~Captured~

Chapter Four

Ailyn gave her final goodbye before the door was shut, marching herself up to the third floor. There was a pulling in her chest to the unknown of how her conversation would go with Keiren. He was already upset and took a bullet to protect her too.  Hopefully he was drugged enough to pass out before she even got there.

Like that would ever happen. 

They had one of the most unique relationships she's ever known. Not that she really had any other experience to follow on, but Keiren is her first partnership. She had never even experimented with boys before since she was considered too young. Now she was twenty and he twenty-seven.

Stopping at the tops of the stairs she stayed near the edge with a hand on the railing. Her thoughts carried back to when she met him for the first time over two years ago.  She was training in self-defense and doing a horrible job at it. Keiren was one of the trainers who tried assisting her at the end of class every night. He was very cold and grimaced each time he had to touch her.

Ailyn could recall the day she got punched in the face by one of the girls she practiced with. That girl was Elise. She felt ashamed that she couldn't even block a direct attack, falling like a tumbleweed over the mats with a busted lip. She still remembered the taste of iron in her mouth too.

Keiren reprimanded her form, yanked her up from the floors too quickly and she fell against his chest. There was a very long pause; even the room itself had gone quiet. Keiren must have realized their positioning because he shoved her with a sneer. Turning on sharp heels he then went back into training the others.

He looked at me as if I were the most disgusting thing in the world.

Ailyn wasn't sure if she liked remembering that. She dealt with the uncomfortable situations for over a whole year.

The strangest part was how he acted the closer it got to her initiation ceremony. He began to ask her questions over the most random things, and he even tried helping her more. It was almost as if he had a complete attitude adjustment with his sneering down to a minimal frown.

Then the shocker of the century. On the day of her initiation ceremony there Keiren was, choosing her to fight for her in the arena. The whole clan was just as shocked.

Ailyn remembered being so scared standing in the middle of that large stadium during the time of the ceremony. Such a barbaric method in securing safety within the family. 

She grabbed over her heart. The muscle beating wildly as if she was standing there all over again. It was terrifying.

The crowds were loud, filling with clan members that were all dressed appropriately. There were different colors to portray each ranking system. Black for all Initiates, red for Military Ops, silver for Special Classes or Elders, and gold was for Leaders. To this day she still doesn't understand why he wanted to claim her.

There were around six men who came at the challenge, set to fight for her in becoming her new mate. She knew that one of them would prove to be a victor and whoever won was her chosen. What she didn't expect was Keiren to show up fully dressed in black and gold, carrying an intense scowl.