Chapter 55

He took a deep breath, clenching his jaw as he retracted his claws that had dented the table, "anything else?"

I get up from my sit and roll my eyes. I walk up to him and with a smile. I get each leg on each side, squeezing myself between him and the table, and I sit down on top of him engulfing him in a hug. His arms immediately pulled me against him, I couldn't even begin to imagine how that must feels for him. Alphas have a much higher sensitivity to anything that may take their mate away, or hurt them, or upset them. They were very jealous and overprotective. Hearing about me falling in love with someone else, being engaged to them and then being raped by another person, must be one of the worst things you could do to an Alpha.

"Don't worry, you're a far better kisser than him," I joke with a smile, trying to get up his spirits. It wasn't a lie, Arsen is a great kisser.

Arsen rolled his eyes, but I could feel him puff his chest out, making me laugh as I tapped his chest.

"Don't laugh at me!" He protested which only made me laugh harder.

"I love you," even he doesn't share his past with me, I love him to the moon and back.

He held me for a little while until his wolf had been soothed, "I love you too, Aelin."

He kissed me on my head and I reciprocated by kissing his jaw.

*

"Do you want to come see the kids with me? It was their first day of school here, it's pretty exciting," I try to persuade him, but I can already tell by his face that he won't.

"I'd love to, but I can't. We have to start thinking about the North's defense in the case of a Vampire attack," he explains and for the first time, he actually shows me a bit into what he's doing.

I can't help it, but smile ear-to-ear. He notices that I noticed and quickly kissed me on the lips, "you're the best... kisser." I wink cheekily at him.

Arsen shakes his head, "start walking," he orders.

I wink again as I turn around, he then taps my ass softly, but I act as if it hurt a lot, "ouch!" I put my hand on my buttock and start to limp. Every step I took followed by a: "aw!"

Arsen couldn't hold it in and started laughing at my absurdity, "you're going to be late," he informed me.

"This is all your fault," I joked, signalling at my 'broken' buttock.

He didn't answer, only raising up his eyebrow.

"Okay, okay... Bye, love ya!"

"Love you too, be careful they don't mistake you with a kid with that mature humor of yours," he answers.

"If I don't make it to the training, you know where I am!" I reply.

*

I ended up making it early at school, so none of the parents were there. I sat on a bench, waiting when a mom arrived.

"Oh, my! You're Luna Aelin, right?" The mom quickly noticed excitedly.

I laughed awkwardly, unprepared for this type of interaction, "yes, a pleasure to meet you; but, please call me Aelin. What's your name?"

"Alicia," she replied, "I wasn't expecting to find the Luna waiting for her kids at school this early!" She joked, hiding a question behind her comment.

"Luckily and unluckily, they aren't my kids, even though I call them mine," I claim myself guilty of it, Alicia seemed to find my comment very relatable as her smile grew even wider. "I used to take care of the orphans in Kylain. Arsen allowed me to take them here with me, now they have their own parents, but the bond is still there, so I wanted to check out on them after staying one day at their new parents house and at the new school."

She nodded, seeming to like my answer, "well, if you ever want to help out, a few other moms and I organise field trips, cook goodies for the pups' birthdays, we would love to have the Luna helping us too," she proposed, "an extra pair of helping hands are always welcomed."

"I'd love to help out!"

*

After talking with Alice and meeting a few other moms, Anya and Olander made it and I went to talk to them. They walked me through how these past 24 hours had been, it sounded amazing. Even when they admitted to mistakes, they were so stupid and almost cute, they were victim to their own excitement as so were the kids. They informed me that they would wait on a bench to give me and the kids some privacy.

The kids then came out of school rushing to meet their parents, mine came out too rushing around looking for their parents when they saw me instead, "Aelin!" They shouted excited.

They dropped everything that they had in their hands as they jumped into my arms. They told me about everything that had happened in school and all the friends they made, I even got to meet some of them. Nova was already waving at every kid in her class as she had befriended all of them, Lotte on the other hand had met a girl that she seemed to connect great with. Sage and Cain had made multiple friends too, forming friendships through playing sports and training.

I asked them about their new parents, wanting to know if their stories aligned and if they were comfortable with them. I couldn't be happier as they told me how happy they were with their new family, each one of them seemed to mention a thousand reasons why they were having a blast with them. It was then when I decided to go back to their parents, hand them their kids back and say my goodbyes.

*

I arrived to training. I was in a special class for warriors that had been injured as they would meet better my level of fitness. When Arsen first informed of this, I won't lie, I was quite displeased and felt insulted, but he quickly made me understand how it would only be for warming up as I get used to managing my wolf's assistance while exercising.

Lia was my personal trainer as she had to teach me *everything*, we started on basics. Starting where we left off in Kylain, but this time perfectioning everything much more and going into much more detail. What I found out from that whole experience was easy, the Northerners were a different breed and tomorrow I would not be able to walk. I was going to be so stiff, but tomorrow I also had another training session, and the day after that.

*

Lia walked me to the she-wolf that would help me with my werewolf stuff. Lia explained to me on the way there that this she-wolf was half wolf, half witch, so at times she may do or say things that were slightly weird. Lia didn't seem to be a fan of witches as she stopped walking around 5 meters away from the house, her skin went pale and she rushed me to get inside so that she could leave.

I did as instructed and I knocked, the door opened by itself and I walked in, "hello?"