Chapter 29 - Astrid

She steps out onto the courtyard shooting eyes of protest at the old man.

Guru told me many of the fighters in the barracks were quite inexperienced and it would help to see how someone like them could handle a match up against someone like Bianca. He would have asked Valentina to spar as a live demonstration on how to defeat a stronger vampire, but she's currently incapacitated by the thin mountain air.

So, I accepted Guru's request because Bianca and I haven't done this in 4 years since high school.

And also, because I want to kick her ass a little.

"For the sake of the fighters watching, you may shift at will," Guru suggests.

"I'll stick with hand-to-hand," she replies. "Wasn't exactly a fan of having my arm crushed between large tiger fangs this morning."

I raise an eyebrow at this and catch sight of a young man in the corner scoffing at her remark.

"Begin!"

I take off my black parka jacket to reveal the white turtleneck underneath and tie up my hair. Bianca still dons the tracksuit she wore before. Her shaggy and short hair was a surprise when I first saw her shift out of her wolf. All my life, she's had the most beautiful, long, blonde hair that framed her figure like a golden cloud. But the Bianca I knew is gone. She's changed in such a short span of time.

Bianca gets into her stance and comes at me. She always made the first move because I was cautious of her speed. She starts with her signature jab-uppercut combo, all of which I memorized and she grins at our mirrored movements.

"Just like old times, huh?" she says.

As she steps in for another jab, I push down on her inner elbow. As the collapse disorients her a little, I take a step to her side and backhand slap her across the face. She looks startled, but I know it barely hurt her.

"What the hell, Astrid!" she exclaims.

"You didn't see that coming, did you?" I taunt her.

Yes, it's a little mean, but it doesn't hurt to get some of my frustration out on her in a healthy sparring session.

Bianca flares her nostrils at me and we go again. This time, she leaves no opening for me to strike her back until she deals a blow to my rib and immediately apologizes for it. I retaliate across her jaw. She stumbles back, confused, and I smirk.

"You wanna do it this way? Fine!" Her voice is gruff like she's activated a part of her wolf counterpart.

Her green eyes glow brighter as she pulls her lips back to snarl. That's when I realize my eyes are glowing as well and somehow my canines have elongated.

Bianca isn't punching anymore. Every forward step and strike she makes is open-handed as her posture hunches down a little. She's tapped into her beast. Our training sessions when we were teens were never like this because the transitional stage between human and beast could get unpredictable. I guess all bets are off now.

Bianca gets a good, deep scratch on my thigh and it buckles to the ground. With the other hand, she open palm uppercuts my jaw, leaving me to fall back. Some of the fighters watching us gasp at the savagery of Bianca.

That's it.

Before she can get me while I'm down, I roll over to the side and shift into my tiger form, shredding my clothes into pieces and shaking out into a mass of fur. I manoeuvre myself a safe distance away from Bianca. I roar at her in all my rage, then charge forth and tackle her to the ground. Her green eyes are open wide and manic from the weight that I push against her. Suddenly, her features change and morph as white fur seeps through every pore until she herself has shifted into her white wolf.

Before I can grab a hold of her with my jaws, she squirms away. She yaps at me, and I know these to be apologies for scratching me up as I taste the blood in my mouth from her uppercut. I huff in response, rejecting her weak apology in this form.

I charge at her and just like the predictable training partner I once knew, she dodges me. I should have known. But as I expect her to catch my hind leg like she usually does, instead, I find her ferocious jaws coming right at me. Thinking that I have the safety of my thick fur coat to protect me, I cry out in pain when her teeth sink into my neck.

When did this happen? When did she get so strong?

As she clamps down harder on me, I start to choke and feel her white body loom over me, almost like she's growing in size.

She growls for me to surrender. But I've always been stubborn even in a losing fight. So, I fight back the taste of iron in my mouth and try to shake out from her grip. I swing my claws at her, but she easily steps on my paw. And, yes, they do appear larger than I remember.

I fight back the flood of salty iron that starts to trickle out of the side of my lips and refuse to surrender.

"Bianca Greywood!"

I hear Rio's voice booming in the distance just as I pass out.

A cough startles me awake as does the stiffness on the side of my neck. I try to get up, but I feel my head being pushed gently down.

"You need to heal, Astrid." Rio's voice is soft as I gaze up at him sitting with me in bed.

Slowly, I look around the room and almost sneeze at the smell of dry dust. The walls are white and barren but the bed is soft and fuzzy. I look further down at the blanket over my body and feel that my shifting suit is gone and someone has changed me into a hoodie and pyjamas set.

"The suit?" I ask, my voice weak and rough.

"Despite its magical properties, the suit can tear," Rio remarks.

Realization dawns.

"Who changed me?"

"Me, of course." He smiles.

My face heats up. Yes, I may have been bloodied and injured as all hell, but Rio saw all of me.

"You got lucky," he says, ignoring the bright shade of red I feel spreading across my cheeks. "Bianca just about missed a major jugular vein in your neck."

That's when I remember what was supposed to be a sparring session quickly turned into a whole mess. I guess I must have pushed her too far, though she deserved every bit of what I got in. I can excuse her leaving me behind the night of the gala without a word given how crazy fast things developed, but when she said she was never going back, I felt my stomach drop down to the floor. It was then that I knew she left without saying goodbye on purpose. She didn't trust me and our friendship enough to leave me that one small courtesy.

Although she did give Valentina that chance. Bianca gave her the chance, but not me, her best friend.

"She was very sorry when she shifted back and came to," Rio continues. "And insisted to come be by your side when you awoke. But I told her to give you some space. At least till morning."

I hold a hand up to my neck to feel for wounds, but my fast regeneration has just about sealed up any holes that might have been there. The skin is tender and sore when I touch it and I feel raised bumps from the swelling, meaning that the wounds are healing. And internally, it feels like I've got a lump in my throat.

"I didn't know she had it in her, the strength to crush my neck," I say. "It's funny, I thought I saw her grow larger."

"Yes, that would be the Sigma in her maturing," he notes. "In a sense, she is her own Alpha now, so her body is merely catching up to what her brain is signalling to."

"So, she really changed," I utter, feeling my eyes go glassy.

The anger builds up inside of me and I flinch in pain as I try to move.

"No sudden movements," Rio tells me.

I breathe out sharply and wipe a frustrated tear with the back of my sleeve.

"Is there anything I can do for you, Astrid?" Rio asks gently as he watches me rubbing my sleeves all over my face.

"Yes," I respond, the ire present in my tone. "Kiss me." He raises a brow in astonishment and for once I've left him speechless. "Maybe it will help take my mind off of things."

"Okay," he says.

Rio leans over and I close my eyes expectantly, waiting for his soft lips to press against mine. Instead, I feel the soft wetness of them on my forehead. He sits back after the short peck and grins bemusedly.

"Try to get some sleep."

Rio caresses the side of my cheek and gets up to turn off the light. He crawls back in bed, under a blanket and wishes me good night. I feel stunned at Rio's outright rejection of me and even more angry than I was before, only now I've added Rio to my list of people I'm mad at.

I huff and puff to get a reaction out of him for a while, but he never budges as he pretends to fall asleep beside me. Eventually, my body gives in and I fall back into the darkness behind my eyes.

I wake up almost immediately and instinctively reach for my phone beside me. That's when I notice the pain in my neck is all but gone, with a bit of soreness left behind as if I'd been out all night dancing. The rapid healing in my blood has done its job well, though I massage my neck with a hand and moan out loud at the release of pressure.

"Astrid."

I jump at my name, turning 180 to face Rio, lying beside me, wide awake.

"I thought you fell asleep," I tell him, as I resume my neck massage and a little exhale escapes my throat.

"You keep moaning like that and I'll never fall asleep. Besides," he turns and stretches his arms to rest them behind his head, "did you really think I'd be dead asleep on our first night together?"

"I guess not, but you didn't want to kiss me, so maybe you should just sleep," I cock my head mischievously at Rio and continue to massage my neck.

I let out another moan and feel the kink in my neck has smoothened out with that last rub. My neck feels almost as good as new as I turn it this way and that. In a matter of half a second as I turn back to Rio, his hot breath singes my chin and burns me with pleasure when he enters my lips.

Rio grabs the back of my neck and begins to massage it himself. My breath hitches then I moan straight into his passionate kiss. He growls in response and starts to lay my body down. As our kiss builds up, I pull him in closer, wrapping all my limbs around him. I start to let my tongue dance freely with his and I bite down on his lower lip. Rio pulls back in response and I look up at him about ready to apologize if I took it too far.

"I..." he starts to speak and I feel my eyes widen.

There are only so many sentences beginning with 'I' that you would probably say in the middle of a make out session. Especially if you've fully accepted your destiny bond—the unbreakable, unconditional, irrevocable, fiery bond of two perfect mates.

But I haven't accepted it myself yet.

"Rio," I whisper and wonder if I'm messing this up right now.

"...adore you, Astrid," he finishes his sentence.

I sigh and I chuckle in relief, but also feel guilty for almost ruining this moment, whatever Rio truly meant to say.

"I know," Rio says tenderly, stroke my face softly with his fingertips, and I smile in return.

His fingers start to trail down the side of me, tracing sweet lines across the sliver of exposed skin above the waistband of my pyjamas.

"You wanted a distraction," he whispers huskily into my ear as his fingers trickle lower down. "I'll give you a distraction."

And a raw moan escapes my lips. Rio presses firmly down and swirls his fingers around that particular, sensitive spot.

He pecks the corner of my mouth and asks, "Am I distracting you?"

"Yes," I answer in between my delicious shivers and breathless moans. He flicks all my switches, knowing exactly how to turn me on and I answer again, "Yes." And the pressure builds for a sweet release just as a light turns on and I answer again, "Yes!"

The vision behind my eyelids goes off like fireworks as I cry out in waves of pleasure. The sparkles make my body rumble and squirm underneath Rio's.

When I open my eyes as I pant to catch my breath, I see the deep, dark hunger in Rio's blue-black eyes as a faint ring forms around them.

"We're not done yet," he declares.

The sound of fabric tearing and ripping adds to the chorus of my breathing and I look down astonished at Rio's swiftness at removing both our clothes off. He eyes me up and down as I do the same, licking my lips at the engorged size of him. I had expected as much given Rio's tall frame, but the erect member before me, makes my core quiver in anticipation.

With full confidence, Rio grabs my thighs and positions himself at my entrance. I peer down and bite my lips, then travel all the way up his chiselled abdomen, his perfect pecs and right back up at his face. He grins and brings one of my legs up to kiss then gently bite my calf. Rio appears cockier than ever before as he teases me more and for once, his arrogance is scorching me in the best way possible.

All of a sudden, he grabs onto me and thrusts. I gasp at the sharp stretch, while he moans out loud. He thrusts once more, this time I groan too and he falls over me as he kisses me and slowly moves against me. The ecstasy moves our bodies as we writhe rhythmically in sync.

"Faster," I order him and he complies. "More," I say and he pushes harder.

"Astrid," he pants into my ears, "any more and I'll simply have to mark you."

"Do it," I tell him.

No sooner do the words leave me, than do Rio's canines elongate and clamp down right above my clavicle. The wave of pure and unadulterated pleasure at his mark causes me to instantly release. My body shakes and trembles uncontrollably while he suckles on my blood.

As the tsunami crashes over me, I feel the urge to mark him back, right on his trapezoid. When I do, he, too, climaxes and moans aloud, the sound echoing off of the walls. I feel every inch of him as aftershocks quieten the waves and all that's left is the sound of our satisfied breathing.

Rio kisses me, this time more sweet than passionate, yet it still makes me hunger for more.

"Thank Goddess I found you," he says, looking deep into my eyes.

I push him to the side and get on top of him.

"You can thank her all you want, but we're not done distracting me yet."