*A/N: two updates in one week? Who am I? Jk, I'm trying to finish this book before my school semester starts up again. Plus I don't have writer's block rn so I'm trying to bust out my creativity while I have it.
This chapter does have a lot of dialogue, mostly because the next chapter will have hardly any.
Only two chapters left, y'all.
I love you.
Chapter
Forty One
C A R O L I N E
Waking up on the day of the challenge, the earlier sense of foreboding I felt had heightened. It was as if there was an electric current in the air, ready to strike down at any moment.
Dominic was gone before I had woken up, his side of the bed cold. I didn't mind, considering how big of a day today was. But I wish he had at least nudged me to say goodbye, since he didn't say anything to me when he came to bed last night either.
Sitting upright, most of the pain in my skull was gone, but I did get an intense head-rush. Considering I was battered against a porcelain sink just a day before, I couldn't complain.
Part of me figured that the Challenge would be at sun down. That seems like a story book cliche, right? The clouds would come in and it would rain while the two males were rolling around in the mud, tearing each other up. I could almost picture it on a movie screen; the winning alpha would stand strong and defeat his opponent right as the clouds broke around a full moon.
How cinematic.
But this wasn't a cinema. This was the real world, and the challenge would begin at ten in the morning.
The sun was out and the day was the perfect temperature. Just over eighty degrees. It seemed a shame that the Challenge would be today, on such a beautiful day.
There were a couple hours until it all started, so I threw on a set of comfortable clothes, workout leggings, sports bra, and a white tank top, figuring we would be outside all day and I would be sweating with worry over Dominic. I didn't want to ruin any nice clothes.
Pulling my hair into a loose ponytail, I bounced down to the exercise room, expecting to find Dominic there. He was, but he wasn't exercising. He was laying on the mat, staring at the ceiling.
"You okay?" I asked, standing over him.
The man smiled softly at me. "Yeah. Just mentally preparing."
I sat by his side, biting my bottom lip. "Well, I have something to confess. Do you have some time to talk?"
Dominic pushed himself up on one elbow, raising a brow at me. "Is everything okay?"
"So, remember how I started working out all those mornings? I wasn't actually going on runs... I asked Jeff to train me how to fight."
Dominic sat up fully now, his face darkening. "You were alone in a room with him every morning? Why is this the first I have heard of this?"
"Because I begged him to do it in private. But that's not the point-"
"Sugar, you already know how to fight."
I aggressively waved my hands in his face, telling him to shut up. "Stop interrupting me. Yes, I know how to fight but he didn't know that. I had him train me in his techniques. I know how he fights and his tricks and his weak spots."
