Avyaane's POV
I didn't realize how much time had passed.
Minutes? Hours?
There was nothing but the sound of my own heavy breathing and an occasional torches crackling in the dark. My limbs ached, the muscles screaming from the exertion, but I wasn't going to fall.
Not in front of them.
I'd lost track of how many times Killian had taken me down, and how many times I'd clawed my way back. My limbs felt encumbered by lead, my sight a mess of sweat and disappointment.
"Enough."
Chad's voice held above the cold air, absolute, final.
Killian recoiled, gasping, his face a mask.
I wanted to fall apart, but I forced myself to stand there, chewing on the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood.
I had endured.
And at least that was a win.
I lifted my chin and met Chad's eyes. "Happy now?" My voice cracked, but I put every word in my defiance.
He did not reply right away.
Instead he closed in, his face rendering itself excruciatingly neutral. He sized me up, his piercing blue eyes raking the beaten dapple of my body.
I hated the way he looked at me.
Like I was a riddle he couldn't figure out.
Like he was almost impressed.
I prepared myself for some frosty reply, some rag about how weak I still was.
But he simply nodded once. "Go clean up."
Then he turned around and walked out.
Just like that.
The East Wing My Room
It seemed to throb the distance to my chambers in an instant.
The moment the door slammed closed behind me I exhaled, hard, trembling fingers popping the tethers of my sodden dress. My skin was pockmarked with bruises, some had already begun to throb purple and blue.
I dragged myself to the bath, unable to stand. Steam curled around me, urging me to linger there, to shed my pain, but cocooned in it, I could feel my body tighten.
I can't stop thinking about tonight.
The way that Chad had looked at me — so quiet, so calculating. The way he hadn't mocked me, hadn't scolded me, hadn't even touched me.
Almost worse than if he had.
Or because it meant he was changing his strategy.
And that terrified me.
I closed my eyes to drown out memories. The heat felt good on my sore muscles, but couldn't release the cyclone brewing inside me.
This wasn't over.
Not by a long shot.
Chad's POV
"She's improving."
Logan rested against the stone railing outside the training grounds, though his eyes were on the trade routes rather than the sparring yards below.
Killian folded his arms and scoffed. "She's still weak."
"She was around longer than I thought," Blair interjected with a smirk. "I thought it was the first couple rounds and she would break.
I didn't say anything.
Because I was still having thoughts about her.
Avyaane had been wild tonight savage and unruly, refusing to submit even when her physical form cried for her to stop.
And instead of breaking, she had learned. Adapted.
I knew she wasn't weak. But tonight? She had demonstrated how dangerous she could be.
"Logan's like, 'She's just not going to give up,'"
"No," I admitted. "She's not."
Blair sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair. "So what now?"
I glanced over at the castle, and my adrenaline was already working on the next play.
"She wants freedom?" I murmured. "Then we're going to give her just enough to appease her she's got it."
Killian frowned. "What does that mean?"
The grin that spread across my face was slow.
"She believes we're playing a game of force," I said. "She has not recognized that real control… is through choice."
Logan's eyebrows lifted just a fraction. "Are you going to let her think she's winning?"
I shrugged. "Let's drag this out as long as we can before she turns herself in."
Because she would.
She had no other choice.
Avyaane's POV
The following morning, I awoke to a silent world.
There are no guards outside of my door.
No locked doors.
No immediate orders.
Something was wrong.
Slowly, I sat up, with sore muscles, though my brain whirred. Had they… forgotten about me? Had I somehow been freed without knowing how to make sense of this?
I picked myself up and rushed for the door. My fingers hovered near the handle, half anticipating resistance.
It turned.
Unlocked.
I stepped into the hall, tight in my throat.
It was empty.
The air was too quiet, the kind of quiet that struck a warning in my bones.
My heart pounding under my ribs, I stepped my feet. It felt like I was being tested with every step, like they had created a challenge for me to overcome.
I passed by the main hall.
Still no one.
I reached the enormous front doors.
No guards.
My hands curled into fists.
They were testing me.
They just wanted to know what would happen.
I braced my breath, a thousand questions swirling in an anxious mind. I could run. Right now.
But it was too easy.
And I didn't trust it easily.
I looked in the other direction, into the library.
If they thought it was going to go their way, they were dead wrong.
Because I was about to play mine.
The Library
It was a huge room filled with enormous shelves packed with books that reached to the ceiling. Dimming candle light flickered against the stone walls, throwing shadows between the aisles.
I exhaled, urging my heart to slow."
If I couldn't run, I wanted to know.
About them. About the pack. Whatever I could do to escape from here.
I went into a kind of frenzy, rifling through old books, pulling down anything on pack laws, Alpha rituals, mate bonds.
I had barely finished the first pages when a voice broke the silence.
"I never pegged you as the reading type."
I put the book down and turned around.
Logan.
Of course.
He leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, gazing at me with Amusement That Makes Me Want To Kill Him.
I sucked in a slow breath, doing my best to keep my voice polite. "What do you want?"
He kicked off from the wall, gliding nearer. Too close.
"I could say the same to you," he said quietly, glancing at the books I carried. "Researching something?"
I hated that he had insight into that fact.
I forced a smirk. "I was just refreshing myself, you know."
Logan tilted his head, studying me like a predator-sized their prey. "Knowledge can be dangerous."
"And so can ignorance," I said.
His lips twitched slightly. "Clever."
I turned away and walked back toward the shelves. I wasn't about to give into his satisfaction of wanting to play games."
But every time I reached to pick up some other book, he appeared.
Behind me.
Close enough so that I could feel the heat of his body, the weight of his presence on me.
My pulse spiked.
His voice was low, smooth. Dangerous.
"You know," he said with a small sigh, "to understand us you can just ask."
I refused to turn around. "Well, what if I don't want to understand you?"
Logan chuckled. "Then that's a shame."
I swallowed hard.
I hated how relatively, it had been for them to corner me.
How no matter what I did they were always one step ahead.
But that was going to change.
For if they had wanted to play this game…
I was going to win.