Chapter 20. A beating

Piper

I smiled for the first time all week when I saw Leighton and the Princess arrive back, clearly they weren’t friends any more. I had been worried that he seemed smitten before he left and spending a few days together might have made him worse but it couldn’t be further from the truth.

It was be so good to have my friend back. I hadn’t had him back in my bed yet but at least I didn’t have to worry about him running of to her as they were both actively avoiding each other and rumour had it she was leaving soon. I initially wondered if he had bedded her but from experience he seemed to manage to always pretend that had never happened before so I decided it was unlikely if he was behaving like this.

I hadn’t initially been keen to let her, but Princess Izzy had been helping me get better control of my power. Now Estelle was back she took over, which I had been less keen about. However she explained I could control sound waves, I couldn’t seem to get a proper sonic pulse that I could use but could move stuff and blow up small things with her help. It was strange for royal wolf there was a massive difference in their power and Izzy already had her wolf.

Now I wasn’t so jealous of the princess and Leighton I could admit I actually liked her. She wasn’t a show of, which she really could be as she was naturally freaking good at everything.

Today was a challenge round, the best fighters from the last few days were fighting it out and she was the only shewolf left.

Normally Leighton ran this because it got fairly competitive but I was on charge today as he was “busy.”

We were in full swing when Leighton rocked up. He face grim.

“Piper a word?”

“Hey,”

“Why is princess in this ?”

“Because she earned her spot.”

He tightened his jaw. “I can run this now.”

“I got it Leigh.”

I watched him closely, I hadn’t seen him interact with the princess once since their return. There hasn’t appeared any issues either, she has thrown herself into training, and helping me. Both just going about there business, pretending they other didn’t exist but not chasing any drama either. Until now.

My heart sunk at the way he looked at her. I hadn’t had a chance to proposition him yet but things felt more back to normal so I had been feeling more hopeful.

Tonight was traditional drinks after training, both princesses were joining us for the first time, and there was a buzz through the warriors. Everyone had definitely upped their game to impress the princesses

Especially Estelle, she was a natural leader, despite the first impression you got of an overly confident, spoiled princess she was quick to prove that her confidence was justified. She didn’t mind helping either, she been staying late to help some of the lesser shewolfs with their technique. You could see the respect they had for her i their eye as they took in every word she said.

“Earth to Leighton, I got this, see you later for drinks?”

Maybe I could convince him to join me after, I had a new red dress he hadn’t seen before. It had been too long since he has been in my bed. Keeping him away from the princess was probably would help my chances, although if I could let her see us together that might just kill anything before it got a chance to start.

Containing my excitement and not allowing my thoughts to get too carried away I saw he was still here watching the fighters with interest, his face now contorting with rage.

Estelle

It was amazing how one could exhaust oneself so she didn’t need to think at night. In an effort to purge a certain beta from my mind I had take training up a whole notch. Challenging myself to win without using my powers.

I had a had quite a few beatings but I had improved so much. Izzy thought I was crazy when I told her my plan.

She had been so worried about me, when I disappeared. She apologised for calling the King but claimed that she thought he would immediately send aid to recuse me if needed and that was way she did it.

She had been a bit off. She denied it was that she was disappointed she hasn’t met her mate here, which had been what I was putting it down to.

She had been trying to help Kora the half witch responsible for sorting out the new witches Eclipse had gained. So when I snuck of to practice using my powers with Iris she was busy there.

Iris knew I controlled both light and air. I had meant to hide it but she was so powerful I needed to use both to have any chance against her. The problem was I still got so exhausted using them, we could only practice for short periods.

I shrugged of my tiredness as I stepped up the the ring. It was my turn to fight Antony, he was the top warrior here. He kept harping on about winning some award. I hasn’t beat him yet, on purpose. If he was the best I wanted to see his weaknesses. He was the one I needed to beat tomorrow.

He smirked at me when I walked into the ring, eyeing me up like I was fair game. I may have been flirting a little, he was unmated and popular with the shewolves. He spend alot of time trying to look good so impressing me might be his downfall.

I flicked my long plait over my shoulder and took up my position. Piper blew her whistle and he decsended upon me in a flurry of kicks.

Within minutes I was sweating already, simply from keeping out the way. I hadn’t landed a single blow but most importantly I hadn’t been hit.

Finally I felt a kick connect with his head but I didn’t they a chance to even think about celebrating because he was attacking again. The circle was smaller each day and it made defending, which was my strength harder.

I stumbled slightly trying to dance out of the way of his jabs and he caught me with a brutal elbow to my eye. I felt blood tickle to the corner of my eye but it wasn’t affecting my vision so I ignored it and carried on. My blood was up so there was a bit more power behind my next few blows and I made the mistake of thinking about celebrating when I caught him square in the nose, hearing a responding crack.

Now he was mad, I realised he had been pulling his punches before after the next few made there mark. I knew I would be black and blue tomorrow. Simply needing a break I backhand flipped to the edge of the circle, hoping to catch a breath when the moment I landed a roundhouse sent mt flying through the air.

I landed with a bump, meters away, panting. I heard Piper blow the whistle and I lay and caught my breath, waiting for Antony to come over so I could congratulate him. Ideally once I could break again, I think I broke a rib too.

Despite my entire body aching I felt confident that I would beat him tomorrow. This was the smallest space I would have to fight in and I now knew what I could and couldn’t get away with.

I was aware of growling and when I finally pulled myself into sitting position I could see Leighton was being pulled away from Antony by Piper.

I hobbled over, trying to look less injured than I was. I still had Iris to fight later. Antony came over to meet me.

“No hard feelings princess?”

I raised my hand in defeat, trying to keep the smirk out my voice.

“I’ll get you next time”

“You need to go the infirmary and get the eye looked at..” Piper told me.

I used that as an excuse to leave because I was acutely aware that Leighton was staring at me, assessing everything inch of me for injuries.

Izzy met me on route.

“I saw your fight. Still playing at warrior?”

“Tomrrow is the final, I’ll get to wipe the smile of his cocky face.”

“His or Leighton’s ?”

“Leigh who?” I asked innocently.

“You know I almost believed nothing happened between you two if it hadn’t been for that little show there.”

“What little show?”

“I don’t know maybe the part where he almost ripped that the warriors head off or maybe the fact that he still can’t stop looking at you.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about, he is probably just scared he gets in trouble.”

“So if I wanted a shot at the hot beta, you wouldn’t object?”

“Not at all, knock yourself out.”

We had arrived at the infirmary. I hadn’t been for a few days but I braced myself for the nurse. I was going to be in trouble when she saw the state of me.

“Princess, I know you get your wolf soon but do you really need to be doing this now?”

“I’m only here a little longer, turns out I had lots to learn.”

“Have you been taking the herbs to help with healing.”

I nodded, I had when I remembered.

“You know what else you could do? You could get your head off of your ass and just admit I’m right.” Raine sounded in my head.

“He is not my mate, so avoiding him has no bearing. In fact if he is we definitely need to avoid him. We can’t have a mate remember?”

“You don’t give me a chance to forget.”

“Well don’t Raine, it’s bad enough that Prince Alonso isn’t our mate and has met his, rejecting our mate. I really don’t want to have do that.”

“You don’t need to reject them, maybe he could find some way of making this work.”

“He is not our mate, please get out my head. Help heal me if you want a job.”

“You know I can’t do that yet. But our mate …”

She was like a dog with a bone, since we got here she had decided that Leighton was out mate and for the love of the moon goddess wouldn’t let it go.

I hoped she was wrong because I was already stupidly attracted to him so if he turned out to be my mate, I was doomed.