Chapter 15.

Cassandria POV.

FOUR MONTHS LATER!

I used to love doing this as a child. Laying in the dewy grass looking up at the sky, especially if there were clouds, so I could let my imagination run wild. But without the taste of blood in my mouth and the winded feeling in my gut.

“Ohh, look at you. On your back panting for breath. Tap out, little one, you are not ready.” The mocking, arrogant asshole that is Ivan is blocking my sun with his taunts as he leans down, trying to make me feel inferior. But fuck him.

He stands and holds his bear paw of a hand out for me to take. I slap it away and roll onto my knees with a groan, and spit the blood into the grass. I stand up, catching my breath.

“That’s it, little one, run along. You don’t have what it takes to beat me.” I look at him over my shoulder and smile at him, my eyes watching him. A glint in them, a promise of both pain and humiliation that I, a little five foot eight girl, will take down the Russian mountain.

“Keep telling yourself that, p