Chapter 4- Let Them Watch Me Burn
1158 Words
By the time the sun rose over Blackspire Keep, Kaelin was already awake.
She hadn’t slept.
Not really.
The royal bed had been too soft, the room too quiet, the air too thick with the scent of him. It lingered—smoke and forest and fire—threading through the silk sheets and plush furs like a brand. It didn’t help that her wolf had curled up at the center of her chest and refused to let her rest, restless and half-wild beneath her skin.
She needed to move. To fight.
To remind herself who she was.
A knock came at dawn.
She didn’t wait for them to speak before swinging the door open. A tall female warrior stood on the other side, dressed in obsidian armor etched with the royal crest: a silver wolf’s head crowned in flame.
The woman looked her up and down. “Kaelin Ryn?”
Kaelin nodded once, shoulders squared.
“Name’s Captain Selene. The Alpha King said you’d be joining the warrior trials.”
“‘Let her bleed for her place,’ I think were his exact words,” Kaelin muttered.
Selene’s mouth twitched in amusement. “Sounds like him.”
“I want to train.”
“You will. Every day, dawn to dusk. If you survive the week, you’ll earn a slot in the final trial.”
“If?” Kaelin repeated.
Selene’s eyes gleamed. “No one gets in easy. Not even bonded.”
“Good,” Kaelin said coldly. “I didn’t come for easy.”
---
The training grounds were brutal.
Set deep in the forest behind the keep, they were carved into the hillside like an arena built by gods who loved bloodsport. Tall stone walls surrounded the ring. Weapons of every kind lined the racks. Warriors moved like shadows—silent, lethal, precise.
And they were all male.
Until Kaelin stepped in.
The moment she crossed the threshold, every eye turned to her. Murmurs rippled. Someone laughed. One warrior—tall, smug—leaned toward another and whispered, “The King’s little omega.”
Kaelin smiled sweetly—and threw her knife so hard it lodged into the wooden post between them, quivering an inch from the whisperer’s head.
The arena fell silent.
Selene grinned. “You’ll fit right in.”
---
The first day was hell.
Sparring. Endurance drills. Obstacle courses rigged to kill you if you hesitated even a second.
But Kaelin didn’t hesitate.
She pushed through it all with bloody knuckles, bruised ribs, and blistered palms. Her wolf was alive beneath her skin, pacing, growling, hungry. It had been caged too long. Now it had something to fight for.
Every time she stumbled, she imagined the look on Theron’s face if she failed.
That kept her going.
By dusk, she was soaked in sweat and blood, her muscles screaming. But she stood.
She always stood.
“Still breathing,” Selene said, tossing her a water skin. “Not bad for a first day.”
Kaelin wiped blood from her mouth. “I’m not done yet.”
Selene’s eyes sparked with respect. “Good. Because tomorrow will be worse.”
---
That night, she avoided the palace.
She couldn’t stomach the velvet halls or the way every servant bowed when she passed like she was already the Queen. She wasn’t. She didn’t want to be.
So she found the outer wall, climbed it, and sat there—half-shadowed in moonlight, high above the glittering city.
Wind tangled her hair. The night air was crisp and cold, biting into her sweat-streaked skin.
“Thought I’d find you here.”
She didn’t turn.
“I didn’t ask you to.”
Theron stepped beside her anyway, silent as a shadow. He wore no crown tonight—just dark leathers and a cloak that smelled like wild things and storms.
“I watched you today,” he said after a pause.
“Do I get graded?”
“You were magnificent.”
She shot him a glare. “Don’t flatter me. It won’t work.”
“It wasn’t flattery,” he said simply. “It was truth.”
She turned her eyes back to the city below. “Why are you doing this?”
“What?”
“Me. The bond. All of it.” Her voice turned bitter. “You could have anyone. Omegas would slit throats to carry your mark.”
He was quiet a moment. Then, “Because none of them would look me in the eye and dare me to bleed.”
She didn’t expect that.
He sat beside her, his presence solid, magnetic, infuriating.
“I’ve been King since I was seventeen,” he said. “The moment my father died, I had a crown, a kingdom, and no one who told me the truth. Only people who feared me. Or wanted something from me.”
“And I’m different?” she asked skeptically.
“You hate that I exist.”
“You’re not wrong.”
He smiled faintly. “Which means you’re the only one who sees me clearly.”
They sat in silence, the moon rising high above them.
Kaelin’s heart thudded—slow and traitorous.
“I’m not yours,” she whispered, barely audible.
“Then make me prove it,” he said softly. “Make me earn it.”
---
The next day was worse.
Selene hadn’t been lying.
She paired Kaelin with one of the elite warriors in a sparring match that nearly shattered her spine. He was brutal—quick, merciless—but she held her own. Took hits. Gave them back. Bloodied her knuckles on his jaw and smiled through a split lip.
By the end of the match, he offered her a hand.
She didn’t take it.
Not because she hated him—but because she needed to stand on her own.
No help.
No weakness.
No bond.
---
That night, the council summoned her.
Theron hadn’t warned her.
She walked into the war chamber to find ten high-ranking Alphas, seated in a half-circle of judgment. Theron stood at the head, arms crossed, silent.
“Kaelin Ryn,” one Alpha said coldly. “You are bonded to the King.”
She didn’t reply.
“Do you intend to accept the claim?”
“I didn’t choose it.”
“Your scent says otherwise,” another muttered.
Kaelin stepped forward. “I didn’t ask for the bond. I didn’t want it. But I’m not here to play Luna. I’m here to fight. Let me earn my place. Or cast me out.”
Murmurs rippled. One Alpha smirked.
Theron’s eyes blazed gold.
“Enough,” he said, voice a royal command. “She will stand the trials. You’ll judge her by the blade, not by blood.”
The Alphas didn’t argue.
Kaelin met their eyes, one by one.
Let them watch me bleed, she thought.
Let them see what happens when an omega stops running.
---
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