December's Moon

29 | LUCA

| LUCA |

December Thirty-First, three months later . . .

Luca stood at the center of the arena, focusing on his breathing. It all came down to this—the final round of the tournament. In two minutes, the whistle would blow, and the fight would begin.

The spirt round had been first, taking place earlier that day, and from the shouting of the crowd, it was obviously a fan favorite.

Over the past few weeks, Aurora had been incessantly practicing running and sparing in her wolf form with Luca and December, but unfortunately her leg still hadn't regained its full strength. The recovery from the fracture she sustained in the Basilisk Battle three months ago left her weakened. In the spirit round of the tournament, she only lasted a few minutes before tapping out.

And so, the wolf brawl came down to December and Luca. After a brutal fight that went on for nearly five minutes—although it felt more like six or seven to Luca—December won, leaving Luca with an honorable second.

The next round was strategy. To encourage fairness and because watching three teen-wolves take a standardized test was decided by Alpha Rowan to be "too boring anyway," the round was given orally to all competitors. It consisted of twenty multiple guess questions followed by four short answer questions.

Much to Luca's surprise, there wasn't a single calculus question on the entire exam. Aurora had told Luca and December that they better practice their integrals because she was sure there would be an entire section on it. She even spent two whole nights tutoring them, but now Luca was wondering if that had just been another trick of hers to distract them. What would wolves possibly need to know calculus for, anyway?

Some things about Aurora never changed.

Case and point, as expected, she won the strategy round by far.

Despite all the wasted hours studying for questions that weren't even asked, Luca managed to take second, edging out December by just two points. It turned out, a lot of the exam was on history, something Luca shocked even himself with how much he knew about the subject.

That left the final round of the tournament—strength.

In the first two matches, Luca and December each faced off against Aurora and won respectively. Now, there was only one match left, and it would decide the winner of the tournament.

Luca cleared his mind of everything that had gone on that day, turning his attention to the arena. A flurry of snow gusted through the air, dusting the ground, and a small break in the clouds revealed the full, shinning moon. Its silvery beams gave the evening a haunting glow as the last traces of sunlight faded beyond the horizon. Even though it couldn't have been more than thirty degrees out, a bead of sweat dripped from Luca's hairline as chills crept over his body.

From the upper section of the stands, the pack elders, the board, Alpha Rowan and his Beta watched on silently. Cheering and shouting came from the lower section, where Luca's classmates sat.

Luca found Aurora in the crowd, squeezed between Niki and Priscilla. She was impossible to miss with her long, platinum blonde hair whipping around her face in the wind. She fidgeted nervously with the silver choker around her neck, biting her bottom lip. When her gaze met Luca's, she gave him a soft smile and a nod.