Chapter 7 Prove Worth

• Raya's POV
• “One, two.” The numbers echoed at the back of my mind as I punched hard on the punching bag in front of me, my gaze focused so hard on the tilting sack that I almost didn't hear the door creak behind me, “One, two. One, two, three.”
• My favourite part of being here wasn't necessarily the privileges of having to eat and move around freely, it was more of the morning trainings and challenging quests I had to take as a member in training.
• A stunt to prove myself worth of their loyalty.
• Of Alpha Kael's loyalty.
• The man who'd saved me that humiliating night on his territory and accepted my flaws instantly.
• I'd expected him to toss me around like they did back at my former Pack, but to my surprise, Kael kept to his words.
• He'd made sure that for the few months I'd been staying with his Pack, I was undergoing brutal and hard core training.
• I'd almost hated him for everything. For the pain and sweats that always came afterwards.
• But in about five months later, my body was slowly getting used to the pain—slowly understanding what he really wanted from me.
• He didn't want sympathy.
• He wanted my pain.
• “Arms out. Stance wide where I can see them.” His low voice ordered from behind, making me flinch in surprise and turn briefly to meet his typical unreadable silver eyes.
• “Oh, I—good morning, Alpha Kael. I didn't know how—”
• “You're losing focus again,” he muttered, looking down at me with full attention. “You need to understand to work on that weakness before it works on you, Raya.”
• I bit on the insides of my cheeks and looked away sharply, feeling my cheeks turn red from embarrassment.
• I forgot to mention how tough of a nut Kael can be too.
• While I always appreciated his efforts to refine me, deep down, I always wished he could give me a pat afterwards—or tell me how good I was doing for most sets I was going through for the day.
• But he never did any of that.
• If anything, he made sure I did a double the moment he knew that was what I was aiming for. It sucked that he had to be an Alpha; he could easily read my movements and inner expressions just by staring at me for so long.
• It didn't help that he knew my past so he always knew where to hit right to get me back on track.
• I should hate him for it. For turning me into his Pack’s training machine.
• But for some reason, I didn't. It only made the way I stared at him change.
• Respect, loyalty and a little bit of admiration was all it took for me to slowly get used to his coldness—to get used to being part of his Pack.
• “I'm sorry, Alpha Kael.” The words left my lips when I slowly came back to myself, jaws clenching as I stared hard at my front, not daring to turn back. “I'll work on being better.”
• For a moment, I thought he'd moved away or that he didn't hear my words, because the heavy silence that settled down in the air suddenly made me aware of how quiet the room had been since the early hours of the morning.
• Which it shouldn't have been, because the place was almost usually filled with warriors and sentinels training together to know who to be placed on shifts for a week and two weeks at most.
• But now? It was just me….and their Alpha.
• Ny breath slowly hitched when my gaze moved to the half-sized mirror on the wall besides me, my eyes widening slowly when they meet his cocked brows and unimpressed gaze.
• “You can't be better in the walls outside here...” He whispered, eyes glazing over as if remembering something he resented so much. “Your enemies and rivals won't give you a chance to do that, Raya.”
• I swallowed the bile stuck at the back of my throat and nodded at once, understanding where he was getting at.
• Thankfully, he didn't pry any further into the matter. Finally, he moved from behind and stepped towards my front, his hand slowly moving down the punching bag as if to examine the amount of pressure I'd impacted on it.
• Part of the reason why he'd given me this personal punching bag rather than using the Pack's general one
• He was always examining mine at the end of each training.
• And always taking notes of even more brutal assessments he'll have waiting for me the next day.
• I hated those, and he knew that. I know he did, but that didn't matter now, did it?
• “Where's…everyone else?”
• “I gave them time off,” he answered so smoothly that I blinked at how calm he could be about it. I’d been training for Goddess knows how long—probably hours now—and what? He didn't think I needed one too?
• I knew I should've slept a little longer last night. I'd failed yesterday's tests so of course he wasn't going to go easy on me today.
• “Punching bag. Don't pity it.” he stated, crossing his arms over his combat clothing, drawing my eyes briefly to his tanned, muscular arms before swallowing back what was left of my dignity. “Give me what you've got.”
• I nodded and slowly blew my cheeks, bouncing to the sides to gain momentum before I started.
• I followed his instructions as always, taking on it from the sides and swooping underneath its swings, and attacking from behind—a surprise attack for careless opponents that loses momentum quickly.
• I was few minutes in, when my fists suddenly froze in front of me, a small gasp leaving my lips when I realized that Kael was now in front of me, and not the punching bag.
• Oh, Goddess, I'd almost punched him!
• “I-I’m so sorry! Did I hit you? I didn't see you! I…I'll try that again—”
• I raised my fists but he held them back from punching the bag.
• I looked up at his unreadable eyes again, heart pounding hard as he moved even closer to my front.
• “Fight me,” he ordered, “I think your wolf needs something tougher than just bags. She's been dormant for weeks now.”
• My eyes widened. “What?”
• “Fight. Me.” he said the words slowly like he really meant them. “Show me what you got, little wolf.”
• Little wolf. The first name he'd called me back then.
• Shit, I think he took me almost punching him personally. I'm screwed.
• And before I knew what was happening, his silver eyes turned black as he created distance between us to start—those beautiful black-jet eyes that oozed of death and chaos if you stared too long at them.
• And right now, those eyes were heading towards my direction with a promise of pain and chaos.