Luna's Odyssey

Chapter 7: The Alpha’s Test

Dahlia's POV

The sun had climbed higher, turning the morning gray into a harsh, unrelenting afternoon. The training ground smelled of sweat and dust, the air carrying a sharp, metallic tang. My side burned where the blood had run down earlier, every movement a stabbing reminder of my weakness.

I tried to steady my breathing, forcing my legs to obey. My fists felt heavy, and my arms trembled like wet branches in the wind. And yet, the bond inside me thrummed, insistent and cruel, pulling me forward against every instinct I had to collapse and hide.

Asher’s eyes were still on me. Calm. Unflinching. Every nerve in my body screamed that I should flee, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t even blink without feeling the weight of his gaze.

“Again,” he said, his voice low, and sharp, cutting through the wind. “I said fight.”

Pain seared along my side as I swallowed hard. I wanted to cry out. I wanted to collapse entirely, but the words wouldn’t come. My body wanted to obey, but my mind pleaded for mercy. I swallowed the panic rising in my throat and lifted my fists, my hands shaking violently.

“It doesn't look like you're ready,” he added as he stepped closer, each movement deliberate, echoing in the empty field. “Prove it. Show me you can stand.”

I nodded, but my chest heaved with every ragged breath. My knees wobbled as I forced myself to step forward. Each movement felt like dragging lead through my muscles, but the bond kept pulling me, tighter and tighter, as though it were holding my body hostage.

Katherine lingered at the edge of the field, arms crossed, her smirk infuriating. She didn’t say a word, but I could feel her eyes drilling into me, mocking me without even needing to speak.

I barely noticed her as Asher came forward, moving with the same calm precision that made every strike I had thrown yesterday seem worthless. He circled me slowly, watching, analyzing, waiting. The bond pulsed sharply now, pulling at my thoughts, tying me to him in a way that was painful, terrifying, and impossible to resist.

“Strike,” he said.

I lunged, fists shaking, trying to aim for his chest, his shoulder, anywhere!! But he moved like a shadow. Each block, each dodge of his sent sharp pain through my arms and back, my blood pounding in my ears. My body screamed, my side kept burning, yet the bond kept me moving, it kept me striking.

“You’re slower,” he remarked, voice calm but carrying a weight that made my stomach twist. “Faster. Harder. I won’t hold back.”

I wanted to cry. I wanted to collapse. But my hands rose again, my muscles trembling uncontrollably, each strike sloppy and desperate. The pain in my side flared with every movement, and the blood from yesterday’s wound mixed with sweat, running down my ribs.

Then it happened.

I overextended, and his counter was too fast. My foot caught on the uneven ground, and I went down hard, the impact jarring my shoulders and ribs. I gasped, the air stolen from my lungs, my fists hitting the dirt uselessly. My vision blurred at the edges, dizziness spinning the field around me.

“Get up,” Asher’s voice cut through the haze, calm, and merciless.

I tried.

My hands scraped against the ground. My legs refused to cooperate. My body, heavy and screaming, refused to obey. I could barely breathe, the pain sharp and insistent, the bond in me hammering, demanding, pulling me forward even when I wanted to sink into the dirt and disappear.

The growl came first as a rumble in my chest, low and deep, vibrating through my bones. Not mine. Not entirely. Asher’s wolf, I realized with a shiver, deep inside him, growling, torn. Angry. Conflicted.

I barely dared to look up. His eyes, calm and gray, betrayed nothing, yet the energy radiating from him was violent, raw, a storm just beneath the surface. The bond pulsed violently now, relentlessly, and cruel. It wrapped around my chest, my mind, forcing me to focus, forcing me to continue, forcing me to fight.

Pain exploded down my side. My vision narrowed. I stumbled, barely catching myself with shaking arms. My lips pressed tight together to keep me from crying out. The dirt clung to my hands, my sweat, my blood. I tried to push forward again, fists raised, but the world tilted, the sky spinning above the gray afternoon.

“Stand your ground,” Asher commanded, his voice low, deep, resonating. “Do not fall. Not yet.”

I tried.

Oh, how I tried. My knees buckled, my arms felt like lead, my side a firestorm of pain. Each strike I attempted was sloppy, uncoordinated, and weak. I felt my body breaking, my mind fraying, and yet the bond wouldn’t let me stop.

Katherine’s voice reached me faintly from somewhere in the distance, mocking and sharp. “Why even try? You’ll never reach him.”

The words might as well have been knives. I stumbled forward, mouth dry, chest heaving, as my tears threatened to spill. I clenched my fists, forcing them up again, but my arms failed me. My vision darkened at the edges. The pain, the exhaustion, the relentless bond, the mocking, the growl in Asher, it all pressed in at once.

My body finally gave in. I collapsed mid-step, hitting the ground with a harsh thud. The air escaped my lungs in a painful gasp, my side now burning intensely, arms shaking uselessly beside me. The dirt was cold beneath my face, my blood warm, mixing with sweat and dust.

Somewhere deep inside, the growl of his wolf rumbled again, fierce, torn, angry. And I could feel it, the pull of the bond, more desperate than ever, forcing me to obey even as my body screamed in pain.

I tried to lift my head, tried to open my eyes, but darkness swirled at the edges. My thoughts grew slow, heavy, and unsteady. Every nerve, and every fiber of my being begged me to stop, to stay still, to escape the pain by letting go entirely.

And in the dizzying blur, one thought rose, quiet, sharp, impossible to ignore:

Maybe dying is better.

My eyes rolled back, the world fading to gray as the heat of the afternoon sun and the cold sting of my wounds collided in a haze of exhaustion and despair.

The bond throbbed one last time in my chest before the darkness swallowed me completely.