Page 14 of Beta Hybrid

‘Vampires move differently than wolves,’ Cai reminds me. ‘But knowing these moves will be invaluable if you come into a battle with one.’

Warm afternoon sunlight fades into evening twilight in the woods. Cai is breathing a little harder by the time we finish, but I am coated with sweat and feeling gross. I’m not sure I learned anything very well, but at least I got a work out in.

When we finish, instead of embracing me, Cai sighs and uses his shirt to pat down the sweat from his brow.

‘How long do we have here? To train?’

Disappointment lines his bright eyes. ‘Until we hear back from Alaric. We can’t do anything until then.’

‘We could send Callen back.’

Cai’s jaw clenches. ‘No.’ It’s the same answer, every day.

I know why. We’ve gone round and round. I try to keep up with his long strides as he heads to the stream to bathe before dinner, just like every day. ‘Drusilla’s torturing them because of me.’ It’s more to myself I say this, because I know there isn’t really anything Cai can do about it.

He doesn’t stop. ‘She’s torturing them because she’s a vampire. Aidan and Evelyn are both down in that place of their own free will. They’ll have to deal with it.’

I spend seven long days of training with Divina in the mornings, both to unlock my fae power and strengthen my witching, breaking for lunch at the encampment, ignoring the shooting daggers from Noah, then hand-to-hand with Cai in the afternoons.

As we walk down to the stream to bathe, we always see Vale and Jana taking a stroll together. Sometimes their heads are bent in conversation, other times, they share what is clearly a pleasant silence, smiling up at each other. Always brushing shoulders.

Each night, after our training—bathing in the stream, usually in silence, then dinner—is when claustrophobia’s claws graze against me. I try to ignore it. It’s only a tent, damn it. Not an underground cell. But it’s there.

Not only that, but something is going on with Cai. While he trains with me, he only gives instructions. He doesn’t talk about anything else. And we bathe, usually silently, in the stream, side by side. A couple of times I splashed him, tried to be playful, but he would only give me a pained smile, more like a grimace, and dry off.

Every day for a week he’s been like this. What is his problem?

At least I fall asleep quickly.

In only a week, being fed better and working out, I’ve developed a healthier body with real muscles and slight curves I’ve never had before.

Everyone waits anxiously for Alaric, the werewolf Origin, to respond to our letter. Cai asks for updates all the time, but so far. None.

Vale has taken to occasionally feeding Callen a dead animal. He doesn’t appreciate this. But letting a vampire starve can cause all kinds of chaos, Divina warned. We don’t want a feral vampire here.

On the seventh night, I close my eyes beside Cai in our tent. He’s facing away from me. Even though we’ve been tired, we haven’t had sex all week. When we return to the tent, I get barely a kiss, then he’s asleep.

Or pretending to be.

And I know why.

I’m not worthy of being his beta. And he knows it.

Chapter Six

Zenna

On the eighth day, my focus is off, and Divina can tell. I’m now used to the way her obsidian hair ripples in her own breeze and her dark eyes blaze like night itself. ‘Zenna,’ she snaps, voice slicing through the dawn light.

My gaze snaps to her. ‘Sorry,’ I mumble.

Her shoulders ease. ‘What’s on your mind?’

I give her a wry smile. ‘As if you can’t see?’

She gives a delicate shrug. ‘That’s for you to share. I mind my own business. What’s bothering you?’

Anger pulses low in my belly and I clench my fists, nails digging into my palms. ‘Cai’s pushing me away. I think he’s punishing me. Or… maybe he just doesn’t care for me in the way I thought. The way I’d hoped.’

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