Chapter 1

“I give up... you win!”

I take the helmet off my head to reveal my tinted red hair. After flipping the strands of hair in my sight off my face, my gaze comes in contact with my pony-ass best friend sitting on the ground with one of his hands raised as if to shield himself from an attack. He was damn lucky we agreed beforehand not to take the bout too far if not I would still be hurting him in different parts by now.

“But I thought you didn’t want to stop,” I say in a teasing voice, but even I know that he has no other choice than to give up. Talk about how battered his arm was already.

“It's enough now. I’m not getting my hands bruised again,”

“Poor Mark. It’s going to take hundreds of years before you can get a chance to beat me,” I taunt him. “And even after that time, I don’t think you’ll still be worthy of trying,”

“I was holding back this time around, and you know that,” he says and that was enough to make me poke him dead hard in the chest with the tip of the wooden spear in my hand, earning a groan from him in return.

“You were saying?” I poke him with the spear twice again. “C’mon, say what you said again. That you were holding back? Tell me what weapons we are using again. Swords? Stop giving lame excuses for your sorry ass,”

“Let the man be, Soma. You won already so what more do you want?”

I look to the side to see my sister standing not too far away from the ground where Mark and I were having a bout, and as usual, she was giving a neutral vibe which seemed rather annoying. “What else would I expect from you other than you siding him when it should be me you should be siding instead?” I ask her with a frown, and when I feel Mark trying to back away from the tip of the spear, I poke him again with it.

“Ow,” he whimpers, apparently from how hard I hit him.

“Yeah,” I say as I give him a brief stare before facing my sister again, “that’s what you get for not staying put,”

Seeing that my sister was still boring her gaze deep into me, I take the spear off the weakling and then throw it to the ground before I start to walk off from his side. Not that I did not want to continue to beat the hell out of him, but I felt it was time I gave it a rest.

When I get to where my sister is, I hand over to her the helmet I was holding and she wastes no time in grabbing it from me. With the building behind her not too far ahead, I start to walk up to it so I could go in through the open pathway into it.

“Next time, Mark, she will not be here to save you from the beating I intend giving you,” was what I announce loud enough for Mark to hear and I think I got my message across to him.

Two men, dressed in armless body armor and then pants, were standing by each side of the path I wanted to go in through with their hands behind their backs. Nothing about their gazes said they wanted to speak to anyone, and that to me was something that seemed off.

“Hi guys,” I say to them as I give each of them a wink but get a bow in return. It only makes me scoff and then mutter, “We really need to get less serious guards soon,”

“And why should we do that?” My sister following behind me says and I shrug in return.

“To give this place a much better vibe? C’mon, you can see for yourself how serious these ones are,”

“That’s the way they should be, Soma. Changing them would not change the type of service they render over here,”

“Yeah, yeah, tell me about it,”

The path I just got in through smelled like heavy pieces of metal mixed with the strong scent of chemicals and it was all because of the armory I could see around the place. More like artifacts gotten from last wars or so and it gave the path a medieval feel. Well, that’s just how I always feel whenever I go through the path.

It was apparently the hallway that leads into the main building that I have to get to. It was mainly to get a bath which I know that I need right now. But first I would need to get this heavy piece of armory off my body. It was much too heavy for me to carry on with for too long.

“Girl, I think I’m going to get myself a cool off tonight. And you are coming with me,” I suddenly announce for my sister to hear as I stretch my weary limbs. It was basically because I wanted to kill the silence between us that made me speak up.

“No, we’re not,” the response I get her from her sounded rather too authoritative for my liking which makes me shake my head at the fact that I was supposed to be the older one here yet she sounds like it is the opposite.

“And why shouldn’t we?”

“Remember what happened the last time we went for a cool off as you call it. How you ruined everything by upsetting the men we met there? I’m not about to risk a repetition of what happened that day,”

“Oh please, Cassie,” I roll my eyes at the accusation against me. “That was just one time. I promise it won’t happen again,”

“That was what you said the last time. But what did it lead us to? The same old thing,”

Instantly, I stop. And then slowly I spin around so I could be directly looking at my sister. Yes, I towered over her because she was a shorty and I wasn’t. Not that I was tall but I beat her by two or more inches.

“How old are you, Cassandra?” this time I call her real name.

“Twenty-one,” she reluctantly says a while after, almost frowning in the process. At least it did not ruin that beautiful face that she has, one of the things I envy about her.

I nod once. “For a girl your age, when last did you get laid?”

The question brought a reaction to her face and I could tell I was embarrassing her because it was too sensitive. But I have to be blunt with her if I am going to get any chance to convince her that we had to get out of the territory tonight.

“You don’t need to answer if you’re not comfortable with the question but I am certain it has been pretty long since you last got a D in you. Don’t know how many cobwebs you got under there now,”

“Soma!” she almost shrills at how dirty-mouthed I was being so I caution myself. At least I said what I had to say.

“Okay, okay,” I say with my hands raised as if to say I surrender, “but if you think about it, going for a night out will help you in some way. Probably get you a man that will help you feel like a woman again. We are not going to be waiting for an unknown mate to do that for you, which I know isn’t happening now,”

“Are you asking me to go about sleeping with random men?”

“Not like that. But you have to experience life a little. Stop being too uptight, Cassie. You’re a grown-ass lady,”

“I’m just twenty-one, which I already mentioned to you earlier,”

“Still grown to me, sis. At least you are old enough to get yourself what a little girl can’t. Even little girls do that already, trust me,”

She shakes her head as if in disappointment. “For an Alpha, you have the worst advice ever. How is that leading by example, Soma?”

“That’s why I have you here, Cassie. To help lead by example instead,”

“It’s not funny,” she rebuffs.

“Didn’t plan for it to be,” and then I turn around so I could continue the mini journey that would lead me to my room which I really have to get to already. “Are you coming?” I inquire out loud after not hearing her footsteps tagging along.

“I’ll be there with you soon,” she responds immediately but it was more like a yell because I was already far away before she even does that. Wonder what is going on in her mind.

“Be quick with that. I still need your help to get this off me,” I then hit the supposed armory over my chest to signify what I was talking about.

“We’re still not going for your cool off, Soma!” she suddenly announces before I round the corner that would lead me to the last pathway to my room.

“Okay!” I yell back as I eventually get out of sight with a creepy smirk revealing on my face.