Earn everything

Earn everything
The room felt colder after Kade left, his presence lingering like a shadow I couldn’t shake. His words swirled in my head, heavy with implications I couldn’t unravel. You’re asking questions you don’t want the answers to. The truth. That’s what I wanted, but was it what I needed? What could possibly be so dangerous about knowing the truth?

I leaned back against the bedpost, staring at the ceiling, my thoughts refusing to settle. Kade is well known as brute, a man who ruled through fear and dominance, yet through out this day, something about him felt... different. Like he wasn’t entirely the monster I’d painted him to be.

That thought made me angrier than it should have.

I stood abruptly, needing to move, to do something. My room, though bigger than the one I’d been thrown into when I first arrived, still felt like a prison. The clean walls, the soft bed, the untouched clothes—it was all a farce. A pretty cage was still a cage.

And there was nothing to do in the room.

Tomorrow, he said. Train with his pack members. The thought gnawed at me. I wasn’t interested in being their obedient little soldier. But what if this was some kind of trap? Maybe he was testing me.

I clenched my fists, the anger and fear mixing in a toxic cocktail inside me. I couldn’t let him win, not like this. I had to remain focused. My survival depended on keeping my wits sharp, not letting anything—anything—distract me from my goal. To escape.

But Kade’s last words echoed in my mind: Maybe you deserve to know more. What did that mean? What more was there to know?

My body was exhausted, but my mind refused to let me sleep. I paced the room for what felt like hours, unable to stop the questions tumbling through my thoughts. Every time I came back to the same conclusion: I needed to know what was really going on in this pack, and why I was suddenly so important to Kade.

Eventually, exhaustion won. I collapsed onto the bed, but sleep didn’t come easy. Every time I closed my eyes, my mind flashed back to Kade’s face, the strange mix of coldness and something else—something almost... human. I had to be cautious. It was all too easy to lose sight of my purpose in this place, and I couldn’t afford that.

Tomorrow would come soon enough. And when it did, I would be ready. I would not let Kade or his pack break me.

Not yet.

The morning arrived too quickly, the faint rays of sunlight slipping through the heavy drapes and painting the room in muted gold. I stared at the ceiling, the weight of the day pressing down on me before I even moved a muscle. My body felt stiff, like it was bracing for a fight I hadn’t yet started.

A sharp knock broke the silence.

“Time to go,” came a gruff voice from the other side of the door. It wasn’t Kade, but one of his enforcers—one of the faceless wolves who seemed to follow his every command without question.

I sat up slowly, rubbing the back of my neck. My instincts screamed to stay put, but defiance wouldn’t serve me today. Not yet. I had to see what this training was really about. Maybe it would give me answers—maybe it would just give me more questions. Either way, it was better than stewing in my own head.

The enforcer didn’t wait for me to answer. The door swung open, and he stepped inside, his expression blank but his posture tense.

“Let’s go,” he said again, his tone leaving no room for argument.

I followed him through the narrow corridors of the pack’s estate, the walls closing in on me with every step. Everything about this place felt too calculated, too perfect, like it was designed to make you forget you were trapped. But I wasn’t forgetting. Not for a second.

When we stepped outside, the crisp morning air hit me like a slap to the face. The training grounds sprawled out before me—an open field surrounded by dense forest, dotted with various obstacles and sparring circles. Wolves in human form milled about, some stretching, others already engaged in combat. Their movements were fluid, powerful, precise. These weren’t amateurs.

“Stay here,” the enforcer muttered before walking off, leaving me standing awkwardly at the edge of the field.

I scanned the crowd, searching for Kade, but he was nowhere to be seen. Of course, he wouldn’t make this easy. He never did. Instead, my eyes landed on a group of wolves watching me from across the field. Their gazes were sharp, predatory. They didn’t see me as one of them—they saw me as an intruder.

One of them broke away from the group and sauntered toward me, his lips curling into a smirk.

“So, you’re the rogue Alpha Kade’s been babysitting,” he said, his voice dripping with mockery. “You don’t look like much.”

I squared my shoulders, refusing to flinch under his scrutiny. “I don’t need to impress you.”

His smirk widened, and he stepped closer, towering over me. “We’ll see about that. Let’s find out if you can actually keep up.”

Before I could respond, he shifted into a fighting stance, his movements lazy but deliberate. A challenge. The other wolves started to gather, forming a loose circle around us. I could feel their eyes on me, waiting to see if I would back down.

Backing down wasn’t an option.

I didn’t wait for him to make the first move. I lunged forward, channeling all my anger, all my fear, into a single punch aimed at his jaw. He dodged effortlessly, his grin never faltering.

“Not bad,” he said, circling me like a predator stalking its prey. “But you’ll have to do better than that.”

I clenched my fists, my heart pounding in my chest. If this was a test, I wasn’t going to fail.

He moved faster than I anticipated, closing the distance between us in a single, fluid motion. His fist came at me like a freight train, and I barely managed to duck in time. The air whistled past my ear as his strike missed by inches.

“Too slow,” he taunted, pivoting to face me again. The other wolves laughed, their voices a low rumble of amusement.

The humiliation stung, but I swallowed it down. This wasn’t just a fight—it was a show of dominance, a test of whether I deserved even a shred of respect here. I couldn’t afford to lose, not in front of them, and definitely not for myself.

I circled him, studying his movements. He was overconfident, cocky. That was his weakness. I just had to find the right moment to exploit it.

He lunged again, faster this time, aiming a sweeping kick at my legs. I jumped back, the edge of his foot grazing my shin, but I didn’t let the pain slow me down. I countered with a swift jab to his side, landing a solid hit that made him grunt in surprise.

The circle of wolves quieted, their laughter replaced with murmurs of interest.

“Oh, she’s got some fight in her,” one of them said, and I could hear the faintest hint of approval in his tone.

The wolf in front of me straightened, his smirk fading. “Lucky shot,” he growled, his voice low and dangerous.

I didn’t respond. I couldn’t afford to. My breaths came fast and shallow, adrenaline coursing through me like fire.

This time, he didn’t hold back. He came at me with a flurry of attacks—punches, kicks, movements so fast I could barely keep up. I dodged what I could, blocked when I had to, but I knew I couldn’t outlast him. He was stronger, faster, and better trained.

But I was stubborn. And I was angry.

When he threw a wild punch, I stepped inside his guard, using his momentum against him. I drove my elbow into his ribs, and when he stumbled back, I followed up with a kick that sent him sprawling to the ground.

The circle erupted in a mix of cheers and stunned silence. My chest heaved, and I stared down at him, refusing to show how much the fight had drained me.

He pushed himself up onto his elbows, glaring at me with something that looked uncomfortably close to respect. “Not bad,” he admitted grudgingly.

“Enough.”

The voice cut through the air like a whip, silencing the crowd instantly. I turned toward the source, my stomach twisting.

Kade stood at the edge of the circle, his dark eyes locked on me. His expression was unreadable, but the tension in his stance spoke volumes.

“Back to training,” he barked at the others, and they scattered without hesitation. Only the wolf I’d fought lingered, his gaze flicking between me and Kade before he finally slinked away.

Kade stepped closer, his presence like a storm rolling in. “Impressive,” he said, his tone even. “But don’t mistake a lucky win for control.”

I straightened, meeting his gaze head-on. “I don’t need control. I need the truth.”

His lips twitched, almost like he wanted to smile but refused to let himself. “Then you’re in the wrong place,” he said quietly. “The truth here is earned, not given. And you’ve barely scratched the surface.”

He turned to leave, but I couldn’t let him go—not yet. “What am I earning, Kade? Your respect? My freedom? Or is this just another one of your games?”

He paused, glancing back over his shoulder. For a moment, I thought he might actually answer.

“Another day,” he said instead. “You’ll find out another day.”

And then he was gone, leaving me standing in the middle of the training grounds, surrounded by questions I couldn’t escape.