Roxy didn’t let her finish. She gave Celeste a sharp shove to the shoulder, not enough to knock her down but enough to make her stumble half a step. “You wanna talk about dead weight? Look in a mirror, bitch.”
Gasps rippled through the onlookers. Even I froze, caught between shock and a sudden, fierce swell of gratitude.
Roxy-snarky and reckless and hot-headed-was defending me. If I looked outside, I was sure I would see pigs flying.
Celeste’s hand flew to her shoulder, eyes flashing with outrage. “You-“
“That’s enough.”
The voice was calm and measured, yet it rang through the courtyard like a gong.
A tall woman stepped forward from behind Celeste. Bronze skin slick with sweat, dark hair shorn to her scalp and crusted with grit, eyes keen as silver daggers. She exuded authority-the kind born not of bloodlines but of battle.
“Elara,” Celeste hissed, scandalized. “She just assaulted me.” She stabbed a finger at Roxy. “You’re just going to let her-“
“Considering you provoked it?” Elara arched a brow, a piercing glinting in the late sunlight. “Yes. I’ll allow it.”
The corners of my vision blurred as recognition hit me.
“Elara?” My voice came out softer than I meant, disbelieving. Awed.
Her gaze flicked to me-and softened. “Hi, Sera.”
I let out a disbelieving laugh.
Elara’s father had been my father’s Gamma. She’d been among the very, very few pack members who hadn’t shown me cruelty or treated me like I was a walking pile of steaming feces.
We weren’t exactly friends, but her presence had never made me want to cower in my skin.
I had only a handful of good memories from my Frostbane days, and Elara was in many of them. A kind smile in a sea of cruel faces. An outstretched hand after I had been kicked into the dirt. A slice of pie waiting outside my door the morning after I’d locked myself in my room to cry. A foot stuck out to trip the assholes who thought it fun to chase the wolfless outcast.
But then she’d enrolled in the warrior academy just before the Blood Moon Hunt. And of course, shortly after that disastrous night. I married Kieran and left my pack.
“You-” I swallowed, words tangling in my throat. “You’re…”
“Ethan’s Gamma now,” Elara said simply, pride glowing in her voice. “Appointed last spring.”
Celeste was still standing inches away, bristling with indignation. But that didn’t stop the smile that spread across my face. “Elara, that’s incredible! Congratulations!”
Her grin matched mine. “And look at you. Leading a team through the LST? I was watching the rebroadcast of your team’s progress. Outstanding, Sera.”
Never one to be shoved aside, Celeste cut in, acid dripping from her words as she sneered. “Oh, what a touching reunion. Shall we all sit in a circle and braid each other’s hair next?” Her eyes narrowed at Elara. “Don’t forget, Elara-we’re rivals now.”
Elara didn’t even look at her. “It isn’t challenge time,” she said coolly. “And if I recall, the only one stirring conflict here is you. Do you know how annoying it is that a member of my team is too busy trash-talking to be present for debrief?”
Celeste sputtered. “I was-“
“You were provoking other teams, which is against regulations.” Elara’s tone sharpened. “We would have made better time, our overall scores would be better, if you spent half as much energy pulling your weight instead of posturing like a fucking peacock.”
Celeste’s face went rigid, her practiced composure cracking. “You-how dare you speak to me like that?”
“Easily,” Elara said almost boredly.
Celeste bared her teeth. I wonder if she knew how truly ugly she looked when she got like this. “You’ve forgotten that I’m your Alpha’s sister,” she spat. “And the future Luna of Nightfang pack.”
I refused to acknowledge the tiny jolt the last part of her sentence sent through me.
Elara wasn’t fazed in the slightest. “I’m only going to say this once, Celeste, so listen well. Here, your princess status means absolutely nothing.”
She took a step forward till her scruffy boots touched Celeste’s pristine ones. Celeste had to crane her head back to meet Elara’s eyes. “I am the leader of the Frostbane team,” Elara continued, “and therefore, I am your superior. Put your stupid fucking ego aside and try not to drag us down any further. Got it?”
The courtyard went still. Even the murmuring spectators hushed, straining to catch every word.
For once, Celeste didn’t have a ready retort. Her mouth opened, closed, opened again-but no sound came out. Her cheeks burned crimson, eyes glittering with humiliation.
Elara arched a brow. “Now, would you like to continue embarrassing your pack or do you want to focus on the final challenge?”
Silence stretched like a rubber band bound to snap at any moment.
Then Celeste spun on her heels, hair swinging behind her as she stalked back toward her waiting teammates.
Only when she was gone did Elara exhale, rolling her shoulders as though shaking off the weight of Celeste’s tantrum.
She turned back to me and smirked. “On a scale of one to ten, how likely am I to be gifted a knife in my back?”
I laughed, a little breathless. “Eleven. But she’s so braggadocios, she’d probably announce her attack to the world before she actually tried it.”
Elara laughed. “I have to get back to my team before one of them loses their last shred of patience and strangles her.”
I nodded. “It was so good to see you, Elara.”
She winked as she began to back away. “We should catch up properly once this whole circus is over. Drinks are on me.”
I smiled. “I’d like that.”
SERAPHINA’S POV
The debrief felt longer than the time in the Resonant Labyrinth itself.
We were herded into one of the OTS conference rooms, still carrying dust in our hair and bruises on our bodies.
The adrenaline that had carried us through the Labyrinth had long since burned out, leaving only raw weariness behind.
An instructor droned on about “strengths displayed” and “areas for improvement,” but all I could focus on was the ache in my legs and the image of the warm bath I would draw when I got home.
Judy kept yawning into her sleeve, swaying like she was about to faceplant onto the desk.
Roxy fidgeted through the entire thing, tapping her nails against the table until the instructor snapped at her-and she nearly bit his head off.
Finn, the model student, nodded solemnly at every comment like he was filing it all away for future examinations.
Talia sat quietly, though her hands were still trembling faintly; I suspected that no matter how much time had passed, she was still reeling from the shocking show of power she’d exhibited in the Labyrinth, unable to let the adrenaline go.
When we were finally dismissed, we spilled into the night air like prisoners set free.
“Never again,” Roxy groaned, throwing her head back. “Never again am I sitting through a lecture about ‘team cohesion.’ I’d rather drown in a swamp in the Misty Woods.”
Judy snorted. “That’s funny coming from you, considering you nearly turned us all into pincushions.”
“Hey!” Roxy snapped, though there was no bite behind it. “I was stress-testing the traps.”
“You definitely stress-tested my spleen,” Finn muttered.
Despite my exhaustion, I found myself smiling,
The bickering didn’t feel sharp anymore-it was the easy kind. The tension from before had melted away, replaced by banter born from surviving something together.
Relief eased my shoulders; this shift in our dynamic was welcome, almost…precious.
Unfortunately, I was two seconds away from passing out to fully appreciate it.
“Alright,” I said, clapping my hands together lightly. “That’s enough excitement for one day. Go home, sleep, let you bones remember what it feels like not to move.”
“Now that,” Roxy said, stretching like a cat out in the sun, “is an instruction I have absolutely no problem following”
I laughed softly as Judy snorted.
But then Finn surprised me. “Wait-before we all go home-uhm..” His cars turned red as we all blinked at him. “We should make a group chat. Just to…you know. Coordinate. Share strategies. Or…memes?”
“Memes?” Roxy echoed, looking at him like he’d just grown another head.
His blush deepened, and I had the ridiculous urge to squeeze his cheeks. “I just thought it’d be…nice.”
I fully expected Roxy to shut him down. I could almost hear her readying some cutting remark about wasting time on stupid social crap.
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