Regretted Rejection : Wrath of the Moon
Chapter 3

The sunlight was streaming through her window and warming her up. Maya knew that she shouldget up but she didn't want to. She turned in her sleep to avoid the sunlight falling on her face."MAYA..." Ken screamed. He threw her door open and stomped to her bed. "Wake up sleepyhead,we have the pack test today.”

Maya simply moaned and turned away. "So you don't want to meet your mate today?" Ken askedwith a hint of amusement in his voice. At the word mate, Maya jumped awake. She glared at herbrother who walked out of her room laughing to himself.

She then dressed up hurriedly and came down to see her family eating breakfast. As she walkeddown the stairs, her brother Ken looked at her with his eyes full of teasing and amusement.

"What is the matter guys?", their father Justin asked. Even though he was technically retired fromAlpha duties, nothing ever escaped his attention especially when it came to his children. He hadnoticed Maya's wolf on edge today and Ken's amused glance at her as well, he had noticed thatMaya had put on her t-shirt inside out; something that Maya never did knowingly as she was thepseudo Luna of her pack and it meant that she should always be presentable in front of the pack.

"I found my mate yesterday.” Maya whispered shyly while sitting down to her breakfast. Maya'smom was offering her the plate with toasts to take and after hearing her speak, she just froze. Therewas a pin drop silence in the house and suddenly Justin burst out laughing. “Finally..”, he said."What? You thought I would be angry or something?", he asked at Maya's startled look. Mayanodded mutely.

"My baby girl.. why would I have any objection? I trust in Luna, the Moon Goddess that she willchoose what is correct for you." replied Justin with a hint of a smile.

"Be sure to correct your clothes.” Judy hinted lovingly.

Maya and Ken walked side by side to the circle where the wolves to be tested were waiting patientlyand the spectators surrounded them in a half circle. The other half was left open for the judges. Theelders who would be judging whether the wolves would be worthy of being warriors. Justin andJudy were present with them as well. They had joined the elder rank after leaving the leadership roleto Ken and Maya.

There were 4 contenders, three of them as male whereas only 1 female. Ken was pleased that eventhough the female was a new comer, she was confident enough to try for the warrior pack test.Maya's eyes immediately went to her mate. Her wolf was drooling over the sight he was presenting.Xander was wearing a pair of shorts and sneakers leaving everything else bare.

Ken lightly bumped his shoulder into Maya's, grinning meaningfully at her. Maya just rolled her eyesat Ken and looked back at Xander.

An elder stepped forward in the circle and gestured for silence. Almost immediately all mutteringstopped. "We have gathered here to judge whether these wolves present here are worthy of thewarrior rank or not. Today you might pass or you might fail, whatever happens.. do not ever doubtyour worth to the pack. Let me remind you that only Luna, Goddess of the Moon, is able to trulyjudge our worth. In her name, let's begin the test.”, the elder declared.

Almost at once a silence fell in the ground.

"The first test." Ken began, "is to run laps of the ground. To qualify for the warrior rank one needs tocomplete 150 laps, if you succeed only then you will enter the second round. The rules for the firsttest are.. that at any given point you will not be allowed to slack off in your speed. And the roundsmust be completed in half an hour. Take your positions. At the sound of the whistle you will startrunning together.”

One of the elders made sure that everyone was in position before blowing the whistle.

And thus the race began.. since there were only 4 contenders keeping an eye on them was easy.Maya and Ken though were only watching Xander.

He started off in an easy manner compared to other contenders, but slowly and surely he increasedhis speed and soon was on the same level as the others. Fortunately all of them were able tocomplete the first test in given time with the female coming in last just a few seconds shy of thedeadline.

As the contenders lay huffing on the ground trying to get their breath back, Ken and Maya walkedtowards them with the results in hand.

"Congratulations!" Maya said, "All of you have managed to qualify for the second round. Catch yourbreath, have a glass of water if you need and report to elders in 10 minutes.” She ended thestatement directly looking in Xander's eyes.

He had finished the test first and was in a better shape than others. Maya had a look of desire in hereyes as she surveyed him, but she quickly masked it. After all, even a pseudo Luna is not allowed toshow partiality when it comes to selecting warriors for it would count as a weakness of the pack.Maya quickly averted her eyes and went to check the preparation for the next test. Xander's eyeswere following her every move.

The contenders were standing in front of the elders again. The second test was to fight against thealready existing warriors without switching forms. They would only be in their human form and itwas to be a hand to hand combat.

Elder Anne stepped forward and asked the female contender to tie up her hair so that othercontenders cannot use it to win unfairly. The female contender obliged.

"The rules are simple, fight will last for half an hour. The person who is able to withstand attacks andis still able to stand will be chosen for the third round. You are only allowed to defend." Elder Anneannounced.

The contenders stood facing their opponents, the whistle blew. Each and every one of them wastrying to defend against the continual attacks of the pack warriors.

Xander stood motionless as he faced his opponent, the warrior smirked slightly and startedattacking him. Xander however had a good plan and he just kept moving slightly any time thewarrior attacked. As a result, the warrior was not able to land a blow on Xander and was gettingangry. The anger was making him clumsy and was giving Xander an advantage. Slowly as Xanderkept moving he felt a slight unevenness in the ground and realised that it could be used to make hisopponent fall.

So using a different technique, Xander turned and pretended to run away. The warrior, his angerblinding him to Xander's strategy, went to grab Xander and fell, spraining his foot.

A whistle blew, signalling the end of the fight. Everyone was stunned by Xander's technique. It hadbeen simple and well executed.