There was a general scurry of activity in the days preceding the arrival of the members of Lunar Ridge. The housekeeping staff at the pack house were rushing and racing to ensure each guest's room was clean and comfortable and stocked to the hilt with every possible choice of beverage and food. There was a great atmosphere whenever guests were arriving. Black Mountain always provided an excellent reception and everyone thoroughly enjoyed showcasing the beautiful landscape of the extensive pack lands; their structure and established practices; the opportunities afforded to their pack members and, of course, their unparalleled warrior training and battle success.

Although Alex was used to travelling to train other packs and provide their training services, she did enjoy the gigs at home on her own terrain. She was immensely proud of her warriors and of the deep respect that, aside from snide comments infrequently from pests like Roy, was shown to her by her pack. She gazed over the training ground at her team, currently divided into pairs practising fighting in their human form. There were a few new starters who were beginning to hold their own in the fights, no longer being knocked to the ground time after time by the more experienced fighters. Part of her success, she felt, was that her warriors were trained to fight in both their wolf and human forms, with knives, guns and other weapons to ensure they could adapt to any fight in any environment rather than relying on only fighting in wolf form. This was not something that was widely accepted in other packs but Alex did not build her reputation as one of the foremost training specialists worldwide by cowing down to custom and practice. The previous Gamma, Ray, had been her number one supporter and she had trained by his side from the age of 8 when she had become too much for the trainers in her age group. Ray saw her potential and her strength and trained her harder than anyone in the pack. When he chose to step down as Gamma due to his ongoing health issues, Alex was still quite young. He never hesitated however, in putting her forward as his nomination for the position. When she beat the other interested parties into submission, her father had been forced to give her the title. Although he was hesitant, Hank told her often how delighted he was with her as his Gamma. Similarly, Ronan had decided not to challenge her in the position when he took over as Alpha two years later. Nolan always joked that it was because Ronan didn't want her to challenge him for the Alpha title. She smiled at the thought.

Alex blew her whistle signalling the end of training for the day. Her and Nolan moved through the group giving feedback on performance, praising improvements in some and encouraging others with what to focus on for the next session. She dismissed the tired group for the day and walked with Nolan back to the pack house, finalising their plans for the Lunar Ridge group. They would be arriving that afternoon, staying for one week. Ronan's bachelor party was taking place on the Friday night and, out of courtesy, he had invited the Alpha from Lunar Ridge to join them.

Ronan loved a cold beer and a good track to dance to so they were heading into a nightclub one town over to drink and dance the night away. It was Alex's ideal night out. She needed to let off a bit of steam after working so much the last few months and would be looking for someone to take her home that night for a thorough ravaging. Sex with humans was fine - often hugely enjoyable but she knew sex with a werewolf, not to mention your own mate, was indescribable. She had never slept with any member of her pack. It was a rule with Ronan for himself, his Beta Theo and Alex in the early days before both Ronan and Theo had found their mates. No messing with pack wolves, other than your own mate. It caused unnecessary drama that they didn't need. The only werewolf she had ever spent a crazy, sweaty weekend with was her best friend Robbie. It was years ago now but the experience had made her long at the thought of how incredible bedroom antics must be with your own mate. Robbie knew his way around the female body and they had spent a sensational weekend enjoying every inch of each other over and over again until reality hit on the Monday and they had to go back to their respective lives. The weekend had, however, given Alex some long lasting memories that she found drifted to the forefront of her mind when she touched her naked body in the shower or if she needed a little assistance climaxing with an unsatisfactory bedfellow. Their friendship had never suffered for it and it had actually been Alex who introduced Robbie to his late mate, Kara.

Robbie had been sent to Lunar Ridge when he was 16, just after Alex had taken over as Gamma, to train with their pack before taking over as Alpha of Moon River at aged 20 from his own father. They remained great friends through all the turmoil of their lives - him finding his mate, a human, only to lose her a year later to cancer; fighting together in the Moon River battle against the immoral and psychotic bastard that was Dax Stevens and his pack, not to mention general issues of keeping their respective packs safe and trained. Alex, Nolan and Robbie had been christened the 'Triple Threat' by her father, Hank, due to the consistent adventures and misdemeanours of the three whenever they were together. Robbie would be arriving for Ronan's bachelor party and staying for a few days afterwards, time allowing. Alex was looking forward to seeing her friend. He had lost a little bit of the glint in his eye after his mate had passed away but he was still the life and soul of any gathering, first on the dancefloor and last to leave the bar. She, Nolan and Robbie would have to pace themselves this week, she thought to herself. Training with the Lunar Ridge pack on the Saturday after the bachelor party was going to be brutal with a hangover but there was no way around that. There was no way they would call an early night to Ronan's bachelor party and they would equally not miss an opportunity to train warriors from another pack. They would suffer and bear it and then die a death later.