The Alpha's Mafia Luna novel Chapter 75

Chapter 75

The woods were quiet except for the echo of wood striking wood – sharp, consistent, rhythmic.

My muscles screamed.

Sweat poured down. my back.

Kael’s strikes came fast today faster than yesterday. He wasn’t holding back. I wasn’t either.

“You’re still too slow,” he barked.

“I’m moving as fast as I can,” I hissed, parrying the blow.

“Your ‘fast‘ isn’t enough to kill Taurus.”

He jabbed again – this time, I didn’t dodge in time.

The staff hit my ribs, and I stumbled back with a sharp grunt.

Pain. Always pain.

But I wasn’t the same girl who cried herself to sleep in Damian’s mansion. That girl was dead.

I caught my balance, tightened my grip, and lunged forward with every ounce of rage I had.

Kael didn’t expect it. I slammed the staff across his shoulder, hard enough to make him grunt and take a step back.

He looked at me approval. not with anger – but with something like

“Good,” he said. “You’re learning.”

I dropped the staff and fell to my knees, breathing heavy, my throat burning. “I can’t feel my arms.”

“Means they’re still there,” Kael said dryly.

I glared at him. “Do you ever take a break?”

“I don’t have time for breaks.”

“Neither do I,” I muttered.

A long silence passed between us. For once, he didn’t bark a new command.

Instead, he sat on a rock nearby and reached for a water bottle. He tossed me one. I barely caught it.

“Sit,” he ordered.

I sat. Not because he told me to, but because my legs were going to give out anyway.

We sat there for a while, the woods quiet around us. The sun had started to dip into a coppery haze, and fireflies began to blink in the distance.

And for the first time… Kael didn’t look like a warrior.

He looked like a man carrying too much.

I glanced over at him. His face was still, unreadable. But his jaw was tight. His fingers flexed around the edge of the bench.

I found myself asking, “Have you always lived alone out here?”

Kael didn’t answer at first.

Then: “No.”

His tone was distant.

“What happened?”

He didn’t look at me. “You ask a lot of questions.”

“I just hit you with a staff. I feel like I earned one answer.”

A beat of silence. Then two.

“My wife died,” Kael finally said.

I blinked.

“You were married?”

He nodded slowly. “Her name was Aelira.”

The way he said her name soft, like it still hurt to speak it — made something twist in my chest.

“What happened to her?” I asked gently.

“She was taken. During the Cleansing War.”

That war. The one the Elders pretended was for balance. It wiped out entire bloodlines.

“She was a healer,” Kael added. “Never fought. Didn’t believe in violence,”

He finally turned to look at me, and I froze.

There was a storm in his golden eyes. Something raw. Something broken.

“They thought I was home. That I’d protect her. But I was too late.”

I stood in front of the mirror in the guest room Kael gave me.

My bruises were already turning yellow and purple. There was a cut above my eyebrow.

But my eyes were clearer.

Sharper.

The wolf inside me stirred again – restless, stretching.

“You’re not ready to shift yet,” Kael had said yesterday.

But he was wrong.

I could feel it now –

like fire in my veins. Like lightning in my lungs.

I was close.

In the woods, Kael was already waiting for me.

This time, he had two blades in hand.

Not wooden staffs.

“Real weapons?” I asked, approaching him.

“You said you wanted blood.”

He tossed one to me. It was heavier than I expected. Black steel. Cold.

Balanced.

My heart thumped harder.

“You ready to draw it?” Kael asked.

“I’ve been ready.”

He nodded once. “Then let’s begin.”

They say the first time you train with blades is like dancing with death.

But for me?

It was like coming home.