Chapter 80: The Four Beside Me

The Advanced Training students gathered on the main field in the cool gray of early morning, and the instructor stood in front of them with his hands clasped behind his back. He announced that the cancelled Lunar Trial simulation had been replaced with a controlled final assessment. This time, students could choose their own four-person support formation. Roxanne thought at once of Isla, Tessa, and Elias, and she was already reaching for the sign-up sheet when the instructor lifted a hand. "One member of your formation must be another Advanced Training student outside your usual circle," he said. The rule stopped her from simply filling her list with the four Moonstones, and she suspected that was exactly why he had added it.

She took a long moment before she wrote anything down. Elias went first, for his tracking and his ability to adapt to anything the course threw at him. Tessa was next for combat, and Isla for healing and support, since she stayed calm under pressure and knew every trick for keeping an injured person alive. For the fourth name she wrote Kai, and she handed the sheet over before she could second-guess herself.

Liam saw the list when it was posted and clutched his chest with both hands. "You picked Kai?" he demanded. Roxanne shrugged. "He keeps up," she said. Kai gave Liam a level look across the field. "You weren’t available," he said. Liam gasped as though he had been stabbed. "Betrayal," he announced to the whole field, and the mood stayed playful, since everyone could see he didn’t mean a word of it.

The assessment took place in a large training environment designed to resemble wilderness terrain, with ridges, streams, and dense stands of pine built into the academy grounds. Each formation had to track a moving scent, cross a series of obstacles, protect a simulated injured student, solve a pack-strategy problem, and reach the final marker together. Roxanne took the lead almost without deciding to, but she didn’t try to do everything herself. She looked at each of them in turn and gave clear, short orders. "Tessa, left side," she said. "Elias, find the route. Isla, stay with the injured student." Then she turned to Kai. "With me," she said, and he simply nodded and fell into step beside her. She noticed how much she had grown as a leader, and how little effort it took now to trust people to do what she asked.

The first serious obstacle was a sheer rock wall with a rope hanging from the top, and someone had to cross the gap first and secure the line for the others. Kai stepped forward at once. Roxanne shook her head. "I’ll go," she said. "It’s higher than the last one," he said. "I know," she said. He studied her for a moment, and she watched him weigh the choice. Then he took up the other end of the rope and braced his feet. "I’ll hold it," he said. There was no argument and no attempt to protect her from the challenge, only trust. Roxanne climbed and crossed with her breath held, and when she reached the far side she secured the rope and called for the others to follow.

Near the end of the course, the trap the instructors had built finally closed. Elias stepped onto a plate hidden beneath the pine needles, and a cage of rope and wood dropped around his legs and dragged him to the ground. The mechanism was designed to separate the team, and the fastest solution was to leave him there temporarily and finish the course. Roxanne refused at once, but she didn’t simply give up their score. She called everyone in. "Tessa, take the release lever," she said. "Isla, watch his legs. Kai, I need your strength on the beam." Then she crouched beside Elias. "You know how this works," she said. "Tell us."

Elias studied the mechanism and told them where the pin was hidden, and they worked as one. Tessa used her combat strength to hold the lever, Isla steadied Elias’s injured ankle, and Kai heaved the beam upward while Roxanne pulled the ropes clear. The cage fell open, and Elias rolled out laughing and rubbing his shin. The instructor watched from a ridge above without intervening, and Roxanne understood the lesson clearly. Leadership wasn’t about carrying everyone. It was about knowing what each person could give.

They crossed the final marker together, all five of them with a hand on it, and the horn sounded from the ridge. Roxanne let out a breath she felt she had been holding since the morning, and Tessa whooped loud enough to startle a flock of birds out of the pines. Afterward, the four brothers were waiting for her outside the training environment, and Lucien spoke first. "You led well," he said. "You didn’t try to control everyone," Roshan added. Liam grinned and threw an arm across Jace’s shoulders. "And nobody died," he said. "Excellent day." Kai stood a little apart with his hands in his pockets. "You trusted your team," he said quietly.

Roxanne looked at all four of them. "You sound like proud parents," she said. Liam lifted his chin. "I accept the title," he said, and everyone laughed, even Lucien.

The instructor gathered the students before they could disperse and finally made the official announcement. The Lunar Trials would begin in seven days. Students would travel to an off-campus territory, where multiple elite packs would participate. The trials would include wilderness survival, combat, tracking, wolf control, team challenges, and individual evaluations, and there would be no normal academy classes during the trial period. The students erupted with excitement, cheering and pounding each other on the back.

That evening Roxanne stood outside the academy with Isla and the four brothers, watching the lamps come on across the campus. The place looked different than it once had. When she first arrived, it had been somewhere she had to survive. Now she had people waiting for her here. Liam threw an arm around Jace and announced that their team would dominate, Roshan was already studying a copy of the trial map with a pencil behind his ear, and Lucien was making a list of supplies on the back of his hand, muttering about water and rope and spare boots.

Kai stood beside Roxanne and looked toward the distant mountains where the trials would take place. "Seven days," he said. Roxanne smiled. "Then we have seven days to prepare," she said. Kai turned to look at her. "Are we doing that together?" he asked. She looked at the four brothers, then at Isla, and at Tessa and Elias walking across the grass toward them. "Together," she said, and the whole group turned back toward the academy as one.