Chapter 19 - Daggers

Maddie was wooden, each movement forced as she walked to the chest at the edge of the field and claimed her weapons. The small daggers gleamed with their recent polish, the silver hilt fitting like a glove in her hand. They had been a gift from her father the night she had gained her wolf. She adored them but hadn’t had much chance to use them. Wolves trained with their bodies more than weapons. Why carry a dagger in human form when you can attack with the razor-sharp claws of your wolf form?

She palmed the blade, spinning the flat of it around her hand before grabbing the hilt again. Her muscles remembered the small movements required to make her daggers deadly, just as her skin remembered the cool metal of the blades. Maddie sunk two into holsters at her thighs, keeping hold of the other two as she walked onto the field. Murmurs burst out from the crowd, eyes moving from the two other pairs, already in the heat of battle, to her. The pressure of their gazes was familiar and pulled a