Rite of Power (Rite #2) Teaser

1: Selene

I groaned inwardly as my head throbbed. Why did I drink so much last night? Worse, why had I insisted on keeping my regularly scheduled training session this morning? I just knew I was about to spend the next 3 hours getting my ass handed to me. It was no use; I’d brought all of this on myself.

I snuggled against the side of the man beside me and breathed in the delicious smoky sandalwood and dark earthy spice of his scent. Staying in bed with him was a much more appealing way to spend my morning. If I didn’t feel like I was still trying to play catch up with everyone else, I might give into the temptation. Sighing, I renewed my resolve to slip out of his embrace and face the world head on.

His arms tightened around me, “Just tell him that you’re skipping today.”

It took more effort than I wanted it to wiggle out of his grasp. When I could finally sit up and look down at him and frowned, “I’m surprised you haven’t already ordered him to skip it for me.”

He chuckled, stretching out before propping himself up on elbow to watch me as I climbed the rest of the way out of the bed. “No way,” he smirked at me, “I’d rather not be the object of your wrath. But if you’d like a good workout this morning, I could think of a few things to get your blood pumping.”

I jumped out of the bed, dodging his attempt to pull me back in. “We worked out plenty last night,” I teased, disappearing into my side of the closet to grab a sports bra and some leggings to train in. I almost collided into him as I headed back into the bedroom to let him watch me dress. “You don’t have to get out of bed, I’ll be back up in a few hours,” I landed a quick kiss on his lips, twisting away to avoid getting caught up in his grasp.

“I’m going with you,” he called back as he grabbed some clothes of his own.

“Oh, no you don’t,” I warned, “It is not going to turn into one of those sessions, not today Dmitri!”

He came out in a pair of gym shorts and a sleeveless tee that stretched tight over the broad expanse of his chest while showing off the definition of every muscle of his arms. I’d never seen him dressed this casually before; damn it, he still looked amazing. “I’m not leaving your side until we know that your uncle is back on his side of the globe.”

I frowned as I pulled on a pair of running shoes, “We’ve sent scouts to follow him and report on his movements. We’ve doubled the patrols and sentinels posted. He hasn’t brought an army with him that we know of,” I grabbed a hair tie off my nightstand to gather my long red curls up into a messy bun, “Aside from a few verbal jabs last night, he hasn’t done anything aggressive.”

“I said I’m not leaving your side, Selene,” he growled, his wolf adding an edge to his voice. The shadow dancing behind his ice blue eyes and the set of his jaw was almost a challenge.

“Fine,” I grumbled, “I think you’re being a little over protective, but fine, we’ll do it your way for now.”

“You said she sounded panicked,” he tried to reason with me. His worry trickled through the mate bond, making me feel a little bit guilty for being so stubborn. He was right; something that could make my other self panic had to be a real threat. I just couldn’t run and hide from it like he wanted me too.

We’d invited the threat. It couldn’t have been avoided, custom dictated that my closest relatives and alpha of my native pack be invited when we formally announced ourselves as bonded alpha mates. It was just dumb luck that he was the Alpha of Alphas. I took a deep breath trying to separate his feelings from mine, “I said we’ll do it your way.”

He wrapped his arms around my waist, “I just don’t want to risk it if we don’t have too. It would kill me to lose you.” The truth of his words coiled around me.

“Then let’s hope that he’s just here to verify that I am who I say I am, and congratulate us on our bond, so he can go back home to his own pack,” I pulled him into a deep distracting kiss.

‘Dmitri is insisting on joining us this morning,’ I linked to Nathan, his Beta, to warn him.

‘I know,’ his thought came to me with an air of amusement, “it was my idea. He wanted me to cancel on you.”

I pulled out of the kiss abruptly and narrowed my eyes up at him; I couldn’t say anything without risking him punishing Nathan. “Quit being so distracting,” I smacked his chest with mock annoyance, “You’ll make me late, and then I’ll be in a bad mood all day.” A wolfish smile curled his lips up, and he reluctantly released his hold.

“Goddess, have mercy on me,” he teased.

“Not likely,” I promised heading out of our rooms, “You’ll be lucky if I don’t knock you on your ass instead.”

Most of the house was still asleep, aside from the sentries posted and the kitchen staff getting a head start on breakfast. None of them paid us any mind as we walked arm and arm down into the basement training room. Nathan, as per usual, had been waiting on me. Standing with is arms folded over his chest he let out a long sigh, “I was beginning to think you might not make it down at all.” I might have imagined it, but I thought I saw a hint of a smile instead of his usual brooding scowl. “Drills, now. Lets move!” I groaned, rolling my shoulders back, it was going to be a long day.

Every morning he started me off with the same set of moves over and over as a warm up. I had to run from one end of the room to the either, run up the wall and jump off, running back to the other end. After a few reps, he’d whistle, signaling me to roll onto the floor and back up again in a different direction, making me crisscross the room. Eventually he’d move into my path, forcing me to dodge as he made to grapple me.

Nathan enjoyed taking full advantage our agreement; he outranked me on these mats until my skills surpassed his. Dmitri had been less than thrilled with it when he found out, and still tried to talk me out of it. He didn’t like the idea of me taking orders, or putting myself at risk of injury. But I’d been more than insistent that as an alpha, I needed to know how to defend myself and our pack if it ever came to it.

It made my day when Nathan told us that I would be sparring with Dmitri instead of him this morning. I figured that was why he’d told me about Dmitri’s attempt to cancel this morning’s session; I’d want a chance at revenge.

“I thought the plan was to have her watch us spar,” Dmitri frowned at him, clearly unhappy.

“I’m the one that is supposed to be getting trained,” I scolded him, “there’s no way I’m sitting out, and let’s face it, Nate isn’t going to go full contact with you in the room scowling at him the whole time.”

Dmitri’s rich laugh echoed around the room, “and you think I’m going to go full contact on you?”

I smiled up at him sweetly, “Oh, I think you will.” I took a step back, “As soon as you get me to tap out, and we’ll call it quits for the day. You can toss me over your shoulder like a cave man and carry me back up to our room to have the workout you’d rather have.”

He shot Nathan an accusatory glance. He just shrugged back, “Don’t look at me man. I haven’t even been able to catch her for a few days now.” It was rare for him to give me any kind of praise, especially when it came to speed. He’d never gotten over loosing the bet he’d made with me on my first pack run. He’d been the fastest wolf in the pack until that day and in the last few days he’d been getting increasingly frustrated that I’d learned to evade him easily.

“I can’t believe you’re encouraging this,” his eyes fell back on me, “Ok Princess, you’ve got a deal. Care to seal it with a kiss?” he took a step towards me to claim my lips.

Dropping to the ground, I curled my leg behind his knee to sweep him off his feet; rolled away and back up onto my own feet. “Sure, if you can catch me,” I smirked down at him, blowing him a kiss.

Nathan sent me instructions on different moves to practice, through the link, as he watched us move around the room. When it was clear that I could dodge the Alpha’s hands no matter how he tried to grapple me, Nate had me let Dmitri catch me a few times, just to practice breaking out of the holds. Glancing up at the clock on the wall; then back at him as he stopped to catch his breath I teased, “We’ve got about 15 minutes left. Wanna give up yet?”

Nathan chuckled, earning another glare.

“How are you not tired yet?” he huffed.

I shrugged, “Maybe you’re just getting old, my love.” A warning growl rumbled through his chest. “I’ll sweeten the deal,” I grinned, “You’ve got 15 minutes; I’ll cancel for tomorrow if you win. You can even up your game.”

He gave me a wide wolfish grin at the challenge, a familiar shadow danced in his eyes until there was nothing but black surrounding the ice blue centers. I so did enjoy when his wolf came out to play. “Do you want a head start, Princess?” that deep gravelly voice sent a chill up spine.

“And give you an excuse to say you let me win,” I scoffed, making him chuckle. I ran right for him. He moved to snag me as I faked right, dropping down and sliding across the mat between his legs and rolling back up onto my feet as I kept running. He chased me for about 10 minute before he was able to catch me, but I always managed to slip out of his hold and he’d grab me again before I could run off.

“That’s time,” Nathan called out with a laugh, just as I’d slipped free again.

The shadow faded from his eyes, as he sighed dramatically. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

I sidled up against him, with my most sweet and innocent expression, “You can try again tomorrow if you want.” I ducked as he tried to wrap his arms around me, and started walking out, “I’m going to go take a shower and get ready for my day of diplomatic family fun bonding time.” I didn’t care that I sounded sarcastic; we all knew I didn’t want to go through with this at all. They weren’t particularly jazzed with the idea either, but how do you tell a King no?

He and Nathan hurried out of the room, catching up to me easily. Dmitri wrapped an arm around me as we walked, “You really can’t even catch her anymore?” he teased.

He stifled a small chuckle, “And you think you did.” He clapped Dmitri on the shoulder and laughed, “Hate to break it to you man, but she let you, a lot.”

He looked down at me as we walked, “You wouldn’t…”

I smiled, “I would never.” My sarcasm was thick, making Nathan laugh louder.

It earned me a sharp slap on the ass. ‘That’s just a promise of what is waiting for you when I finally have enough time alone with you to punish you properly, Princess.’

‘Promises, promises,’ I teased back, enjoying the tingle that danced up my spine.