Fifty Three

She came back at me low and fast, going for my midsection, driving forward with her shoulder like she was trying to fold me in half.

“Well she should stop trying to kill me, I just escaped from death!”

I caught her shoulder, redirected, went down with her instead of against her, and we hit the floor together in a tangle of limbs and very different ideas about where this was going.

“Aiden—” Nathan started.

“Wait, she is doing pretty well for someone who just got her wolf” Aiden chipped in and cut Nathan off as he watched the fight.

I registered his voice somewhere above us—calm, watching—and wanted to scream at him but didn’t have the breath for it because Zyla had my arm twisted behind my back and was trying to pin my face into the floor with her forearm.

I bucked my hips, broke her balance, and flipped us.

Now I had her pinned—my knee across her lower back, her arm locked up behind her, my other hand flat on the back of her head keeping her cheek against the floor.

Damn she was stronger than me. Where the hell did she get such powers?

I could feel it—that raw wolf strength I’d been on the wrong side of my entire life, the kind that came from having a wolf that was actually present and fully integrated. She was stronger and she was faster and under normal circumstances this fight would have lasted about four seconds before I lost.

But I’d been training my whole life specifically because I was weaker.

I knew seventeen different ways to neutralize strength I didn’t have.

“Stop little girl,” I said, my voice low, breathing hard. “I’m not your enemy.”

“Your father killed my people,” she snarled into the floor.

“Fuck, and you think I don't know, My father tried to kill ME.” I tightened my grip slightly. “He hunted me through a forest with four wolves and I went off a cliff to escape him. So I need you to think very carefully about whose side you think I’m actually on.”

She thrashed hard.

I held.

But only barely.

She was recovering faster than I was—her wolf giving her strength I was running out of—and I could feel the moment approaching where holding her wasn’t going to be an option anymore.

“Zyla, okay that's enough, she is my mate now ” Aiden said from somewhere above us. Still calm, watching.

She didn’t listen to him. She was getting angry and losing herself.

“I…I can’t stop!!. Help!”

Her wolf was too far forward for that now. She seemed to have lost control and her wolf was taking over her body with the rage in place.

“KILL HER!” Zyla said in an animal deep voice.

That had to definitely be her wolf.

So someone else needed to step in.

“Zara?” I called out inwardly.

“What? Don't ask for my help I won’t give you” She said to me and I expected it.

“I don't even dream of it. I was just going to ask you if you are going to keep letting this petty little girl’s wolf act arrogant before you. The Ancient powerful wolf, aren't you a queen or something?”

“Hmmm…Well played little April. I'll give you that.” I smirked inwardly because manipulation indeed felt good on the other end.

Well karma is a bitch you know.