The Beast And The Blessed by Ashley Breanne
Chapter 67
Natalie’s P.O.V.
Training had been lacking the past week. I had been able to move more weight and do body-weight movements easier.
I also got to learn some things in my wolf form, but it was harder than I had thought to get used to moving more swiftly on four legs than it was on two.
Walking and running were easy, but the complex movements as I dodged and attacked my opponents were uncomfortable. The majority of the time, I ended up tripping over my own paws like a newborn pup… which I guess I was.
Hours every day were spent training, and I found myself improving but not very quickly. There was still an internal battle going on in my mind that left me with a splitting migraine by the end of each day, and no answers for what I needed to do.
It was widely agreed upon by the healers that the other side of me should have faded by now. I still hadn’t told them what my birth mother had said about being a descendant of the Goddess as Joselin hadn’t had any time to look into my blood. So, they treated me like any regular hybrid.
Joselin had been busy with her project around the outside of the castle.
No one had been caught in the trap she set in the doorways, and I wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad thing. Either we could trust those around us, or the spell didn’t work.
I smiled when she walked into the training room, but it fell when her look of anger landed on me.
“You are interfering, ‘Your Majesty’!” Joselin shouted, and several stacks of weights dropped around the room as she approached me on the large training mat. She didn’t seem to care that I was almost as tall as her in my beast form as she was in her skin.
I shook my head. A low, guttural noise left my throat as I stupidly tried to respond as if I didn’t currently have a snout.
“You need to get it under control!” She shouted, and I tried to jump away as she grabbed a fistful of fur, pulling on it as we teleported to the library. My oversized body bumped into a bookshelf, sending it tumbling down.
So much for respecting my title in public. I was livid.
Joselin groaned in annoyance as she flicked her hand and righted the wooden structure. “We have the same parts, stop being a prude and shift back!”
I grumbled in annoyance as I did as she asked, wanting to lay into her but holding myself back since she had more power than I did, or at least, more control over it.
“Maybe if you didn’t manhandle me, I could have shifted sooner!” Her glare never left mine as I refrained from covering my body. She had seen it before, several times at this point, and while she had openly looked in the past, this time there wasn’t a single twitch in the muscles around her eyes to show that she was looking anywhere but into my soul as if she wanted to figure out what secrets I had buried there.
I narrowed my eyes at her as I remembered the last time she had been in this library with me. She had grabbed my face and tried to invade my mind.
If she so much as leaned toward me this time, I was going to bite her. Wolf or human, my teeth would be cutting into her flesh.
Her face relaxed as she smirked, “Well, you sure have grown a backbone.”
A small squeak was heard as a maid entered the room before dashing away quickly.
My eyebrows dropped as I turned back to stare at Joselin, unamused. “I need to get back to training.”
Joselin turned away from me, showing me her back which made my beast seethe with irritation at the disrespect. But she carried on as she traveled around the shelves, taking a few books down as she passed them before carrying them over to me.
“You do.” She plopped the books down on the table as a maid came running in with clothes. I thanked her quietly before pulling them on as Joselin began to flip through the pages of the first book. When she seemed satisfied, she nodded and snapped it shut.
“Your training starts now. This is the basics of controlling your magic. Whatever you unlocked at the Sanctum, is powerful. You’re letting your magic leak through, and it’s getting in the way of my casting. Even just now when I turned my back to you, the power you put off got stronger.”
She shoved the book she was holding into my chest just as my guards came bursting through the door.
“Would you NOT do that?!” Thomas growled at Joselin as he scanned me over. Tobias sent him a warning glare, slamming his hand roughly down on Thomas’s shoulder. Thomas forcefully calmed under the silent reprimand from his superior. Only I had the suspicion that it was Joselin he was defending and not me.
I bit back my smile at the silent giant and the small witch. They had an odd dynamic, but Joselin looked pleased that Tobias reacted to my newer guard’s outburst.
“We can’t defend her if you just disappear with her whenever you please!” He exclaimed as he gestured toward me but glared daggers at Joselin.
“Down boy!” She scolded as if she were talking to a pet, and Thomas’s face turned red while Tobias’s hand visibly tightened on his shoulder.
I watched amused as they squared off before looking down at the book in my hands. The beautiful brown hardcover was decorated with a gold outline of the tree of life, and a single word was etched into the bottom…
In Latin.
I flipped through the pages in panic as Joselin and Thomas continued to bicker, growing louder with every word. Some held pictures, but every page was the same. They were all in a language unknown to me.
“Listen here, mutt! You are one sound away from me skinning you and using your hide as toilet paper!” Joselin was fuming, the black lines on her skin vibrating harshly against the pale background, and her hair picked up as if a fan was blowing on her face.
I could feel the power coming from her, but I was more concerned about the book in my hands. “How the hell do you expect me to read a book in Latin? Is this even Latin?”
The binding was well worn, and I carefully closed the cover as Joselin turned to me, her long snow-white hair resting back in place on her shoulders. “That’s not my problem. I have a lot of work to do. I really don’t have time to hold your hand. Use one of the computers or a phone to translate it.”
Joselin turned, walking toward Tobias as I glared at her back.
“B*itc*h,” I mumbled, flipping her off behind her back.
A book shot off the shelf, landing right in front of Joselin, and my hand flew over my mouth. She tumbled to the ground, smacking loudly onto her palms and knees, just barely catching herself before her face could hit the floor.
My eyes widened as she flipped over quickly to be sitting on her butt with her hands behind her as she glared at me.
“Did you just…” Joselin trailed off, her jaw twitching as we both remained silent. I felt like a caged animal. All of my muscles coiled as I prepared for her to launch at me.
“F*uc*k.” George whispered as he moved into a fighting stance, knowing I was about to be attacked and that she would have to go through them first.
‘This is going to hurt,” Joselin said as she got to her feet, and I let out a small scream as she ran at me. Tobias wrapped his arm around her waist, holding her back to his chest as George and Thomas shifted into their Lycan form to block her path to me.
I ducked behind a shelf, looking up as books started to fall down on me. My hands covered my head as I sprinted to the next aisle. “I didn’t mean to!” I shouted.
I heard Tobias grunt, and then there was absolute silence. The books stayed on the shelves, but I could feel the threat looming. My chest rose and fell rapidly as I held still against the unit, knowing as soon as I gave away my position, it would all be over.
The bookshelves had solid backs. I was both grateful that I was able to hide behind them but also frustrated that it hid her too.
My eyes glanced around quickly, and I let out a breath of relief that she was nowhere in sight. I pressed my lips together, holding my breath as I peeked around the shelving unit and saw all three of my guards unmoving and asleep on the floor on the other side of the table.
The lack of witch was disturbing, and I froze as the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stood at attention.
I didn’t have to hear her to know that she was standing right behind me. She was like a poltergeist, ready to drag me down to Hell.
I spun on my heels quickly, letting out a yell of fright as I shoved my hands in her direction to push her away. Only she had attacked as well, sending us both flying backward into the shelves behind us.
Our eyes met for only a moment as we regained our footing. The shelves began to fall, crashing loudly as they tumbled like dominos. I was happy that there were only a few. The rest of the books lined the walls. But it felt like forever until the last unit hit the ground.
I was unable to bite back my laughter as the corner of Joselin’s lips twitched. “Why are you two always fighting?” It was the roar from my mate at the doorway that broke us, and we laughed loudly as he stared confused.
“S*e*xual tension.” Joselin snapped back as I shook my head with amusement. She surely was something else. I could see why Killian had chosen her to be his best friend.