Chapter 13: A Lesson in Obedience
1528 Words
Dahlia's POV
The Blue Moon’s Pack Training Field
The Blue Moon Pack training field stretched wide and open, filled with warriors who trained like they were born with swords in their hands and victory in their blood. They moved with precision, confidence, and something I had never been allowed to have. Something called pride.
The moment Alpha Asher dragged me onto the field, all movement stopped.
Silence.
Too sharp.
Too heavy.
Their eyes hit me like stones. Some widened in shock, some narrowed in disgust, but most… most held confusion.
Their Alpha had brought home a slave and called her his prisoner. Worse, some of them already knew the truth. The whispers from earlier still clung to me like thorns.
The Alpha’s mate.
She looks like nothing.
Why her?
Asher stood at the center of the field, shoulders squared, his back straight, jaw locked so tightly.
He looked every bit the Alpha they worshiped.
Strong.
Unshaken.
Powerful.
I stood beside him looking nothing like his equal. My wrist still burned from his grip.
My clothes hung loose around my bruises, and each breath reminded me of the ride here, painful and humiliating.
“Assemble,” Asher barked.
Warriors dropped what they were doing and gathered, forming a wide circle around us. Their eyes flicked from him to me, then back again. Unease rippled through them.
It looked like they didn’t understand.
Neither did I.
Asher didn’t look at me when he spoke. Not even once.
“This girl,” he started, voice loud enough to shake through the field, “Is not special. She is not to be treated differently. She is weak. Fragile. Nothing impressive.”
A few warriors smirked. Others sneered. Some looked away like they pity me.
My stomach twisted.
My mate.
My fated mate.
Speaking like I was dirt under his boots.
The bond between us tightened painfully, like it disagreed with every word he was forcing out.
Asher continued, voice colder. “Do not let rumors distract you. Whatever connection exists is meaningless. She is my responsibility, nothing more. She will be handled as I see fit.”
Handled.
Like a dangerous animal.
Or even worse, something beneath him.
He stepped forward, facing me fully now. His eyes were a storm. Wild, fierce, and furious. Not at me, but at something he couldn’t name. Something he wished he could tear out of himself.
“Today,” he said, “we show the pack that strength is not defined by fate, but by will.”
He moved so quickly I barely flinched before his hand was on my shoulder, shoving me into the center.
“Fight her,” Asher ordered a warrior.
My heart slammed into my chest.
I looked at him with furrowed brows.
‘What… What did he mean by fight her?’ I thought silently.
‘Was he trying to kill me?’ I wondered.
I looked at him with pleading eyes, but he turned his face away.
The warrior hesitated, looking confused. “Alpha… she can’t even stand straight.”
“That’s the point,” Asher snapped.
“She learns her place today.”
Laughter rippled through the crowd.
Heat burned my cheeks. Not from shame, but from something hotter. Something rising from deep inside me.
He turned away from me like I was already defeated.
The warrior approached, fists clenched, but uncertain. “I don’t want to.”
“You will,” Asher said, voice low and sharp enough to cut.
The warrior swallowed hard and swung.
Pain exploded through my jaw. My head snapped to the side. The ground tilted. Gasps echoed around the circle.
I staggered but didn’t fall.
Another punch came, fast. My shoulder took the blow this time. Shock shot down my arm.
The warrior wasn’t aiming to kill. He was holding back, even though fear of defying Asher kept him in motion.
But Asher… Asher watched every hit like each one proved a point he was desperate to make.
Another strike.
And another.
The world blurred. Every breath felt like a knife, but I stayed standing.
Barely.
My legs trembled, but something inside me refused to snap.
Maybe it was pride.
Maybe anger.
Maybe the fragile shred of hope I still held onto without meaning to.
I wasn’t fighting back.
I couldn’t. My body was too weak, too tired, too broken.
But I stayed up.
A warrior behind me muttered, “How is she still standing?”
“She should’ve dropped with the first hit,” another whispered.
Asher’s jaw tightened.
“Again,” he ordered.
And the warrior obeyed.
This time, the blow caught my ribs. A sharp crack stabbed through my side. Air fled my lungs.
I dropped to one knee.
A few warriors winced like they felt the pain themselves.
Asher didn’t move.
“Finish it,” he said.
Finish it.
He wasn’t trying to prove my weakness.
He was trying to shove me away from him, from the bond, by breaking me publicly.
The next hit sent me crashing to the dirt.
Pain pulsed in hot waves, buzzing through my arms and legs. My vision flickered.
A copper taste filled my mouth. My cheek burned where skin split open.
Everything hurt.
Everything.
But something inside me.
Something stubborn.
Something wild refused to let me stay down.
I clawed at the dirt, dragging myself upright inch by inch.
The warriors stared at me in stunned silence.
I wiped the blood from my lip. It smeared across my chin.
Asher’s eyes flashed, not with satisfaction but with something else.
A flicker.
A crack.
A split-second flash of guilt.
He hid it fast, but I saw it.
The bond saw it.
For a heartbeat, the Alpha mask slipped.
His voice softened. Barely audible. “Enough.”
But pride, the same pride that made him drag me here, call me a prisoner, deny me as his mate, slammed the mask back down.
“Get up,” he snapped.
I staggered but couldn’t fully rise this time. My body trembled too violently.
“I said GET UP!” His voice cracked through the air like lightning.
A hush fell. Several warriors exchanged troubled glances. This was not strength. This was a man wrestling his own soul.
He stepped toward me, fists clenched, his eyes locked on my shaking form. His breath was heavy, uneven. The bond tugged at him, urging him to stop, to pick me up, to heal me.
But he shoved the instinct down.
Pride won.
Pain flashed across his eyes, not mine, his, before he whispered harshly, “Don’t make me look weak. Get up.”
Weak.
Weak!!
That word sliced deeper than any punch.
I lifted my head slowly, meeting his gaze. My face was smeared with dirt and blood. My arms shook as they held me up.
“Alpha,” a warrior murmured nervously, “she can’t move.”
Asher didn’t turn. “She will.”
He needed this. Needed to prove something, to his pack, to himself, maybe even to the Moon Goddess.
He needed to show that a slave couldn’t shake him.
That fate meant nothing.
That he was in control.
He looked at me like he wanted to hate me.
Maybe he did.
But the bond refused to let him.
I could feel it, that push-and-pull inside him.
Rage and guilt.
Duty and instinct.
Strength and fear.
The warrior who fought me stepped back, unease clouding his features. “Alpha… maybe we should…”
“Do you question me?” Asher snapped without looking at him.
The warrior fell silent.
My vision dimmed. The world spun slowly, every sound muffled like water slowly filling my ears.
But I stayed conscious.
Barely.
Asher stared at me like he couldn’t breathe. His fingers twitched at his sides, as if fighting the urge to pull me off the ground and hold me upright.
His pride won again.
He turned from me sharply. “Training dismissed.”
Warriors hesitated. No one moved.
They stared at him, then at me, then back at him.
Something wasn’t right.
Even they knew it.
Asher walked away without another word.
The crowd slowly dispersed, leaving me alone on the dirt, bleeding, shaking, and fighting for each breath.
The wind brushed past, cold and thin. A few drops of blood slid down my cheek and dripped onto the ground, forming tiny red stains on the dust.
My fingers curled weakly.
My throat burned.
I looked toward the direction Asher walked, his figure growing smaller.
Something hot and a sharp rose in my chest. Not brokenness. Not surrender.
Anger.
It was fierce, but quiet.
I was burning with anger.
My lips parted. My voice was barely a breath, but it carried more strength than my body had left.
“You’ll regret this.”
The bond, silent and wounded, pulsed faintly in response.
Like it agreed.
And somewhere deep within the pack grounds…
Something stirred.
Something that had watched me from the shadows earlier.
Something that had been waiting.
The world around me tilted, darkness creeping in from the edges.
But I held onto one thought as everything faded.
I will make sure he regrets this.
That was a promise.
- Writer
