Chapter 27

Cheyenne's POV

I woke up to the sound of someone knocking on my door. I jumped up not knowing what time it was and thinking I was late to my first day of training. I still had the map across my bed, so I quickly folded it up and shoved it under my mattress but telling the person to come in.

Bethanie came in with a smile on her face and had a cart loaded with food again for me.

"You really don't think I would eat all of this do you?" I asked with a smile on my face at the amount of food that was on this cart.

"I heard you were starting training today, so I wanted to make sure you weren't going on an empty stomach." Bethanie just shrugged her shoulders at me.

"Well I'm sure that's not going to happen with all this food here." I chuckled. I grabbed a huge saucer type bowl and sniffed it.

"That would be my creation. I call it the All-In-One." Bethanie said with the biggest grin on her face.

"What's in it?" I questioned as my mouth was already salivating and just the smell of it.

"Start with biscuits and gravy and then bacon and ham on top of that with scrambled eggs over that and covered in shredded cheese."

"Sounds like heaven." I said while grabbing a fork and sitting on the edge of my bed. I dug in immediately making sure to get a little bit of everything in the first bite. "Oh…my…goddess!!!! This is amazing!!!!" I couldn't help myself from shoving more in my mouth before she could even say anything.

"I'm glad you like it mist…" I cut her off with a look that said "stop".

"Sorry, Cheyenne. I've never been able to call a higher-ranking member by their name. Only their title. Especially any royalty." She looked down at her hands in her lap.

"No worries. If it makes you feel any better, you can call me whatever you're comfortable with outside that door, but in here, please use my name." I said while shoving more of this heavenly goodness in my mouth.

"Thank you." She said warmly, but I could tell she had more on her mind.

"Ok spill it." I said setting the bowl down and grabbing the glass of apple juice off the cart.

"I'm sorry?" She looked at me puzzled.

"I can tell something is on your mind. You are safe here in this room. What is said between us, stays between us." I said.

Bethanie let out a sigh and then repositioned herself on my bed so she was more facing me at this point.

"Being my mother is the head maid around here, and is assigned to the King, she hears a lot of talk around this place, and I've put some puzzle pieces together but there's just some things that don't quite fit or make sense." She started. I gave her a reassuring smile and nod to continue while I stuffed my mouth with more of this concoction she made.

"Before you showed up here, the King kept making promises to everyone that he would bring their future Queen Alida back to them. Then you showed up and now all the talk is about how the King is questioning if Alida will be a good ruler over his lands. If she'll keep up the traditional laws of the lycans or if she'll be too weak to rule and more or less just be a push over. I have yet to meet her, but people are saying that she's back, and in all honesty I'm scared that I'll be assigned to her and taken from you. You're the closest thing I have to a friend in here."

I could see the tears starting to swell up in her eyes. This girl has no idea that I'm the alleged future Queen. That I am Alida. I put my fork in my now empty bowl and raised my hand to touch her cheek.

"Don't worry about rumors or talk. But this does give me an idea. One that would surely get us in trouble if it got out. How good are you at keeping secrets?" I asked with a devilish smirk on my face.

"I'm afraid I don't have anyone to really talk to in here besides my mother. So I guess that makes me the ultimate secret keeper?" She says questionably.

I chuckle at her response, "Yes, I guess it does. Ok so here's the deal. I am the alleged Alida Romanov." I watched as her eyes went wide and her skin went pale. "Hear me out ok?" And she nodded her head slowly.

I told her the highlight reel of my life and how I was abducted and brought here. As the color started coming back to her skin I could tell she was relaxing a bit more and more with the details I gave her.

"With all that being said, I have an idea. But you're the main star in this. It won't work without your help. You in?" I asked.

"I won't get in trouble will I?" She asked.

"As long as you don't let anyone in on our secret." I smirked.

"Deal!" She said. I could tell this girl has not had an eventful life if something like got her all excited.

"Ok you said you have an assignment board or something like that in the maid's quarters that tells everyone who's working with who right?" I asked and she nodded her head in agreement.

"Ok first thing you're going to do is erase my name and put Alida down instead. Let everyone know that you are the maid to the future Queen. Once you do that, people are going to start asking questions. How is she? Is she mean, nice? Blah blah blah. This is where your part is crucial. You make up things to tell them that would make it sound like I'm exactly like the King. That I'm exactly what he promised their future Queen would be like."

"But you're not. You're really nice. So much nicer than him at least." She said.

"This is why your role is important. Inside this room, I'm still me. But out there, I'm going to have to put on an act, so if you see me out there being a bitch or whatever just remember that's not who I truly am. I have to get the King to think that I'm on his side when I'm actually not. He's going to regret ever bringing me here. Also, this would probably be a good time to make mental notes of who the innocents are around here and who you think would want to be free in the world outside of this hell hole." I had her hands in mine trying to reassure her that she could do this.

"You mean you're not staying here?" She asked after a moment of silence between us.

"Would you want to? I'm sure nobody has any good memories here. Why not relocate?" I shrugged and I could see the light in her eyes shine 10 times brighter.

"Ok I'm in!" She said all excitedly. We went over the plan and we decided to get in set in motion right away.

After she left my room, she was heading back to the assignment board to change it right then. Then it was just a waiting game. Waiting for the questions to start coming in. I told her that after she left my room every time she would have to act pissed or upset around other people and then make up some story about how I was mean to her or whatever.

I was just finishing getting ready for training when there was a knock at the door. I went over and opened it to see the same boy from yesterday standing on the other side. Since Bethanie and I already put our plan into motion, I had to play along.

"What the hell do you want?" I snapped but instantly felt bad about it.

"Sorry to disturb you mistress, but I'm here to take you to training." He said while keeping his eyes locked to the floor.

"Figures. Lead the way then. Let's go." I said as I stepped out and closed my door behind me.

Once we were up on the training grounds, the boy gave me a slight bow and then scampered off. I looked around the grounds and there were only a few people here so far. One of them being Jax. When we made eye contact he waved me over to him. I could feel eyes on me the whole time but chose to ignore it.

"So what's the plan for today?" I asked.

"Well rather than waste both of our valuable time, I thought we would just do some sparing and see where you're at currently and then pick up from there." He said.

"Last time someone tried that, they got their ass beat." I cocked an eyebrow at him.

"They ain't me." He said with a smirk.

I put my bag with my water and towels down on the edge of the grounds so it wouldn't be trampled over and then headed over to where Jax was standing.

"You want defense or offense first?" He asked.

"Surprise me." I said with a smirk, at which he just laughed.

We squared up and started circling each other when he lunged at me. I quickly side stepped and he ended up faceplanting in the dirt.

"Seriously? That's your best? Remember what I told you about going easy on me yesterday? You continue like that and I won't have to say shit. Your men will see for themselves how much of a bitch you are." I chuckled and he let out a growl and jumped up faster than I've ever seen before.

We went round and round for an hour or so before we finally stopped to grab some water. Both of us were bleeding, more me than him of course, which I expected to happen. I had only gotten in a couple days of training with Ben and Gunner and Ty only ever showed me enough to defend myself. But either he was going easy on me or this was just all around easier than I expected it to be.

Before I knew it, we were breaking for lunch. Jax asked if I would join the rest of them and I agreed, thinking back to the plan Bethanie and I had going on. On our walk to the dining hall, Jax was explaining some of the things he had already observed during our sparing matches. He was explaining some of my weak points that I needed to work on and some things that I had down but if I could get stronger would help me out.

We got to the dining hall and sat down at one of the long tables. I looked around, taking in all the servants when one of them made eye contact with me. I had to hold back a giggle when their eyes went wide and they took off towards the kitchen.

It didn't take long for the kitchen staff to start bringing out trays of food for the warriors. I saw one of the male servants walking towards Jax and I with glasses and pitchers of water. He was shaking while trying to sit our glasses in front of us and ended up spilling one of the waters. I jumped up to avoid getting soaked and took the opportunity to play on the plan.

"Seriously?! Are you that incompetent you can't place a glass of water on the table?" I shouted for all to hear. Everybody went quiet and all eyes were on us. Even Jax was watching the event unfold.

"I…I…I'm sorry mistress." He stuttered out.

"Well are you just going to stand there or you going to clean this mess up? Do I need to get my father down here?!" I threatened.

"N…no mistress. I…I am sorry."

"Blubbering fool. Get moving!" I hollered.

The servant took off towards the kitchen and after he disappeared I looked around to find that all eyes were still on me.

"Everyone enjoy the show? Why are you all still staring at me?" I shouted and everyone immediately looked down at their plates.

I sat back down and looked over at Jax who was smirking in my direction.

"Something funny Jax? Care to share?" I asked amused.

"Just glad to see the rumors aren't true." He said taking a bite out of his sandwich.

"What rumors would those be exactly?" I teased, already knowing what had been going around. I didn't like to be the mean one and I was already feeling bad about the way I treated that boy.

"You really want to know?" He asked.

"I wouldn't of asked if I didn't." I responded.

Jax went on to tell me what Bethanie had already told me this morning. I couldn't help but laugh at some of things he was saying, mainly because I already knew but I couldn't tell him that. So I played it off as the rumors not even being remotely true.

After lunch was over we headed back up to the training grounds to get ready for wolf combative training. I was a little nervous to let Koa out but she was ready. She wanted to stretch her legs and feel the earth beneath her paws.

Jax must of notice my nervousness because he started walked towards me.

"You ok?" He asked.

"Yeah, just new to the whole shifting thing." I shrugged it off.

"How new exactly?" he stepped closer towards me.

"Like new new. I've only shifted once and that was out of anger, maybe fear." I said quietly.

"Why don't we go the private training rooms." He put his hand on my shoulder and gave me a reassuring smile.

Once we got to the private training room he started walking me threw shifting. I asked him questions and most the time Koa answered them before he did. She gave me a little pep talk and more or less told me to just go with it and not to fight it.

I started stripping down and tied my clothes to my ankle. Jax had turned around so he wouldn't see anything. I shook my arms out and prepared myself. I called Koa forward and I could feel her take control. I watched Jax's reaction as I shifted. I could feel my nail elongate and my bones snap and reposition.

I was always told that the first few times shifting was painful but maybe it was because I was half lycan, it was just more of an uncomfortable feeling than painful. Once I fully shifted, I could feel Koa stand up tall and look down on Jax. Jax was smirking as he turned around and I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not.

"What's so funny?" Koa asked him. He dropped his smirk along with his jaw and his eyelids went to his hairline. "Cat got your tongue?" Koa chuckled.

"I, uhh, I've never met a werewolf that could talk before. Just wasn't expecting that." He said.

"Half lycan remember." She winked at him. "So we going to do this or what?" Koa said getting into a pounce position.

"Let the fun begin." Jax said with a smirk and in a blink of an eye he shifted. "We're going to have to take this back outside though." He said.

We both took off running back towards the training grounds and when Koa was sure the coast was clear, and to set an example I'm sure, she dug her hind legs in the ground and leaped right onto Jax's back that caused him to face plant.

I could feel all eyes were on Koa at this point. Nobody had seen a werewolf in years much less one my size. Koa let out a low but loud growl that told everybody to get back to training. Not a single wolf questioned her and everybody went back to sparing with their partners.

After a few hours of Jax's wolf and Koa going back and forth, training was called to an end. Koa trotted over into some brush on the edge of the training grounds and we shift back and I threw my clothes back on and came jogging back out.

"How you feeling after you're first day?" Jax asked.

"Surprisingly, refreshed? Which makes no sense at all." I responded with my hands on my hips.

"It was the shifting. You got some of her energy. Let's go get some dinner shall we?" Jax said.

"Are you always this nice to new recruits?" I chuckled as I grabbed my shoes and bag.

"Nope. Just the King's daughter. I might be his closest friend, but I don't have a death wish." Jax responded rather calmly.

"Please tell me you didn't take it easy on me today? I thought I would be exhausted by now trying to keep up with you." I stated nervously.

"I did hold back, but just a little. Like I said, I don't have a death wish." Jax said smirking. You know, he's really not that bad of a guy, but he could be playing me just like I'm playing him. I know I have to be nice to him to get what I want around here.

"Fair enough. You mentioned earlier about getting stronger. Do you guys have a weight room around here that I could use?" I asked as we walked through the corridors back towards the dining hall.

"Actually yes we do. Not everything around here is stuck in the medieval times." He chuckled.

"Do you think you could help me with some strength training maybe after dinner?" I asked.

"I don't see why not. But not every night. You do need to let your body recoup once in a while." He said raising an eyebrow at me.

"How about 3 nights a week? Say every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday?" I shrugged.

"Sounds like a plan." He smirked and patted me on the back.

We ate dinner and I headed back to my room and grabbed a change of clothes and a towel and headed for the showers. While I was taking a shower I had Koa update Maddox on today's events and to just give him an update and mainly to just let him know that we were still alive. After I was done I headed back to my room and plopped down on the bed. Today's training finally catching up with me, and it didn't take long for sleep to claim me.