Page 90 of Knot Gonna Lie
“Better. Again, faster.”
We repeated the pattern, speed increasing incrementally. Duck, twist, pivot. Each successful evasion built confidence, mybody remembering rhythms I didn’t know it knew. When Tobias finally managed to catch my wrist, Stella was there instantly.
“Size doesn’t matter if you know leverage.” She guided my free hand against his grip. “Thumbs are weak. Twist sharp, pull down.”
I tried. His hold broke, surprise flickering in his eyes.
“Good.” Stella’s approval warmed something deep. “Now offense.”
She demonstrated strikes—palm to nose, knee to groin, fingers to eyes. Brutal efficiency. No wasted motion, no flourish. Each move drilled into me until repetition blurred into instinct.
“Your turn, Seth.”
He left his med kit reluctantly. Seth’s style was different from Tobias’s—clinical, precise, like surgery. Each move calculated for maximum effect with minimum energy. His scent—lavender and citrus—calmed the part of me that wanted to bare my throat.
Pack, my instincts recognized. Safe but still wrong for this exercise.
“Harder for you,” Stella observed, watching me struggle against instinct that demanded submission to pack members. “But necessary. Threats don’t always come from strangers.”
The words carried weight beyond training—hinting about her haunted past with her old alpha. In space, in the corporate world we’d soon enter, danger wore familiar faces. Even Eli, Luca’s own brother, might prove hostile.
Seth’s next grab came faster, more authentic. The defensive twist felt wrong, every fiber screaming against fighting someone I’d claimed. But I managed it, breaking his hold with the technique Stella had shown.
“Better.” Seth stepped back, nodding, his professional mask not quite hiding his pride. “You’re learning to override instinct with logic. That’s crucial.”
“Jaxom.” Stella’s gesture brought my newest pack member forward.
He moved with surprising grace for someone who claimed no combat training. But I’d seen him in the storage bay, the efficient way he’d hefted heavy crates, the strength hidden beneath careful control. When we engaged, his touch sparking neither rejection nor submission, but something different—partnership.
The sparring felt more like dancing, give and take, teaching me to read an opponent’s intentions through stance and breath. Jaxom let me practice throws, his body going pliant when I hooked his leg, letting momentum and leverage compensate for size difference.
“Excellent.” Stella’s approval rang genuine. “You’re understanding the physics. Now—”
“Me.”
Luca stepped forward, and the training deck’s atmosphere shifted. Alpha presence filled the space, primal and overwhelming. This was the predator who’d claimed me, whose marks still throbbed at my throat. Fighting him felt like defying gravity.
“This is grim reality of what you’ll face out there.” Stella’s voice carried grim truth. “Alphas who won’t hold back, who see omega and think prey. Show me you can handle it.”
Luca approached with none of his packmates’ restraint.. His movements carried the hunt, fast, real. His grip closed around my arm with bone-deep strength, and my body betrayed me—terror tangled with arousal, instinct to submit warring with the will to fight.
My body wanted to submit, to bare my throat, to let him take whatever he demanded. But beneath that instinct, new knowledge bloomed.
But I remembered what Stell had taught me.
Thumb weak. Leverage. Strike.
I twisted inside his reach, elbow driving toward his core. He blocked easily, but the attempt earned Stella’s grin.
“Yes!” Stella’s excitement cut through everything. “That’s it exactly. Use their strength against them.”
We continued, Luca gradually increasing intensity while keeping it safe. Each successful defense, each managed escape, built something crucial—not just skill but belief. The certainty that I wasn’t helpless, that station conditioning hadn’t broken something essential.
When I finally managed a throw—hooking his leg while using his own momentum—Luca let it happen. He hit the mat with controlled grace, but the victory was mine. The clan erupted in cheers, Tobias whistling appreciation while Maia clapped with genuine delight.
“My omega.” Luca’s voice carried from the mat, pride and possession tangling into something that made heat pool low. “Magnificent.”
The praise shouldn’t have affected me so strongly, but my body responded like he’d touched me. Tomorrow we’d reach Planet Tera. Tomorrow, everything would change. But today, surrounded by clan who’d become family, learning to defend what was mine—today felt like becoming.
