Chapter l394

Chapter 0394

I met with Nicholas in the same weight room we had our self-defense training. He’d had it cleared out again, this time so he and I could practice fighting.

“Now that you have Miracle’s strength to aid you, you don’t need to rely on the same self-defense tactics as before. Those will still aid you of course, but you are not at such a disadvantage now.”

I nodded as I continued stretching. Nicholas had insisted on it. It had been a few days since my disappearing act, but he was still worried about me having pushed my muscles too hard. I was sore for a full day afterwards.

When I finished, I stood upright. He stood facing me.

He waved me forward. “Come at me like you mean to attack me.

“Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” I asked.

He frowned a little. “Pretend I’m some as shole who took Elva.”

A vicious, angry growl escaped my throat before I realize it. Miracle had made her feelings known on that matter.

“There you go. Keep that energy.” He waved me forward again. “You won’t hurt me.”

Miracle, despite her burst of anger, still seemed hesitant to attack the man she considered our mate.

“He won’t let us hurt him,” I whisper to myself, to Miracle inside of me. “He just wants to help up protect Elva.”

With that reassurance, Miracle seemed more onboard. I felt her strength surge through me.

“Ready?” Nicholas asked.

I nodded.

He lowered into an attack stance. I followed suit. Our stances were similar. It had been some time since I trained as a warrior in physical combat, but I remember Nicholas beside me in the same training. He’d likely perfected the art since then, while I’d let my skills fade away.

Even so, at the core, we’d been trained the same moves.

It was no surprise then, when I pounced, Nicholas met my pounce with the sarne

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of his own. Our arms latched, and we grappled.

Even with my wolf strength, his own wolf strength should have outmatched me.

“You are holding back,” I said, voice strained from the effort. If I could get even one of his arms to sl*p, I could toss him over my shoulder.

He smiled back. He was enjoying this. “It’s your first day,” he said. He didn’t sound strained at all.

“I have to learn,” I said.

“Not everyone is as strong as me,” he said.

I knew what he meant, though he tried to stay humble.

Very few people were as strong as him. His Alpha was fierce.

“Our mate is strong,” Miracle whispered in appreciation.

We need to be strong for him, too.

Miracle gave me even more strength and I put everything I had into knocking Nicholas off-balance.

However, Nicholas was built like a brick wall, and when I pushed, instead of him moving backwards, I did. Somehow, I’d managed to knock myself off-balance!

Nicholas jumped at the sudden opening, and in the next instant, my back was flat against the mat of the floor. Nicholas was directly on top of me pinning me

down.

“It was a good effort,” he said.

I looked up at him. His hands were on my arms, and his legs were over my legs, holding me to the mat. My chest was heaving. My adrenaline was surging.

Nicholas’s gaze dipped down to my l*ps.

I licked them.

He moved in a flash, down, down, until his mouth was on mine and we were aggressively making out.

Go d, he was so hot. I could feel his rock hard b*dy on top of me. And he was so strong. The

way he shoved me down like I was nothing at all.

All of it set me on fire. I tried to pull my arms free, testing his hold, but it was firm. Pleasure zipped up and down my spine. I liked being at his mercy.

“I win,” he whispered against my mouth.

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He always had the upper hand, but I wasn’t about to argue the point, not when I was also getting what I wanted.

Instead, I teased him further. “Winners get rewards,” I said.

Fire sparked hot in his gaze. “And what reward do I win?”

“Me,” I said.

A low growl erupted from the back of his throat. “Lucky me.” He leaned down to k*ss me again. Go d knew I wanted him to.

But a polite cough sounded from the gym entrance, stopping us. We both glanced over. I expected Mark or one of Nicholas’s other trusted guards to be there. They were the only ones who were supposed to have access while we were

there.

However, it was Brian, Julian’s Beta, who waited patiently for us now.

“That guy can get in anywhere,” Nicholas cursed under his breath as he stood, then helped me up. Together we walked toward Brian.

Brian seemed absolutely unfazed to have seen us making out. He probably knew every single facet about our relationship. Hell, he probably knew even more than I did.

“Julian called for you two,” Brian said.

Nicholas and I glanced at each other.

Nicholas and I followed Brian into Julian’s personal chambers. Julian himself was standing in front of a large wide-screen television that took up the majority of one wall. It was lavish and outrageous. The biggest screen I’d ever seen in my life.

When he saw us, he walked straight up to us. “Have you seen this?”

Behind him, on the screen, the news was showing a special report. Several of the King’s statues had been defaced in cities and towns all across the kingdom.

Some were beheaded, with the stone heads either at the statue’s feet or missing altogether. Every single one had the word TYRANT spray painted in red across the b*dy.

Captivated, Nicholas walked toward the screens. His face was carefully blank. I could only guess at the emotions he felt. Even my heightened senses couldn’t perceive them.

I had a suspicion he was purposefully hiding them from me.

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Which meant he was likely hiding fear.

“Dad’s wrapped up in a meeting with his advisors,” Julian said. “Nathan won’t let me ten feet near the door.”

“They must be thinking of some kind of PR strategy,” Nicholas said.

“They already have one: the competition,” Julian said. Nicholas and I both looked at him. What did he mean? “You know who else is in that meeting with dear old Dad and his advisors. The television producers in charge of the competition.”

I tried to imagine what that could me.

The public was turning against the royal family, even with the competition, even with my presence inside of it. If those PR moves were failing, they would have to find something else. Something bigger.

Were they about to up the stakes of the competition somehow? But the grand prize was to be Luna. What could be bigger than that?

“Nick,” I said, because I wanted to be close to him suddenly. If the royal family fell, he would fall too.

Nicholas immediately opened his arms and wrapped them around me. “I’ll keep you safe from this,” he said.

“It’s not me I’m worried about,” I told him.

“We all better prepare ourselves,” Julian said. “Whatever they are planning, it’s likely to affect all of us.”