Page 36 of Claimed By My Fiancé's Brother

A warm-up would require knowing how to fight in the first place…which I didn’t.

I mean, I could fight, but not at this pack’s level.

I’d learned how to fight by practicing on trees and a few times with Micah, since Father had prohibited me from entering the Red Moon Pack’s training grounds to “curb my rebellious streak.”

My fighting was nothing like Anastasia’s sophisticated chaos, so I shrugged.

Her partner stepped out of the ring, and Anastasia offered me a hand.

“Let’s train,” she suggested with the soft tone that I was growing to be highly suspicious of.

I didn’t move, and her smile broadened before she spoke louder than she needed to, her voice carrying.

“Why are you hesitating?” she asked, her tone a perfect blend of concern and scorn. “I can go easy on you, if you want.”

I felt the attention of the wolves around us shifting to Anastasia and me.

As my mate, you are an extension of me. When you act weak, you make me look weak.

As I remembered Alexander’s words from our first night here, I took a step toward the ring.

It wasn’t just because of that, though. I was in a pack where strength was one of the highest-valued skill sets. If I backed down from every challenge, I would never fully integrate into the Nightshade Pack.

I entered the ring, and up close, Anastasia’s smugness was apparent before we even began circling each other.

Anastasia smiled, showing too many teeth.

“Don’t worry,” she cooed. “You’re Alexander’s mate, so I’ll do my best not to break you.”

She came at me hard, her fists swinging. Purely on reflex, I dodged some of her punches, but when I lifted my fists to defend, one of her punches snuck in, and she clipped my shoulder.

I staggered back, my vision blurring around the edges.

Anastasia was stronger than I was—clearly.

But the thought of letting her win didn’t sit well with me. With a deep inhale, I let my consciousness take a backseat and fell back on Lara’s instincts.

My defense sped up and for the first time, I was able to go on the offensive. I threw a punch at her, and it hit Anastasia square in the face.

She stared at my hands for a second, and then faster than I could blink, Anastasia had me on my back.

I tried to flip her off, but Anastasia didn’t give me a chance to recover before she threw a punch at me that had me seeing stars.

Her cool gray eyes glittered murderously as she pulled back her fist to hit me again. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the blow while mentally berating myself for accepting her challenge in the first place.

But the blow never landed.

I opened my eyes to see Dylan staring down at me, his hand wrapped around Anastasia’s wrist and preventing her from hitting me.

Dylan’s voice was clipped and cutting as he spoke.

“Eleanor was almost killed yesterday. I’d expect you to have more tact than to draw her into a fight.”

Annoyance flashed in Anastasia’s eyes, but it was gone almost as quickly as it’d appeared.

“My apologies, alpha heir,” she said contritely, before climbing off me.

Dylan offered me his arm so he could help me up.

---