ANYA'S POV"I said she's not leaving! She's going to stay here! Anya is my mate, and I can't let my mate stay with some other man!" Andrei yelled. The look on Kern and Abel's faces was priceless, and even though I knew we were mates, I was just as shocked. I was speechless. I never thought he'd say something like this...he never wanted me as his mate.What is going on with him? "What ...what did you say? She's your mate?" Abel asked as he looked between the both of us. "Yes. Anya is my mate. So she's not going anywhere. She's safe here!" Andrei said. He stormed out as soon as he said this, leaving me alone with the questioning gazes of Abel and Kern..."Anya....what is going on? Why didn't you tell us that he's your mate?" Kern asked."Yes. You had many opportunities to tell us about this, so why didn't you say anything about it?" Abel echoed. He looked outraged. I took one look at his face, and I looked away almost immediately. I could not bring myself to face him. "I....""Wh

ABEL'S POV I paced up and down in my room, really angry. All that I could think about was what Andrei had done to Anya. What right does he have to treat her like he treated her? I knew he had had to deal with the brunt of our parent's death, and he had to grow up at a young age to take over the pack, but that doesn't excuse how he treated her. He should have been kind to her...she is his mate, after all! But he treated her as if he could not stand the thought of her! He was just so mean to her. He treated her like a toy to play with whenever he was mad! I thought about Anya's attitude when we confronted her about why she let Andrei treat her like that. It was clear from the look on her face that she felt helpless and that there was nothing she could do to stop the situation. I felt sorry for her. How horrible was it for her that she felt as if there was no one she could talk to and there was nothing she could do about how Andrei treated her? Andrei had such a good mate, yet he

ANYA'S POVAbel scoffed at this. "Who knows if Anya will become the Queen? She may be his mate, but he doesn't want her. She can always reject him!" Abel said.Andrei glared at Abel when he said this. For a second, I thought he would counter what Abel said. But then he just changed the topic."If you guys are not ready to train today, just tell me so I can leave. I have other things that I want to take care of. I don't have all day to spend arguing with you," Andrei said.Of course, it wasn't as if I was expecting him to say anything good about me. Anyway, I don't care. I will be gone from here very soon, and I won't have to listen to him or watch him display his disgust for him every second. Kern cleared his throat; forever the peacemaker, he tried to smooth out our tensions. "Let's not talk about who will become the Queen now. We should focus on Anya's training and ensure she becomes strong enough to defend herself if anything happens!" Kern said. "Talking about being strong enou

ABEL'S POVAndrei slammed his spoon on the table angrily. "I said no!" he yelled. I glared at him, but I knew that nothing would change his mind at this point. Since he had already decided, I couldn't get him to change his mind. I don't understand why he insists on treating Anya like this. She didn't do anything to him! She is his mate, for crying out loud! "I will ask some of the female wolves to spar with her. If she can defeat them, we will continue from there," Andrei said with a sneer. I looked over at Anya, and she had a hurt look on her face. She, too, could tell that Andrei was looking down on her. But then, she was back to looking indifferent. It was as if she didn't care at all. I sighed in my mind. I had a feeling that Andrei would regret treating Anya like this very soon. .....Anya and I were training the next day when Andrei walked in with two girls following behind him. I stopped the training and watched Andrei. What is he planning to do? "What are you doing, A

ANYA'S POVI was lying on my bed in my room. I stared at the ceiling blankly. I had really thought that I was strong enough to leave this place on my own, but what happened proved to me that I was still not strong enough. Kern had said that she played dirty, but what she said was the truth. In the real world, if someone did attack me, they wouldn't be playing fair. They would be trying to kill me in whatever ways that they can. I needed to get stronger in the shortest time possible. I wanted to keep training so that I could make myself better, but Abel and Andrei said that I could not train and that I had to rest. So I was in my room with nothing to do except think about how I was going to escape from this place. I really can't stand living here for one month. And I don't think I can stand Andrei for one more hour. I have been doing everything that I can to avoid Andrei in the palace. And since he had not come to look for me on his own, it was working. I was still thinking random