All Chapters of AUCTIONED TO THE LYCAN KING: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

MAYAThe emergency session Kael called turned out to be a false alarm.He claimed to have evidence of a wolf spy inside the palace but when pressed for specifics all he produced was a vague report about "unusual scent patterns" in the servants quarters. Asher shut it down before it gained traction and Kael backed off with that thin patient smile of his.But I did not relax. Not even for a second.I found Lena the next morning and warned her to double her use of the scent masking herb. She was terrified but she held it together. I told her I would keep watch. I told her she was safe.I was not sure if that was true but she needed to hear it.The days that followed were a blur of training and bruises and quiet meals alone. Rhea had moved me to phase two which meant I was now learning to fight with the curved blade she gave me. My arms were covered in small cuts from my own mistakes but I was improving. Slowly. Painfully. But improving.It was on one of those mornings between training an

MAYAPhase two was a different kind of hell.Phase one was about survival. Taking hits. Getting up. Learning to endure pain without breaking. It was brutal but straightforward. All I had to do was refuse to stay down.Phase two was about fighting back. And fighting back required a level of coordination and control that my battered body was struggling to deliver.The curved blade felt foreign in my hand no matter how many hours I spent with it. Rhea drilled me on footwork and angles and striking zones until the movements blurred together in my head. My wrists ached from the repetitive motions. My fingers cramped around the leather handle. Every swing felt clumsy and slow.But today was different. Today Rhea was not holding back.She came at me with a training staff. A long wooden pole that she wielded like it was an extension of her body. She moved with a speed that made the air hiss around her."Block" she barked.I raised the blade and caught the staff on its edge. The impact rattled

MAYAI was still thinking about what Rhea said when the knock came.She trained my father. The woman who had been beating me into the dirt every morning for weeks had trained the man who raised me. The questions were piling up faster than I could process them. How did she know him? When did she train him? And why had she not told me sooner?I was sitting on my bed turning it all over in my head when three sharp knocks hit my door. Not Nora's gentle tap. Not Ethan's firm knock. Not Lena's nervous scratch.This knock was different. Precise. Deliberate. The knock of someone who expected every door to open for them.I stood up and opened it.Lord Kael stood in my doorway.He was taller than I expected up close. His silver white hair was combed back neatly and his pale grey eyes settled on me with the patience of a man who had never been in a hurry in his entire life. He wore a dark formal coat that hung to his knees and his hands were clasped behind his back.Behind him stood two guards.

MAYAOne month.Thirty days since I walked through the gates of the Lycan Kingdom with bare feet and a torn dress. Thirty days since I signed a contract that made me the wife of a man who could barely look at me. Thirty days since I decided that the broken girl who was sold at an auction was going to die so that someone stronger could take her place.She was dying right on schedule.I stood in front of the small mirror that Nora had smuggled into my room last week and barely recognized the woman staring back at me. My face was leaner. The softness that used to round my cheeks had been carved away by weeks of Rhea's relentless training. My arms were defined in ways they had never been before. My shoulders sat straighter. My posture had shifted from someone who was trying to disappear into someone who was daring the world to try and move her.The bruises were still there. They would probably always be there as long as Rhea was my trainer. But they healed faster now. What used to take a

MAYAWhen Ethan told me the King would be training me personally I thought he was joking.He was not.I arrived at the training grounds that evening and found Asher already there. He had changed out of his formal clothes and into a fitted black training shirt and dark pants. His sleeves were rolled to his elbows exposing the scarred forearms I had noticed in his study weeks ago.He looked different out here. Less king. More weapon.Rhea stood near the archway watching with her arms crossed. She gave me a nod as I passed but said nothing. Her expression was unreadable which from Rhea could mean anything from quiet approval to silent concern.I stopped a few feet from Asher and waited.He studied me for a moment. His silver eyes moved from my feet to my shoulders and back down again. It was clinical. Efficient. The same way Rhea assessed me before every session.But it did not feel the same."Show me your stance" he said.I shifted into position. Left foot forward. Right foot back. Fist