Scarlett POV
I wanted to ignore her.
Normally, I would have kept walking, kept my head down, and stayed in the "guest" role Ethan created for . But the sting on my cheek was still there—burning, reminding .
She hit .
And she was going to pay for it.
I stopped in my tracks and turned slowly to face her. "Deal," I said, my voice dropping into a challenge.
Her eyes lit up with a cruel, triumphant glint. "Weapons?" she asked, her hand hovering over a rack of gleaming steel. "In human form, or shall we let our wolves settle this?"
"Weapons," I answered imdiately. I wasn’t about to let this entire pack see Zoe. My wolf was a secret I wasn’t ready to share, especially not with the triplets watching from the center of the field.
Camila smirked, picking up a heavy broadsword. She swung it through the air with a whistle, testing the weight. "In whatever way we play this, I’ll win. You’re just a maid."
I walked over to the rack and bypassed the swords. My fingers closed around the cool, familiar wood of a long-reaching spear. The weight felt perfect—balanced, lethal, and an extension of my own arm.
The atmosphere on the training grounds shifted instantly. The sound of sparring died down as warriors moved to the edges of the field, forming a wide circle. I could feel the triplets’ gaze on . They had stopped their own training, their sweat-slicked bodies standing tall and tense as they watched us.
Camila’s sisters stood on the sidelines, their arms crossed, smiling as if they were watching a cody. To them, I was just a traitor’s daughter. They didn’t know that for years, I hadn’t been trained by one person, but by three.
When we were kids, before everything fell apart, the triplets had taken turns training . They were the ones who taught how to move, how to defend, and how to strike. I was arguably the best female spear-wielder the pack had ever seen, but I hadn’t touched a weapon in two years. That didn’t an my skills had vanished; they were just buried under layers of floor wax and laundry soap.
Camila attacked first.
She lunged with a scream, striking her sword at in a jagged downward arc. I stepped back, the tip of her blade missing my chest by an inch. I didn’t counter-attack. I just watched her, dodging and weaving, letting her exhaust herself with her own rage.
"Scarlett, your form is off. Lower your center," Liam’s voice suddenly bood in my head.
I nearly tripped in surprise. I hadn’t realized our ntal link was still that open. I scoffed back at him internally. He was always the most disciplined one back then, the one who would make repeat a thrust a hundred tis until it was perfect.
Camila saw my distraction and pivoted. Her sword sliced through the air, the tip catching the skin of my upper arm. A thin line of red blood against my skin.
Her sisters cheered, the sound loud and irritating.
"You’re distracted, Scarlett," Leo’s voice drawled into my mind, sounding both annoyed and worried. "Is that what I taught you? Why are you holding the spear that way? Tighten your grip."
I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt. "Fuck off," I snapped back through the link.
Camila hit again, the flat of her blade slamming into my side and sending sprawling into the sand.
"Get up," Leon’s voice growled, dark and protective. "Get up, Scarlett. Think about what I taught you about montum. Stop playing with her."
I stood up, spitting a bit of dirt from my lip. The fun was over.
As Camila lunged forward, her face twisted in a confident, ugly sneer, I didn’t move until the last possible second. I spun the spear in a tight, blurred circle, catching the hilt of her sword in the crook of the spearhead. With a sharp, practiced jerk—a move Leon had spent an entire sumr teaching —I sent her sword flying out of her hand. It landed ten feet away, buried hilt-deep in the dirt.
I heard a low hum of approval from Leo in the back of my mind.
I didn’t rush her. I stood still, the tip of my spear pointed at the ground, allowing her to scramble back and retrieve her weapon. Her face was flushed with humiliation. With a scream of pure fury, she tried to attack again, but I was faster. I lunged, the shaft of the spear hitting her square in the chest before she could swing. The force sent her flying backward, and she landed hard, her face buried in the sand.
A collective gasp filled the air. The "perfect" Silver Lake Alpha female had just been dropped by the maid.
I stood over her, the spear steady in my hand, waiting. I wasn’t done yet.
Camila scrambled to her feet, spitting sand out of her mouth, her face turning a shade of purple that matched the bruises I intended to give her. "You little bitch!" she scread, lunging for her sword.
I didn’t move. I balanced the spear across my shoulders, looking bored. "Drop your center, Scarlett. She’s going to swing high because she’s blinded by rage," Leon’s voice rumbled in my head, calr now, sliding into that familiar instructor tone he’d used since we were children.
"I know," I snapped back ntally, though my heart hamred.
Camila ca at like a whirlwind, her sword whistling through the air. She was fast, but she was sloppy. She fought like soone who had been told she was the best, while I fought like soone who had spent two years scrubbing floors and hauling wood—every muscle in my body was lean, functional, and exhausted.
I parried her first blow, the ring of steel against the spear’s shaft echoing across the grounds. I stepped into her guard, using the length of the spear to shove her back.
"Now, the sweep," Liam commanded.
I didn’t follow his order. Instead, I feinted left, watched her commit to a block, and then drove the butt of the spear into her stomach. She wheezed, doubling over, and I followed up with a sharp kick to her knee. She went down hard on one joint.
I heard Leo’s dark, lodic chuckle echoing in my mind. "That’s my girl. Dirty. I didn’t teach you that one, but I like it."
"Shut up, Leo," I thought, my eyes locked on Camila.
She was trembling now, her eyes darting to her sisters, who were no longer cheering. Bianca and Talia looked horrified. Their "perfect" sister was being dismantled by a maid in front of the entire pack—and worse, in front of the Alphas. Their supposed fiancés.
Camila let out a feral shriek, her eyes glowing yellow as she teetered on the edge of a forced shift. She swung her sword in a desperate, wide arc ant to take my head off. I didn’t dodge this ti. I spun the spear, catching the blade in the crook of the head, and twisted.
As I wrenched the weapon free, the sharpened edge of my spear dragged across her wrist, slicing it open just enough to draw a sharp cry from her lips as her skin split open.
The sword flew twenty feet into the air, landing with a dull thud in the grass.
Before she could even realize she was disard, I had the tip of the spear pressed firmly against the hollow of her throat. I stepped forward, forcing her to lean back until she was pinned against a training post.
The entire field was frozen. I could feel Ethan’s gaze on —surprised, impressed, and sothing else I couldn’t quite na. But it was the triplets I felt most. I could see their eyes filled with admiration.
"I might be a ’traitor’s daughter’ in your eyes, Camila," I whispered, loud enough only for her to hear as the blood trickled from the tiny nick my spear left on her skin. "But while you were learning how to pick out dresses, I was learning how to kill. Don’t ever put your hands on again."
I pulled the spear back, spinning it once before driving the point into the dirt between her feet.
"Well done, Scarlett," Liam’s voice was thick with admiration.
I ignored the link, ignored the triplets, and turned my back on Camila and walked straight toward Ethan.
As I reached where Ethan stood, he pulled to himself by the waist and did what I never imagined... he kissed on the lips right before everyone.
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