Chapter 349 349
Sabine POV
“Again.”
Damien’s roar echoes across the training ground, sharp and commanding, as though I were one of his seasoned warriors instead of a woman barely holding herself together.
“I need a break!” I snap back, my voice raw. Every inch of my body screams in protest. I can already feel the bruises blooming beneath my clothes, dark and angry, claiming territory.
“You’ve had eighteen years of break,” he fires back without hesitation. “You need to train.”
“I just need a break…” I hiss through clenched teeth. I wasn’t refusing. I never said I wouldn’t continue. I just needed a moment one breath.
“No. No break until I say so. Again!”
Damien was being a dick and this wasn’t even our first day training together.
It wasn’t as though I wasn’t trying. I was pushing myself to the edge of collapse, forcing my body far beyond its limits. And all the while, a certain someone inside me was growing stronger… louder… more demanding.
It had been three days since Didier, Caroline, and Gilles left. Three days of relentless training.
Every morning, I ran five kilometres before stepping straight into hand-to-hand combat with Damien. All of it conducted beneath Maurice’s ever-watchful eye.
Maurice ran with me each morning, which was the only part of the day I truly enjoyed just the two of us, the rhythm of our footsteps, the quiet companionship. But the peace never lasted. My mood always soured the moment Damien strode into the garden, hauling his training equipment behind him like a promise of pain.
I wasn’t born to fight. I knew that much. And surely Damien must know it too.
Even Maurice did. He flinched every time I failed to dodge one of Damien’s punches or kicks. I must have looked ridiculous to him like a rag doll flung aside, my body slamming into the training mat with a breathless oomph every single time.
“Your body is weak.”
“It’s not,” I pant, hands braced on my thighs as I bend over, stealing whatever scraps of rest I can. “I lived and worked on a farm for six months. I wouldn’t have survived that if I were weak. I’m just not your kind of strong.”
I linger there deliberately, trying to delay the inevitable trying to buy time before his next assault.
But it doesn’t stop.
Another round.
Punches. Kicks. Me scrambling, ducking, throwing myself out of his path more than actually fighting back. My reflexes were good but not good enough. Not fast enough. Not strong enough to match a werewolf.
Not just any werewolf.
The most powerful one in the land.
My wolf had been growing stronger by the day, pressing closer to the surface. I managed to keep her restrained, though barely. It was strange. She’d been like this before, during my last stay here, before I’d fled to the farm.
But this time was different.
This time she wasn’t content to wait.
She felt desperate. Furious. As though she were ramming herself repeatedly against the invisible barrier I’d locked her behind a mental prison built of sheer willpower and fear.
Then Damien’s knee slams into my upper torso.
The impact knocks the air clean from my lungs, my body folding in on itself as pain explodes through me. I choke, wheezing, my chest burning as my hand shoots up instinctively while I stagger backward, gasping for breath.
It was tough love I understood that. I accepted it. This was the price of belonging. The price of forgiveness. The price of being part of his family again.
Is blood always the price for blood?
A metallic taste floods my mouth, sharp and unmistakable. I hadn’t been cut but something inside me had given way. I spit onto the ground, watching red stain the dirt as the bitter taste clings to my teeth.
“Fucking hell, Damien that’s enough!”
Maurice moves before I even register him, at my side in an instant, rubbing my back as I bend forward, heaving. Blood spills from my mouth again. Wherever Damien had struck me, something had torn. A lining. Something internal.
But I wouldn’t let Damien see how quickly Maurice came to my aid.
I wouldn’t give him that satisfaction.
I was Garnier blood too.
Our father’s child.
A soft whine echoes through my mind hers. She’s begging me to stop. To let us heal. To let her take over.
But weakness was something I had buried long ago.
“I’m good,” I mutter hoarsely, straightening despite the pain. “It’s only my stomach lining… I’m sure it’ll grow back.”
The sarcasm tastes bitter as I force myself back into position.
This time, I tell myself, I’ll block better. Anticipate his movements. Outsmart him.
It doesn’t matter.
He’s too fast. Too strong.
It’s like steel crashing into tin. I don’t stand a chance beneath his weight.
He comes at me again, his kick slamming into my ribs
Crack.
The sound is unmistakable.
“Enough!”
The growl that erupts from my throat isn’t mine.
It’s monstrous. Primal. It vibrates through my chest, over my tongue, as I shove Damien back with a force that shocks me to my core.
The voice leaves my mouth but it doesn’t belong to me.
Shit.
She broke through the barrier.
“There she is.” Damien’s lips curl into a satisfied grin, like a predator finally rewarded. “I was wondering how long it would take before she came out to play.”
“I think that’s enough training for today…”
Maurice steps in again, his voice calm but firm as he wraps a blanket around my trembling body. Fear seeps into my bones. She had never done that before not even the last time, not even when I was off the tablets.
“Maurice”
“No.” His tone hardens as he turns on Damien. “Enough. I warned you. If you push her too hard, she’ll leave again. Know her boundaries… and know yours.”