Chapter 77 His, ours, mine
Chapter 077
RAVENNA
Dorian immediately stepped forward, positioning himself between Darius and me with both hands raised.
"This is a foolish act. You are both going to get seriously hurt. Just stop this right now before it goes too far."
But Bonn's voice cut through the tension before either of us could respond. "Leave them, Dorian. Step back and let them settle this."
Dorian looked at our coach with disbelief. "You cannot be serious. They are going to kill each other."
"Then they will learn a valuable lesson," Bonn replied calmly, gesturing for everyone to move back and give us space. "Sometimes people need to fight it out to understand each other. Now move."
The entire team withdrew to the edges of the ice, forming a loose circle around us whilst murmuring excitedly amongst themselves.
I could feel their eyes on us, watching and waiting to see what would happen next.
Darius and I both dropped into fighting stances, circling each other slowly.
My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears, but I refused to let any fear show on my face.
He wanted to see me as weak? I would prove him wrong.
I attacked first without warning, throwing a solid punch aimed directly at his face.
My fist connected with his cheek with a satisfying crack that echoed through the rink.
The team erupted, howling my name and cheering me on. "Ravenna! Ravenna! Ravenna!"
Darius recovered quickly from the hit, shaking his head slightly before launching his own attack.
He came at me fast and hard, his movements precise and controlled.
I tried defending myself, blocking and dodging as best as I could, but he was stronger and more experienced.
Within seconds, he had me pinned face-down on the ice with his weight pressing into my back.
But I was not finished. I whirled around using a move I had practiced countless times on my own, catching him off guard and managing to flip our positions so that I was the one pinning him down instead.
He recovered almost immediately, his hands grabbing my shoulders and flipping us again.
We rolled across the ice, both fighting for dominance whilst the team went absolutely wild around us.
"Is this all you have got?" Darius demanded, his face inches from mine whilst he held me down.
I grinned at him, knowing exactly how to wipe that smug expression off his face. "It is not all I have got, asshole."
Then I headbutted him as hard as I could.
Darius groaned loudly and let go of me immediately, his hands flying up to his forehead where I had struck him.
I scrambled to my feet whilst he was distracted, putting distance between us.
The team was now completely wild with cheers and shouts, their excitement filling the entire rink.
We stood up and began circling each other again like magnets that refused to separate, both of us breathing hard and watching for the next opening.
Darius managed to pin me down multiple times over the next few minutes, using his size and strength advantage to his benefit.
But every single time, I found a way to flip him or twist out of his hold, refusing to stay down no matter how many times he put me there.
The tension between us was thick and overwhelming, too close and too warm and too breathless.
Every time our bodies connected, I felt electricity shooting through my nerves.
Every time his hands touched my skin, even through layers of clothing, it left burning trails that I could not ignore.
During one particularly intense grapple, my fingers accidentally brushed against his jaw whilst I was trying to push him away.
The contact was brief, barely a second, but Darius froze completely like I had struck him with lightning.
I took advantage of his momentary distraction and used all my strength to trap him between my legs, locking him in a hold he could not easily escape from.
I leaned down close to his ear, my breath coming in harsh pants.
"I did not need Dorian's help," I whispered fiercely. "I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. So do not you ever dare address me as a weakling again. Do you understand me?"
His eyes met mine, wild and filled with something I could not name. For a long moment, neither of us moved.
Then Bonn's voice broke through whatever spell had fallen over us. "Are you two done yet?"
We both looked at each other as realization dawned.
We had been in the middle of team practice and had completely abandoned it to fight each other in front of everyone.
"Detention with me on Thursday," Bonn announced firmly. "Both of you. No arguments."
We both groaned loudly at the punishment whilst untangling ourselves and standing up.
My entire body ached from the fight, muscles I did not even know I had screaming in protest.
The rest of practice continued without any more incidents, though I could feel Darius watching me constantly.
Every time I turned around, his eyes were on me. It made my skin prickle with awareness and something else I refused to examine.
By the time Bonn finally dismissed us, I was completely exhausted.
Every part of my body hurt, and all I wanted was to collapse into my bed and sleep for twelve hours straight.
I made my way back to my room slowly, limping slightly from a bruise on my hip.
Samantha took one look at me when I walked through the door and immediately started fussing.
"What happened to you?" she demanded, pulling me inside and pushing me down onto my bed. "You look like you got hit by a bus."
"Just a rough practice," I mumbled, already half asleep. "Nothing serious."
But even as I drifted off, my mind kept replaying moments from the fight.
The way Darius had looked at me.
The way his body had felt pressed against mine.
The intensity in his eyes when I had him trapped.
I forced the thoughts away and let sleep claim me.
DARIUS
Back in my room, I found it impossible to think straight about anything. Dorian had passed out on his bed the moment we arrived back at our shared space, completely exhausted from the brutal practice session.
He was snoring softly now, dead to the world.
But I could not sleep.
I had tried countless times over the past hour, tossing and turning in my bed whilst my mind refused to shut off.
Every time I closed my eyes, images from the sparring match flooded my brain in vivid detail.
Atlas kept replaying every single second of the fight in my head, especially focusing on the moment when Ravenna had pressed me into the mat with her legs locked around me.
The memory made my entire body heat up in ways I absolutely did not want to acknowledge.
"She is strong," Atlas murmured approvingly. "She did not back down even when we had her pinned. She kept fighting."
"Shut up," I growled internally.
"She matched us move for move," he continued, ignoring my command. "She was magnificent. Did you see the fire in her eyes?"
I hated that I had liked the fight.
I hated that being that close to her, having her hands on me and her body pressed against mine, had felt right in a way nothing else ever had.
It should have been wrong.
It should have been uncomfortable.
But instead, it had been the most alive I had felt in months.
I hated that she was human, yet somehow she affected me like this. No wolf had ever gotten under my skin the way she did.
No one had ever made me feel so out of control with just a touch or a look.
I hated that I had wanted the fight to continue.
That when Bonn had interrupted us, my first instinct had been disappointment rather than relief.
I hated what I was thinking right now, lying in my bed in the dark whilst my best friend slept peacefully nearby.
The thoughts running through my head were dangerous and completely inappropriate and utterly consuming.
"She is ours," Atlas murmured again, his voice soft and certain. "You felt it during the fight. You know it is true."
Something inside me snapped.
I could not keep denying this, could not keep fighting against what my wolf insisted was reality.
But accepting it felt impossible.
"She is NOTHING," I roared back at him, the words echoing through my mind with desperate fury.