The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 401

Chapter 401: Aurelia Said FINALLY

They came at her together.

Serena’s first instinct was to retreat. Her feet carried her backward two steps before Thane’s instruction caught up to her reflexes and overrode them. She planted her back foot, picked Calder as her target because he was closer, and drove forward.

The move was ugly. The execution was graceless. She stumbled on the transition from retreat to advance and nearly dropped her blade on the pivot.

She also ended up exactly where Thane had described, inside Calder’s guard with Thane behind him, and Thane had to pull his swing to avoid hitting his own partner.

"Sloppy," Thane said. "Effective. Do it again."

They reset. She did it again. The second attempt was faster. The third was faster still. By the fifth, Serena was picking her target before the captains had finished their approach, committing to the gap with a lateral burst that put her inside one guard and behind the other before either captain could establish a coordinated angle.

"She’s reading the positioning," Calder said to Thane during a reset, his voice carrying the quiet surprise of a man whose professional assessment was being revised in real time.

"She was always reading it," Thane replied. "She just needed permission to move forward instead of back."

Hale pushed off the wall and walked to the edge of the floor. His arms were still crossed, but the crossing had shifted from supervisory to evaluative. He was watching the footwork.

"Serena."

She looked over, breathing hard, white hair sticking to her forehead with sweat.

"When you pick your target, you’re hesitating on the first step. The hesitation is a half second. Fix it and neither of them will touch you."

Serena fixed it.

The next run, she was inside Calder’s guard before Thane finished his approach stride, her blade at his ribs, her body angled so that Thane’s line of attack was blocked by his own partner. Calder tapped out with a nod that carried professional respect and mild irritation in equal measure, because being used as a human shield by a student on her first day of multi-opponent training was humbling regardless of how tactically sound it was.

"Again," Thane said.

Elara leaned back in her seat. The smile on her face was the smile of a woman who had handed her best friend two glasses of wine, slapped her across the face, and watched the result walk back into an arena and start winning.

Buzzed Serena had better footwork. Elara was keeping that information for future tactical application.

✦✦✦

SHADOWCLAW ARENA - 3 HOURS LATER

The soldier hit the ground with a grunt, staring up at her like she’d materialized from thin air.

Thane’s arms dropped from being crossed.

"Go again. Advanced level."

The soldier came in faster this time, treating her like a threat instead of a test subject. His blade met hers with a clang that rattled up her wrists. She slid her sword down his, knocked the angle off. He tried to twist away. Her foot swept his ankle.

She kicked him hard in the back, driving him forward to his knees. His blade fell with him. Serena stepped on it and put the edge of hers to his throat.

The yard went quiet.

The man looked up at her from the dirt.

"She fights like a warrior."

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify