‘Skylar you are formally invited to the Alpha King’s Annual Elder’s Conference and Ball as Prince Alexander’s escort. A car will pick you up promptly a seven in the morning to bring you to the royal packhouse to begin preparations for the day. You will be excused from training Saturday and Sunday as the ball will run late and your presence is needed for the full duration. I look forward to seeing you for your dress fitting this Saturday. I hope all is going well with your training and you are settling into our pack. I look forward to catching up with you.
Luna Anne.’
I read through the letter and then read it out to my friends.
“What does she mean by catching up with you?” Audrina snarks over my shoulder and I jump a little. I didn’t even notice her coming up behind me.
“Is that really any of your business?” Lillian asks and I raise my eyebrows at her. That was either a really brave question or really stupid. “It is if one of my team members is going to be missing training.”
“Missing training has nothing to do with Skylar catching up with the Luna Queen. You were obviously eavesdropping enough to hear that the Luna Queen has invited Skylar to the Royal packhouse this Saturday and next so she will be missing training. That’s really all the information you need, isn’t it?” Lillian is playing with fire, but she’s not wrong.
Audrina looks at Lillian for a brief second and clearly makes a decision. “If Skylar is going to be a part of my team, she needs to be present for all of the required training. I am already forced to put up with her frequent absences since she hasn’t had the capacity to even finish school yet.”
“Are you serious? She’s ahead by two years and probably smarter than the rest of us combined…” Wyatt adds in.
“Let’s not get carried away. Audrina, the Luna Queen has requested my presence, there’s not really anything you or I can do about that, is there?” “What does she mean you’ll be Prince Alexander’s escort?” I think she’s whining now.
“I’m pretty sure that part is the most self-explanatory.” Nathaniel responds.
I cut them off with my hand as all my friends seem to want to keep stepping in to defend me. They won’t always be there to buffer the animosity she seems to radiate around me.
“Prince Xander and I are friends and she clearly wants me at this event. Since he hasn’t found his mate yet he is vulnerable to all of the social climbing people in attendance. By having an escort it allows him a level of protection from them and anyone else who may want to cause trouble or harm. The protection becomes two fold since I am also a warrior.”
“You aren’t an Elite Warrior yet, don’t get ahead of yourself.”
“I didn’t say ‘elite warrior’ just warrior, which I am and plenty of people here can attest to that. Having a warrior assigned as his escort allows other warriors to focus on the King and Queen’s protection if they aren’t in the same social groups all evening. It’s a strategic move and less conspicuous having someone closer to his age attend with him than having a guard flanking him all night.”
“I still want to know what you did to get all of this special treatment from everyone.”
“It’s not special treatment. I worked my ass off to get here just like everyone else. My circumstances are not normal, but if it was necessary for you to know more than you do, Warrior Osiston would have given it to you. Like he said yesterday, at any given time a third of us have orders that may conflict with what the group is doing. Do you trust him?
“Of course I do, he is my mentor. Warrior Brogen saved me after my pack was attacked and brought me here. What I want to know is how you got him to tell you his first name and let you use it? How did you become friends with the Alpha Prince so quickly? You talk about social climbing people wanting to get to him. How do we know you’re not one of those people?”
