My Mate Is An Omega
My Mate Is A Virgin Chapter 40

Jasper POV

"Alright, wolfie..." Kindra had blood in her eyes as she cracked her knuckle. "Let's see what you're made of."

There were only the two of us in the spacious arena - Andromeda would be in an important meeting with Adriana throughout the entire morning, so neither of them would come to my rescue. The woman with short jet-black hair grinned as she stood a few feet away from me, her gaze locked on me. We hadn't even started our first day of training, but there was already a bead of sweat dripping down my forehead, though I couldn't tell if it was due to my nervousness or the ever-burning flame inside of me. Probably both. I took a deep breath, making the most out of the final fractions of seconds I would have to prepare myself. The heavenly evening with my queen on the previous day had truly helped me relax, and now all I could feel was the raging desire to prove to Kindra, the only huntress who still despised me with a passion, that I wasn't the weakness she thought I was. I had believed so myself for an entire lifetime, but after replaceing my own strength, I was ready to show the world my worth. I wasn't Jasper, the useless stray anymore. I was Jasper, King of Snow Pelt Clan and bearer of the Phoenix Spirit.

"Whenever you're ready." I smiled right back at her.

Kindra scoffed, unamused, but started slowly circling me nevertheless as she got into a defensive stance. I mirrored her every step, my eyes attentively studying the opponent. My first attempt to tease her into attacking first, which would give me an advantage, had failed, but I had another trick up my sleeve. During my months living among the cats, I had learned that they have really good reflexes, and they would patiently wait for the right time to strike. They weren't brawlers like wolves; they relied on the accuracy of their moves. With that in mind, I put plan B into action.

Our dangerous dance came to an abrupt end as I suddenly lunged forward. Just by watching Kindra's body language, I was able to tell she had fallen right on my trap. The second I moved, she sprung in my direction, going straight for an opening I had purposely left exposed to trick her. At the last second, I dodged to the side, making her lose balance as she couldn't tackle me like she initially intended.

That would probably be my only opportunity to strike, and I didn't miss it.

While the huntress worked to get her stability back, I drew back my arm, clenching my fist to land a clean punch. My gaze was focused on my target, a spot on her side just below her ribs. But before I could channel my powers to my hand to intensify the hit, she glanced at me over her shoulder, taking me by surprise.

She was quicker than I anticipated.

Realizing I wouldn't have enough time to strike before she managed to intercept my blow, I changed my strategy and tried to change into a defensive stance. Again, she was faster. Before I could completely cover my face with my arms, her knuckles hit my nose. Hard. The force of the blow sent me back a few inches, but I struggled to stand on my feet. In an attempt to better protect myself while I was vulnerable, I lowered my body to close any openings. And as I let my head fall forward, a crimson waterfall flowed into the floor before me.

Blood. A lot of it.

That's when the pain kicked in, making my head spin and my vision turn black. s**t! She had definitely broken my nose.

"Jasper? What's happening? Is everything alright?" Andromeda's voice inside my head startled me more than the hit I had just taken. s**t! She must have felt my pain through the bond. "Yes, I-"

Before I could come up with a believable lie, Kindra struck again, forcing me to close my connection with my mate. Despite my effort to shrink my frame as best as I could, the vicious huntress still found an unprotected area on my stomach, and she kicked me like her life depended on it. This time, I couldn't keep my balance and fell to the floor. But I wasn't ready to give up just yet.

When she flew in my direction, I raised my legs and used them to push her back again. It granted me a little more time to assess the situation, though not nearly enough. I barely had time to rise when she grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and headbutted me with such strength, it felt as if I was hitting a boulder.

"For the love of the Goddess!" Phoenix howled in pain. "This is not a woman, this is a f*****g bull!"

The moment she released her grasp on me, I fell back to the floor like a pathetic potato sack. The blood now dripping from a large cut in my forehead made it hard for me to see where she was coming from, but she didn't allow me much time to think anyway. A second later, she climbed on top of me, restraining my movements by wrapping her legs tightly around my waist. There was pure hatred in her expression as she prepared to punch the life out of me, and all I could do was wince and brace myself. Weirdly enough, her fist never touched my face.

When I opened my eyes again, I realized Kindra wasn't on top of me anymore. To my shock - and relief - she was now pinned against the wall as my queen pressed her elbow to the huntress' throat. Andromeda's aura was so strong even I was intimidated. She was fuming with anger.

"You better have a f*****g flawless explanation as to why you were attacking your king," my mate demanded, her voice louder as Genevra pushed closer to the surface.

Oh, s**t!

"My king," Kindra scoffed. She was dead set on murdering me a second ago, but now she was calm as a millpond. She didn't even dare looking into Andromeda's eyes, which showed just how much respect she had for her queen. "Yes, he's supposed to be our king. He's supposed to protect our clan. If I can beat him up, what is he good for?"

Her words stung more than the blows, because she was right.

A loud thud echoed through the arena as Andromeda punched a hole in the wall right next to the woman's face. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't punish you for your blatant disrespect."

"Because I asked her to train me," I chimed in before things escalated. My mate's aura became a little less intense as I caught her attention, and her grasp on the huntress loosened up. "You what?"

"There's an upcoming war in which I'll have to defend Snow Pelt," I reminded her. "Kindra is helping prepare me for it...even if it doesn't look like it."

Her diamond eyes shifted between me and the warrior one last time. After hesitating for a moment, she finally let go of Kindra. When she turned to me again, I could see that she was still mad - but now, she was mad at me.

"Adriana was appointed to train you, not Kindra. We have rules, Jasper, and even though you are king, you must not forget that-" She stopped scolding me when her eyes suddenly clouded over. Once the mindlink was over, she massaged her temples and let out a heavy sigh. "I don't have time for this. My presence is being requested elsewhere. We'll talk later." She glared at me one last time, causing Phoenix to lower his head inside my head, before she turned to Kindra again. "You. Out. Now!" "Yes, My Queen." The woman bowed, not bothering to address me as she headed out of the arena with my mate following closely behind her.

Well, it seemed like yet another one of my plans had backfired. I knew I would be in trouble once Andromeda was finished with her obligations for the day, both for interrupting her important meeting and because of my decision to spar with Kindra behind her back. As terrifying as that sounded, the throbbing pain in my head and the blood oozing out of my nostrils reminded me I had other things to worry about.

Unwilling to leave the arena, thus risking being seen by my subjects in my deplorable state, I headed to the drinking fountains located on the side of the fighting ring to try and fix my face. It wasn't ideal, but it would have to do. My white shirt also had a massive red stain, so I decided it would be best to stay in just my black shorts.

The pain got worse as I started cleaning the wounds, but Phoenix was doing a great job at healing our body. Luckily, I wouldn't need to hide here for more than a couple of hours, although my nose probably wouldn't be completely healed until the next morning. From time to time, I checked my reflection in the small circular mirror. Once I was satisfied, I grabbed a towel laying on the wooden bench to dry my chest and face. As I put the cotton fabric down again, my eyes focused back on my reflection, and I almost jumped back when I saw a woman white as a ghost standing behind me. I blinked a few times, and suddenly, there were three females in the arena with me.

"How the hell are y'all so damn sneaky?" I whispered in awe as I turned to face Alula, Calynn, and Marina

"Cats have light feet, My King. I thought you would have gotten used to it by now," the youngest of the huntresses observed, offering me a bag of ice. I arched an eyebrow at her.

"To help you heal and numb your pain, My King. The Queen said you might need it," Marina clarified in a sweet tone.

I sighed as I took the bag, wrapping it on the towel before applying it to my injury. "Drop the king s**t. There's only us here."

"Sorry. Force of habit." The blond girl smiled apologetically.

"So... Did you have fun sparring with Kindra?" Calynn failed to hold back a chuckle as I sat on the bench.

"That woman's a beast when it comes to fighting," I confessed.

"Oh, we know. We train together in case you've forgotten." The brunette reminded me.

"She's a beast in the bedroom too." A fourth voice echoed through the arena. Turning around in the direction of the sound, my gaze landed on Tessa, who was wearing a sassy smile. "But I must admit I quite like it."

"I wonder how," I scoffed. "I still can't for the life of me figure out how the two of you ended up together."

"I guess you could say opposites attract." She shrugged as she sat beside me. I could feel her analyzing the damage her mate had done to my face as I rested my head against the wall. "I apologize on her behalf. Even though she was training you, she didn't have to be so harsh."

"Well, she wouldn't miss the opportunity."

"It's not personal, you know. Kindra is very serious about her duties and the clan. She's also very skeptical and has a hard time trusting outsiders."

"I noticed." I smirked, pointing at my broken nose.

"I don't wanna endorse her behavior, but the life in a clan can be quite brutal," Calynn chimed in. "When a king falls, a lot of lynxes suffer. Especially the kittens."

"Kindra would probably kill me for telling you this, but..." Tessa sighed. "She's mostly reacting out of fear." I put the bag away to give her my full attention. "Her older brother was kicked out of the clan when he came of age. For the first week, she was afraid he would die alone in the wild. But he challenged another clan, not too far away from here, and he did thrive. What he did afterwards made her lose all the respect she had for him though." "What happened?" I asked, both nervous and curious.

"He banished all of the males in the clan. Most of them were kittens under the age of ten," Alula continued.

"They all died within a month, according to reports," Tessa revealed, a sad smile painting her face.

"s**t!" My eyes widened. I had studied about werecats and their customs, and though I knew takeovers could be quite brutal, I thought most of these practices had been abandoned.

"He wasn't even that cruel. Some newly-crowned kings will kill the fallen leader's offspring with their bare hands," Marina observed in a low voice.

"Either way, the event changed her. She cut ties with her brother, and she became a lot more serious about protecting the clan."

"I had no idea," I confessed. Was I really feeling sorry for the woman who just f****d me up?

"I don't want you to feel guilty about it. It doesn't excuse the poor way she's treated you since you arrived, nor the beating she gave you," Tessa reassured me. "I just hope you can understand that she doesn't hate you, Jasper."

"I'm ninety percent sure she does. But I'm glad to know it's not because she's envious of my good looks," I joked in an attempt to lighten the mood. When the girls laughed, I had faith it was working.

For the next two hours, the four girls kept me company. They always made me feel welcome and safe. Somewhere deep inside of me, I guess I had started seeing them as part of my pack. In the end, maybe wolves and cats weren't that different after all. I also couldn't help but feel more empathy towards Kindra. I guess seeing that even the strongest of all the huntresses had her own scars made me relate more to her.

Sadly, our casual reunion was soon interrupted by my mate linking me to inform me she was back to our room. I immediately knew it was my cue to go upstairs before she dragged me there. As scary as Kindra was, Andromeda was ten times scarier when she was angry. With that in mind, I said my goodbyes to the huntresses to meet with my queen.

The second I walked through the door of the Queen's Chambers, I froze when I found Dree standing with her arms crossed, her brows creased.

"How did the meeting go?" I asked as I closed the door, trying to break the ice.

"Good. We didn't have any more interruptions, thankfully." Her frown deepened, and I swallowed dry. "Frankly, Jasper!" She threw her hands in the air, losing her composure. "What the hell were you thinking?!"

"I swear I only had the clan's wellbeing in mind," I replied honestly.

"Seriously? And you didn't think about talking to me first?"

"You wouldn't allow it."

"Of course, not!" she scoffed. "Look at what she did to you! She could have seriously wounded you if I didn't arrive on time!"

"She was training me," I recalled.

"She was taking her anger out on you!" Dree barked back. "Adriana was training you. If you thought she was going easy on you, you could have asked me to train you instead."

"Would that change anything though? You would never hurt me on purpose," I pointed out, stepping closer to her. I wanted to calm her down by wrapping my arms around her, but when I tried, she backed off. A sigh left my lips. "Kindra's hatred towards me fuels her fire. She will always go all out on me, and that's how I'm gonna improve."

"Right! She was about to f*****g murder you!"

"Dree, please." I took a deep breath, encouraging her to do the same. There was no point in arguing while she was hot-headed; I really needed to make her relax. I took her hands in mine slowly, and this time, she didn't fight me. "I just wanna be the best king I can be. I want to be able to protect you and our family. I'll never be at peace with myself if I can't do that."

Her diamond eyes fell on mine, and she stared at me thoughtfully before she finally closed them, heaving a sigh. I could feel her relaxing into my touch as she came even closer, resting her head on my shoulder.

"Fine," she agreed at last. Relief washed over me. "You f*****g masochist."

I laughed at her remark, pressing my index finger under her chin to make her look up at me. When our lips touched, all I could feel was joy.