chapter 7

NANCY'S POV

I woke up from my heavy sleep, sunlight pouring in from the huge windows. My eyes felt drowsy as I stretched on the bed.

I heard some sounds in the bathroom, and I sat silently for some minutes as I tried to register the noises that I was hearing.

Someone had opened the shower, and water sounds were hitting the cold tiles.

Was someone bathing in my bathroom?

Could it be one of the brothers?

My heart slammed in my chest as I crept closer to investigate.

Why would they even bathe here in the first place?

I sucked around the corner and it wasn't any of the brothers. It was just —

Cassie.

“What are you doing?” I asked curiously.

She whipped her head to me, her eyes widening. She let out a laugh when she saw that it was me.

“Goddess, you frightened me. I didn't expect to see you just standing there. I thought you were sleeping.”

I nodded to the pink and purple solid balls she was holding.  

She looked at them and let out a laugh. “Well, these are strength stones. Neven wants you to start training your wolf from today. He asked me to give you the memo. Once you're done eating and showering, we'll head to the training grounds.”

I nodded as she gave way, and I shed my clothes. As the water poured on my skin, I didn't know if I was excited or scared.

I've never had the opportunity to train my wolf.

They didn't let me do that because they knew if I had a strong wolf, one day I could compete against Alpha Peter and his armies and bring them down.

But then I was scared because it was Neven who was in charge of the training, and he's been so hostile towards me.

What if it was a plot for him to kill me because I knew how brutal training could get?

When I was done bathing and empowering myself with the strength stones, Cassie took me to the training ground, and there I saw Neven testing himself with some spears.

I swallowed hard as I went closer to him.

I prayed we wouldn't have an active sparring session. Because I'll be so dead.

“You're early. That's good.” He said as I came closer to him. My eyes stared straight forward as he circled me like a shark hunting prey.

"Hit me," he blurted as he finally stood in front of me. I stared at him, surprised. We were in the middle of a bare training yard with dirt packed hard under my bare feet, no weapons, no rules explained, nothing.

“What?"

"You heard me." He rolled his shoulders like this was nothing to him, like I was nothing to him. "Hit me. Or are you only dangerous when you're cornered?"

I hated him a little in that moment, and I hated that some stupid part of me wanted to prove him wrong more than I wanted to walk away.

I swung.

He caught my wrist before I connected, twisted it hard enough that I gasped, and shoved me back onto the dirt. I hit the ground shoulder-first, pain shooting up my arm, and for a second I just lay there stunned, dirt in my mouth, humiliation burning worse than the fall.

"That's it?" Neven said, standing over me. "That's what tore silver bars off a wall?"

"Give me a second."

"You don't get a second. Nobody gives you a second out there." He nudged my foot with his boot, not gentle about it. "Get up."

I got up. My shoulder screamed. I swung again, and he dodged it easily, caught my other arm, and this time when he shoved me, I went down harder, scraping my palm on something sharp buried in the dirt. Blood welled up fast, stinging, and I stared at it stupidly for a second before I got angry instead of scared.

That was the difference. I noticed it even as it happened.

"Again," Neven said.

"You're enjoying this."

"Maybe." He didn't deny it. "Maybe I want to see if there's actually something under all that white hair or if you got lucky once and everyone's been imagining things since."

I swung a third time, and the anger pooling in my chest cracked open; my vision went gold at the edges before I even registered moving. I don't remember deciding to hit him. I just remember my fist connecting with his jaw hard enough that he actually stumbled back, shock replacing the smugness on his face for one full second before he caught himself.

"There it is," he said, rubbing his jaw, and he didn't sound angry. He sounded like he'd won something.

My hand throbbed. My knuckles were split. I was breathing too fast, chest heaving, and underneath the pain there was exhilaration moving through me.

"Again," he said.

"I'm bleeding."

"So am I. Again."

We went another round, and another, and each time the gold crept back into my vision faster, stayed longer, and each time something in me both wanted it to stop and wanted to chase it further, see what it turned into if I just let it. I didn't like that about myself.

By the fifth round, my legs were shaking, and I couldn't tell anymore if it was exhaustion or whatever was happening under my skin. Neven caught my arm mid-swing and this time didn't shove me. He just held it, studying my face like he was reading something written there.

"You're scaring yourself," he said. Not a question.

"I'm fine."

"You're not." He let go. "That's the interesting part."

I hadn't noticed Arian arrive. He was just there, leaning against the fence at the edge of the yard, arms crossed, watching like he'd been watching the entire time and hadn't felt the need to announce himself. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to. The weight of him standing there, silent, taking in every part of it, made my skin crawl worse than Neven's fists ever could.

"One more," Neven said.

"I said I'm fine."

"I don't care what you said." He was already moving again, faster this time, and I barely got my arm up before he was on me, and the gold surged so hard, and so fast it felt like something tearing loose inside my chest, and I swung without thinking and connected with nothing because the ground was suddenly closer than it should have been, and then it wasn't the ground at all.

I don't remember falling.

I remember heat, and then not heat, just gray at the edges of everything, Neven's voice somewhere far off saying something sharp, and then arms that weren't his catching me before I hit the dirt.

Arian.

He'd crossed the yard faster than I registered him moving, and his arms were around me, steady. The last thing I saw before everything went dark completely was his face, closer than it had ever been, unreadable as always.

But his jaw was tight, and that told me maybe, for once, he wasn't as unaffected as he wanted everyone to believe.