CHAPTER 92: _ JUST THE BEGINNING

Amias takes a step back, and his body which I’d a breathtaking sculpture of raw, male power, is now a weapon. He moves with a beautiful and terrifying fluidity. He punches the air faster than a boxer, leaving Heidi mesmerized. She can’t help but be in awe of him, a man who is so powerful, so dominant, and yet so gentle with her. The chemistry between them is a roaring fire, a brilliant, terrifying thing that she can’t possibly understand.

He stops and looks at her and his silver eyes are suddenly filled with a new kind of intensity. "Now it’s your turn. Come at me."

Heidi stands, quivering a little, her entire being screaming in a chaotic frenzy of fear, desire, and confusion. She stares at Amias, the man who just moments ago was a pained king and is now a honed weapon.

"Come at me," he commands again.

Her wolf snarls inside her. "He’s mocking us. He knows we can’t fight. We are a Moon-blessed with no skill, no practice, nothing!"

Heidi’s mind agrees. She has never fought anything more dangerous than a stubborn knot in her shoelaces. Her limbs feel heavy and useless. He’s a warrior, a dominant Alpha born, and the son of the pack’s leader. How is she supposed to "come at him" with any hope of a real fight?

"I don’t know how to fight!" she blurts out with a helpless whimper in her voice.

Amias’s expression doesn’t change. "That is precisely why we’re doing this." He takes a relaxed stance, his arms loose at his sides with his legs slightly apart. "First lesson: you will not win with strength alone. You must be quick. Agile. You are small, use it."

He gestures with his head. "Again. Come at me."

Heidi’s humiliation morphs into a boiling rage. He wants a show? He’ll get a show. With a cry of war, she launches herself forward, her arms flailing like a windmill, and her feet stumbling over the uneven ground.

It’s a pathetic, clumsy charge.

Amias doesn’t even move. He simply shifts at the last second. Her momentum carries her past him, and she crashes face-first into the dirt. A gasp of surprised pain escapes her lips, and a mouthful of soil makes her cough and sputter.

"Oh, shit, Heidi! You’re embarrassing us! We are a joke. He’s going to laugh at us!" Her wolf grumbles and Heidi can picture her slapping her furry forehead with her furry paws.

Heidi scrambles to her feet, wiping the dirt from her mouth. She glares at him with fire in her eyes. "You’re laughing at me!"

"No. I am teaching you." He shrugs, but with the way his lips are pressed together, Heidi knows he’s suppressing his laughter.

Her wolf hisses. "Next time, let’s stick that toy stick of his into his fucking asshole!"

The oblivious Amias takes a step closer. "Your opponent will not give you a second chance, Heidi. You must be smarter. You must anticipate their movements. Think. Don’t just act."

He drops into a crouch and whispers. "Again."

This time, she hesitates. Her mind races, replaying her pathetic attempt. She takes a deep breath and watches his body. His weight is on his back foot. His arms are loose. She can see a slight tension in his left shoulder. With a flash of insight, she realizes he’s a boxer.

She read about that once, a fighting technique where one keeps their hands close to the face to protect themselves. Amias is doing just that now.

She circles him slowly. He doesn’t move, just watches her with those silvery, all-seeing eyes. The night air is cold, but the heat of her shame and the thrill of the hunt are starting to burn through her... her wolf is taking over.

"He’s a statue. We can attack from the side. We can be faster than he thinks!"

Heidi listens to her because she’d rather eat shit than embarrass herself before Amias Bellamy. She feints to the left, then pounces to the right, aiming a clumsy punch at his ribs. Amias’s reaction is instantaneous. His arm shoots out and his hand wraps around her wrist with a strength that makes her gasp. He twists, and her body is suddenly twisted back. He effortlessly pulls her against his chest, his other hand coming up to gently, but firmly, cover her mouth.

"No noise," he whispers against her ear.

His breath is a warm puff that sends a shiver through her. "The demons hear everything out there. You must be silent as a shadow."

Her heart is a drumbeat against her ribs, not just from the exertion, but from the searing proximity of his body. He smells of earth, of fresh rain, of something wild and dangerous. She can feel the hard planes of his chest, the defined muscles of his abs pressing against her. The raw sexual tension that had been forgotten now flares back to life like a roaring furnace threatening to consume them both.

Heidi is almost tempted to ask him to rethink his decision about sex because if he doesn’t do it with her—in this heat state, she doesn’t know who her wolf will have her do it with.

Who knows? It could even be Morgan or Grayson... as absurd as that sounds.

Aish!

What the hell is she thinking about right now before Amias who is going out of his way to teach her how to survive in a realm filled with vengeful demons?

SLEEPING WITH HIS LITTLE BROTHERS?!

Hell NO!

The world would end before she could ever touch lips with those tyrants, not to mention sharing their BEDS! Grayson and Morgan?

Pfft!

If they were the last men on earth, Heidi would rather remain single for the rest of her life even if it were an immortal one!

Amias suddenly releases her, and she stumbles back, her senses returning to their positions. She’s panting. Her body is a battlefield of warring instincts. The wolf wants to submit to his power, to be held and dominated. Her human self, however, feels a jolt of pride that she managed to get close to him.

"You’re learning," he nods even though there’s a whiff of something she can’t quite identify in his eyes as though the proximity unravels him just as much.

Maybe it did. After all, he’d confess to it.

.

.

Amias spends the next hour teaching her the absolute basics. He shows her how to stand, how to balance her weight, and how to throw a punch without dislocating her shoulder. She learns to block, to parry, to move her head to avoid a blow. He never hits her, but his movements are so fast, and so precise, that she gets a taste of his power.

He also teaches her how to summon her shift whenever she needs it.

And oh... how he moves—like a dancer; a beautiful, deadly waltz of a predator. He is everywhere at once, all silver-skinned and muscled grace. Heidi tries to match him, but she’s clumsy. She stumbles, falls, and groans in frustration. Her breath mists in the cold air, her sweat turns to a sharp chill on her skin.

"Don’t give up! We can do this! We are not weak!" her wolf howls, its voice now a fierce encouragement rather than a defeated whine.

As the hours pass, her body starts to obey her mind. Her feet find a rhythm, her hands learn to deflect, and her body learns to pivot. It’s not perfect, not by a long shot, but she’s no longer the pitiful, flailing creature that crashed into the dirt. She’s a hunter learning her craft. The tension in the air, the physical proximity, the raw power emanating from Amias... it all fuels her. She feels herself on the brink of shifting, not into her wolf, but into a new, powerful version of herself.

This is just the beginning.

If Heidi survives the labyrinth, Sierra and her minions would be her first target.

They are going to pay. She’s got a rabid wolf, fit for teaching their spoiled asses some lesson. A corner of Heidi’s lip turns up.

SHE FREAKING CAN’T WAIT!