The Usurper's Throne

7

Maybe half an hour into lunch, Damien excused himself. He had preparations to make for next week but insisted on lecturing me for ten minutes about the importance of staying close to the gammas.

"Damien," I finally interrupted. "I've got it. Go."

Eric excused himself as well and followed Damien, exiting the large wooden doors.

"Luna, I can already tell you are an extraordinarily strong woman," one of the gammas said.

I looked at him in curiosity. I had never considered myself particularly strong. "What make you say that?"

"Well, you have to put up with the alpha," he said and the five of them dove into uproarious laughter. I smiled and looked down at my plate. Despite being hungry, I hadn't eaten much. I had too many bad memories in a dining room.

"Thank you..." I faded, searching for a name.

"Baker." He was the bald on who looked like he could eat a watermelon.

"You can remember him because it looks like a Baker who stuck his head in an oven and burned all his hair off!" another joked.

His bald head turned bright red. He fumbled, "yeah... yeah, well she can remember you're Thomas because your face looks like you were hit my Thomas the Train!" Baker retorted loudly. I looked at Thomas. Baker wasn't wrong. He had clearly broken his nose a couple too many times.

"Reid's the skinny one! Skinny as a reed!" another cut in. Reid smiled.

"Lankiness is a gift," he said, looking at me. He winked. "Helps me get into places that others cannot. Smith is stout." I turned to see the gamma who was bumbling in his seat, clearly unhappy with his mnemonic. Again, accurate.

"And Ironside," the last one said. Everyone else quickly settled down.

Baker turned and whispered to me, "Ironside is the scary one," he said.

"I can tell," I returned. I looked at the five of them. "So, you are on babysitting duty?"

Reid nodded his head. "We are acting as your guards for the next week."

"But you're only guarding me? Five to one. So, not really babysitting duty, but, like, a daycare where only one kid showed up?"

Baker laughed at that. "Perhaps."

Ironside spoke up, causing everyone to fall silent again. "Luna, we are here to protect you. There are many who would happily see you dead and twenty times as many who would like to see you mated or enslaved to them." A cold sense of foreboding dropped into my stomach.

"I see."

I glanced around the room. Suddenly, every pair of unfamiliar eyes glowed with a dangerous light. I glanced back at the gammas and realized that their eyes were just as unfamiliar.