Season's Change Winter's Plight Book 1

31 Lesson Learned

A/N

I feel like I should warn you. If you are easily triggered by violence, the elusion to violence or sexual assault of any kind, you should probably avoid a good portion chapter (the middle). No, no details are given. No, I don't mind spoiling this part for you. It WAS NOT HIM! He would NEVER do that and you all know that.

Shelly Keller

Lessons Learned

Her eyes shone with pride when she went to help him off the floor, she had just thrown him on for the 10th time that day. He looked up at her and smiled and offered a single warning growled with glinting eyes. "Good. Defend yourself." They had been practicing hand to hand combat. He managed to work in grappling as a solid part of that, teaching her how to defend herself if ever she wound up in a situation that warranted it. She had gotten very good at getting out of holds and turning the tides on him. She had, in fact, taken to both hand to hand and grappling very well. He was extremely proud of her. He thought maybe she was ready for the next test of skill. From the floor of the training room he reached beyond the hand she extended and gripped her wrist tight, securing his hold with the size of his hand alone. He didn't give her a chance to free her wrist as he turned it unnaturally just far enough to hurt and pulled her to the floor with him. She let out a small cry of alarm as she was startled by how fast he turned their positions. His smile left his face as he moved them both pulling her down and rolling over her in one strong quick motion.

Katana's mouth flew open in a scream as she found herself trapped bodily under Avriel. He had pinned her again. He trapped her arms above her head once again holding each wrist in one of his massive hands. His hips controlled hers and his feet locked her legs in place. She froze. She'd never feared him before, not completely. Not even when she had blindly attacked him, and he forced the same result as a counter after knocking her weapons free. Then he was charged and provoked, and she saw the very edge of his battle rage. She had threatened his life. But right then, she felt threatened and afraid despite being trained to break the hold and free herself. The attack was not provoked, he had been smiling moments before he pinned her beneath him taking control away from her. Suddenly his eyes were blazing, and his teeth were bared. He gripped her wrist tight again, no doubt bruising them once more. He seemed angry. She was scared, but he did not relent. He did not release his hold on her. He did not shift his body. He held perfectly still, pinning her to the floor his chest heaving as he struggled to breathe. She did not understand. He called her friend. How could he? He was betrothed. Was he then like the other human after all?

He felt her under him as every muscle in her body tensed and locked. She froze. Simply froze as fear gripped her. He was surprised. She should know him better. He would never hurt her. She had to know that. She had to know he would never be so violent. Never force anything on her. Never take from her that which was hers to give and share and not his to assume he should have it. He got scared for a moment. Then he got mad. He had trained her to get out of that precise situation, everything they had been working toward led to that moment. The moment when she had previously felt helpless, was helpless. Never again. Never again would she not know how to fight her way free of another's hold, never again would she suffer at the hands of another, not like that. He looked down at her and growled. "Fight back. Katana. Fight back!" His words sunk in and drove home reaching deep into her warrior's heart. Her grit and ire rose to defend her. Though the result left him in burning pain, it was spectacular. She turned her wrists pressing against his thumbs to free her arms from his grasp and forcing his body forward. She used that to her advantage and slammed the bridge of his nose with her forehead. Tears instantly sprang to his eyes and his blood ran freely. Hopefully, she hadn't broken it. While he was distracted with the pain in his face and temporarily blinded, she shifted her hips and forced her feet first together then apart. She brought her knees out from under his legs, dropping him between her legs and rolled him to his back after pulling one of his shoulders down. Her knee landed squarely in his groin forcing all his air from him and causing excruciating pain to radiate throughout his body. He whimpered in pain but smiled. "Ouch! Don't kill me." He whimpered and pleaded but he couldn't stop smiling. She did it. She pushed past that fear, past that initial instinct to freeze and fought. She fought him, and she won. From the position she had him in, she could easily roll them again and cling to his back wrapping her arms around his neck to cut the blood flow to his brain and air from his chest. She knew how to do it. He could feel her muscles tensing to make that move. He mentally prepared to counter the move throwing his arm up and gripping his own hair. She rolled him and fought to move that arm out of her way, striking his ribs rapidly. He growled and moved his body away from hers preventing her from locking her feet around him. "STOP. KATANA STOP!" She fought on, trying to protect herself from a threat that only existed in her past. He turned in her grasp. She locked her hands in his hair and started pulling. In turn, he grabbed hers and held her head still. "KATANA, KAT. LOOK AT ME. IT IS KOTAS. KOTAS. STOP!" She kept pulling his hair and growling at him. Even with her face contorted in rage, she was beautiful to him. He didn't have time to stop and admire the beauty in her rage. He had to get through to her. She would kill him, or at least seriously hurt him if he didn't. Her eyes were shut, her jaw clenched, her teeth bared in a grimace and tears were streaming down her pretty face. She started screaming as she locked him tight to her and pulled harder at his hair.