"Sleep well whore?" It's the female warrior from the first time I had come in here. The red-haired one who I now know is named Lysandra. She's staring me down, like the mere sight of me disgusts her but I can tell this is something other than normal hate. Jealousy maybe? I don't know. She has no reason to be jealous of me. Even I wouldn't be jealous of myself if I was in her shoes, and her boots look perfect on her feet, as always. Lysandra's hand swipes across the table and my breakfast goes clattering down. She's always like this but today it seems she's extra angry because she slams her hand on the table, the loud bang ringing through my ears like a thunderclap, and her eyes land on me, filled with rage and fury. "I said did you sleep well little miss fuck toy?" I don't give her a reply though I want to. I want to tell her I know how much she sleeps around too. The maids deal in secrets and gossip and she hasn't been too kind to them. They speak of her in scorn-filled tones,
We eat in silence and I feel Cain squirming in his seat. If I was asked to guess why that is, I would say it's because he's never eaten with people around him. Me, him, and Rhys, I don't know if this is a group we've formed but I can tell he isn't happy. and it's not like he's sad to have us with him, it's that he's sad about what having us with him will do to us. Lyros would pick us up one by one and for someone who claims to have no feelings, Cain does. He hasn't mentioned or admitted to the fact of not having feelings to me before, but he acts like that and it's something that made me hate him in my first days here. He would always act cold and frigid, always act mean. I sigh and drop my spoon on the table. The Lycan king's home can be horribly depressing when you have something to lose, and what do I have to lose exactly? Well, I have my freedom to lose. I won't ever be free if Lyros finds out what I'm planning, he might even kill me, but if it means Cain will have a better li
Despite Cain's warning, I don't go to train straight away. I go attend to Lyros's summoning first. I don't know why he called me but when I got to his room it was clean. I saw him folding his shirts and putting them into his wardrobe. He asked me to sit and he asked how I was feeling, and then after, he told me what Cain wouldn't. We're going to a very far place. He didn't tell me where just told me to get ready for two days at sea. I'm to act as a companion of Cain, an ambassador from the Lycan king of the north to the lands inland. The Lycan king we're going to visit is named Rafie and he isn't dangerous, those around him are the really dangerous ones so I'll have to watch what I say, watch where I step, and also get ready to live without electricity, running water, and an air conditioner in my room. It's going to be like a whole new world but I feel pumped for it already. Safira comes for me afterward and I recognize her as the lady I had seen in front of my door yesterday. The
Safira wears me down to the point of exhaustion. At first, anger is what pushes me to fight back, somehow I feel I've gotten stronger than I was and faster too. Safira comes at me with punches and jabs but I deflect the majority of them. I imagine myself in Cain's skin and his shoes. I imagine myself as him and think of what he would do if he was me. The more I do this, the more I realize my errors. Cain wouldn't let emotions rule his movements. Neither would Lyros even though he has a temper on him. They would try to see what technique their opponent uses before anything else. Safia favors attack over precision. She throws powerful blows but they're also blind blows and there's a lot of times when she could have done more damage than she did with a misplaced punch. She strikes in my general direction and not in precise areas. She doesn't care if the blows catch me or if they do not, what matters to her is that she strikes and her strike hits me. She doesn't care where. With that
Safira drafts a training schedule for us and tells me it was fun training with someone that has some backbone. I'm not sure if she just insulted all the warrior Lycans in this building or if she insulted me and every other werewolf out there. She doesn't stay back long enough to clarify, she says it and she leaves while I stay there, panting. I lay on the floor and let the silence of this place fill me. For her to have her own training space, she must be really important to Lyros. The way she's also made me so aware of the fact that I am not supposed to be here is surprising. Up until today, I don't think I ever saw myself as the daughter of an Alpha. I sure wasn't treated like one in the pack and I don't think I've ever been the daughter of an Alpha. I've always been the pack disappointment, my parent's shame, and a failure to the moon goddess. I can barely feel my wolf during the full moons and when a shift does overtake me it's so painful it feels like it's going to kill me. I a
Rhys is breathing down my neck and it makes me want to snap his.We're in my room, seated on the floor and I'm bent over a map."Move away Rhys."The words come out through gritted teeth and like he doesn't hear them Rhys moves in even closer. I turn to glare at him and he smiles before he moves away a bit.''"You draw so well that I just wanted to see more.""You wanted to see more of the map?"He looks away and I sigh."You want to say something don't you?"He nods and I go back to sketching a map of Rafie's capital, Raleigh.Lyros wants information on everything and it's already hard enough to do this without having someone breathing down my neck."I want us to talk about Adelaide, Cain."My pencil stops and I straighten my seating posture."What for?"Rhys fixes his eyes on me and I let myself become fully aware of his presence for once. He might as well be Lycan nobility himself. He's larger than me though we generally have the same body build and he looks the same way prime Lyca
Rhys is looking at me weirdly.Safira lunges at me with a bit more speed this time so I take my eyes off him and place more attention on her. There's a feeling creeping down my back that tells me Rhys is here for something, maybe he's here to distract me, I can't tell, but the way he looks at me makes me feel strange. Like he's observing me closely and it only makes me super conscious of myself.I haven't seen Cain for the past two days now and I would have loved to say the same for Lyros but that would be a lie. The Lycan king has been around, more than Cain has been around, and I'm left to wonder if that's something Lyros has caused or if Cain just doesn't want to see me."Focus Adelaide!"Safira's voice comes out angrier than I imagined and my attention snaps to her immediately. Clang!Her sword hits mine and I feel the force of it go into my arm. I spend the next few minutes dodging thrusts, deflecting jabs, repeating her words over and over in my mind as I master the art of the
Rhys blinks at my request but he nods all the same and that is when the confusion sets in. I know I'm not famed for having second thoughts but I have them now. If I'm to kiss Rhys....... if I'm to egg him on and have him take me right here and right now, what would it mean for the both of us? The answer comes to me in the form of a sound, the sound of cracking bones, and a shudder runs through me. I pull back. Rhys cocks an eyebrow up at me and when I look away, he chuckles. "You know it's wrong to give one hope and rip it away so brutally right?" I let out a frustrated sigh and flop back onto the hard floor. He's right, I do know that, but I have to stop myself before I hurt us both. "Lyros would kill us if he found out anything like that happened. He hates werewolves and he doesn't need a reason to punish me, he'd probably punish you for fucking werewolf scum though." Rhys chuckles deeply and I feel desire flare up in me again. "Who says he has to find out?" Rhys closes th