"Pair up into sparring partners!" Thomas commanded, his voice cutting through the groans of his students. He needed to push them. The warrior exam was looming, and they were closer than they thought to qualifying.
A tense silence fell over the small group of guards. Kael, the beta's right-hand man, exchanged a glance with the others. They had been instructed to keep Trinity away from everyone, but they had no authority over a teacher's lesson. "I will spar with the beta's daughter," Skip offered, disarming himself. The other three guards spread out, their eyes locked on Trinity.
Across the field, Ryan and Johnny paused their approach. Ryan's gut churned. The guards' possessiveness felt extreme, as if they were trying to completely isolate her. Something was wrong.
After ensuring every student had a partner, Thomas continued his instructions. "We're still working on control. You'll need to draw a line of blood from a critical, non-lethal zone." He had a few second-year students watching over the sparring matches, but his eyes were fixed on Trinity. If she got hurt, he knew he'd have to answer to the beta.
Kael handed a silver blade to both Trinity and Skip. "Careful," he warned Skip, his voice low. They had watched Trinity move the night before—a shadow disappearing into the dark.
Skip knew better than to underestimate the girl. She was deadly with a gun and impossibly fast. He would have to rely on his instincts. Trinity, for her part, held the silver blade at her side, her eyes never leaving his. The moment his right foot began to lift, she blurred behind him. Her movement was a ghost—no footfalls, no rustle of air.
He hadn't even heard her. Frowning, he lunged, swinging his blade in a sharp arc aimed at her stomach. The blade met empty air. Before he could finish his turn, he felt a light trickle of blood at the base of his neck.
"No fucking way!" he growled, touching his neck in disbelief. She was already back where she started, a smirk playing on her lips.
Jess couldn't focus on her fight with Mona. She watched Trinity expertly overpower one of her guards, leaving a small trace of blood along the base of his neck. But Jess couldn't make out her movements. It was like she was teleporting. Jess had never seen anyone else do that.
"What is she?" she muttered more to herself. But Mona was able to hear her easily.
"What do you mean?" Mona's eyes darted between the fight and Jess, unsure what she was missing. If Johnny was right, she was becoming a wolf, just enhanced.
"No one moves that fast." Jess wasn't an idiot. As much as she acted as if she wasn't paying attention to the Wolves around her, she was very aware of their skills and abilities. They were fast. Some of them a complete blur. But this was on a different level. And from what she had noticed, the strongest of the pack could move that fast. New wolves were clumsy and slow.
Mitchell, another of Trinity's guards, stepped forward. He took the blade from Skip, his eyes narrowing. He wanted to see her speed for himself. As he watched, he noticed it—she didn't move until she perceived a movement from him. It was a minuscule tell, but it was enough to turn the tide.
Mitchell bounced on his feet before faking a movement to his right, only to punch in the opposite direction. Trinity felt like she was gliding on ice with her every move. It was as if she was the only thing that remained still while the world reformed around her. She watched him move right only to go left, like a toddler stumbling. She waited for him to complete his strike on the empty space. Once he finished, she moved like a flash of lightning, standing in front of his face. She nicked his neck before appearing back at her original spot.
"Goddess be damned, did you see that?"
"Her father has beta and Alpha blood!"
"I can't even follow her movements."
Slowly, the wolves started to notice Trinity and her odd movements, her impossibly fast speed and deadly efficiency.
Mitchell looked to Ian and Kael, a silent question in his eyes as to who would go next. "Trinity," Thomas called out, his voice a low rumble. He had watched her with interest. He knew what she was doing. His old pack, the Shadowfangs, fought the same way. "So, you know what you're doing." He didn't ask so much as he warned, "Don't lose yourself to it." She nodded but remained silent. "What will you do when a fighter can match your speed?"
Trinity lifted her blade in a simple, cold gesture. Thomas chuckled. "Then try to win without the boost."
Trinity's jaw clenched. It wasn't fair. She'd been paired against wolves with their own boosts all this time. Now hers was a "bad thing"? A guttural snarl ripped from her throat, her lips pulling back on their own to expose the sharpened canines of a wolf.
Her guards immediately drew their real weapons, forming a protective circle around her. The beta hadn't explained why she didn't speak, but her mouth was a dead giveaway.
Her teeth and throat were in a partial shift, and she didn't know how to form human words in this state. Her mind clouded, a primal fury building. She wanted blood.
The vicious sound silenced the field. Every student turned, their focus drawn to the defective. No defective should be able to make such a sound.
"She's a fucking wolf," someone whispered in surprise.
"This isn't a good thing!" Johnny hissed to Ryan, who hadn't taken his eyes off Trinity the entire class, losing every match due to his lack of focus.
Jess rushed to ryan, ignoring her own fight. "We should help her."
Ryan didn't wait. He sprinted to Trinity's side, his twin blades held to the throats of two of her guards. "Touch her, and I'll kill you," he snarled.
"Back off, pup," Skip warned.
The air grew thick with tension. Trinity's eyes, however, never left Thomas. Her growls slowly subsided. Thomas correctly guessed that she didn't like his warning against relying on a skill that could risk her mind.
"It's fine. This is a simple disagreement in methods," Thomas said calmly. He drew his own blade from his back. Rolling his wrist, he expertly twirled the blade, taking a fighter's stance. He needed to get a read on her mental state. She was completely withdrawn.
Trinity didn't wait for his movement. She launched herself forward, her blade aimed for his neck—a brutal, full-strength blow. Thomas frowned at her ruthless attack. He tapped into his own hidden abilities, blocking her lethal strike and using her momentum against her, tossing her away.
She landed on her feet, circling him at normal speed before striking again with deadly efficacy. A punch aimed at his face, while her free hand sliced toward his thigh. He moved just enough for her punch to graze his chin, then kicked down hard on her wrist, stepping back to let her recover.
"Shouldn't somebody stop this?" Mona winced every time Thomas's blade sliced into Trinity's body.
Kael grimaced as a large, angry purple bruise bloomed across Trinity's forearm. She didn't show a flicker of pain. Her eyes narrowed as she closed the distance again, punching furiously. Her wrists arched back with every blow, aimed to do damage even as she withdrew her fists.
Thomas slid back, his boots digging into the soft earth, kicking up a cloud of dust. The twin blades in Trinity's hands were a whirlwind of motion, a gleaming silver blur. She was a different fighter now, her movements propelled by a raw, untamed power that made her strikes brutally fast and shockingly strong. Thomas knew he had to go on the offensive. He needed to see just how savage she had become.
A guttural snarl tore from her throat as she closed the distance. Thomas ducked under a horizontal swipe, the blade whistling past his ear, and blocked an upward thrust with his forearm. The impact sent a jolt of pain up his arm, but he held firm. A small, grim smile touched his lips. He pressed forward, moving faster than she was. He didn't know how she'd learned his past techniques, but there was a difference between someone who tried something new and someone who was born with the pack's strength. He circled her in a whirlwind of motion, his blade a blur, drawing blood as it arced across her hip. A clean slice. The wound didn't heal. Her blood soaked into her shirt.
Thomas watched as Trinity took in the damage. Her hand touched her hip, feeling the blood seep into her skin. Her eyes narrowed, another growl slipping from her throat. She was losing herself to her primal urges, attacking viciously as if her life depended on it.
She feinted, a quick lunge toward his stomach, causing him to shift his weight. She spun, bringing the other blade around in a tight, vicious arc aimed for his head. He saw it coming, his muscles reacting on instinct, but he wasn't fast enough. The blade scraped his temple, drawing a line of red that instantly healed.
Thomas worried for Trinity. She was so close to the edge of no return. One false move and she would become feral, something no one came back from. Her wolf had emerged so late in life, and so improperly, that it had fractured her. He wasn't sure there was much of her left inside. If only she had a mate, they would be able to pull her mind back and repress her primal side. Even at the beginning of the day, when he had taught her how to control her senses, he had thought she wasn't as far gone. But this fight had exposed that the real Trinity, the true woman, was slipping away far faster than anyone had truly noticed. Unlike other ferals who would be stuck in wolf form and unable to communicate, she was stuck in this mutated, destructive state that left her unable to communicate. Her mind was lost in her human form, and her wolf was stealing her sanity. He wasn't sure how he could help her.
Trinity, her vivid gold irises pulsing with the life of a wildfire, lunged again. Thomas's own hands shifted, the bones in his fingers lengthening, his nails extending into dark, razor-sharp claws. He met her next strike, a powerful downward slash, with a deafening clash of metal on claws. Sparks flew. The force of the impact shook the ground. The brutal, honest fight had begun.
Author's note:
I've been sick for the last couple of days. Hopefully I'm going to start feeling better. I will still be uploading chapters.