claimd and

Chapter 17

Elise felt like vanishing when Kaide held back her hand as she tried to enter her room so much for dealing with it alone.Property © of NôvelDrama.Org.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Kaide asked Elise, his jaws squared in, filled with worry and alertness as he caressed Elise’s face.

But Elise shook her head. “Nothing, nothing at all,” she said. “You don’t need to worry about it, please,” she said, and Kaide knew she was asking him to let it go.

His hands dropped from her soft cheeks, taking a step back to lengthen the space, which he had noticed was far too small because of them.

“What’s in your hand?” Elise asked, her gaze lowered to what Kaide was holding in his hands. Elise then looked back when she heard the sounds of someone coming down th steps.

And for a moment, there was noticeable panic on her face that Kaide noticed, but before he could ask, Elise had pushed him into her room, closing the door in haste.

“Sorry about that; what were you saying?” She asked, forcing a smile that was almost comical. Kaide let out a breath of laughter in actual amusement at how frantic she was. Clearly, she was avoiding something, but from her nervous scent and his intuition, he knew it wasn’t a threat.

“First day of training, and you are far too late, but I figured Taz would let this go since you took an awful amount of wine last night; even Taz avoids taking that much.

“Really?” Elise called, surprisingly.

“He hates to mention it, but when we first had our drinks as teenagers, Taz had lost control of his shift and went hammering on a restaurant stall and ate all her meats and pastries; it happened twice,” he tells Elise, who let out a genuine laugh.

She pushed her hair that clung to her face and her shoulder back, and Kaide was met with a part of her pearly, alluring skin, her collarbone prominent enough that Kaide had to swallow and turn away.

“You need to get changed,” he called, handing her the clothes and boots he was holding. “This is your sparring attire; go change,” he orders as Elise takes it from him.

“Thank you,” she muttered with a smile on her face. Her nose then perked up to the warm smell of something else that filled the room.

“Speaking of pastries, it seems Hana left me some with the hangover tonic; please w let’s both have breakfast,” she called, beckoning to the armchair in her room for Kai to see it

Elise had been left in awe the first time she took in the large room that was given to It had its own small corner living area that had two armchairs, a small fireplace, and curtained door leading to her room, something she was grateful for.

Kaide had accepted her request as Elise walked into her room to change into the clothes. He couldn’t help recalling what he’d seen yesterday: seeing Elise walk out of greenhouse with her dress and hair messy while Rygan walked out after her, calling 1 name as she walked away. It wasn’t his secret to ask about, especially now.

“I’m surprised this is comfortable,” Elise’s voice echoed as she walked out of the roor few minutes later in full clothing.

She had tied her now damp, messy red bun in a knot on her hair, the black leather piece fitting her like a glove, her hips and accentuated figure shaped out in the right places, and Kaide tried so hard not to react outwardly as she walked out.

“You look… good,” he forced out as Elise let out a chuckle before they both sat and at breakfast. They cleared out the plate and bowls not long after as they walked out of th room, heading down to see Taz and Rygan, who were talking.

Both pairs had paused, with Rygan’s gaze moving from Elise to Kaide, who let a curt bow to his alpha. “Rygan,” he called.

“Hmm…Kaide,” Rygan started. The air began to fall into a tense silence, but Taz immediately broke it as he walked to Elise.

“Well, look at you, little red, in full attire!” He called, picking Elise up, and Elise could help but squeal as he spun her around. “We thought you died because of the wine; my apologies if I did not warn you that black moonshine is not for the faint of heart.

Elise was so half–ready for that tense moment as she turned to Taz. “Ready to lose?” A Taz let out a dark laugh.

“Oh, I’ll bet on that, but today you’ll be starting with one of our deltas in training; let’s see what levels you are at in your defense,” Taz says, and Elise shudders when a dark, mischievous look of Rygan’s beta washes over her. He wasn’t going to go easy on her.

She was taken into a smaller sparring arena where two deltas were conversing, a male and female both in similar attire to hers; only there was a dark red band sewn to their clothes to show their rank, the same underneath their clothes but tattooed.

15:57 Sat, Aug 31

89%

She climbed into the ring with the quiet–looking delta; her brunette hair let loose while Elise was still packed in a bun. The bell was rung, and the Delta lunged for her.

Elise took the offense and hardly made contact with the merciless female. The minute she caught Elise’s hands, she tousled and toppled Elise, who had been hit far too many times.

“Come on, girl, you could at least reach for your wolf powers and fight back; I’d think I’m fighting a tiny human given how weak you are,” the girl mocked. “How did you even get the attention of Beta Kaide? You deserve it, weakling,” she spat.

She takes Elise’s hands, giving her the final attack of a headlock until Elise taps out. She heard the female snicker as she left the ring, and her partner shook her hand before they both strutted out victorious from the spar with Elise.

66

“Well, it could have gone worse,” Taz says, and Kaide gives him a dark stare. ” what? I mean, it wasn’t a fair fight, but you should try concentrating on drawing out her wolf powers.”

“Taz, don’t you get it? She can’t…fuck,” Kaide hissed.

“It’s alright, I know I can’t merge with my wolf; it’s been a problem; to be honest, I thought I had none, so Taz’s criticism isn’t too harsh on me,” I assured Kaide.

“That bullshit is from your pack not training their females; I wasn’t blaming you, Red,” Tazmin says, and Elise nods in understanding. I am not blaming him for his cutthroat words, either.

“Then we learn from the basics; I’ll teach you the Lykos we do before pups reach the age of turning.”

“Lykos?” She asked, confused.

“Don’t worry about it; I’ll explain it to you when we meet in the evening, just you and me. Make sure to wear comfortable clothes,” he says, and Elise looks to Tazmin for help.

But she turned to Taz, whose hands were raised in defeat, saying Kaide was Elise’s problem now. And Elise figured out then that Kaide was probably the colder one in his training methods.

As the three of them talked, Elise didn’t realize that the gray, stormy gaze of an alpha was looking down on her, his hands firm on the railing and his thoughts distraught on what he was going to do to talk to her.

Because even though he’s the one who proposed, they don’t speak to each other in the

|||

<

1551 Sat, Aug 31