Kael's POV
Alpha's Training Grounds
The training dummy shatters beneath my fist.
I stand there, breathing hard, watching the straw scatter across the ground. My knuckles are raw, bleeding through the bandages I wrapped this morning. I don't feel the pain. I don't feel anything except the burning need to hit something else.
"Again," I growl.
A young warrior scrambles to bring me a fresh dummy. He won't meet my eyes. None of them will.
They're afraid of me.
Good.
I destroy the next dummy in under a minute. Then another. And another. My muscles scream, my lungs burn, but I keep going. I keep fighting because if I stop, her face comes back.
Ariyah's face.
Her eyes, wide with shock and betrayal. Her voice, whispering my name like a prayer. The way she collapsed when the bond broke, h
