answered this the best way she knew how. With her life experience as well as her role as Gamma. 'My mother didn't expect to die protecting the children at her school but if she hadn't been trained to fight, rogues would have had the opportunity to murder some of the youngest children in our pack. She fought so they could escape. I believe there is no higher purpose than that,' she had repeated this story so frequently now because it so perfectly incapsulated why every person in a pack should not only be trained to fight but should also want to be trained to fight.

Each person she spoke to was polite and smiled courteously but Alex could hear the reservations in their voices, their denial that there was even an issue to be resolved. She continued undeterred, adamant that she could get the community on her side. She told them that she would be organising defence training for groups of all ages and they all agreed to advertise the training, a little unenthusiastically. The only real headway that she felt she made was with the school principals who felt that there may be no harm in some self defence training options in lieu of some of the sports classes each week. They couldn't guarantee the uptake but would run something by the parents. Everyone ended the conversation with Alex by saying that they would need sign off from the Alpha before they could commit to anything definitive. Although this enraged every cell of her body, Alex smiled sweetly, assuring them that he would lend his support.

Aidan was so busy these days that they had barely crossed paths. Alex would often go to bed without him, feel him join her late into the night and then leave early in the morning. She missed him but she was keeping herself busy with planning for the training sessions she wanted to provide to the pack. It was exciting to be getting things underway, even though there were clearly reservations from many of the pack members. Alex knew she was stubborn enough to keep going. Less so than Kit who, despite her respectful approaches each day, was still adamantly dismissing her offers of assistance in training.

Meanwhile, Aidan had never been more busy. The central source of income for Lunar Ridge was investment in technology, oil and property. Aidan had studied stock investment in university and had used this knowledge to change the pack's financial dependencies over the years. Aidan's father had haemorrhaged money from the pack accounts on fraudulent investments in phantom or fake businesses set up by him and his cronies, making them all very rich while the pack couldn't afford to build new classrooms or extend the hospital. Aidan had put a stop to all of this. He had hired a Business Manager who he trusted fully and a team to maintain the logistical day to day work involved so he could step back from it. But that didn't stop work coming his way when decisions had to be made about maturing investments or changing direction on the next big investment, not to mention making plans on where next to spend money in the pack. He probably didn't need to be so central in these processes but he had gotten so used to doing all the work after taking over the pack that it was difficult now to think about letting go of the reins. But he did want to make more time to spend with Alex so now, more than ever before, he wanted to free up his days and let someone else make some of the decisions. Plus he hadn't even taken the time to get her to take the blood oath, establishing her as a pack member and allowing her to mind link anyone in Lunar Ridge. He had assumed that they would have mated by now and this would all happen more naturally but they hadn't quite gotten to that point yet. It was frustrating, physically and mentally.

There was also an undercurrent of dissatisfaction being brought to his attention. The new Luna was taking meetings with many of the pack members, trying to convince everyone of the importance of warrior training for all, including the pack children. Although Aidan could see her point of view and that some of her points were valid, he was becoming more angry by the day with the upset her conversations were having and with the attention she was bringing to herself so soon. Add to that, the visits twice a day from Kit, who was fuming about Alex's consistent presence in the warrior training. Aidan shuddered thinking about the times over the last eight years where an uprising seemed imminent. At the peak, there had been plots by pack members, long banished now, to kill him over the changes he was making. Marcus and Kit had received their own death threats; threats against them and their families for their unwavering loyalty to Aidan. He didn't want anything similar to ever happen again. And he had even more to lose now that he had found his mate. It was terrifying to be so consumed by love for someone that the fear of losing them felt so paralysing. He would have to speak to Alex and get her to back down.

Meanwhile Alex had just taken a well timed kick to the face from Marcus. She hit the ground hard but recovered quickly, standing to face him again, her cheek stinging from the impact of Marcus' boot. They were circling each other in a corner of the empty training grounds. Kit had taken the warriors into the forest for some sort of training exercise and, after being rebuffed again on her offer of assistance, she had asked Marcus if he time for a sparring session. He had some great techniques and defence moves. It felt like when she would fight Ronan, Robbie or Theo back home. She was never assured a win with any of them which kept her humble and her attitude open to learning something new from every fight.

After landing a few more kicks and punches on each other, Marcus was mind linked by one of the patrols. 'Same time tomorrow?' he asked as he pulled her into a one-arm hug. 'And my sisters are eager to be your first victims. I mean, trainees,' they both laughed. 'So let me know whenever you're starting training and they'll come along. Mom too if she's not gardening that day,' Marcus winked at her.

'Thanks Marcus,' Alex said. 'I appreciate the support. I'm not sure the rest of the pack is ready for me and my ideas.'

Kit and the warriors entered the training grounds just as she spoke.

'Speak of the devil,' she gestured towards Kit, shaking her head in annoyance.

'Patience, Luna,' Marcus advised sagely, shoving her gently before starting to run towards the forest.

Alex took a deep breath, pitched a polite smile on her face and headed over to have, what she assumed would be another fruitless and irritating conversation with the Gamma.