Chapter 27

Third Person POV

Luca and Lyra began on opposite sides of the sparring ring. Lyra adopted a low, wide stance, her blue eyes meticulously scanning Luca’s form for an opening, while Luca remained casual, his mouth tugged into a lopsided grin.

He didn’t expect Lyra, the wolfless freshman with no formal training as far as he knew, to make the first move.

Lyra lunged toward Luca with a quickness that took him by surprise. He managed to sidestep her attack and spin away before she could touch him, but the move left him somewhat out of breath.

“You’re quicker than you look,” Luca teased.

Lyra rolled her eyes and took her fighting stance again, loose fists raised in front of her chin. “Are you telling me I looked slow before?”

Luca snorted and made a quick jab at Lyra’s ribs in response, which she dodged with a duck and came back swinging with an uppercut of her own. It actually caught Luca in the stomach, making him grunt and stagger backwards.

“I didn’t expect that, either,” he noted, coughing.

“Maybe you should have left your expectations outside the ring, then.”

“Clearly.”

The fight went on like this for some time—the two of them trading careful blows, dodging expertly, and moving around the ring in a perfect dance. Each time, Luca found himself taken aback by Lyra’s skills. At first, he had been loose and casual, not expecting to participate in a real fight; but as time went on, Luca realized he actually needed to try to match Lyra’s abilities, which was surprising.

She was quick and skilled. She moved around the ring like she owned it, as if she’d been training for years. Luca had seen her fight in class the other day, but that was against a fellow freshman who was known not to be the strongest fighter—he didn’t expect her to hold her own like this against him, a second-year Alpha who had been training as long as he could remember.

It was intriguing. And a little frustrating, if Luca was being honest. Because she was nearly kicking his ass.

“Has Kael been training you in private?” Luca asked at one point when Lyra nearly blindsided him with a feint to the right, two quick jabs to the left that both hit their mark, and then ducked and rolled out of the way of Luca’s returning kick.

Lyra bounded to her feet like a cat. She was hardly even out of breath.

“No. I’ve been training myself.” She rushed forward and dropped low, extending one leg in a wide sweep.

Luca gasped and just barely had time to jump before her leg connected with his ankles. He spun away, putting some distance between them, and they began to circle each other again.

“Someone must be training you. These are the moves of a seasoned fighter.”

Lyra hesitated for a moment, and Luca thought he saw something flash through her eyes—like a painful memory. But she blinked and it was gone, and before he could react, she was rushing toward him again. “No. I really did train myself.”

“How?”

“Books, mostly. And watching. You learn a lot from observing others.”

“You must have a photographic memory or something.”

Lyra smirked. “I know it’s hard to fathom, Luca, but some of us are just smart.”

Luca couldn’t help but laugh, which Lyra took complete advantage of. Luca didn’t have time to react. She slid between his legs—a mistake that Luca always made in his spars—before popping up behind him. In an instant, Luca found himself on the ground, cheek pinned to the sand, still laughing.

Grunting, Luca used his larger size to his advantage and broke the hold with ease. Despite her speed and skills, she was still wolfless and a female, no match to Luca’s strength. He flipped them so he was on top, her legs wrapping around his torso.

“Why do you train so hard?” he asked as she struggled to break the hold he now had on her. “No offense, but you’re wolfless, so it’s not like they’d allow you to become a warrior.”

Lyra’s eyes flashed again. Up close, Luca knew now that it was indeed a look of pain, and he feared he had hurt her feelings. But her gaze quickly hardened as she finally found her opening.

Wind rushed through Luca’s ears as Lyra flipped them again, this time putting him in a hold that left him completely vulnerable.

“I’m not training to become a warrior.” Lyra tightened her hold, hovering over Luca—so close he could smell the mint on her breath, the sweat on her skin. So close that if he just reached out, he could run his fingers along the loose chestnut braid over her shoulder. If she didn’t have him completely on his back, wrists pinned to the sand on either side of his head, of course.

“Then what are you training for?”

Lyra blinked. Her expression momentarily guttered, jaw ticking once, then twice. Finally, she murmured, “I just want to be able to protect myself. Not rely on others to do it for me.”

Luca fell silent. Something twisting in his chest at the crack in her voice, as if she were holding back tears.

“It’s okay to let others take care of you, you know,” he said.

“It’s just… better if I rely on myself,” Lyra muttered as she sat back on her heels. Luca’s wrists lay forgotten in the dirt, leaving him free to break away, but he didn’t want to. Especially not when she was straddling him like this. More than fighting, all he wanted to do was reach up and take her slender waist by both hands and pull her close again.

Goddess, what was going on with him lately? Lyra was unlike any other girl Luca had dated in the past, and before a mere few weeks ago, he had never had a drop of interest in his best friend’s adoptive little sister.

But Lyra was… different lately. And Luca’s initial curiosity about her change had shifted into something deeper, more tender.

“Anyway,” Lyra said, standing, “thank you for sparring with me. It helps me improve.”

Luca tried not to think about how sad he felt when he lost her warmth on top of him and took her outstretched hand. Not that he needed her help to get up, but he liked the feel of her small fingers in his palm. He held on for a moment longer than necessary, causing Lyra to look up at him with a puzzled expression.

“What is it, Luca?” she asked. “It’s not like you to seem so speechless. I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

Luca grinned and held out his wrist, letting it hang limp as if it were broken. “Well, now that you mention it—”

Lyra swatted at his hand before it could brush her lips, although she was smiling. Her quiet laugh made Luca’s heart thud even more in his chest, and he ran a hand through his hair.

“Actually,” he said, “I wanted to ask you something.” He took a deep breath—when had he ever been nervous about asking a girl out before? Luca couldn’t remember the last time. “Would you like to go out with me this weekend?”

Lyra’s eyes widened into saucers. “Luca, I—”

“Thanks for helping take care of Lyra while I was gone, Luca,” a familiar voice suddenly interrupted before Lyra could finish. “But now that I’m back, it’s no longer necessary.”

They both whirled around to find that Kael had stepped into the ring. His eyes were red in the moonlight.