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I rolled my eyes, making sure he saw how insolent I was behaving. He quickly pushed my shoulder and I had to step back.
He tilted his head to the side. “As I thought,” he said. “Actually try to stop your body from giving into the tension. Prove to me how capable you are.”
I clenched my teeth. As far as I was concerned, I didn’t have to prove anything to him. Yet, there was part of me that wanted to beat him, that wanted to show him I could stop him. Something about showing him up.
“Ready?”
Before I could respond, he moved. I sucked in my stomach and held my breath. Everything in me tightened.
And then his fingers hit my shoulders. While my feet didn’t move, my shoulders pushed back. There was no strength, blocking him.
Was I really this weak?
He smirked. “As I thought,” he muttered. “You have a long way to go. You won’t be joining in physical combat because you are not physically…adequate.” His eyes dropped down, but not in a lecherous way. If anything, he was studying me like a scholar studied a text. “You are a flimsy thing, a twig on the cusp of being snapped. The breeze could blow you a distance.”
My fingers curled into fists. “Does it bring you joy?” I asked. “To insult me?”
“Do you think I would be joyful over the fact that my pack’s latest recruit is the weakest link?” he asked in a hushed voice. He leaned forward, only a few inches from my face. “It is my responsibility to care for every single member in my pack, wolf or otherwise. And unfortunately for me, that includes you. You must build muscle and strength before you learn to fight. Until then, work on your stamina. Go. Run. Run like your life is on the line. Because one day, it will be.”
And then he turned his attention back to everyone else.
I was forced to run.
So, I did.
I ran. But I refused to cry.
I hated Captain Byron. I loathed his very being. But I would prove to him that I could be more than what he saw me as.
No matter what it took.
Adrya
After dinner, I returned to my room to brush my teeth and prepare for my meeting with my father. The entire time, Rianne’s voice rang in my head:Talk to your father, talk to your father, talk to your father.
The thing was, I had no idea what to even say to him. I knew he mentioned wanting to speak to me about something important – was this about the Marriage Law? Had he thought of someone for me?
Or was it about something else?
Something in regards to Matthyw finding me at that brothel?
I still wouldn’t put it past him to say something, to ruin everything for me.
But I also knew I would feel extremely hurt if it turned out he did tell my father about that, even if I expected it. And I hated how weak I had become for him.
How was I supposed to be an Alpha when I was so…weak?
I pulled my hair in a ponytail and paced up and down the length of the rug Taskier had given to me for my dorm as a welcome to the academy gift. Paired with the wooly socks Rianne knitted for me last Christmas, it was enough to keep me warm, even as the night’s chill lingered longer and longer.
By the time nine bells tolled throughout the building, I was cold and tired but determined to speak to my father as he requested. Rianne wasn’t anywhere to be found, which wasn’t exactly odd. I would find her out past eleven, in the library, sleeping on top of the tomes she checked out in order to research whatever niche report topic she talked her professors into letting her write about.
I slid on pink slippers and tucked a pale red robe around my body before emerging from my rooms. My father’s room was just down the hall. I wasn’t sure how I felt being this close to him, but I figured if we lived in a regular house, it would be relatively similar. Butterflies tumbled around in my stomach as I approached the door. I wasn’t sure why I was nervous; it was like my life might change after this conversation, and I wasn’t sure if I was ready for it yet.
When I knocked, it was my father who answered the door himself. He smiled softly when he saw me, though his eyes were surprisingly filled with exhaustion. I wondered if he noticed the same in mine.
“You came,” he said, stepping back and allowing me room to step through.
“I did,” I murmured, tucking hair behind my ear even though I didn’t actually need to.
