Chapter 6: First Lessons

*KADE*

I knew Sera hadn't slept.

I'd heard her pacing in the room above mine from midnight until dawn. The mate bond severance was hitting her hard, phantom pains, emotional turmoil, the desperate confusion of a wolf whose world had just been ripped apart.

I'd seen it before. Usually, it didn't end well.

But Sera wasn't usual, she was a Silver Blood, and that changed everything.

I was already in the kitchen when she appeared just after dawn, looking exhausted but determined. Dark circles shadowed her eyes, but her shoulders were squared, her chin lifted. She'd dressed in the training clothes I'd sent to her room, practical, functional, ready to work.

Good.

"Couldn't sleep?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.

"No." She moved to the coffee pot. "When do we start?"

No pleasantries, no complaints. Just straight to business.

This girl had been publicly humiliated less than twenty-four hours ago, and here she was, ready to fight back.

"Finish your coffee," I said. "We start in ten."

She practically inhaled it, burning herself in her haste. I watched her hands tremble slightly, the set of her jaw saying she was barely holding together. The faint silver shimmer flickered across her skin when her emotions spiked.

She was a powder keg, and I was about to light the fuse.

I led her to the main training ground, a large space with packed dirt marked by scorch marks and impact craters. Several of my wolves were already there, running drills. They stopped when they saw us, their eyes widening.

"Back to work," I ordered, and they obeyed, though I caught them stealing glances.

"First things first," I said, turning to face her. "Show me your wolf."

She blinked. "What?"

"Shift, let me see what we're working with."

"I can't just shift on command, It takes time, and..."

"You erupted with enough power to bring an entire pack to their knees last night." I crossed my arms, deliberately challenging her. "Stop thinking like the weak Omega you used to be. That girl is gone, you're a Silver Blood now, act like it."

Fire flashed in her eyes, anger? Good.

"Fine," she snapped.

I watched as she closed her eyes. Most Omegas took fifteen, twenty minutes to shift, painful and slow.

Instead, power exploded through her in seconds.

The shift was fast, brutal, beautiful. Silver light erupted from her skin as her bones cracked and reformed, but instead of screaming in pain, she looked almost ecstatic.

When she opened her eyes, she was magnificent.

Her wolf was easily twice the size it should have been, larger than most Betas. Silver fur rippled across her body, shimmering like liquid moonlight. Her eyes burned with silver fire.

Around the clearing, my wolves stopped training completely, they stared, open-mouthed.

"Holy shit," Marcus breathed behind me.

I circled her slowly, forcing myself to stay analytical. "Beautiful," I said, and meant it. "And absolutely terrifying." I crouched to her level, meeting those burning eyes. "How do you feel?"

She couldn't answer in wolf form, but I saw it in her eyes. Strong, Alive, Dangerous.

I smiled. "Good, Now shift back."

Her wolf didn't want to let go. It took her several minutes to coax it back into submission, and when she finally shifted to human form, she collapsed on her hands and knees, panting.

The power was already fighting for dominance.

I handed her water, then pulled her to her feet. "Your wolf is stronger now, she doesn't want to give up control. You'll have to learn to work with her, not against her."

"That was..." She trailed off.

"Intense? Welcome to being a Silver Blood." I studied her flushed face. "But that's just the beginning, now we work on control."

For the next hour, I pushed her through exercises I'd been planning for five years. Call her power without shifting, release it in controlled bursts, sense other wolves' energy.

She was terrible at it.

But she was learning fast.

"Again," I ordered, watching her bent over, gasping.

"I can't, I need a break."

"You think the Council will give you a break when they come for you?" I kept my voice hard. "You think Thorne will wait patiently while you catch your breath?"

Something flickered across her face. Pain. Longing.

"I don't want to hurt him," she said softly.

There it was. She still cared about the bastard who'd rejected her.

"Then you're going to die." I moved closer. "The mate bond is broken, but the obsession doesn't disappear. He's going to become more dangerous, not less and if you can't defend yourself, he'll drag you back and lock you away."

She wanted to argue. I could see the desperate need to believe he wasn't capable of that.

"Fine," she said, straightening despite her exhaustion. "Again."

Pride surged through me, there, that fire.

"Again," I agreed.

This time, the power came faster, Silver light flickered around her hands.

"Good," I murmured. "Now hold it steady."

She trembled with effort, her face tight. The power wanted to break free, but she held on.

"Now direct it," I instructed. "That tree over there, Just a stream, not a blast."

She opened her eyes, silver burning bright and pushed the power outward.

The tree exploded.

Sera yelped, the power snapping back so violently she stumbled. I caught her, my hands on her arms.

She was warm, trembling. Power ran between us like electricity.

I released her quickly. "Well, that's progress."

"I destroyed it!" She stared at her hands, horrified.

"You controlled the direction. That's more than you've managed all morning." I looked at the smoking crater. "You're learning fast, Sera, faster than I expected."

In five years of planning, I'd never imagined one could adapt this quickly. Most texts suggested it took months to gain basic control.

Sera was doing it in hours.

"Take some minutes," I told her. "Then we work on defense."

She collapsed in the shade, trembling. Around the clearing, my wolves had stopped pretending not to stare.

Good, Let them see what we had here.

Marcus approached. "She's strong."

"Stronger than I hoped." I kept my eyes on Sera. "Increase patrols on the border. I want to know the moment any Silvermoon wolves get within five miles."

Marcus nodded and left.

Five years of searching, and now I had what I needed to bring down the Council.

I just had to make sure Sera survived long enough.

And that I didn't get attached.

"Ready?" I called out, exactly five minutes later.

She stood, unsteady but determined. "What's next?"

"Defense. Your power is destructive, but you need to protect yourself too." I picked up a rock, "I'm going to throw things at you. Stop them before they hit."

"What kind of...."

I threw the rock at her head.

She screamed, hands flying up. Silver light exploded from her palms, forming a barrier that stopped the rock mid-flight.

Perfect.

"See? You already know how." I picked up another rock. "You just need practice."

For the next two hours, I threw increasingly larger objects from different angles. Her shields formed faster, stronger. A few times they shattered, but each time she got better.

By noon, she looked ready to collapse but she was still standing.

I called a halt. "Better, much better."

"I feel like I'm dying," she gasped.

"You're not, you're evolving." I tossed her water. "Rest for an hour, then we do combat training."

"Combat?"

"Learning to fight with claws and teeth when you can't use your power." I let my smile sharpen. "Because sometimes you won't be able to and you need to survive anyway."

She looked exhausted but nodded.

I watched her walk toward the main house, catching her reflection in a window. She moved differently now, not the hesitant Omega anymore. There was strength in her posture.

She was becoming exactly what I needed.

The weapon I'd been waiting for.

I just had to remember that's all she was.

Not someone I could afford to care about.