10/10/2017

Kristin had spent the last twenty minutes meeting everyone at the fighter's training field. She was surprised at how nice everyone was to her, making this easier than she thought it'd be.

"It's nice to meet you, Luna," another person squeezed through the crowd to shake her hand. Kristin noticed he was both younger and smaller than the rest of the fighters.

"It's nice to meet you too, um..." Kristin returned his smile.

"Trevor," he finished for her, smiling even wider.

Kristin nodded at him and felt a hand touch the small of her back. She almost jumped, but somehow realized it was Ryder, even before she turned to look at him.

"I'm going to go talk to Liam," he told her, nodding back at the building, where Liam was standing.

"Okay," she replied, deciding not to join him, mostly because Liam secretly intimidated her.

"Guys, let your girl through, will you?" Kristin heard a familiar voice in the crowd.

"Evelyn?" she asked, surprised. She had forgotten that she was actually a fighter in the pack as well.

Looking around, she realized Evelyn seemed to be the only female fighter also.

"Finally I get to see you!" Evelyn said dramatically as she shoved the nearest guy away from them.

"Hey, watch it!" he turned around, glaring at whoever the culprit was.

"Oh shut it, Rob," Evelyn waved him off, making him scowl, but walk away.

"I can't believe you put up with all of these guys," Kristin laughed.

"I can handle them," Evelyn shrugged, "I train half of them, so..."

She put her hands on her hips, smirking in their direction. Some of the guys were back to training, while the others still stood around and talked.

"That's so cool," Kristin shook her head. In times like these she wished she had a wolf so she had a chance to compete with everyone else. But alas, she was a fragile human.

"So, where's your second in command?" Evelyn glanced around.

"What?" Kristin asked, not knowing who she was referring to. The beta? She hadn't seen Jake since the first meeting.

"Ryder," she laughed in response to Kristin's confusion.

"Oh," Kristin grinned, once again thinking she needed to become friends with this girl, "He was talking with Liam over there... Oh I should go find him actually. We were supposed to have a meeting soon."

"Ah, about the rogue situation?" Evelyn lowered her voice although no one was paying attention to their conversation.

"You know about that?"

"I do now," she smiled.

"I overheard Liam talking to Ryder on the phone the other day," she explained to Kristin.

"Yeah, I should really find Ryder," Kristin said, now distracted with worry about the rogue situation.

"The Alpha? He left," someone said behind Kristin.

"What?" she turned around to see a guy looking at her.

"Yeah, he left about fifteen minutes ago?" he thought for a second, before nodding.

"You've got to be kidding me," Kristin huffed, "I knew something was up."

"What do you mean?" Evelyn asked.

"Ryder didn't want me to go to the meeting. He brought me here to distract me and go without me," she replied, her annoyance turning into anger.

"That's bullsh*t," Evelyn frowned, "Come on, let's go."

"Go where?" Kristin followed her through the field.

"To the meeting, of course. We're crashing."

"Really? You'll bring me there?" she smiled.

"Yes. You have to show him who's boss," Evelyn lead her directly to a car.

"Hey Ev, you're supposed to be training, remember?" a guy leaning against the building raised his brow at her.

Kristin hadn't even seen him until he spoke up. He looked quite intimidating in a black leather jacket, muscular arms crossed, and was much taller than them, even while leaning against the wall.

"I don't take orders from you, Jackson," Evelyn snapped.

He smirked at her, "It'd be a shame if someone told Liam you've ditched another training session."

"Says you! You miss way more than I do, so mind your own damn business."

Kristin watched the two go back and forth, wondering if this was what her and Ryder looked like when they were fighting.

It got to a point where Evelyn and Jackson just stared at each other, most likely moving their conversation to mind link.

After another minute Evelyn scoffed and turned to walk away. Kristin quickly followed her and got into the car.

"Sorry about that, Jackson's a d*ck," Evelyn rolled her eyes.

"Who is Jackson?" Kristin curiously asked.

"Just a fellow trainer like me," Evelyn shrugged, "Only he likes to get on my nerves. He knows Liam wants to put me on probation for missing trainings, so he's using that against me."

"You said he misses more than you? Shouldn't he be on probation?"

Evelyn laughed in reply, "He is."

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah, that's why he was up by the building, pouting."

Kristin chuckled, "Ah, I see."

"Anyways, lets get back to the important stuff. I can't believe Ryder snuck off to the meeting without you."

"I'd like to say I can't believe it either, but I knew something would come up where I couldn't go," Kristin thought her and Ryder were finally starting to understand each other. Apparently he thought it was okay to purposefully leave her out of the meeting.

She was upset because she really wanted to see what they were doing about the rogues and this was important to her.

Not only were Ryder and her in danger with Rickard's followers trespassing, but so was the entire pack. They needed to figure out something as soon as possible. She didn't want to ever have to witness anything as horrible as when she was in that cell.

"You okay?" she heard Evelyn's voice.

"Sorry— I'm just worried with the rogues and everything," she let out a breath, "I feel bad that I'm not at this meeting."

"It's not your fault, Kristin! Ryder might have wanted to keep you out of this to 'protect your innocence' or some other bullsh*t but he needs to realize you're his Luna and you have a duty to lead this pack with him."

"Wow, you should tell Ryder that."

"You should too," she nodded.

"You should be a Luna," Kristin added, thinking how Evelyn would fit the leadership role of the Luna.

Evelyn laughed, "You're funny Kristin. You make a ten times better Luna than I would."

"I doubt that."

"No, seriously. I get into too much trouble. I'm not really a good role model for people to look up to."

"I think you are," Kristin shrugged, making her laugh again.

"Thanks Kristin. This is why you're the best Luna. You're genuine and caring, yet I know you have a bad*ss side to you too," she grinned.

"Thanks," Kristin appreciated her reassurance.

"Anytime. Now here we are, time to go kick some a*ss."

"You're not coming with?" Kristin asked, as Evelyn kept the car in drive.

"Nah, I should actually go back to training so I don't get probation. Then I'd have to be around Jackson more than I can already tolerate."

"Okay, thanks for the ride," Kristin hopped out of the car, "And I know I'm not a part of the fighters, but I could get you out of probation, right?"

"Girl, you're the Alpha Female. Everyone has to obey your orders," Evelyn smiled, "See, you're getting the hang of this!"

After she waved goodbye and Evelyn drove away, Kristin walked through the main doors of the pack building, towards the stairs.

"Luna," the receptionist at the desk nodded in respect. This surprised Kristin since it was the same woman who had tried to convince her she couldn't go upstairs to see Ryder only weeks ago.

She nodded back, continuing to move in the direction of the room they had had the last meeting in.

Before giving herself time to think about what she was actually doing, Kristin opened the door, stepping into the room.

Everyone turned to see her, and they smiled and nodded, "Luna." Except for one person, who just stared at her from across the room, then he looked up to the ceiling, probably thinking a word with the letter F.

"Sorry I'm late, guys. I didn't realize I'd have to find my own ride here," she closed the door behind her, walking over to sit in the empty chair beside Ryder.

"How'd you get here," Ryder asked under his breath. It was no use since everyone was listening in anyway.

"In a car," Kristin curtly replied.

"I was going to come get you after—"

"After the meeting that I specifically told you I wanted to attend?" she raised a brow at him, daring him to make up an excuse.

He clenched his jaw, meeting her glare.

"So guys, I know you're having a little predicament, but can we continue with this meeting?" Jake spoke up, giving them a quirky smile.

"You're right, Jake. Let's continue the meeting," Kristin nodded eagerly, hiding a smirk when she saw Ryder's scowl.

It was silent for a minute and she noticed everyone's eyes had landed on Ryder.

"I don't know if you were aware, but I'm not a wolf. Therefore I can't hear what you're saying in your heads," she narrowed her eyes at Ryder.

"Okay, lets continue the meeting," Ryder said aloud, nodding.

Ten minutes later, Kristin's anger— recently turned to smugness— had turned back to anger when the meeting had ended. They had managed to 'continue' the meeting by updating everyone on the pack business, but somehow excluding any talk about the rogues.

They all had acted like everything was normal. Kristin knew it had been an order from Ryder for them to keep quiet about the rogues, which made her even angrier.

He didn't think she could handle dealing with the actual pack business going on. Even though this involved her and their pack, he didn't think it was important that the Luna attend the meeting. That made sense.

Once everyone made their way out of the meeting room, leaving Kristin and Ryder alone, it was silent.

Kristin got up, walking towards the door the guys had closed to give them 'privacy'.

"Kristin," Ryder called before she could leave.

She turned around, frowning.

He sighed, "I don't want you to have to worry about stuff, like rogues."

"I told you I wanted to go to the meeting. When something goes wrong, you try to hide it from me. You act like I can't handle things like this."

Ryder sighed, looking over at the window.

"So that's it?" Kristin raised her hands, "Are you planning on hiding everything from me, so I don't worry?"

"Kristin, you have panic attacks. Is it so wrong that I don't want you to worry?" He shook his head at her.

Even if Ryder had meant that differently, it hit Kristin like a blow. She took it as an insult. It was like she was being blamed for having panic attacks— which upset her, since she did blame herself everyday. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't fix herself and stop them.

She had thought she was getting better, but apparently Ryder didn't think so. Now she was back to the starting point, never able to reach the end of her panic.

After seeing the hurt in her eyes, Ryder quickly spoke up, "Kristin, don't—"

"You should probably find another Luna for the pack then," she tried making her voice sound angry but it was full of emotion.

She walked out of the room and kept walking down the hall, down the stairs, through the lobby, and then realized she had nowhere to go.

She didn't want to go back to Ryder's house, she just wanted to be alone.

Turning to the right, she mistakingly saw the door. The one that sometimes appeared in her nightmares.

Ryder wanted her to not panic all the time? She had no idea how to fix herself, but the words 'face your fears' went through her mind.

Before Ryder could come and stop her, she yanked open the heavy door and walked down towards the prison.

•. •. •. •. •.

Chapter Forty Four!

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