purrs, blocking my fist with a slap of his hand. “You can do better than that.”
“It’s been hours asshole,” I pant. “Isn’t it enough already?” Sweat glistens my forehead as I lean over and put my hands on my knees. We have been sparring since this morning, and I’m damn near close to collapsing on the floor. We have been training with Taylor since he came to Eridian, but this? This is pure fucking torture.
“You need to get better, and you need all the skills you can get to survive.” Darius takes a step toward me and straightens me up. I groan as my muscles protest. “Feet shoulder width apart and lean into your hit, always. Don’t pull back at the last seconds for your next maneuver. You don’t know how things will go, or what your opponent’s next move is. So every hit, every strike, it counts.” I nod, blowing out a breath. “Let’s work on your power control and then wrap up for the day.”
I look around at the rest of the pack and see them in a similar state as I am. Taylor and Colten seem to be the only ones still going strong, they have barely broken a sweat. Seb runs around in his wolf while Josh blocks his attacks. Neither can get a hit on the other.
The weather is a lot cooler now that we are in the first week of fall. The leaves are beginning to change color, and I take in the scents around me, loving being out in the open even though I have sweat dripping down my back.
“Okay, let’s try with magic.” I bring my hands up, calling to the power within me and feel it answering my call. The strands inside me rush to the surface, mist forming around my hands. Darius watches on, calling his own. His mist turns solid as he raises his hands, and I wish I had his control. “How do you have so much control when you didn’t even remember you were an Heir until I broke through?” I ask him.
Darius looks down at his hands, his power moving over them. “I told you, this is as easy as breathing. When you and your wolf are in harmony, I’m sure it will feel the same. It feels no different than having a blade in my hand, an extension of my own body that I can do with as I please.” His power shoots out of his hands, splitting off from him and wrapping around my own. Black and blue intertwine and it feels like his hand is in my own, not his power. “Try and force mine off of you,” he orders, and I look down at my hand to concentrate.
I will my power to push through his, to grip it in my own and twist it off of me. But my power has its own ideas and eagerly strokes over his. I scoff at the audacity of it. I push harder, licking my lips as finally, my mist moves, pushing against his. The black moves a little away from my hand, bristling until it moves back, gathering tighter around the blue. I can feel my energy start to drain with my efforts, and I growl, getting more frustrated when it doesn’t budge at all anymore.
“Calm,” Darius commands, and my head snaps up to him. “Control your emotions, your power is a part of you, within you. If your mind is all over the place, your power will be too.”
“I’m…struggling,” I admit, hating the weakness I have over my emotions at the moment, but I know I need his help. My legs start to shake, and my bones hurt.
His eyes hold mine before they roam over my face. “I know, little wolf, which is why you have to try harder. The good thing is that you recognize it, and now you can figure out a way to help yourself with it.” He steps closer until his chest brushes the front of mine, and I drop my hands to my sides. I look up at him, our powers still wrapped together around my hands. “Has it always been like this?”
I swallow. “No, not really. Since I let my Heir power in completely, I feel wild. Just… wild.” It’s a constant swirling within me, a constant battle of my power and myself. Like it’s wrapping around my soul but poking and prodding at it, aggravating it to make it unpredictable and therefore, making me unpredictable too. “I don’t like it.”
His hand comes up to the side of my face, his thumb running along my jaw. “You need to get your wolf out as soon as you are ready.”
“I know, I just need a little more time to prepare.” I just want more time with Runa before she hates me.
“It’s said that when you are an Heir, what makes us powerful is that the magic within us is one with our wolf’s. That’s why we are able to do things others cannot and only dream about. It is a rarity, powerful, special and heavy. Being an Heir comes with a lot of hardships, at least in this age.”
I shake my head and sigh. “It’s not like I don’t want her to come out, I just don’t want to force her to. It feels cruel, and I know it will hurt her. She was hurt enough,” I whisper the last words, my head drooping in guilt, but Darius doesn’t let me. His palm connects with my face, holding me steady.
“It wasn’t your fault,” he growls, and I scoff. He shakes my head a little, his eyes hard as his fingers dig into my skin. “It wasn’t, little wolf. How could a child help what happened? You need to let this way of thinking go.”
“I could have stopped her from coming out, I could have prevented it and kept her safe within me. I failed one of the most precious things in my life.” She was as young as I was, just a pup in terms of age. We both were too young, and we were wrongly hurt again and again. Getting your wolf is the most surreal experience we can have, sacred, and I let her down.
Magic gathers in my chest suddenly, the heat of my face letting me know my markings have appeared, and Darius watches them appear intently, trailing his gaze over them as they form. I see the ones on his neck, pulsing with mine, like recognizing like. I lift my hand, my power still floating around it and touching a single finger to one, delicate line under his jaw. I gently trace it down his neck to the curve where it meets his shoulder, feeling his power beneath my fingertip. He swallows hard, a deep sound coming from his chest that I feel bone deep inside of me. I close my eyes and breathe him in, just feeling peace for a second. A touch against my lips has my eyes springing back open, to see the only eyes that have ever captivated me.
He watches me with an intensity I have never felt before as our breaths mingle against each other, our lips touching but not fully connecting. I watch his pupils dilate, and I feel my own eyes change as once again, everything disappears and all my focus, all I see, is him.
The male with the wisps, the wolves, a boyish look on his face that’s so rare and few and far between, the one rubbing his nose gently against mine. When he looks at me with such unguarded intensity, it feels like I can’t breathe, yet breathe fully for the first time in my life.
He will be my savior.
My destroyer.
My moonlight if I let him be.
“You are the most dangerous person to me.” I whisper against his lips, reminding him or myself, I don’t know.
“And you are the most beautiful,” he murmurs before his lips are fully on mine, demanding access instantly. I part my lips and let him in. He makes a sound of approval as I cling to the sides of his neck while he tastes me. A hand moves up my back, fingers trailing up my spine until it’s at my hair. His fingers glide between the strands before he grips it in his fist and tilts my head back. A moan escapes my throat at the dominating hold, and he pulls me closer to him, our mouths never stopping, never not tasting while we feel each other.
He gentles the kiss, moving slower and savoring it until he moves back. My eyes slowly open and lock with bright ones, blinking away the haze of desire that he has stirred within me. He smirks, his own eyes heating before he pulls me to him again and rubs his nose against mine.
Wrapped in his embrace, for a few moments my worries, doubts and fears all fade away. Like he took them from me to give me this moment of peace.
And then I’m flat on my ass.
I grunt, my eyes widening in shock as I stare up at Darius above me, a chuckle falling from his lips. “Never let your guard down, little wolf.”
“For Gods’ sake,” I grumble out, looking up toward the sky and sighing.
As much as I enjoyed that moment of peace, he quickly reminded me of how fast that can be ripped away from me.
“Hey,” Josh says as he and Colten come over, and I see Darius tensing out the corner of my eye. I wave a hand in greeting, noticing Hudson not far behind them, it brings a smile to my lips.
“Hey Colten,” I say, my eyes meeting his. “Met any strapping Elites that tickle your fancy?”
He sputters, his cheeks turning a shade of red as Hudson steps up next to him, a scowl on his face as he glares at him. “Rhea!” I shrug, keeping the smile from my face. “We haven’t been near any other Elites so how would I know.”
“You can still look and see if you like any. I can come with you and we can sneak a look at them while they’re sparring. They would all be sweating, muscles on display— Hey!”
“You will not go near any of my fucking men whether they are sparing or not,” Darius growls in my face, holding me by my arms so I’m practically dangling where he has me lifted off the ground.
“Why not?” I ask him, and his eyes flare, a deep, rumbling growl coming from him as he throws me over his shoulder. “Darius!” I screech. “You need to stop shoving me up here, I can walk on my own and you can’t keep throwing me around like a rag doll.” I punch his ass and scowl when he doesn’t even miss a step.
A smack on my own ass makes me jolt. “You will not look at my men, and my men will not look at you all flustered. They will not eye every curve of this fucking body of yours, and you will not see them wanting to fuck you then and there. You dare spar with them and I’ll fuck you in front of them all, and then they can see what they will never fucking get.” His arm tightens over my thighs. “Do you fucking hear me, Rhea?”
No, no I fucking don’t because my panties are suddenly wet, my thighs are squeezing together and my breaths are coming out faster at his possessiveness.
“Rhea,” he demands.
“Okay,” I say a lot more breathlessly than I thought I would. I may have agreed, but a part of me wants to push him to see how far he really would go. “Maybe—“
“Rogures!” Our heads snap toward the shout, seeing Damian rushing toward us through the branches. We scramble to our feet, rushing out to meet him.
“Where?” Darius demands, making his way across the willow field and toward the keep.
“West, heading straight for us,” Damian tells him. “Darius, there are many, I haven’t seen this many together before. Leo is calling to arms, the Elites should be ready soon.”
Darius nods and he opens the door to the keep, rushing up the stairs with Damian and I on his trail. “Get archers on the battlements, have a quarter of men go wolf, and the rest to be equipped with weapons. I’ll be there soon.”
Damian speeds off down a hallway and I follow Darius back to his room. He starts undressing, reaching into another small room and starts donning his armor. I rush ahead and grab his black wrist guards and begin tying them to his forearms. He pauses and watches me, curiosity in his eyes.
“The least I can do is help. My pack is here, you will protect them whether you mean to or not. I will help.”
“I will protect everyone within this keep and no, you will not help,” he growls harshly.
“Dar,” I start.
“No,” he repeats, putting on the rest of his armor. The red and gold straps across his chest are a stark reminder of his status as Alpha of the Elites. “No one knows you are here, if you do help, they will find out and we haven’t confirmed all the Elites who are loyal to me.”
“I’ll wear a hooded piece of armor and a face mask, they won’t even realize it’s me.”
“They will if you use your Heir power,” he argues.
“Then I won’t,” I compromise.
“And what? Risk yourself getting killed? Not a fucking chance, Rhea.”
“I cannot just stay cooped up in a room and do nothing, Darius.”
“You can and you will!” he roars, and I flinch. His eyes flicker in regret for a brief moment before he turns sharply.
“Don’t you dare,” I rush after him as he heads for the door. “Don’t you dare lock me in this room again!” He slams the door shut and I scream out my frustrations, banging on the impenetrable wood. “I can help, you cannot expect me to stay here.”
“You need to be safe, Rhea, you are not at your best right now, you are still recovering,” Darius says from the other side of the door. “I cannot do what I do best if I’m worrying about you out there.”
“And what do you do best?” I ask.
“Destroy.”
