HER ARRANGED MARRIAGE

Chapter 001

The Girl Who Fights

CECILIA

Kade came at me for the third time.

I sidestepped him before he could even commit to the swing, grabbed his arm mid-air, and used his own momentum to send him straight into the ground.

He hit the dirt hard, groaning, and stayed there for a moment before rolling onto his back and staring up at the sky like he was questioning every decision that had led him to this point.

The other warriors standing around the training ground went quiet.

I stepped back and rolled my shoulder, waiting.

"Get up," I ordered.

Kade let out a breath. "You know, most people slow down after the second round."

"I am not most people."

He sat up slowly, shaking his head with a short laugh. "No. You are really not."

He got to his feet and stepped back, signalling that he was done. Smart decision.

I turned to face the rest of them, scanning the line. Nobody moved to take his place. They never did after the third round.

They had all learned by now that coming at me tired was worse than coming at me fresh.

"Anyone else?" I asked.

Silence.

Rolan, one of the older warriors, crossed his arms from where he stood at the edge of the ground. "You fight like you have something to prove, Cecilia."

I looked at him. "And you block like you stopped trying two years ago. We all have our things."

A few of the younger warriors bit back smiles. Rolan did not look particularly amused, but he did not say anything else either.

I picked up my water flask from the ground and took a long drink, letting the noise of the training ground settle back into something normal.

Kade was talking to someone behind me. Two of the junior warriors were sparring half-heartedly near the far end. Everything was as it always was.

I found a quieter spot near the edge of the ground to cool down, away from the main group.

I stretched out my arms slowly, working through the tension in my muscles, and let myself breathe.

That was when I heard them.

Two female wolves standing a short distance away, half hidden by the shadow of the equipment shed. They were not sparring.

They were talking, and they were doing it in the low, careful way people do when they think nobody is listening.

I did not turn around. I just stilled.

"She is twenty-two," one of them murmured. "Twenty-two and still unmated. Does that not strike you as strange?"

"Very," the other one agreed. "An Alpha's daughter, at that. You would think the moon goddess would have given her someone by now."

A short pause.

"Unless she did not."

"What do you mean?"

The first one dropped her voice even lower. "Maybe the moon goddess looked at her and decided not to bother. I mean, look at her. She is cold. She does not let anyone close. What kind of