Evaline:
I studied him just like he was doing with .
He looked as collected as ever, with his broad shoulders relaxed, muscles loose. His face betrayed nothing, but there was sothing different about the way he stood. His eyes were fixed on , sharp and narrow.
He rolled his shoulders casually, but the intensity of his gaze said sothing else.
He wasn’t taking lightly.
He might not have recognized yet, but he wasn’t foolish like everyone else present here with us to not notice his brother helping twice. Doing it once might not have caught his attention, but the second ti definitely did that.
So now, he was confused, intrigued, and looking forward to our match.
He was reading .
And I knew what he was looking at - slim build, cap pulled low, black mask covering the lower half of my face. Everything about was screaming weird and mysterious to him, sothing I was planning to use to my advantage.
My heart was pounding, not out of panic but resolve. The mont had finally arrived. And I only had one shot at this.
I felt his eyes narrowing slightly. Could almost hear the thoughts racing behind that unreadable face of his.
Who is she?
Why the secrecy?
I wasn’t sure if Alpha Kieran helped just because there was no other option to keep my na being called out by the other instructors, or if he knew just what would his involvent do to his brother. Either way, I was grateful to him.
I bent my knees slightly, centering my weight as I took position.
"Begin!" the instructor called.
The sharp command cut through the stillness like lightning and the match began.
Oscar moved first.
And he was... effortless. Smooth, like water flowing downhill.
But he wasn’t attacking to destroy. Not yet. He was probing, testing the waters. His strikes ca fast, but not hard, like he was asuring my reactions.
I dodged the first. Blocked the second. And spun out of reach before the third. My movents weren’t as polished as his, but I made up for it with instinct and raw determination.
Each ti he reached for , I slipped just out of reach.
He circled, calculating. Still holding back as he studied . And I was grateful for it... for as long as it might last.
Him going soft on was helping . Not only because it lowered the chances of a miscarriage, but also because I needed him off-guard to do what I had planned to.
Every mont I kept my identity hidden brought one step closer to the result I wanted.
I breathed evenly. Focusing my attention to him and him only.
I might be wolfless, but that didn’t an I had no knowledge of combat. I was an Alpha’s daughter, and was treated like one up until my sixteenth birthday. While my personal life was a ss at ho throughtbjy entire life, I still went to the top school, learned from the best, and was trained by my father’s beta.
It was solely because of how good I was at academics, sports, and combat, which earned the hatred of my stepmother and Lilian. Those might have ignored all along if I wasn’t ’the perfect daughter’.
And though I stopped getting these privileges after my sixteenth birthday, I had learned enough to continue training in secrecy. I never stopped trying to get better... up until two months ago.
So... as I faced Instructor Oscar, I still knew how to keep myself safe even though I was no match to him.
But he was smart... too smart. He feinted to the left and ca at from the right. And this ti, about seven minutes into our battle, his palm finally connected with my shoulder. It just grazed , but was enough to knock my balance.
I stumbled backward, dragging my feet across the sand.
A sharp sting pulsed through my arm, but I clenched my jaw and got back in position.
The crowd started murmuring at this point.
"She’s not bad."
"She’s still on her feet?"
"How is she lasting against *him*?"
Oscar tilted his head and a small crease ford between his brows. "Your stance," he said finally in a calm, probing voice. "Where did you learn that?"
His voice was low, curious. But I didn’t answer. I kept my silence, kept moving, forcing him to attack again... faster this ti.
He was no more testing .
I barely managed to slip out right before his fist would have landed at my shoulder. I ca behind him, and... smiled.
He couldn’t see it. But I smiled anyway.
It was ti.
I braced myself as he turned around and surged forward again, this ti with more speed and less caution.
He was coming in close, exactly what I needed. I waited with my heart thudding in my throat as he got closer.
One more step.
And then, in a single breath, I reached up and pulled both my cap and the mask off, letting him see for the first ti.
And just like I thought, he recognized instantly. His body stopped mid-motion with his arm hovering in the air.
His eyes locked with mine... and they widened.
Shock flooded his face. There was recognition, then confusion, and then sothing else.
"Y-you-"
I didn’t let him speak, didn’t give him ti to recover.
I ducked, dropped low, and with a sweep of my leg, knocked him clean off his feet.
The crowd gasped as his body hit the ground with a heavy thud, and before he could roll away, I pounced and landed on him, pressing my knee into his chest and pinning him in place.
My fist hovered just above his face, tight and steady.
This... this was how matches ended - a clear winning stance and unquestionable dominance.
The silence lasted for way too long, but then, the whistle blew.
"Match over!"
The sound echoed across the silent field... and suddenly, the arena erupted with cheers, shouts, and screams of disbelief.
I climbed off him slowly. My chest was heaving and heart rattling like it would explode.
But he didn’t move at first. He lay there with his chest rising and falling, and eyes fixed on like I was sothing unreal.
After what felt like forever, he finally sat up, but his gaze didn’t leave mine even for a second. He still looked extrely confused and stunned, as if I had torn the ground out from under him.
I looked down at him, unflinching as I spoke, "Hello, Alpha Oscar."
And them, I turned around and walked away.
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