Their Hidden Princess Novel

---- Chapter 136 It was only a week later when | realized | had to fight Kairos, again. Petyr had been the one to tell me about the day of the second fight. He came right up to our table one morning and looked me dead in the eye before announcing the second fight would take place on the following Saturday. There was a sliver of fear in his gaze that | didn't act on. But Mona clocked it and refused to let it go. She reminded me of it every day leading up to the fight and was doing the same as | changed before the fight.

| tightened the laces on the training shoes before | tied them, shoving the ends in the side as Max had taught me. He said there was nothing worse than losing a fight because you tripped. Mona was giving me my daily pep talk. This time, she'd put more "oomph" into it. ~and we've been training for a while, she continued as | focused back in. We've put in the work to act against our weaknesses. We know Moonraiser's weaknesses too. Plus, we know from the other Alpha that he is afraid. I tried to not roll my eyes before replying. | know, | know, | reassured her. I'm not nervous, weirdly enough.

---- Nothing to be nervous of, she said with a swish of her tail. We will win. Being overly confident is a choice, One I'd make again, That time, | did roll my eyes at her. | stood up and brushed myself off. The locker room was eerily quiet. As soon as | stepped into the hallways that separated me from the gym, | heard the hum of the crowd. | took one last, final breath before | pushed the doors open and was met with the madness of the fight. If possible, the gym seemed to be more full than the first time. The crowd murmured with a gentle hum as | emerged.

When they realized it was me, their voices turned into "boo's of varying degrees. | walked with my head high to the center of the gym, ignoring the way their faces were twisted at me in anger. When | got to the sparring mat, | noticed the set up was different than it was before. Kairos wasn't there yet. Furthermore, Maximus was not standing next to him. My personal trainer, and knight, was standing across the mat. Thorne was still on Kairos's side, a shock to no one. Standing in the middle was Petyr. | got up to the sparring mat and took my place next to him.

His eyes cast sideways at me before facing back forwards. ---- Then, the doors to the men's locker room opened and Kairos came out. The crowd roared with excitement for him. The cheers and claps soared far higher than my "boo"s could reach. However, Kairos's normal scowl wasn't in place. Instead, his lips were set in a thin line, shoulders hunched up by his ears. He looked tense. Because he knows we've been training, Mona chimed in. | nodded to myself. Her comments about Petyr finally didn't seem so ridiculous.

Kairos walked up to the mat and stood on the opposite side of Petyr that | was standing on. He, too, shot me a sideways glance before facing back forward. Petyr raised a hand and the crowd's yelling dulled down instantly. "The rules are as follows," Petyr stated, repeating Thorne at the first fight. "Best two out of three fights. Winner will be announced by myself. Kairos won the first fight." The roar of the crowd picked up again. Petyr waited slightly before lifting a hand again. The crowd died back down. "All sparring techniques are for use," he continued.

"A knockout results in an automatic win. Fighters, take your positions." Then that was it. We turned to face one another and the dropped into our own defensive stances. | noticed that Kairos held his hands lower than | did. His face was completely uncovered. | cataloged that to be used later, once I'd worn him down. ---- This time, | didn't bother looking out into the crowd for Valentin or Loren. | could sense Valentin's aura by way of our not-bond, bond. Loren | saw when | was walking up to the mat.

She was currently behind me with her sister, gnawing at her fingers much like the first fight. | focused back on Petyr. He stepped up and looked at both Kairos and | for reassurance before raising his hand then dropping it rapidly as he shouted. "Begin!" Immediately, Kairos was swinging. I let him nail one out of every three punches while blocking the other two. | had to give him the illusion that | hadn't changed. | was still weak in his mind and | needed to be. After receiving a few jabs to the gut, | heard Mona growl. Enough, she snarled. Show him the real you. The true Alpha.

| waited for him to strike again before acting. As his fist was. about to collide with me, | spun out of it's range. Kairos was immediately shocked. | swiveled again, swinging my arm as | went. My elbow collided with the middle of his back, and he jolted forward. The entire crowd grew quiet as they realized, | may actually win this. Less thinking! More doing! Mona chimed. So, | did exactly that. ---- | turned back to face Kairos and swung at him. He seemed to still be caught up on my last hit as the next one hit. | slashed him across the face, and he jerked back again.

| waited for him to combat it, but he just stared at me with wide eyes. | threw another punch then another. He just accepted them, blank stare still on his face. "Fight me back!" | roared. It sounded more like Mona than me. Another punch another jab to his chest. | swung my arm and slashed at him with my claws. He swatted at my wrist to keep it from hitting him, but refused to strike back. If he doesn't want to hit me back, | should end this, | thought to myself. | threw one, two, three jabs then used my foot as he was blocking the last jab to sweep his feet out from under him.

He fell back on the mat with a thud, shaking the stage that we were fighting on. Gasps echoed through the crowd and | ignored them, pouncing on Kairos. | wrapped my bicep around his head, dragging him into a chokehold. His hands immediate dug into my bicep but | ignored them for the burning inside of me. | twisted my arms, putting more pressure onto his neck. | wanted to stop the blood from getting to his brain, knock him out. But | also was okay with ripping his head clean off. | struggled, straining my muscles as every fiber of my being ---- tried to get Kairos to back down.

| felt tears shredding through my shoulders, a burning pain lighting up my back. | was reaching the edge of what I was capable of, My body was strained to no end. Just as | was about to give up, | felt it. Kairos had gone limp in my arms. I'd won.