Mated to two alphas

CHAPTER 9: THE TRAINING GROUNDS

CHAPTER 9: THE TRAINING GROUNDS

I woke to whispers.

Not words—I couldn't make out the words, but the bond carried the weight of them. Heavy. Desperate but afraid.

Kael and Ryker stood by the arched window. Their voices were low, tense, meant only for each other.

"I will do it." Kael's voice. Barely a whisper. "You're faster. You can protect her better after."

"No." Ryker's reply was immediate. "My ice can shield. Your fire can destroy. She needs you for the war."

"She needs both of us but the prophecy only demands one."

Then Ryker's voice was so quiet that I almost missed it. "Then we fight for it."

"Agreed."

I sat up. "Fight for what?"

They turned. Guilt flashed across both their faces before they masked it with concern.

"You're awake." Ryker crossed to the bed, his cold hand pressing against my forehead. "How do you feel?"

"Don't." I caught his wrist. Stared into his ice-blue eyes. "I felt it through the bond. You're both planning something stupid."

Kael's jaw tightened. "We're planning to keep you alive. That's all."

"Liar."

The word hung between us.

Kael's shadows flickered. Ryker's frost retreated.

Then Kael moved to the bed and took my hand.

"The prophecy isn't going to fulfill itself, little wolf. One of us—"

"No." I cut him off. "We talked about this. We find a loophole. We defy fate. We—"

"We train."

Ryker's voice was calm.

I looked at him. "What?"

"You have power, Elara. Incredible power. But you don't control it. It controls you. That ends today."

Kael nodded. "The training grounds are ready."

I stared at them. After everything—the prophecy, the death sentence hanging over us, they wanted to train?

"Are you serious?"

Kael's lips curved. "Deadly."

The training grounds were ancient.

Stone mats worn smooth by centuries of combat. High walls carved with symbols I didn't recognize. Balconies above, packed with Old Guard wolves in silver armor, watching in silence.

I felt like a performer in a cage.

Ryker and Kael stood across from me, their expressions unreadable.

"Summon the starlight," Ryker commanded.

I closed my eyes and reached for that place inside me where the power lived. The place that had exploded when I pulled their magic into my chest.

Nothing.

I tried harder. Pictured the whip, the blast, the hunters flying backward.

Nothing.

My eyes opened. "I can't."

"Try again," Kael ordered.

I tried and tried until I was close to feeling defeated.

Sweat beaded on my forehead. My hands shook. The Old Guard whispered among themselves. I caught words like "defect" and "mistake" and my blood boiled.

But no power came.

"I can't do it on command!" I shouted. "It only comes when I am scared or angry or—"

"Then we make you angry."

Kael's voice had changed. Cold but deliberate.

I looked up.

His shadows were igniting. Ryker's frost was spreading across the stone floor.

"What are you doing?"

"Teaching you." Kael launched a ball of shadow-fire directly at my face.

I screamed. Dove sideways. The fire exploded against the wall behind me, raining ash.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" I shrieked.

Ryker answered with a wave of ice that nearly froze my feet to the ground.

"Fight back!" he roared.

"I don't know how!"

"Then learn!"

Another blast. Another. Fire and ice, driving me across the training ground, forcing me to dodge and roll and scramble like the prey I used to be.

The Old Guard watched in stunned silence.

I was furious. I was terrified. I felt betrayed.

How could they attack me? After everything? After promising to protect me?

That thought—that raw, bleeding betrayal cracked something open inside me.

The starlight erupted.

Not in a whip. Not in a controlled blast. In a shockwave. Silver light exploded from my body in every direction, so bright and so powerful that it lifted Kael and Ryker off their feet and slammed them onto their backs ten meters away.

Dead silence.

The dust settled. The light faded. I stood there, panting, my hands still glowing, my eyes blazing. Kael and Ryker lay on the stone mats, flat on their backs, staring at the ceiling.

Then Kael laughed.

A raw, breathless, incredulous sound.

Ryker joined him. They lay there in the rubble of their own attack, laughing like madmen.

I dropped to my knees between them. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. Are you hurt—"

Kael caught my wrist and pulled me down until I was sprawled across his chest.

"Look at me." His crimson eyes burned with pride. "You did it."

"I almost killed you!"

"You defended yourself." Ryker's hand found mine from the other side. "That's exactly what we wanted."

I stared at them. At their bruised faces, their bloody lips and the pure, unfiltered pride in their eyes.

"You're insane," I whispered. "Both of you."

Above us, the Old Guard erupted into cheers but I barely heard them. My body was trembling—not from fear, but from the aftermath of power. The starlight still flickered at my fingertips.

Kael sat up slowly, wincing. "You need rest. That much power—"

"I'm fine." I stood on shaky legs. "I just need... air. A moment."

Ryker's eyes narrowed with concern. "We should come with you."

"No." The word came out sharper than I intended. I softened. "Please. I just need to breathe. Alone."

They exchanged a look. That look but they nodded.

"Don't go far," Kael rumbled.

I didn't answer. I just walked.

The Sanctuary was a maze of stone corridors and silver light. I wandered without purpose, letting my feet carry me wherever they wanted. The cheers faded behind me. The corridors grew quieter. Older. Less traveled.

I knew I should have turned back but something pulled me forward. The same pull I had felt in the farmhouse. East. Toward something. But different now. Stronger. More personal.

Come, it seemed to whisper. Come find me.

I followed.

The corridor ended at a wall. Solid stone. Dead end.

I almost turned away.

Then my eyes flickered silver. Without thinking, I pressed my palm to the stone. The glow spread from my hand like water, tracing lines along the wall—lines that formed a door I hadn't seen before.

The stone slid open. Beyond it was darkness and a staircase leading down. I should have gone back for Kael and Ryker. I should have found Seraphina. I should have been smart but the pull was unbearable now. A physical force, dragging me forward.

I descended.

The stairs wound deeper and deeper into the mountain. The air grew colder. Older. It smelled like... something I couldn't name. Something that made my chest ache.

Finally, the stairs ended.

I stood in a cave. Natural stone, but carved with symbols that glowed faintly silver. And in the center—

A pool. Still water, black as ink, reflecting nothing.

But on the other side of the pool, carved into the rock,

A woman.

Not a statue. An etching. Ancient, faded, but beautiful. Her arms were outstretched. Her eyes were closed. And her face—

My breath caught.

Her face was like mine.

The same cheekbones. The same jaw. The same slope of the nose.

My legs gave way. I caught myself against the wall, my heart pounding so hard I thought it might burst.

The pool rippled.

I looked down.

The water wasn't black anymore. It was silver. Glowing and in its depths, a reflection formed.

Not mine.

Hers.

The woman from the wall. Alive. Moving. Her eyes opened—eyes that were the exact silver of my own, and they looked directly at me.

She smiled.

"Finally, her voice echoed inside my skull. Welcome, my child."

My lips moved without permission.

"Mother."

I reached for her.

My hand touched the water and the cave exploded into silent light.

It didn't shake the mountain or c***k the stone. Instead, a pulse of pure, ancient magic sang through the bedrock at a frequency so old and deep that the Alphas upstairs wouldn't even register it.

But the mountain knew and when I opened my eyes, I was on the cold stone floor. Seraphina was kneeling over me, her starry eyes wild with panic.

"Elara! Elara, can you hear me?"

I tried to speak. Nothing worked. Seraphina gathered me in her arms, clutching me like I was made of glass.

"You found her," she whispered. "You actually found her."

I couldn't answer. I couldn't ask the questions burning in my mind.

But I saw them.

Behind Seraphina, the pool was still again. Black. Silent.

And on the wall, the woman's eyes were open now.

Watching me.

Waiting.

I opened my mouth one more time. One word. The only word that mattered.

"Mother."

Then darkness took me.