Chapter 102 Adrain Stop!
Keal's eyebrows rose slightly. "Your Majesty, with respect, I don't think…"
"I didn't ask for your opinion." Adrian moved forward and gripped Lila's arm, pulling her toward the training mats. "If she's going to die here, she should at least learn something first."
He positioned her in a combat stance, his hands adjusting her posture with touches that lingered too long. "Defense starts with balance. Your center of gravity is here." His hand pressed against her abdomen. "Everything flows from this point."
Despite his harsh words, his touch was gentler than Keal's had been. Less brutal. More careful, as if some part of him was terrified of actually hurting her.
"When your opponent strikes here," Adrian's fist moved slowly toward her shoulder, "you deflect like this." He guided her arm through the motion, his body pressed close behind hers to demonstrate proper form.
The warriors exchanged confused glances. The King was supposed to be demonstrating brutality. Instead, he looked like he was teaching a favored student.
"Now. Try to strike me." Adrian stepped back, taking a defensive position. "Use what I just showed you."
Lila's body moved on instinct. She lunged forward, her fist aimed at his torso. But her exhausted legs gave out mid-strike. She stumbled, falling forward.
Adrian caught her automatically, but her momentum carried them both down. They hit the training mat hard, Lila landing on top of Adrian's chest.
For a moment, neither moved. They simply stared at each other, breathing heavily.
Then Lila saw it. A flash of bright red in Adrian's eyes. His wolf rising to the surface. And with it, a single word echoed through her mind with impossible clarity.
“Mine.“
The word wasn't spoken aloud. It resonated through some connection she couldn't understand. A bond that shouldn't exist anymore.
Adrian's eyes widened in shock. He'd heard it too. Or felt it. The ghost of their severed connection flickering.
His wolf surged forward completely. In one fluid motion, he flipped their positions, pinning Lila to the mat with his body weight. His hands captured her wrists and pressed them above her head.
"What did you say?" His voice came out rough, barely human. "Say it again."
"I didn't say anything!" Lila's voice rose with panic. "I didn't…"
But the word came again, clearer this time. Not from her lips but from somewhere deeper. From a place where the bond still lived despite everything done to kill it.
“Mine, mate. Mine.“
Adrian's wolf took complete control. His canines elongated with a sharp crack. A predatory roar tore from his throat, the sound making every warrior in the training yard drop to their knees in automatic submission to Alpha authority.
Lila couldn't contain the overwhelming force of that roar. She closed her eyes and turned her head, trying to block it out. But all she could see behind her closed lids was the man from her nightmares. The figure in royal robes with no head. This time his hands were on her face, gripping too tight, and she could feel him trying to force his way into her mind.
Pain exploded through her skull. Not physical pain but something worse. Memories trying to surface, fighting against whatever spell kept them locked away. The pressure built and built until she thought her head would split open.
"No! Please, no! Stop!" Lila's voice broke into desperate pleas. "Please stop! It hurts!"
She thrashed beneath Adrian's weight, but he was immovable. His wolf was trying to force the bond back into existence through sheer will, trying to break through whatever barrier separated them.
But all it did was cause Lila unbearable agony as her fractured mind tried and failed to remember.
Strong hands suddenly grabbed Adrian and physically hauled him off Lila. Keal's voice cut through the Alpha's roar.
"You'll kill her if you continue!" Keal threw Adrian backward with strength that shouldn't have been possible for anyone below Alpha rank. "Whatever you're doing, it's destroying her mind!"
Adrian stumbled, his wolf still in control, snarling at Keal for daring to interfere.
But Lila didn't open her eyes. Didn't respond to Keal's voice or Sydney's concerned shout. The pain in her head had reached a crescendo and then everything simply... stopped.
She passed out, her body going limp on the training mat, her face twisted in an expression of agony even unconsciousness couldn't erase.
Sydney rushed forward with her medical kit, checking Lila's pulse and breathing. "She's alive but unresponsive. Whatever happened, it's caused some kind of mental trauma."
Adrian finally regained control of his wolf. He stared down at Lila's unconscious form with an expression of horror and confusion. "I heard her. She said something through mind link. She spoke to me through the mind link." One of the things that is very difficult for Lila to do was mind link, yet she couldn't even understand she spoke through mind link.
"Her wolf strength is suppressed." Keal's voice was sharp. "Because what I just witnessed looked like a bond trying to reconnect against magical interference. And that interference is causing her pain."
The implication hung heavy in the air. The rejection ritual hadn't actually worked. It had just hidden the bond behind a spell. And every time that spell cracked, every time the bond tried to resurface, it caused both of them agony.
Someone had done this deliberately. Set them up to hurt each other every time they got close.
Adrian's hands clenched into fists. "Get her to the healers. Now. I want to know exactly what's happening in her mind."
"The healers answer to Freya," Keal pointed out. "Who performed the ritual. Do you really want to put Lila in her hands?"
Adrian's jaw worked. Keal was right. Freya couldn't be trusted. But he needed answers.
"Take her to my chambers." Adrian's voice was cold. "Post guards. No one enters except you, Marcus, or me. Understood?"
Sydney carefully lifted Lila with help from two warriors. "What about medical care?"
"You'll provide it." Adrian looked at Sydney directly for the first time. "You seem competent enough. Keep her stable until we figure out what's really happening."
As they carried Lila away, Adrian remained on the training mat, staring at his hands. He'd felt it, the bond. It's Just hidden behind layers of magic that caused excruciating pain every time it tried to surface.
Someone wanted them to suffer. Wanted them to destroy each other while thinking they felt nothing.
And Adrian was going to find out who. Then he was going to make them pay for every moment of agony they'd inflicted on his mate.
Because despite the spell, despite the anger, despite everything, his wolf knew the truth.
Lila was his. And he would burn the world down before he let anyone hurt her again.