The Alpha’s Dark Revenge

Nikolai’s POV

As soon as the conference meeting ended, I quickly turned off the computer and tugged on the combat boots that were already laid out in front of my bed. As soon as I was done throwing my clothes on, I walked down to the training ground as quickly as I could. I sighted her as soon as I approached, seated comfortably astride a log of wood.

I felt the duffel bag I had come with slip from my fingers as I tried my hardest not to gape at her. When she stood to face me, my lungs emptied of all the air intact. She had complained about the jeans and T-shirt she wore slowing her down, so I had asked her to see Annalise for a change of outfits. She needed to be as comfortable as possible in order to get to her full potential.

But I definitely hadn’t been expecting this. She was clad in a stretchy, black leather bodysuit; completing the attire with a pair of black boots, and her hair tied up in a ponytail. Dressed like this she looked… tough, and absolutely breathtaking. Reminding myself why I was here in the first place, I tore my eyes away and picked up the duffel bag.

“How come you’re late today? Scared I’ll beat you, again?” I heard her joke as she approached me.

For a moment I was speechless. It was strange but nice getting to see this humorous, carefree side of her. Of course she was still timid and reserved as was her nature, but I noticed that when she started to get more comfortable, her sense of humor was pretty difficult to hide, and she would make subtle jokes once in a while. And for some weird reason, I found it quite adorable.

When I saw her expression begin to falter, I knew she must’ve thought that I’d taken offence. So I tried to save the situation.

“It’s been just three weeks, I wouldn’t be so confident,” I smirked. “And besides the only reason you won was because I let you.”Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

I saw her cock an eyebrow at my words and then chuckle. “Right. Of course.” Still chuckling, she bent down and began to help me unload the duffel bag. We did that in silence for a while whilst I struggled to keep my eyes on the equipment and not her face every time she looked away.

“Okay. So far, you’ve learned how to shoot a gun, and how to defend. Today I’ll be teaching you how to attack.”

I saw her eyes widen. “Attack? Won’t that be… dangerous?”

“How do you mean?”

“Well I don’t have a wolf. Yet. So isn’t it more important to learn defense? Something tells me I’d get killed if I tried to attack.”

I couldn’t hold back my chuckle. “Well, you’re not completely wrong. But it’s beneficial either way. And don’t forget, if your wolf eventually develops, you’re gonna need those skills.”

She nodded thoughtfully. “Okay then.”

“Let’s begin,” I announced as we began to circle each other. “I’m going to need you to unlearn everything I taught you about defense, for now. That will come into play after you’ve made the first move to weaken your opponent, gotten the upper hand. Then while you attack, you fend off any moves your opponent might make. But the trick is to keep attacking, don’t give them a chance to recover. Because once you do, it might be difficult to regain the upper hand.”

Her eyebrows puckered in concentration as she nodded to everything I said. When she had gotten it all, I began to teach her some moves. Like always since I began our lessons, she surprised me with how quickly she learned. The other day, I had been so thrown off balance that I didn’t realise when she beat me.

“Now, come,” I snarled, widening my arms as I beckoned to her. Straightening from her stance, she charged, her right leg coming up swiftly to land a kick to my jaw which I easily stopped.

“Impressive. You’re flexible enough, but you’re legs are weak. We’ll need to work on that first.”

I hid a smile as I watched try to mask her disappointment. “Don’t worry, the exciting part will start soon enough.”

In reply she groaned and began to back away when all of a sudden she cried out in pain and clutched her thigh. “I think I might’ve overdone it.”

In a second I was by her side. “Where? Let me see.” I wasn’t sure why I was panicking. The thought that she might be hurt sent me into some weird kind of panic mode. Catching myself, I quickly let go of her thigh, embarrassed. But I didn’t move away quickly enough to prevent our lips nearly meeting when she looked up at me. Our lips were just a hair’s breadth apart.

For a second, I could not breathe. It was like everything had gone into slow motion as I studied every little detail of her face, her eyes, her lips…

No.

I cleared my throat loudly and moved away from her. “You should rest up for the rest of the day. When you feel better later today, we’ll have some shooting practice.”

She looked down at her boots and then back to me. “Yeah sure. Okay then.”

After standing awkwardly for a while, she grabbed her stuff. “I should leave now.”

I didn’t trust myself not to stutter so I nodded.

“Oh, there was something I wanted to ask,” She said as she got to the door. “I don’t know if she told you but Eve’s birthday is coming up. And I thought it’d be nice to maybe throw a little party for her. I think she’d like it.”

Eve had not let me hear the last of it. “She did tell me. So what’s the problem?”

“Well, um, we didn’t think you’d be okay with the… distraction. The noise, partying, you know how kids are. So I wanted to get your permission first.”

“Nonsense! It’s a birthday party, and it’s for Eve. She deserves it.”

The wide smile that emerged on her face made me confident that I had made the right decision. And as she turned away, I couldn’t help the one that formed on mine.