Chapter 84 - Walk the Walk

"What is it?" Kai asked Dylan hurriedly. They didn't have time on their hands and he was keen to get going.

Dylan got straight to the point. "I can't share this with everybody, but something is happening on the northern border with Sirran. They've pulled all their lookouts bordering the Storm Forrest pack territory. It's all quiet, too quiet. Colton is planning something and if I were to place bets, I would say he's amassing soldiers somewhere in preparation for an attack. Based on what you told me Kai, about Colton looking for her, I don't think it will be long before he sends his own people in to seek her out. I don't doubt that he's prepared to go to war for her."

"Does anyone at the palace know?"

"Your sister is leading a small team at the border, keeping scout.”

“Just one small team?!" Kai questioned angrily.

“So far only the pack Alphas and the council are aware of this. They’re trying to avoid panicking anyone until they figure out what they’re up to. If they send a ton of soldiers up there, they're not going to be able to keep it under the radar. Melody’s team has just been checking for any other unusual activity.”

Kai puffed then started pacing around the room. “This is why the council pisses me off. They're more concerned about keeping up appearances than anything else. If Colton is amassing an army somewhere, by the time he invades the northern border it will be too late to get an army big enough up there to fight them off. We'll be playing in to his hands if they underestimate him."

"I don't disagree with you. We need the intel to know where best to stake out. There are three pack lands that border Sirran. He could come in from any one of them."

Kai sucked his teeth in irritation. If he was at the palace still leading his covert operations squad, he wouldn't be waiting around to see what the enemy was planning to do next. "Is Elias not involved? If intel is what we're missing, then they should have already tasked him to find out.”

Dylan sighed. "You're right, but nobody has been able to get hold of him for over a week now. Nobody knows where he is"

Kai tightened his lips but overall didn't seem overly concerned that his brother was missing.

Dylan looked at Kai curiously.

"If he's gone off the grid then he's probably already on to something. Elias doesn't do anything by half measures. He knows more than he's willing to tell me. If he's getting his own hands dirty by looking in to this himself, then I know it must be serious. He'll come back once he knows more. We'll have to hang tight until then."

Feeling that the conversation had concluded in Kai's eyes, he walked around Dylan to leave.

"Wait!" Dylan held on to Kai's arm to stop him from passing.

"What?" Kai asked irritated. He was keen to get Rae and get out of there.

"You gave me the shock of my life when you called me to ask for help and to come up with this plan. A pleasant shock I should add."

"And?" Kai prompted.

"I'm trying to prove my loyalty here and regain your trust, but I need to be able to trust you too. You haven't forgotten what else we discussed right?"

Kai's mouth twitched with annoyance as Dylan held firmly on to his arm. "Are you gonna hold that over my head now?"

"I'm serious Kai, I need you to hold up your end of the deal."

"*If* Matias has betrayed my family *and* our country, I'll do what needs to be done" Kai turned and looked at Dylan directly in the eyes. His eyes were solid black and fiercely intense. He meant what he said. Kai's eyes moved down from Dylan's face to his hand that was still holding on to his arm. His look silently told him to remove it, quickly. The conversation was done in his eyes. Dylan's hold on Kai's arm slackened, seemingly satisfied with Kai's answer.

"Okay. I'll see you back at the capital," Dylan concluded.

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Rae fell with a heavy thud on her back for the fourth time in a row. This training felt painfully similar to the one she had with Gabriel back outside their old house.

"Okay, again." Kai called out to her. He stood directly in front of her, waiting for her to get up again. She seemed to be a bit slower this time. He titled this head as he looked down at her. Her hands were balled up in to fists in indignation.

They were well in to their first day of training and Kai seemed to be effortlessly outmanoeuvring her in her eyes. It felt like he was always two or three moves ahead of her, like he was able to predict what she was going to do next.

Kai squatted down to her level. The gentleman in him wanted to offer her his hand and help her up, but knowing his mate, he knew it would only agitate her further. "You're frustrated, I know. But you're already improving after each bout. Your reaction time is getting quicker."

"Not quick enough!" she snapped back, annoyed at herself. "How am I supposed to be able to beat you in a fight when you're more powerful than me? "

Kai raised a brow in confusion at her words. "I don't understand, why do you think that?"

"What do you mean you don't understand? You *'are'* more powerful than me," she moaned.

"Okay, let me rephrase the question then. What's your definition of power?" he asked.

"You're stronger than me. I can't out muscle you."

Kai huffed. "Well, you're not wrong there. Yes, I'm physically stronger than you. A lot of young dominant males probably will be. That doesn't make me more powerful than you though."

Rae pulled herself up on to her knees, so that she sat directly in front of Kai. "How so? Explain it”

"Before I do, let me make sure I'm understanding what you're saying. You're making the connection that my strength is the equivalent of my power and therefore, so long as my strength is greater than yours, I'll always have *'power'* to beat you in a fight."

Rae pouted a little. "Well, you said it a lot more eloquently than I did, but ultimately yeah."

"Okay. Let me share my thoughts on this. Power, at least by my definition, is more than just brute strength. True power is ultimately a selection of skills, some learnt and some that you're born with. As a woman you already have many advantages over me when it comes to a fight. Your more agile for one and you're fast. Really fast." His eyes flicked up as he thought back to when they both shifted and he chased after her. He really couldn't outrun her in a sprinting race.

"Used in the right way, you can take on shifters much stronger than you and win quite easily. Heck, you took out the big shifter that had you kidnapped in the warehouse, and your hands were tied. Did you forget about that?" Kai cocked his head and smiled one of his breath-taking smiles at her. Although that whole incident wasn't a pleasant memory, when he saw the unconscious guy laying on the floor in front of her, he couldn't help but feel a sense of pride at her skills.

Rae couldn't help but feel a little smug about it as she recalled the same event.

"Shifters that tend to focus on strength as their key attribute, tend to rely purely on that in a fight. As a result, someone with speed and agility on their side can easily use that against them. Brute force types tend to centre their weight when they fight. They focus all of their energy in to a single attack. If you throw them off balance, they'll collapse like a house of cards."

Rae nodded, understanding what Kai was getting at.

"Male shifters that lean heavily on their strength have so many tells. I'll show you what some of those are. They'll also be more inclined to focus on that one ability in a fight, especially with a female. There are so many that still don't think females should be fighting at all because they think that they don't have the *power* to win, but they're wrong. Arya, my master is definitely testament to that. She taught me most of what I know about combat. Both in my wolf and human form."

"What about when your eyes glow red. I'd never seen that before. Did Arya teach you that?" Rae recalled seeing Kai's eyes like that on a few occasions now, but she never understood what it meant.

Kai smiled seeing Rae's face light up with interest. He closed his eyes and held them shut for a moment, then slowly opened them again, showing that his eyes had turned red. "You mean, like this?" Kai leant in closely to her so she could take a good look.

It wasn't just his eyes that had changed. She could feel some of his dominant energy ebbing off him. It wasn't oppressive and dominating though. It was eerily calm and controlled. Rae looked at him in awe. "You...feel different like that."

The look on her face told Kai that she found it more than just intriguing. Kai's face drew up in to a playful smirk. "Maybe I'll make love to you in this form one day," he said amusingly as a joke.

Rae's face heated at his words as she imagined his red intense eyes roaming her naked body.

Kai's eyebrows shot up as he got a hint of her thoughts through their mate bond. "You actually like that idea, don't you?"

Rae edged backwards as she tried to escape Kai's seductive and scrutinizing gaze. "I...I didn't say anything," she said trying to hide her embarrassment.

Kai chuckled. "You didn't need to baby." He scooted a bit closer to her on the ground. "You forget that I can feel what you want," he whispered sensually.

Rae pushed out a palm in to his chest, halting his advances. "Stop it you. We don't have time your antics!"

Kai chuckled again. "Fine."

He raised himself off the ground and stood upright to try and switch up the sexual energy that had inadvertently started to build between them. Seeing that Rae was more relaxed, he held out a hand for her to help her up, which Rae obligingly took this time.

Kai pointed his finger towards his eyes. "This is what I want to try and teach you. It's called an invocation. Arya taught me this technique. It allows you to invoke the abilities of your wolf in human form. It's very useful when shifting might not be the best option."

Rae stared hard in to his eyes. "I've never seen or heard of anything like that before. Do you think it's possible for me to learn how to do that in a few days?"

Kai nodded. "Uh huh"

"How long did it take you to learn it?"

Kai ran one of his hands through his hair as he tried to recall. "A good couple of months"

"Months?!" Rae echoed back. "If it took you months to learn that, then what chance do I have to learn it in days?!"

Kai slid his hands down her shoulders until he held both of her arms. "I was kid when I first learned how to do this. You're an adult. You definitely have the potential to pick this up quickly, at least in its basic form. I needed this little spar with you today to assess where you're at physically. From tomorrow, I'm gonna have to go at you much harder if we want a good chance at making it work. I'm confident you have what it takes."

Rae's mouth popped open in disbelief. After she reprimanded him for taking it easy on her earlier, Kai had definitely upped how much force he used against her and she definitely felt it. If that was him going much harder, she wondered what 'much harder' would actually be like.

Since she and Kai had been together, she had been pushing him to let her fight alongside him and trying to convince him that she was tougher than he made her out to be. Kai had obviously taken all of her words in to consideration and was finally taking her seriously. She had been talking the talk and was prepared to walk the walk, but she wondered where his faith in her potential came from.

"Do you really think that I can do this?" She couldn’t stop a hint of self-doubt from coming out.

Kai smiled confidently. Whilst he wasn't looking forward to having to rough her up more, he knew the end result would help her to be able to protect herself, which is what she wanted more than anything.

"I know you can. We're both the products of fated royal mates. We're born with the potential to surpass all others." He leant in to closer to her then placed a palm over her chest. "You're not just my mate. You're the daughter of a fated royal pair and the Queen of Aldia. Believe it like I do. There's nothing you can't do."