Knots of the Hybrid Queen: Claimed by Four Alphas

Chapter 22: First Blood

Training started at dawn which was bullshit because I’d been asleep for fourteen hours straight and apparently my body thought that meant I was rested.

Spoiler: I was not rested.

My muscles ached in places I didn’t know could ache and the claiming marks on my neck and thigh sent little zingers of awareness through me every time fabric brushed against them, which was constantly, which meant I was walking around in a state of low-level arousal that was frankly embarrassing when all four bonds were wide open and broadcasting it.

Draven’s amusement bled through his connection first thing in the morning and I slammed that door shut so hard he actually laughed out loud from wherever he was in the pack house.

Privacy. Dead. Mourned.

Kael met me in the training yard — an open space behind the pack house that was all packed dirt and weapons racks and the kind of equipment that screamed "people get hurt here regularly" — and the look on his face when he saw me was equal parts pride and concern.

"How do you feel?" His hand came up to cup my face and his thumb traced over the claiming mark on my neck, sending sparks straight down my spine that I absolutely did not have time for right now.

"Sore. Overwhelmed. Terrified I’m going to fail spectacularly in front of witnesses." I gestured to where Riven and Thorne were setting up what looked like training dummies at the far end of the yard. "So you know, normal."

His mouth twitched and through the bond I caught his affection mixed with determination. "You’re not going to fail."

"You don’t know that."

"I know you’ve survived worse with less." He pressed a kiss to my forehead. "And now you have four bonds amplifying whatever power your hybrid blood carries. Trust that."

Easier.

Riven appeared at my elbow with water I definitely needed and a smile that was way too cheerful for this early. "Ready to see what you can do?"

"No." Honesty felt safer than bravado. "But I’m here anyway."

"Good enough." He handed me the water. "First rule of training — stay hydrated. Second rule — don’t panic when weird shit starts happening."

"What kind of weird shit?"

Thorne answered by holding up his hand and letting shadows pool in his palm like liquid darkness, and okay that was genuinely unsettling in a way my hindbrain really didn’t appreciate.

"Shadow manipulation," Draven supplied, walking up behind me. "Standard wolf ability. You should have it naturally from your wolf side."

"Should have and actually have are two different things." My thumbnail found my finger, notching into the pad hard enough to ground me.

"Try it." Kael’s voice went firm. Alpha King mode engaged. "Hold out your hand."

I held out my hand and stared at my empty palm and waited for shadows to magically appear.

Nothing happened.

"You’re thinking too hard." Riven moved to stand beside me. "It’s not about controlling it. It’s about letting it happen."

"That’s not helpful."

"Close your eyes." Draven’s hands settled on my shoulders from behind, grounding and cool. "Feel for your hybrid core. The same way you found the mind-link thread."

I closed my eyes because arguing with all four of them seemed exhausting and I needed to save my energy for the inevitable failure that was coming.

The hybrid core was easy to find now that I knew what I was looking for — that warm steady pulse low in my chest where wolf and vampire met and somehow didn’t tear each other apart. The bonds radiated out from it, four distinct threads connecting me to four heartbeats I could feel even with my eyes closed.

"Good." Draven’s voice was quiet. "Now follow your wolf thread. Not the bonds. The part of you that’s pure pack."

I found it — wild and primal and hungrier than I expected — and traced it outward until I hit something that felt like darkness wrapped in teeth.

My eyes snapped open.

Shadows pooled in my palm, roiling and alive and absolutely under my control.

"Holy shit." The words came out breathless.

"There you go." Kael’s satisfaction bled through our bond. "I knew you could do it."

The shadows dissipated the second I stopped focusing and I stared at my empty hand trying to process what had just happened.

I had powers. Actual honest-to-God supernatural powers that weren’t just enhanced healing and a biology that wanted to mate everything that moved.

"Again." Thorne’s rough voice cut through my spiral. "Until it’s instinct."

So I did it again. And again. And again until calling shadows became as natural as breathing and my palm was stained with darkness that didn’t quite wash off.

"Good." Kael checked his watch. "Now the hard part."

"That was the easy part?" My voice came out higher than I meant.

"Shadow manipulation is passive." Draven handed me more water. "Blood control is active. It requires intent and focus and a willingness to hurt people."

The water turned to ash in my mouth.

"I don’t want to hurt people."

"The demon won’t give you a choice." Riven’s voice stayed gentle but his eyes were serious. "When it comes, you’re going to have to choose between hurting it or watching it hurt everyone you care about."

My throat went tight and I had to swallow three times before I could speak. "How does blood control even work?"

"Vampires can manipulate blood inside a body." Draven’s clinical voice was probably meant to be reassuring but just made it worse. "Stop a heart. Burst vessels. Make someone bleed from the inside out."

I was going to be sick.

"I can’t—" I set the water down before I dropped it. "I can’t do that to something alive."

"Not something alive." Kael gestured to the training dummies Riven and Thorne had set up. "Those are filled with pig’s blood. Practice on them first."

Pig’s blood was better than person’s blood but not by much, and my hands were shaking when I approached the first dummy.

"How do I—" I couldn’t finish the question. freёwebnovel.com

"Same as shadows." Draven moved to stand beside me. "Find your vampire thread. Follow it. Let it show you."

The vampire thread was harder to find — colder than wolf, sharper, tasting like copper and old death — but when I finally caught it the power that surged up was vicious in a way that made my wolf side snarl.

I reached for the blood inside the dummy and felt it respond, sluggish and wrong but definitely there.

"Now make it move." Kael’s voice.

I tried.

The blood exploded out of the dummy in a spray that covered the entire training yard.

And me.

And everyone within ten feet.

Silence.

Then Riven started laughing, which set off Thorne’s rough chuckle, and even Draven’s mouth was twitching while Kael just looked at me covered head to toe in pig’s blood and sighed.

"Well. That’s one way to do it."

I stood there dripping and humiliated and absolutely mortified, and through the bonds I felt their combined amusement mixed with pride which somehow made it worse.

"I told you I’d fail spectacularly." My voice came out small.

"You didn’t fail." Kael crossed to me, apparently unbothered by the blood. "You just need to learn control."

"I exploded a dummy."

"Everyone explodes their first dummy." Riven was still grinning. "It’s practically a rite of passage."

"I hate all of you." But I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

Three days until the demon attacked.

Two powers I barely knew how to use.

And four mates who believed I could save them all.

God help us, we were all going to die.