Love’s Eternal Fire

Chapter 17: Taken

Solaris' POV

Savion and I walked away from Kesi; I looked over my shoulder one last time to see her smiling after us, her green eyes twinkling brightly in the sunshine on this beautiful, clear morning. Bastan had given us a tour of the training facility, and I did have to admit, it rivaled ours back in the clan: three stories with private one-on-one training areas, along with every piece of gym equipment that had been invented, multiple of each with so many warriors to train.

"I wonder if we can get one of these wolves to spar with us," Savion wondered as we walked.

"I wouldn't worry about that too much; we all know their egos are what lead them, and once they see what we can do, they'll line up to try and take us down," I told him.

"So, tomorrow we're leaving?" Savion asked, changing the light tone around us into something more serious.

"Yeah, it shouldn't take too long to get past the dragon realm, but I still think we should wait until dark. We don't know much about the dragons, and I don't fancy a welcome like the one we had from the centaurs," I replied.

"Maybe Kesiray can hollow out a large tree for us to live in," Savion joked.

"Oh yeah, because you know what goes great together? Flammable woods and phoenix fire," I laughed. All the homes in our clan were fireproof, especially considering that the phoenix fire didn't just ignite but turned whatever it touched to ash.

"It was just a suggestion," he laughed. Entering the training facility, everyone seemed to stop and look at us. Even upstairs, people were leaning over the rails to get a good look at the two of us.

"Tough crowd," Savion said in my head.

"Alright, everyone, back to work!" a loud voice barked, and everyone jumped back into what they were doing at full force. A man approached us, his red hair buzzed short, clean-shaven face and hooded brown eyes, which stared at us with something I couldn't quite make out. Before he got to us, a woman cut across his path and blinked her long eyelashes, framing her round blue eyes.

"You must be Solaris and Savion," she said, smiling. "I'm Amatika; it's nice to meet you both."

"You as well," I told her, looking past her shoulder to see the other man rolling his eyes.

"Are you planning to stay here long?" she asked, twisting a piece of her long black hair around her finger.

"No, we're leaving tomorrow," I said shortly.

"Are you a warrior here?" Savion asked, taking a step around me to be closer to Amatika. He could flirt until we left; let him have fun. I stepped around them to meet the man who was now waiting for me to approach.

"Hello," I said, sticking out my hand for him to shake.

"Hello," he replied, shaking my hand firmly.

"Savion and I were just hoping to get some training today," I explained.

"I see; well, we can certainly help with that. Usually, we evaluate everyone and place them at the best level for their skills. Since you've never trained like wolves, we should probably start you out with some of our newer warriors," he told me with an air of pettiness. His blatant disrespect for me and my kind was apparent, and I could feel my body temperature beginning to rise the longer he looked at me like I was beneath him.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Conrike, I'm the head warrior at Midnight Stone," he told me proudly. I had to stop myself from laughing at his arrogance.

"Well, Conrike, I think Savion and I could give anyone in this facility a run for their money," I told him, watching his eyes widen, probably surprised that someone was challenging him.

"Is that so?" he asked, looking me up and down. He wasn't much taller than me, maybe by an inch or so, but the chip on his shoulder was a mile high.

"Yes, in fact, why don't you and I go one-on-one, and then you can decide where we should be placed?" I said. Many people had stopped their work, inching closer to listen to our exchange. Conrike let out a breath and laughed slightly, the corners of his lips turning up in an irritated smile.

"Certainly," he replied. "Follow me to our sparring rings."

"Savion, come on. We've got work to do," I told him, hoping he would put the flirting on hold for a few minutes.

"Right behind you," he replied. We followed Conrike over to a set of large rings on elevated platforms.

"This is where the senior and ranking members train; this should do well for how skilled you seem to think you are," Conrike said, stepping up and into the ring. Biting my tongue and attempting not to shift, I stepped up and into the ring after him, taking off my shirt and handing it to Savion.

Conrike took a defensive stance, and I did the same across from him. The crowd around the ring was growing by the second. People were scrambling down from the upper floors to watch what was unfolding. Being locked up for so long, one of the things I had spent a lot of time on was training. My father thought it was good, and he had me train privately with our head warrior, Eldanus.

"Kick his a**," Savion encouraged.

"I'll try and go easy on you," Conrike smirked before lunging at me. With his ego, I knew he would quickly make the first move. Dodging him, I spun around and was satisfied to see the annoyed look on his face. He did think this was going to be an easy takedown. It was my turn to smirk, knowing this would further irritate him, and it did. Conrike lunged at me again, but I caught him hard in the stomach with my fist this time. Conrike tried to punch my head, but I ducked and kicked his feet out from under him, sending him tumbling to the floor. He didn't stay down for long, though, popping back up and charging at me.

Conrike fought hard and got a few good hits on my stomach and back. In the end, I slammed him to the ground, holding him in place while he waved his hands in defeat. The crowd erupted in cheers, whooping and hollering. Savion was the loudest of all, clapping hard and nodding his head. I helped Conrike to his feet; his nose was bloody, and his face was bruised, but I knew he would heal quickly.

"Da*n, alright, I'll give this to you," he said. "You're a good fighter."

"I trained privately with our head warrior for years," I told him, shaking his hand.

"I guess you phoenixes aren't as weak as we're taught to believe," he told me.

"We certainly have a few tricks up our sleeve," I replied. "Do you want to have a go with Savion? He was one of our best warriors."

"That's okay; I'll take your word that he's as good as you. If you want, you can join me and Beta Armin," Conrike said. Just then, I noticed Armin in the crowd looking at me intently.

"Sure, why not," I told him, stepping out of the ring.

Conrike took Savion and me over to where Armin was waiting—the four of us trained together for a while, working one-on-one and then in a group. Training with the wolves was different because their entire style wasn't like ours. They seemed to have a more challenging time controlling their emotions, which appeared to be driven by their wolves like ours were by our phoenixes, except our phoenixes didn't have personalities or talk to us; they were just a part of our soul. After a while, we had stopped to take a break when I saw Alpha Bastan approaching us.

"Alpha Bastan," I said. "Have you come to join us?"

"I wish I could, but I have something that needs my attention. Savion, Solaris, would you come and speak with me outside?" he asked.

"Of course," I said, grabbing my shirt to put it back on. "Thanks for the training."

"Come back anytime," Conrike said, his entire demeanor now changed after he had been put in his place. Following Bastan, he was on a mission, walking quickly towards the outside doors.

"What's this about?" I asked.

"Let's just talk when we get outside. There are many people here, and wolves have hearing like no other," he told me. When we pushed the doors open, Savion and I followed Bastan a few paces before we were ambushed from behind. Many hands were on me, grabbing my arms and shoulders and forcing me to the ground. I hit hard, the side of my face slamming into the soft ground, knocking the wind out of me for a moment. It was at that moment that something was clamped onto my wrists, pinning them behind my back. The burning sensation told me I had iron chains on my wrists, extinguishing any of my powers.

"What the fu*k! I screamed when my breath came back to me. Had Bastan betrayed us and told my clan where we were? "You promised we were safe!"

"I did, as long as your presence didn't cause harm to my pack," Baston told me. Looking up at what little I could from a person putting pressure on my back to hold me down, I saw the face of Eldanus staring down at me.

"Your father's going to be so pleased to have you back. You have caused quite the stir," he told me.

"This is ridiculous; Kesi and I have marked each other; just let us go!" I yelled, listening to Savion struggle against his captors.

"I'm afraid we can't do that. Ryse can't be the leader of our clan, so we need you to stop this foolishness and come home," he said.

"Where's Kesiray!" I asked, trying to look at Bastan.

"She's safe with Luna Kivela. We'll visit her next," Baston told me coldly.

"They won't hurt her if you're worried about that. Your families agreed and have done this together for the sake of you both," Eldanus said.

"This won't stop us from being together!" I yelled. "We'll find a way back to one another like before!"

"I highly doubt that with what your parents have in mind," Eldanus smiled, which scared me more than anything. "Thank you, Alpha Bastan, for allowing us to come into your pack and take back what is ours."

"You're welcome; thank you for allowing me to turn them in before you attacked," Bastan said. Were these two thanking one another for giving us up right before me?

"You mother fu*king bast..." but the rest of my sentence was silent because one of the people holding me down slammed me over the back of the head with something large and hard. My vision tunneled in, and everything around me went black; the last thing I saw was Kesi's green eyes staring at me; her beautiful, delicate face swirled in my mind, quickly disappearing and leaving me in total darkness.