By the way Roman’s lips curled into a smirk, he knew that he had me right where he wanted me. I couldn’t make a scene—or risk being kicked out. I had to listen to him, had to respect him.
“Am I lying to him, Derek?” I asked, glaring at Roman.
Derek paused, tensed behind me, then shook his head. “No.” His voice was quiet—and I could tell that Roman could sense his lie. But instead of saying anything, Roman gazed between us, eyes lingering on Derek’s hands on my hips, then clenched his jaw.
“You can leave now,” I said. “Practice doesn’t start for another fifteen minutes. Why don’t you go see what’s wrong with Vanessa?” The annoying ass bitch that couldn’t keep her hands off of him. I turned away from him and tapped my foot on the ground.
Was I jealous? Yes. He was driving me crazy. I didn’t know what was going on between us, what to call it even. Were we fuck buddies? Friends with benefits?
I thought so, but then he brought me to the cave the other night. That wasn’t just any spot. That was our spot when we were younger and then all that talk about when we were younger and his mother liking me and letting me keep one of his mother’s most valuable possessions. It made me think—hope—that maybe there was something more because I was feeling all these weird feelings that I hadn’t felt. But… now… I didn’t know what to think.
A tree branch broke in the woods to our right. I gazed over to see a wolf with thick black fur shift into a human. Moonflower tattoos covered his forearms. A large scar ran down the side of his neck. The man had the natural aura of a warrior: strong, stoic, and stony. His eyes were cold, and his arms were crossed, and he was staring right at me. I sucked in a breath.
Roman growled lowly, glaring at him, then turned back to me. “I hope you’ll try a little harder today, Isabella. Try not to get on my nerves, try not to embarrass yourself… Just try.”
I snapped my head to his. “Get on your nerves? I think you need to re-evaluate yourself before you start telling m—”
“You should just leave,” he said suddenly. “If you don’t want to respect me, if you want to continue this little game that you’re playing with Cayden and not take this seriously, you should leave.”
Derek threw an arm around my shoulders andplayfullyplaced his hand over my mouth to shut me up. “She will try today, Alpha. I’ll make sure of it.”
Roman gazed between us, then back at the naked man walking through the woods. Without another word, he turned and started toward him.
Derek smacked me on the arm. “Alright, listen. I don’t know what happened between you two, but you can’t go talking to him like that.” He shook his head. “Just please… control yourself today. Give it your all without hurting anyone, especially Vanessa.”
I pressed my lips together. “No promises.”
~~~
Roman didn’t practice with us. Instead, he and his annoying ass attitude watched from the side with that wolf. They barely looked at each other; Roman would just nod his head now and then.
The man lifted his hand to rub the stubble on his jaw. My eyes widened when I saw the silhouette of a werewolf tattooed on the back of it. It was a symbol of the Lycan Warriors.
The Lycan Warriors were a group of the best warriors from all packs. There was nothing physically different between a werewolf and a Lycan, but Lycans tended to be smarter and better in combat. They dedicated their lives to protecting werewolves from vicious rogues like the ones that killed Roman’s parents.
Cayden threw me onto the ground and landed on top of me, but I couldn’t stop gawking. Lycans were everything that I trained to be, but more. Since I was young, I had dreams of protecting my pack. I would even pray to the Moon Goddess that I could be as strong as a Lycan someday.
I pushed myself off of the ground and turned back to Cayden. Why was he here? Lycans rarely visited packs to oversee practices.
Whatever the reason, I wasn’t going to let him see Cayden push me around so easily. Even though I didn’t know him, I respected him. More than I respected Roman, at this point. I was going to show off my abilities to this Lycan, maybe even get him to recruit me.
Cayden lunged at me, but I sprawled back, curled an arm under his shoulder, and turned him onto his back, pinning him to the ground. He struggled underneath me, but I didn’t let him up. I continued to drive his shoulders into the ground until Roman growled at me and told me to stop.
Throughout practice, I took down Cayden over and over. Only letting him take me down twice during the whole two-hour period. I fought like my life was on the line and harder than any other students from my class.
When practice was over, Roman and the Lycan disappeared into the packhouse, arguing with each other, but not before gazing back at me and clenching his jaw, a conflicted expression on his face.
“Do you two want to join us?” Cayden asked, sitting next to Derek and me while rummaging through his bag for his clothes. “We’re all going out to The Night Raider’s Café for some drinks. It’s a tradition that the warriors and the trainees go out the night before Roman assigns positions.”
I gazed across the yard to see Vanessa grinning at a female warrior wolf. My hand tightened into a fist. “Is she going to be there?”
Cayden followed my gaze and sighed. “Unfortunately.” He turned back to me, lightly tapping my shoulder. “But, hey… last day she’ll be bothering you.”
“Last day?” Derek asked.
Cayden tugged on his shirt and looked around to make sure nobody was listening. “You think she’ll make the team? She can barely do a sit-up without complaining. Roman already can’t take her shit.” He smoothed out his shirt and slung his bag over his shoulder. “So, you coming?”
Chapter 10
