Chapter 344: Who’s She

Rebecca’s POV

Kaden divided us into groups and explained that each team would start at a different section of the course. Mine consisted of Brenda, Aaron, Julian, Marcus, Silas, and me. Apparently, six people instead of five was the result of my forcing myself into a unit that had already been organized before I arrived.

​Kane raised his hand as the commanders took their positions around the field. "Ready?"

​I bent slightly at the knees and looked toward the first stone wall. This was going to be easy.

​"Go!"

​I disappeared, and one second later, my boots landed neatly on the other side of the stone wall. I turned around with a small smile, already feeling very pleased with myself, only to discover that nobody else was standing beside me.

​Right. Teamwork.

​I barely had time to appreciate my brilliant decision before Kaden’s voice carried across the field.

​"Candidate Drake."

​I slowly turned toward him. He stood beside one of the commanders with his arms folded over his chest.

​"Go back."

​My smile disappeared. Of course.

​I teleported back to my team, where Aaron was already trying not to laugh.

​"Not one word," I warned him. ℴℴ𝘮

​"I didn’t say anything."

​"Your face did."

​Our second attempt went much better. Brenda created a force field against the wall and tilted it until it formed something close to a ramp. Marcus went first, followed by Julian and Aaron. When two royal warriors appeared at the top of the wall, Silas created several copies of us running in different directions, confusing them long enough for the rest of us to cross.

​By the time we reached the third section, I understood what Kaden had meant. This wasn’t about proving who had the strongest ability. Every obstacle had been designed to force us to use our powers together, and whenever one of us tried to do something alone, another problem appeared almost immediately.

​Julian used his shadows to hide us while we crossed an open section filled with moving targets. Marcus absorbed a blast of supernatural energy that would have hit Aaron and threw it back at the royal warrior who fired it. Brenda blocked a rain of blunt arrows with her force field while Silas filled the field with fake copies of us. Aaron, meanwhile, spent most of the test disappearing whenever someone tried to hit him. Annoying, but surprisingly useful.

​Almost an hour into the course, we reached what looked like our final major obstacle. A high barrier stood across the field, blue electricity moving from one side to the other with loud cracks. On the opposite side, a royal warrior dressed as a prisoner sat tied to a wooden chair.

​Aaron looked at me. I looked at him. Then we both looked at the barrier.

​"I can teleport across," I said.

​"Of course you can." He pointed toward the barrier. "Meanwhile, the rest of us apparently get to stand here and admire the electricity."

​"Try touching it. Maybe you’ll develop a second ability."

​Brenda snorted behind us.

​Aaron looked offended. "I thought we were becoming friends."

​"We’ve known each other for an hour."

​"That’s enough time."

​I ignored him and focused on the other side of the barrier. Teleporting alone had become almost effortless after three years of training with Drake, and a second later, the field disappeared around me and my boots touched the ground beside the prisoner.

​Easy.

​I quickly untied his hands and turned toward the others, but one of the commanders shouted from an observation tower before I could do anything else.

​"Candidate Drake! You cannot leave the prisoner behind."

​"I wasn’t planning to."

​"Then get him across."

​My eyes moved to the prisoner and then back toward the electric barrier. Right. Of course.

​I had teleported with other people before, but I didn’t do it often. Moving myself through space was easy because I only had to control my own body and energy. Taking another person meant wrapping my magic around both of us and keeping that connection steady until we reached the other side. Still, one person couldn’t be that difficult.

​Could it?

​I grabbed the prisoner’s arm. "Hold on."

​He did, and I focused on the exact spot where Brenda was standing. My Fae power moved through me as I pulled at the space around us. The magic hit harder than I expected, and a sharp wave of nausea twisted through my stomach as everything disappeared.

​A second later, we landed on the other side. My boots hit the ground harder than usual, but I managed to stay upright. I released the prisoner and took a deep breath.

​Okay. Not terrible.

​Then the barrier changed.

​The electricity spread farther across the course until there was no way for the rest of my team to get around it. I stared at it before slowly looking toward the commander.

​The man smiled.

​I hated him already.

​"You have got to be kidding me," I muttered.

​Apparently, the test wasn’t finished until all six of us reached the other side. Teleporting Brenda across wasn’t too bad. Silas was harder because the second trip came too quickly after the first, and by the time I returned for Julian, a dull ache had started forming behind my eyes.

​Marcus was next.

​I looked at him, then at his shoulders, and then back at his face.

​"No."

​His eyebrows rose. "No?"

​"You’re enormous."

​Aaron burst out laughing.

​Marcus folded his arms. "I thought you were powerful."

​"I am powerful. You’re just built like a building."

​He laughed before reaching for my arm. "Come on, Princess."

​"Don’t call me that."

​I grabbed him and teleported before he could answer.

​We landed safely, but pain immediately shot through my head. I forced myself to ignore it and went back for Aaron, who grabbed my arm the moment I appeared.

​"Don’t drop me between dimensions."

​"That isn’t how it works."

​"How do I know?"

​"You don’t."

​His eyes widened. "Rebecca, wait."

​Too late.

​I teleported, and the moment we appeared on the other side, Aaron stumbled forward and grabbed his stomach.

​"Oh, fuck."

​I bent over, trying to catch my breath. "What?"

​"I think my stomach is still over there."

​Despite everything, I laughed, but the moment I tried to straighten, the ground shifted beneath me. My smile disappeared as a sharp pain went through my head. White spots danced across my vision, and my Fae power flared beneath my skin in a way that immediately told me I had pushed myself too hard.

​I stumbled, and Brenda caught my arm before I could hit the ground.

​"Rebecca."

​"I’m fine."

​"You don’t look fine."

​I tried to straighten again, but my knees were still weak.

​"Can you continue?"

​My body went still at the sound of Kaden’s voice. I turned and found him standing several feet away beside one of the commanders, holding a clipboard. His expression gave me absolutely nothing. He didn’t rush over or ask if I was hurt. He simply stood there looking at me with the same calm expression he’d worn when two other candidates had struggled earlier.

​"Can you continue?" he repeated.

​I swallowed and straightened my shoulders. "Yes, Alpha King."

​For the briefest second, something moved in his dark green eyes, but it disappeared so quickly that I wasn’t even sure I’d seen it.

​"Then continue."

​He turned and walked away.

​I stared at his back for a moment. Well, I had asked him to treat me like everyone else. Apparently, the man had taken that request very seriously.

​"Rebecca!"

​Brenda’s shout made me turn just in time to see one of the royal warriors charging toward me.

​"Oh, shit."

​I disappeared before he could reach me.

​The rest of the course was brutal. There were more traps, another group of royal warriors, and one extremely annoying section where we had to rescue two prisoners without using the same ability twice. But slowly, we stopped behaving like six strangers who happened to have useful powers and started moving like a team.

​By the time we crossed the final line, every muscle in my body hurt, my hair was sticking to my face, and there was dirt in places where dirt had absolutely no business being. But we had made it. All six of us.

​We hadn’t been perfect. Aaron had nearly fallen into a trench because he was too busy celebrating after avoiding an attack. Marcus had absorbed more energy than he should have and spent several minutes looking like he was about to throw up. One of Silas’s illusions had accidentally confused us along with the royal warriors, which Aaron had promised to remind him about for the rest of his life. Still, we had worked together, and that was the point.

​I dropped onto the grass near the medical tent and opened my bottle of water. Brenda sat beside me, breathing heavily, while Aaron collapsed flat on his back.

​"I think I’m dying," he announced.

​I smiled and drank deeply from my bottle. For the first time since Stephanie had been captured, I felt like I was actually doing something instead of sitting somewhere worrying about her.

​The training had also exposed a weakness I hadn’t thought much about before. Teleporting alone was easy now. Taking one person was harder. Taking several people one after another while tired was something completely different. If we managed to get inside Plant Pack, I couldn’t simply grab every prisoner and teleport them all to safety. I needed more control and far more endurance, but at least now I knew what I needed to work on.

​I was still drinking when a strange quiet began spreading across the field. Conversations lowered one after another until I finally noticed the change and looked up.

​Two royal guards were walking toward the training grounds with a woman between them. My eyes narrowed slightly as I watched her approach. She was beautiful, and not normal beautiful either. Annoyingly beautiful. Long silver-blonde hair fell down her back, her skin was golden, and even from where I sat, I could see the unusual violet color of her eyes.

​There was something about the way she carried herself that immediately told me she was royalty. Her back was straight, her chin slightly raised, and the two guards walking beside her seemed more like an escort than protection she actually needed. Judging by the way several people around me immediately began whispering, I clearly wasn’t the only person who noticed her.

​The woman didn’t stop for any of the commanders. She walked straight across the field toward Kaden as though she already knew exactly where she was going.

​"Kaden."

​His name left her lips so naturally that my attention immediately sharpened.

​Kaden turned toward her, and a small smile appeared on the woman’s face as she reached him. She placed one hand on his arm and leaned closer to say something I couldn’t hear.

​My bottle stopped halfway to my mouth as I stared at them.

​I probably shouldn’t have been watching. In fact, there was absolutely no reason for me to be watching. Kaden and I had rejected each other three years ago. Whatever he did with his life now had absolutely nothing to do with me.

​Yet there I was.

​Watching.

​"Whoa," Aaron said beside me as he pushed himself upright. "Isn’t that Lady Rola?"

​I finally dragged my eyes away from them. "Who?"

​His eyebrows shot upward. "You don’t know?"

​Obviously not, Aaron. That was generally why people asked who.

​"Who is she?"

​He nodded toward the woman. "Lycan Rola. Daughter of the Lycan King and heir to the Lycan Kingdom."

​My eyes went back to her. "She’s the heir?"

​"Yep. Future Lycan Queen."

​Well, that explained everything.

​Rola was still standing close to Kaden as they spoke. Whatever she said made him turn his full attention toward her, and she still had one hand resting casually on his arm. They looked comfortable with each other. Very comfortable.

​Not that I cared.

​Obviously.

​Aaron suddenly leaned closer to me. "And apparently the rumors are true."

​I frowned and looked at him. "What rumors?"

​He stared at me like I had spent the last three years living underneath a rock before lowering his voice.

​"People have been saying for months that Lady Rola and Alpha Kaden are dating."

​For a moment, I simply stared at him, waiting for him to laugh and tell me he was joking.

​He didn’t.

​Slowly, I turned my head back toward Kaden and the beautiful Lycan princess standing beside him.

​Oh.

​Oh.