The Aurelia⎪✓

{14}

Valorous

(adj.) courageous; valiant; brave

♡

"What the hell do you mean?" I huffed at Grant in frustration. "Why do we even have to do this?"

He was trying to teach me how to fight and the frustration was because of how easily I could ruin him, but here we were, with him showing me the most basic techniques. I wanted to yell at him, that would expose me though so I had to endure the ridiculous lesson.

Grant tried to punch me in my stomach and I quickly dodged, "Because you told us at dinner yesterday that you'd never been taught self defense, of course I had to do something. And if I hadn't asked for this, Alpha would have demanded it."

We were standing on their fighting field, hundreds of werewolves were here fighting each other and I had to end up fighting the most annoying of the bunch. Even though I was better than him, he still was incredibly strong and fast, my breathing was labored by how much he'd challenged me, but I would never admit that to anyone.

Kicking his side, he didn't see me coming and got the full force of my leg. "See, not that bad at all." Sarcasm was my armor, especially in situations like these where I wanted nothing more than a couch.

"Wrong." He said and swooped his legs under mine, making me fall to the ground.

The grass was wet and felt amazing against my hands, the thoughts of running freely in the woods sprang to my mind and before I knew it a horrible pain tugged at my torso. It felt like I was burning up from the inside. Images sprung to mind, seeing a wolf with the clearest golden fur and the whitest eyes, just running in the woods, dodging trees and enjoying the freedom of being alone. It was me, it was my wishes and my wolf's deepest desires, but I couldn't risk that right now. Hoping to get my wolf under control and also having to seem unsuspicious to Grant I rose from the ground and met his eyes with a smirk.

"That all you got?" I sneered at him, cracking my knuckles for added effect. He seemed surprised by my rude question, before a drive took over in his eyes, a drive I hadn't ever seen before. He wanted this win. Well, fuck no, Grant.

A left fist flew towards my face, dodged it.

Right leg swung under me trying to make me fall again, jump!

A laugh bubbled up my throat by his pathetic attempts at getting to me. Letting the fighter within me get the upper hand, my hand grabbed his arm and twisted it onto his back, pressuring the slightest to apply pain. Before my feet kicked on the back of his legs, forcing him onto his knees. Releasing my grip on his arm, I walked in front of him with crossed arms and a smile of victory on my face.

"Never underestimate me." I said as quietly as possible, tilting his face upwards with my hands.

His confused eyes met mine, "How in the actual hell did you do that?"

Like pouring a glass of water over me, I realized what I'd done. Taking a step away from him by the realization. He was the best fighter in the pack besides Arrax, and I'd just fought him onto his knees. That shouldn't even be an option for a normal werewolf, especially a normal werewolf with no self defense. I might as well have written 'AURELIA' in big bold letters across my forehead. Such a stupid move.

Trying to play it off, "I guess you had a bad day, is someone distracting you?"

"No, but let's try again, this can't be real." He said and got to his feet again, towering over me with his intimidating height.

'OUT!' My wolf suddenly screamed, the feeling of a knife ripping me apart on the insides so painful I couldn't breathe. My hand flew to my stomach in an attempt to comfort myself from my self destruction.

"Get ready for the rematch of the year, Aspen." He started, but I could barely hear it over the ringing in my ears. "Three..."

A gush of needles prickled up my legs and left a shiver of extreme pain in their wake, this couldn't be happening. Not here.

"Two..."

His voice was so far away from my reality right now, the thought of what was going on so scary that I barely registered everything.

'RELEASE!' She screamed again, pushing against my chest with such force it felt like my ribs broke under her pressure. She wanted to get out, needed to actually. Her pressure got rougher and rougher, before a crack could be heard.

"One..."

I didn't have the time to react, a painful hit in my side awoke every painful sensation inside of me, letting my wolf torture me on the insides with the kick Grant had just delivered. No feeling of surroundings I suddenly felt a hard hit to my head and the coldness of the grass seeping through my clothes, letting my hot skin cool down.

"Alpha!" A frantic voice yelled in the distance, was it just a part of my imagination or was it real.

"What the fuck is going on here?" His voice reached my ears, for some reason calming down the pain inside of me. He was giving my wolf exactly what she needed, she needed Arrax. She finally gave up on breaking free from me, allowing me to inhale a strangled breath. I had no idea how long she'd cut off my breathing, but with the dizziness of my mind I knew this was dangerous.

"I just kicked her, but we were training like she said she wanted. I swear she beat me in a fight before, this was a rematch." A frantic Grant tried to explain, but even I could feel the anger radiating off Arrax in intense waves.

The rematch didn't matter though, not at all, not when I was fighting something much bigger and even more dangerous, I was fighting myself.