Page 53 of Wolf Caged (Bound to the Shadow King #1)

“Only a little.” My heart hurt as I remembered Chase and Morden arguing over my lessons and where they should start.

They never had been able to agree on what was necessary for me to know and what wasn’t.

“Chase and a friend tried to train me once. We only managed a few basic attacking and blocking techniques before we were discovered and my parents spoke to them. They fell in with pack tradition. At our fourth meeting in the woods, they told me I didn’t need to know how to fight because they were there to protect me, as were the other males in the pack. ”

If they hadn’t been discovered, or if I had been treated like the males of the pack and given the same rights as they had, I might have known how to defend myself when Lucas had set upon me and I might have escaped before he could put me in that cage.

Or it might have done nothing to help me.

Lucas was an alpha, a strong one. All the training in the world probably wouldn’t have helped me.

I clenched my fists and refused to think like that, because one day, at the end of this training, I would be strong enough to face him and he would pay for what he had done to me.

“Your world sounds far too much like mine,” Vyr grumbled and then tipped her shoulders back, her expression going steely as she looked down at me. “Few females here can fight. It falls to the males of this world. It is time we changed that.”

“Hell yeah.” I could get onboard with that. Females everywhere needed to know how to defend and protect themselves. They needed to realise they were strong, just as I was realising how strong I was. How brave I could be. “Did you learn to fight when you joined the guards?”

“No. It was before then. My brother trained me in secret.” She smiled slightly, that wistful look returning as she gazed beyond me, towards the castle.

Those looked like fond memories to me, but there was an edge of sadness to them.

“When he was old enough, Kael put me through my paces for lunar cycle after lunar cycle… until I was finally too exhausted for our secret morning weapon training sessions. He let me have a break… by swapping to training with my magic.”

Her brother had taken great care of her, ensuring she could defend herself and even hold her own against the males of this world, and her earlier words made me think it had something to do with how they had lost their parents and brother.

Kaeleron had wanted to know she could protect herself if he wasn’t there to do it for her.

He had needed to know she could survive in this ruthless, brutal world of unseelie.

“Let us put you through your paces.” Vyr motioned for me to move back. “Begin by showing me what you learned at your pack.”

I went through the moves, trying to remember every punch and kick Chase and Morden had taught me, but not doing them justice judging by how disappointed Jenavyr looked.

“My form sucks. It’s been a while and I’m a little rusty.

” I didn’t want her thinking that my friends had done a bad job of training me.

They had done their best and it wasn’t really their fault I had forgotten it in the years since they had taught me the basic moves.

I could have continued practicing in secret alone out in the woods instead of running in my wolf form, but I hadn’t.

When my parents had shut them down, I had shut down my own practice too. I had given up on learning to fight.

“Your form does indeed suck ,” Jenavyr said and I had to smile at how she used my vernacular, her tone so regal that it almost made me laugh.

She came to stand beside me, a few feet of grass between us, facing the same direction as I was.

“Copy my moves.” She assumed a fighting stance, her feet braced slightly apart for balance.

I did the same and followed every move she made at a deliberately slow pace, her technique different to the teaching method Chase and Morden had employed with me. Her fists gently cut through the air, allowing me to see every shift of her body and mimic it.

My shoulder twinged but I ignored it, continuing to repeat the swings and uppercuts, and short punches she showed me, working through them one by one even as she came to stand before me to simply watch my technique.

And continuously correct me.

“Tuck your hips.” She shifted them for me, her hands firm, and then nudged my elbow. “Keep this in. You are swinging too wide and losing power.”

I lost track of time as she drilled me, over and over again, but I was sweaty and aching by the time she rubbed her chin and nodded thoughtfully.

“I think that is enough for today. You have done well. A far better student than others in my legion.” She patted my shoulder and I grimaced, causing her to snatch her hand back. “Does it still hurt?”

I shook my head but she saw right through that lie too, so I gripped my shoulder and rolled it slightly, easing the tight muscles. “A little. The bone is mending surprisingly quickly.”

“Kaeleron healed you.” The surprise that coloured her silver irises said she hadn’t been aware of what her brother had done that night.

“I think so. He did something to the bathwater.” My cheeks scalded as her eyebrows shot up and I waved my hands in front of me, horrified I had just announced her brother had been there, bathing me, seeing me naked. “It was all very innocent.”

“I bet it was,” she muttered.

“He seemed… not himself.”

Those words stole the thunder that had been building in her eyes, replacing it with concern, and she sighed as she glanced off at the castle again.

I thought she might say something about him, about why he had been so different that night, revealing the answers I wanted, but she went to her sword instead, gathering it up and fastening it around her waist.

“We shall meet here at the same time tomorrow and I will run you through footwork, and then we will spar, and I will not go easy on you. Do not be late.”

“I won’t be.”

I kept my promise.

And Vyr kept hers, leaving me aching and bruised in places.

But feeling stronger.

One step closer to my ultimate goal.

To make Lucas pay.