[Point of View Shift: Elena - The Shadowkeep]
The training room of the Shadowkeep was not a gym. It was an arena carved into the bowels of the mountain, surrounded by ancient runes that hummed with a low, blue light. The air was thin and smelled of ozone.
I stood in the center of the circle, dressed in tight leather training gear that Kaelen had provided. My ribs still throbbed, but Silas's concoction and Kaelen's proximity had accelerated my healing to a terrifying degree.
Kaelen stood across from me, stripped to the waist. His back was a map of scars—slash marks, burn wounds, and bite marks that told the story of a thousand years of war.
"The White Wolf is not a transformation, Elena," Kaelen said, his voice echoing off the stone walls. "She is a conduit. Most wolves shift to gain power. You must channel the power to prevent the shift. If you shift before you can control the output, you will burn your own nervous system to ash."
"I've been suppressing her for years," I said, my jaw tight. "I know how to hold her back."
"No," Kaelen growled, moving with a speed that made me flinch. He was in my space in a heartbeat, his hand slamming into the stone wall behind my head. "You've been choking her. You've been poisoning her with wolfsbane. That isn't control. That's a slow suicide."
He leaned in, his crimson eyes burning. "I want you to let her breathe. Just a trickle. Give me one percent of your power. Hit me."
I blinked. "I'll hurt you."
Kaelen laughed, a dark, sharp sound. "You could blast me through this mountain, little wolf, and I would still come back for more. Hit me. Now."
I closed my eyes. I reached into the vault.
Usually, when I touched Nyx's power, it felt like trying to hold back an ocean with a paper dam. This time, I tried to open a tiny valve.
A spark of white light flickered in my palm. It felt cold, like dry ice, biting into my skin.
"More," Kaelen commanded.
I opened the valve wider. The light grew, swirling around my fist like a miniature galaxy. My hair began to lift, static electricity dancing in the air.
"Now," he whispered.
I lunged. My fist connected with Kaelen's rock-hard abdomen.
The impact wasn't a dull thud. It was a crack of thunder. A shockwave of white energy rippled out from the point of contact, shattering the stone floor beneath our feet.
Kaelen didn't fly back. He absorbed the hit, his muscles rippling, his face contorting in a grimace of pained pleasure. He grabbed my wrist, his skin burning against mine, his aura flaring black to counteract my white.
"Good," he wheezed, a predatory grin stretching across his face. "Again."
For the next three hours, he broke me.
He didn't hold back. He moved like a ghost, striking me whenever my concentration wavered, forcing me to maintain the flow of power while under physical duress. Every time I fell, he barked at me to get up. Every time I cried out in pain, he reminded me of Xander's face.
"He's coming for you, you know," Kaelen said, catching my kick and sweeping my legs out from under me.
I hit the floor hard, gasping for air. "Xander? He's too... too much of a coward."
"He found my claw in the mud," Kaelen said, standing over me, looking down like a dark god. "His scouts are crawling all over the border. He knows you're with me. And fear is a powerful motivator for a weak man."
He reached down, his hand wrapping around mine to pull me up. But he didn't let go.
"He will come to the Shadowkeep to 'reclaim' his property," Kaelen murmured, his thumb tracing the pulse on my wrist. "He will tell the High Council that I kidnapped a member of his pack."
I looked up at him, my eyes glowing with a fierce, cold light. "Let him come."
Kaelen's eyes darkened with a sudden, intense possessiveness. He pulled me closer, his voice dropping to a low, intimate growl.
"Oh, he'll come. But he's not getting back what he threw away. Because tonight, Elena Moon, you aren't just a guest in my castle."
He leaned down, his lips brushing against mine—not a kiss, but a promise of one.
"Tonight, we show the world that the White Wolf has a King. And he is very, very hungry."