Luna's Sokjan (Book one) (14 page)

I walked quickly down the
hallway and broke out in a run at the top of the stairs. I took
people by surprise at the bottom of the stairs when I suddenly
appeared and then disappeared out the door. I stopped just short of
the small group. I did this for two reasons: one, to give myself a
chance to catch my breath and second to control my
anger.

So when I started
strolling towards the group I was in complete control. The teacher
backed handed my shewolf in the face and told her she was no good
for the second time. I watched as the girl hit the ground, and when
she looked up at me with tears in her large brown eyes, I was
done.

Strolling through the
group, I kept my eyes on the little shewolf. She instantly got to
her knees, kept her head down, and her eyes on the ground. The
teacher said something to me as I squatted down before my shewolf.
Reaching out a hand I lifted her face up. I kept my movements slow
so I wouldn’t scare the girl. I studied her. She had bruises on her
face and neck. A cut above her right eye was just starting to heal.
Her lip was bleeding from her most recent blow. She stared at me in
fear, and it made my stomach hurt. Meg’s large brown eyes flashed
before me, and I almost growled.

“Shh, little wolf. I will
not hurt you, and she won’t ever hurt you again,” I
promised.

‘She’ had moved up behind
me, not a smart place to be. I don’t like people standing behind
me.

“Alpha’s mate, we are
training here. I am trying to teach these dogs how to defend
themselves.” She told my back.

I peered over my shoulder
at her, and she took a step back.

Good, know that I am
something you should fear.

“Little wolf can I borrow
your hair band please?” I asked and glanced back at the
child.

Her eyes widened, but she
pulled the band from her hair, and handed it to me.

“Thanks.” I stood up
wrapping the band around my long white hair.

“I understand what you are
doing here, teacher,” I said as I regarded her. “I just thought I
could help. It’s been a while since I last practiced and I thought
you might be able to teach me a thing or two.” Her expression
changed with that last bit, she didn’t look so afraid
now.

Yes, that’s right. You can
hurt me all you want to and no one will get mad at you. We were
just practicing. Alpha, it’s not my fault that your mate can’t
fight.

I knew her type I had seen
enough of them while I was growing up. Spotting a table of loaded
down with swords under the trees on the edge of the circle, I
walked over to it.

“You’re teaching them how
to use these?” I questioned her.

“Yes. I am teaching them
to fight in various fighting styles with and without weapons.” She
replied. “I am sure that the Alpha wouldn’t want you getting hurt,
mate. Why don’t we just try hand to hand for now, and then we can
try swords another time?” She actually pushed her power at
me.

I laughed out loud at her
weak attempt to control me.

“You’re probably right.
Hand to hand might be better.” I agreed and picked up sword after
sword looking for a well, balanced one. “But I want to practice
with swords, and I know ‘the Alpha’ wouldn’t mind knowing that I
was under your guiding hand. Would he, teacher?” I asked, finding
my sword at last.

I moved away from the
table with the sword in my left hand and took a couple of practice
swings.

“I really think we could
learn a lot from each other and don’t worry about Gabriel. He won’t
get mad if one of us gets hurt.” I grinned at her, and she gave a
short snorted laugh.

“Well, as long as you make
sure he understands that this was your idea.” She said walking over
to the edge of the circle.

She picked up her sword
from the base of a tree and moved to the center of the circle,
swinging her sword a couple of times.

“Oh, I’ll make very sure
he understands,” I assured her, stalking forward.

She didn’t wait for me to
get into position before she attacked. I had just enough time to
evade the attack and dance away in retreat. She advanced, striking
as she moved in a downward slice. I parried, letting her drive me
backwards. I moved to her side telegraphing my attack, and if she
hadn’t parried or moved. I would have cut her leg. She was grinning
now, almost laughing.

That’s right. I am no
match for you. You are a master swordsman, woman, master
swordswoman.

This was a warm up for me.
I danced away from her, making her think she was faster than me. I
reading her body language she couldn’t keep this up for much
longer. When she raised her hand, to stop the sword play, I noticed
she was breathing deeply, she was getting tired.

Don’t play with grownups
much do you dearie?

“That was nice, you’re
good.” I said bending over and resting my hands on my knees acting
like I couldn’t catch my breath and she laughed.

“Thank you, if you keep
coming back you will learn a lot more.” The confidence I heard made
me look at her.

The superior look on her
face and the dominate pose she held over me was her
undoing.

“I don’t think so,” I said
straightening up to my full height, which allowed me to tower over
her.

Height can be an advantage
or a disadvantage, depending on how you’re taught to deal with it.
I knew people half my height, who could take me down in a fair
fight, but I usually didn’t fight fair. I fought to win.

“I am used to a lot more
challenge, but this has been a good warm-up.” I cracked my neck,
rolled my shoulders, and began swinging my arms.

“Why don’t we do this for
real this time?” I said mockingly to her and switched the sword to
my right hand.

Her smile fell from her
face and was replaced with a hateful look of murder.

Yes, that’s right I’m not
left handed. Ha, ha, I’m actually right handed, maybe.

I could feel her anger
pouring off of her, and I welcomed it. Smiling, at her, I moved
forward keeping my sword down by my side. She attacked with a wide
swing of her sword. She was quicker now, but so was I. Moving my
sword up to meet her attack, I held the connection with sheer force
and stepped into her face.

“You really shouldn’t let
people goad you into making mistakes,” I told her quietly. “And you
shouldn’t be teaching young wolves how to fight, when you don't
have the talent or patience for the task.”

I pushed her away from me,
and she stumbled backwards. I advanced. She could barely keep up
with my strikes, and I gave her no time to do more than react to
me. I pushed her as hard as Angus had pushed me when I was training
with him. I danced away from her weak attacks only to meet her with
my more forceful ones. Our blades clanged in the afternoon air
drowning out any other sound from us.

I could smell her tiring
and pushed her even harder. I kept up my easy dance going. Moving
away from her when she made mistakes giving her time to recover,
drawing out our little game. I had learned this from Angus, keep
your opponent on the defensive, and they will tire out faster, so I
did. When I felt she had enough. I slammed my fist in to her face,
knocked the sword from her hand and swept her legs out from under
her. She fell like a tree in the forest, and before the dust could
settle around her, I landed on top of her. My blade was at her
throat, and my face in hers.

“You will no longer train
the children to fight,” I growled at her. “I will see to that.
Surely you realized I could have ended this little game a while
ago, but this is a lesson. If I see you mistreat my young wolves
again, I‘ll kill you,” I promised her.

My warning was real, and
she could taste the truth in my words. I moved off of her and
looking at no one. I replaced the sword back on the table. During
our practice fight, we attracted a large crowd. I could hear them
whispering about what they had just seen.

I motioned the young
shewolf to me. “Your name is Jennifer?” I asked her.

“Yes, Alpha’s mate.” She
looked at the ground.

She had fully healed
during the fight.

“When I have finished my
business at hand and have the time. I will teach you and your
friends what I know. If you want to learn, of course,” I took in
her shocked expression and then her little smile. “If you and your
friends have no other lunch plans for this afternoon, you could
join me.”

I felt Gabriel’s gaze on
my back and glanced up at him. He gazed down at me from his large
office window with his arms crossed over his chest, and he didn’t
look happy. Angus stood next to him grinning at me. I watched him
slap Gabriel on the back and say something before he walked
away.

Oh well, I guess we’ll
have some more things to talk about. I sighed and looked
away.

“Come,” I said to the
small group and led them to the kitchen.

I was cooking grilled
cheese sandwiches and listening to the group talk over each other
as they told me all about what they did know. Why, because I made
the mistake of asking them. I glanced up from the stove to see why
the kids had grown suddenly quiet.

“I’ll have one of those,”
Gabriel said peering over my shoulder.

I tilted my head to the
side until our eyes met. He was still angry, but not as much. I
nodded. I still hadn't fixed one for myself, what was one more? Not
that I am complaining. I didn’t mind feeding the kids, they were
highly entertaining.

“What did Angus tell you?”
I asked flipping the sandwich over.

“That sometimes you see
things that other people miss. I didn’t know that Mary was
mistreating these kids. She always acted as if she enjoyed working
with them.” He rested a hand on my waist and kissed my forehead.
“And no, she can’t have an accident later. Yes, that was something
else Angus told me. People who piss you off often have
unexplainable accidents.”

I snorted, unexplainable
accidents. That was a good one. I could always explain an accident,
and yes, I would kill her if she touched my puppies again, even if
Gabriel didn’t understand. With a smirk, I put two new sandwiches
in the pan. Gabriel went to join the kids at the table.

“How long has Mary been
training you as a group?” He asked.

“About six months. Estella
was teaching us before her.” Ben, the oldest member of the group,
said looking at the table top, and the others nodded in
agreement.

Slowly the group began to
tell him what Mary had taught them or rather what she had left
out.

“Where are your parents?”
I asked as I set a plate down in front of Gabriel and sat down
beside him.

He picked up one of the
four cheese sandwiches.

“At home or at work,” Ben
said. “We usually spend the morning training with Mary and then we
go playing around the woods or watch the other group’s train.” He
admitted, his face turn red.

So that is why they were
out in the woods the other night. Practicing what they had seen the
other groups doing.

“Ya know Angus is a good
teacher, and he doesn’t have that much to do right now. If, you
were to ask him I think he might be willing to help out,” I pointed
out to Gabriel as he finished eating the last sandwich.

He nodded.

“I’ll get in touch with
your parents later today and let them know what has happened.” He
told the group.

With huge grins, the kids
left the kitchen and I started cleaning up the mess. Should have
made the kids do it, I hated cleaning kitchens.

“You are surprising.” He
said touching my hair, after he helped me load the
dishwasher.

“Really, I don’t think
so.” I started washing the frying pan.

“You have a good heart.”
He told me.

I didn’t say anything as I
worked. When I was finished drying the pan, I turned to face
Gabriel leaning back against the sink drying my hands with a
towel.

“No, Gabriel I don’t. I’m
a mean, cold hearted bitch, and if left up to my own devices. I
would have killed Mary, and wouldn’t have given it another thought,
but I didn’t want the kids to get the wrong impression. I wanted to
show them what a real fighter looks like.” I took a breath. I
genuinely liked those kids. Not that I would admit that to Gabriel.
“This is no bleeding heart cause, Gabriel. I have seen what that
kind of treatment can cause. I couldn’t let it happen to those
kids, not when I could have stopped it. What I did was give those
kids a fighting chance nothing more. The kind of training Angus and
I offer them will be difficult, and more painful than anything that
she could offer them. When we are done with them, they will be able
to defend themselves, and protect their loved ones.” I began my
little speech staring at his chest. I glanced up and met his eyes,
“Can we go to the last murder scene now?” I asked, “Please?” I
amended.

The smile he gave me was
gentle as his kiss, “Yes, I believe we can work something
out.”

Great! He didn’t believe
me, dumb-ass.