Ella’s POV
“Oh!” I groaned as I collapsed on the ground.
My feet were weak and I was tired. I wanted to give up so many times during the training but dad wouldn’t let me. He wouldn’t even listen that I could summon black spiders to protect myself if the opponent I was fighting with was stronger than I was.
He wouldn’t listen and was only determined to train me as hard as he could. I suspected that he felt guilty about mum’s death and blamed himself for not being there with her when she died. It seemed like he was trying to alleviate the guilt he felt by letting me know of all the fighting stances that he knew so I wouldn’t die early as mum did.
It would have been better if he could be with me but we both knew that he couldn’t. I sighed, knowing that he was hurting and training me and telling himself that he was helping me to not die early was his own way of coping with his grief.
Because I knew that, I found it hard to complain to him even though my eyes were turning and my insides were churning from the stress.
“How are you feeling?” Dad asked as he sat beside me.
“I’m fine.” I replied, looking at the sky. That had been my response ever since I started the training two days ago. It was getting dark which I was grateful for.
If it wasn’t like it was getting dark, he wouldn’t have stopped the training which started an hour earlier. I had my training in the evenings so it wouldn’t affect our journey home. That meant that I was already tired before the training and yet I had to survive the training.
That meant I felt like shit.
“You will be fine.” Dad said and moved away from me, going to where Caleb was seated and talking with the men.
Crap. That was exactly how I felt. I was drained and wanted to sleep but I was hungry. I dared not sleep without having dinner knowing that we were going to start early on our journey tomorrow.
Kevin moved towards and sat beside me. I let out a huff and shifted my face away from him, turning to the other side.
He moved closer behind me and wrapped his hand around me, fondling my waist. “Are you still mad at me?”
“Don’t I have a right to be?” I said, without looking at him.
“Ella,” he called out my name with affection.
I felt myself softening and my heart started melting towards me but I refused to be moved.
I hadn’t promised to be angry at him to let of my revenge after two days. I wasn’t giving silent treatment as I didn’t shun him when we were with the others but I avoided alone time with him as much as I could.
I missed him. I missed being with him but knew he missed me more. I wasn’t trying to be a witch but I was beginning to enjoy having him all over me any free time he could get and trying to get me to forgive him that I didn’t want to stop this game that I was playing with him.
I loved his company, even when I was being mad at him. I scowled at myself for being pathetic. I couldn’t even be mad at him as long as I wanted.
“Don’t call me.” I pouted. “I don’t want you to call me.”
He chuckled, his hold on my waist tightening. “Why then do you feel happy when I call you?”
I bit my lips and winced, hating that I gave myself away. What was wrong with me?
Lucy, did you wag in happiness? I asked her.
I did. I was happy that Eric was close by.
Of course, she would. She wasn’t the one mad at Kevin. I was. I was the one having tedious trainings every evenings after walking all day and feeling like my legs would turn to rubber anytime soon.
I was the one having the shorter end of the stick for now. I knew that dad was going to train my wolf as well when he was done training my body. I told Lucy that I wasn’t going to pity her when it was her time to undergo the rigorous trainings and complain of fatigue.
My wolf grinned and rolled out her tongue at me in a tease, showing me that she didn’t care about my threat.
Traitor, I hissed at her as I tried to move away from Kevin.
“Don’t be mad at me, Ella.” Kevin groaned, hating that I was trying to put distance between us. “You will be grateful to me later on. Don’t you love bonding with your father this way?”
I almost laughed at his ploy to get me to loosen up but I was unable to give him a response as Andre called out at that time to us that dinner was ready.
“It’s time to eat, lovebirds.” Andre shouted, grinning as he waved us forward with his hand.
I smirked at how enthusiastic he was. I wanted to tell him that I wasn’t being a lovebird but kept mute because I knew none of them would believe me.
It sucked to be predictable at times. I thought as I moved towards the fire where the others were gathered, my stomach rumbling in agreement that I made the right choice instead of staying back and pouting.
I snorted. As if I could have stayed back to pout with how hungry I was. If Andre hadn’t called out to us, I was on the verge of breaking out from Kevin’s hold to ask why the meal wasn’t yet ready.
Kevin’s POV
“Ah!” I winced as Ella cried out, tapping lightly on her father’s hand.
Zeke shook his head. “You can’t give up now, Ella. Try to break free from my hold. Twist it or break it. Do something to break yourself free. I am not letting you go, daughter. You have to break yourself free.”
She cried out again as he gripped her hand hard, bending her elbow backwards. I almost rushed there to break her away from her father’s hold, hating that she was in pain but forced myself to stay put. I wouldn’t be helping her if I didn’t allow her train and become better, even better than I was.
Moreover, I already promised her father that I wouldn’t try to act overprotective or butt into her training as her mate or I would have him to contend with. I didn’t want that.
I could tell from the trainings that her father was strong and was probably a fierce warrior like her mother. He couldn’t have been an elder of the blue river pack because he was a pretty looking blue-haired gentleman.
The last thing I needed was having to fight with someone like that and waste the time that Ella needed to train. It would be a long day if I had to fight with Zeke and I didn’t think Ella would appreciate me fighting with her dad. I doubted that she would remember that I did it to save her so I stayed where I was and forced myself to be strong for her sake though I was greatly affected by her loud cries and whimpers of pain.
“Break free, Ella.” Zeke was still saying, exasperation ringing out loud in his voice.
Ella groaned, trying to twist her body instead of his hand and breaking out of his hold but she was unable to. She cursed out minutes after trying. “I can’t. Dad, let me go.”
He scoffed. “You should. You wouldn’t tell your enemy to let you go now, would you?”
“You are not my enemy.”
“I am at this moment.”
The two argued back and forth as she tried to break free and he kept on urging her to keep trying.
After another minutes of trying to force him to let go of her, she sighed, her shoulders deflating in defeat.
Zeke noticed her posture and picked on that. “You should never admit defeat in a war until it is truly over, daughter.”
I realized he loved calling her daughter more than calling her by her name and smiled at that. It was more like the way I loved to address her as mate instead of calling her by her name.
It sounded like he was trying to convince himself that she was truly his daughter and not some random stranger who had a connection to him. I understood how he felt. It was the way I felt when I saw Ella again after losing her for five years. I couldn’t imagine how Zeke must be feeling at the moment after losing connection with his daughter for decades. He definitely felt more than I did.
“You are stronger than I am.” Ella winced. “You are stronger than anyone I’ve fought with.”
I didn’t think that was true but I didn’t want to correct her on that and have her get angry at me. She had only started talking with me about few hours ago and I wasn’t eager to get sucked back into that silent and lonely phase. It was amazing how miserable I was without her.
She had fought with the cannibals and that guardian of the river but the more I thought of it, I decided that she might be right. She had fought with those ones and won to save her life because she was filled with adrenaline and had a reason to win.
It wasn’t the case now. She believed she was only training with her father so there was no adrenaline rush to give her strength like she was used to and wasn’t allowing herself to push herself as hard as she needed to.
Her father was right. Her training wasn’t complete. I doubted that she had ever trained to fight except studied herbs and potions to treat and had only depended on the adrenaline rush to win battles. She couldn’t keep doing that.
She had to learn to fight and win without a rush of emotions. Until she can win when when her life wasn’t threatened, she wasn’t ready to be called a good soldier. I couldn’t believe I had missed that and didn’t observe her fighting mechanism until her father had mentioned training her.
I scowled, knowing why I had been blind to her inadequacies. I had thought I could always be there to protect her but I had to know that I couldn’t always be there and let her be strong enough to fight her battles.
“What if your enemy is stronger than you are? Will you tell him to go easy on you because you are weak?” Zeke said, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Will Kenneth, the leader of the Rogues, go easy on you?”
Ella was furious at how hard she had been trying to no avail. She let out a war cry and started twisting her father’s hand. I was about to feel proud that she was finally breaking out of his hold when I realized that she was doing it because she was angry.
I sighed as I watched her groan and struggle to break free, subtly shaking my head at her so she wouldn’t see me and get discouraged. She was still fighting with her emotions instead of skills.
I realized that she still had a long way to go and that was the same thought on her father’s mind as our eyes met over her head.