Lady of the Hunt

3/

Orion sat with them at dinner that night.

Adara and Calista had already sat with Cadmus and a few of the other guys their age, chatting about an upcoming test that Ariston, the youngest guy of the group who had yet to finish training, had the next day.

"I'm telling you if you're going to last minute practice anything, you should practice your katana form. That's always what Zephyr grades hardest on," Cadmus told Ariston.

"You only say that because you prefer katana," Damon replied with a roll of his eyes.

Orion walked up, sliding into the seat beside Adara. The conversation stopped as everyone turned to look at him, somewhat awe-struck. He shot them all another one of his charming smiles. "Hey, I'm Orion, I'm new here," he smoothly introduced.

As they went around the table, everyone made introductions. There were six people all roughly around the same age that sat there, and the rest sat at another tables across the room. Adara and Calista were the only girls, and their ages ranged from 15-18.

"So you're from Britain?" Nikias, or as they called him, Nick, asked first.

Orion nodded. "Yeah, London," he replied, smiling charmingly. Apparently that smile worked even on the guys, who all seemed to like him fine.

"Why're you here?" Damon asked. Adara nearly scoffed. Last night, Damon had gone on and on about why Orion was there, saying it was all to do with some big punishment.

"I got in a bit of trouble," he answered with a crooked grin. No one was brave enough to ask what for.

Really, Adara was dying to ask, although she'd never admit it. She had no idea what exactly you had to do to get sent halfway around the world. In the camp, the only reasons you could get banished were if you broke one of the three rules.

The first was that you had to stay dedicated to Artemis and the Hunt. The second was that you could never leave—although there were some exceptions to this, like what Adara had done. And finally, you must remain a virgin. This, of course, wasn't hard given that no guys lived in the camp—the only men they saw were Artemis' visitors for hunting parties.

"Is it true you're a son of Zeus?" Ariston asked brightly.

Orion stared at the younger guy for a moment as if shocked at the sight of him, blinking. Adara wondered what the weird reaction was for. "Yeah, I am," he answered finally, smiling again like nothing was wrong, but he didn't make some arrogant remark about the fact.

Having asked enough questions to satisfy their curiosity, the guys went back to their conversation. Damon went back to telling Ariston that he should practice his staff form, which made Nick argue that he should work on his combats, not his forms. Orion sat quietly beside her listening for a little.

"It's good to have you join us," Calista said politely to him, glancing over at Adara.

"No offense," she said, looking up from her food. "But why are you here?"

"Well, don't be too welcoming there, love," Orion said, chuckling. "You're the only person I know here; I thought I'd sit with you."

Adara raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm sure you can make friends," she replied, turning back to her food.

"I just did," he pointed out innocently, and she glanced over to see him giving her another smile, prompting her to roll her eyes.

Calista watched them both with silent amusement. "What're you smiling about?" Adara asked threateningly, making her best friend laugh and feign innocence, shrugging off the question.