Chapter 4: Teeth beneath the roses
1023 Words
The sun hadn’t yet risen when Tanya stepped onto the training grounds.
The sky was a sheet of dull gray, and the air bit at her skin. Her body ached from barely any sleep, but her heart was sharper than it had ever been.
She was done being afraid.
Kael stood in the centre of the field like a shadow carved from steel. Shirtless, barefoot, his breath misted in the cold. He didn’t speak; he just watched her approach.
Tanya swallowed hard. “I’m here.”
“I see that.” His gaze scanned her frame. She wore loose training clothes, far too big, cinched with a rope. She looked like a ragged pup pretending to be a soldier.
But Kael nodded. “Good. We start now.”
The first lesson was pain. He didn’t hold back.
Not his strength, not his words.
When she stumbled, he let her fall. When she cried out, he said nothing. When she failed, again and again, he only offered his hand and silence.
And still, he never left.
“You rely on fear,” he said, knocking the blade from her grip. “That’s weakness.”
“I’m trying!” she snapped, out of breath, sweat dripping from her brow.
“Trying won’t save your brother when they come again.”
Tanya flinched, but picked up the blade.
Every strike, every bruise, forged something harder beneath her skin.
By the time the sun crested the trees, her arms were shaking and her breath came in shallow gasps.
But she hadn’t collapsed.
Not once.
And when Kael offered her water, she looked him in the eyes and said, “Again.”
He stared at her for a long moment, then smiled. “Good.”
Later that day, in the Royal Courtyard. Word had already begun to spread.
The prince’s cursed mate was training.
Some scoffed. Some whispered.
One watched in silence, eyes glittering beneath a veil of lavender silk.
Lady Lysara.
Kael’s former betrothed.
The perfect wolf; elegant, powerful, politically precious. And utterly lethal beneath the surface.
She sipped her wine while her handmaiden fussed over her hair.
“She’s training with him,” the handmaiden said. “She has no status, no strength, no……”
“She has his attention,” Lysara cut in, voice honey smooth. “Which makes her dangerous.”
The handmaiden lowered her gaze. “What should we do?”
Lysara smiled thinly. “Nothing yet. Let the poor girl play warrior. But when she breaks, and she will, he’ll come crawling back to the woman who never needed saving.
After three days of training, Tanya’s muscles screamed with every movement.
She was bruised from her shoulders to her shins. But when Kael threw a punch, she ducked.
When he swept her legs, she landed and rolled. And when he paused, surprised, she grinned. “You’re getting slow.”
He raised a brow. “You’re getting cocky.”
“Maybe I’m tired of being the girl who can’t fight back.”
He tilted his head. “You’re not that girl anymore.”
Something fluttered in her chest.
But before she could reply, a horn sounded from the eastern tower.
Kael’s body stiffened. “That’s a breach alarm.”
Tanya’s heart leapt. “Shadow?”
“He’s in the healing wing. Guarded. But….”
But there was no but strong enough to quiet her panic. She was already running.
Kael was at her side in seconds.
Inside the castle, the healing wing was in chaos. Guards lay unconscious. A trail of bloody footprints led to Shadow’s bed.
But the bed was empty.
Tanya gasped. “No…..no, he was here! He couldn’t have just…”
“Look,” Kael said, pointing to the broken window.
Outside, scratch marks led into the inner rose garden. But they weren’t wolf claws. They were sharper. Longer.
“Something took him,” Kael muttered.
“And wanted it to look like he ran,” Tanya said, her voice trembling.
Kael’s jaw clenched. “Someone inside this castle.”
They followed the trail into the garden of thorns, where roses bled red and the air smelled like secrets.
Tanya’s boots crunched over broken glass.
Then she saw it, on a marble bench beneath a weeping willow.
A single silver pin.
Shaped like a wolf’s fang.
Tanya picked it up. Her blood ran cold.
“I know this,” she whispered. “I saw it……. in the court. On her dress.”
Kael looked at it. His face darkened. “Lysara.”
Tanya’s fingers curled into fists. “Why would she take him?”
“Because she knows what you mean to me,” Kael said, stepping close. “And she’s trying to make me choose.”
“Between me and your crown.”
He nodded.
Tanya swallowed. “Then you have to choose.”
Kael looked at her, searching her eyes.
“I already did,” he said softly.
Then turned toward the castle.
That night in Lysara’s private wing. The guards didn’t see him coming. Kael moved like a storm, silent, unstoppable.
He kicked down the ornate double doors to Lysara’s suite.
She rose slowly from her lounge chair, feigning surprise. “Kael, what a bold entrance.”
“Where is he?” he growled.
Lysara’s lips curled. “You’ll have to be more specific.”
Tanya burst in behind him. “Shadow. Give him back.”
Lysara asked. “You let your toy speak for you now?”
Kael stepped forward. “Don’t play with me, Lysara. This is war.”
“No,” she said, stepping close enough for her breath to touch his neck. “That girl is war. She’s your ruin, Kael. The bond will undo everything your father built.”
Kael didn’t flinch.
“I don’t care.”
Lysara’s smile froze.
“I would burn this kingdom before I let her bleed again.”
Silence fell like a dropped blade.
Then Lysara wgispred, “Then let it burn.”
She lifted her hand.
Something moved behind her, a dark shape lunging from the shadows.
Tanya screamed.
Kael turned.
Too late.
The creature struck.
- Writer
