Chapter 219


    Chapter 0219


    “I’ve told the guards everything I know,” Lilliana said. “They’ll be watching you. Joseph himself just


    assured me of it.”


    I shook my head. I had no idea what she was up to this time, but I was tired of the schemes and lies.


    How many maniptive games would I have to endure during thispetition? Every day, it felt like a


    new threat was emerging, oftentimes trivial, and I grew tired of dealing with it.


    Especially when more pressing, life–threatening issues were just around the corner.


    I had no patience for whatever new game Lilliana had concocted. Plus, when I looked at her, my anger


    spiked. I recognized the shade of lipstick she wore as the same that had marked Nichs’s lips.


    Nichs had said it hadn’t meant anything. I wondered if the same was true for Lilliana…


    “I don’t know what you are talking about,” I said.


    “You can y dumb all you want,” Lilliana said. “We’ll let Joseph sort out all the truth. But no one is


    buying your bullshit anymore, Piper.”


    I blinked, surprised by her break of character. Since when did Lilliana swear?


    As I watched her, open mouthed, she swiveled on her heel and stormed away. She pushed straight past


    Susie, who had just started to emerge into the hallway.


    “What was that about?” Susie asked me.


    I didn’t exactly know how to answer, because truthfully I had no idea. “Same old drama,” I said, because


    that at least, seemed to be the nature of it.


    Yet even so, I felt a chill run up my spine. I felt like someone was watching me.


    I nced behind me quickly, but no one was there.


    Afterst night, I had felt more on edge than ever before.


    Was this feeling just my imagination?


    That afternoon I met Nichs in the gym for more self–defense exercises. We utilized the mats this


    time, and took turns throwing each other down to the ground. I was thrown much more than I threw, but I


    felt like I was starting to get the hang of it a little at least.


    Until thoughts of Joseph and Lilliana began to pop up in my head. Joseph, as a traditionalist, already


    hated my presence in the pce. I knew he was always looking for ways to get me kicked out of the


    It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility to think they might conspire some type of false charge against me,


    to have me eliminated from thepetition.


    What if it actually worked this time, and I was asked to leave?


    Nichs and I had been meant to be grappling, but in that moment, Nichs easily toppled me onto the


    mat.


    My back hit the cushioned ground and a puff of breath punched out of me.


    Standing over me, looking down, Nichs crossed his arms. “You are distracted.”


    “I have a lot on my mind,” I said.


    “You have to keep your head in the moment, Piper. You can’t lose focus.”


    “Sorry,” I mumbled.


    He sighed and unhooked his arms. Then he reached down and offered me his hand. When I epted it,


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    he helped me to my feet.


    “Since you don’t have a wolf, you will never have a natural advantage in a fight,” he said.


    Upright, I realized my bra had gotten a bit twisted. Through my shirt, I grabbed my cups and attempted to


    adjust.


    “You have to be constantly looking… for opportunities to… to…”


    As his words trailed off, I nced up at him. He was staring at my chest, specifically where I had pushed


    up my breasts to readjust the strap underneath.


    I had straightened it. I could let go now. But I liked the way he was looking at me.


    With my u–neck tank–top, pushing up my breasts ced much of my cleavage on more obvious disy:


    the upper swells of my breasts, the deep valley between them. He might have even seen a slip of a


    nipple


    from where it escaped above the cup of my bra.


    He was openly gaping, with his mouth ajar slightly.


    Opportunities, he said.


    Perhaps this was a perfect one.


    purposefully and unnecessarily pushed my breasts higher still, causing not one, but two nipples to pop


    free over the top of my bra and the u–neck of my shirt.


    Nichs’s mouth snapped shut. He swallowed hard.


    I moved at once, grabbing him as he had shown me, and throwing him down hard onto the mat.


    Unfortunately, the force of it also sent me off bnce and I fell directly on top of him. I straddled his


    waist, my thighs on either side of his hips. My hands hit the mat on either side of his head.


    My hair hade undone from the tie, and created a screen to hide our faces from the rest of the world.


    He nced up at me with wide–eyes, like he couldn’t believe what he was doing on the ground all the


    sudden. Had the sight of my nipples addled his thoughts?


    Then I felt some movement in his pants, pressing up against my core. This position aroused him. It


    aroused me too. My panties felt damp, all of the sudden.


    Nichs blinked a few times and slowly recovered. “Piper.


    I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to grind my hips and make him wild.


    But slowly I returned to my senses too. This wasn’t the time or the ce for that.


    Quickly, I rolled away from him and bounced up onto my feet.


    “Some opportunities can be created with a solid distraction,” I said, parroting something he had earlier


    said to me. Thinking of the training helped cool some of the fire in my veins.


    “Maybe we should forget that lesson.” Nichs’s voice was low and rough.


    “I thought I was here to learn.”


    He pushed himself upward, sitting. “Don’t do that particr move with anyone else, got it?”


    His jealousy sent tingles through me. He had seen my breasts and didn’t want to share.


    His use of anyone else made it seem like he himself wouldn’t mind seeing it again, however.


    I opened my mouth to tease him when a new voice cut me off.


    “Oh, now I’m desperate to see the move myself,” Julian said. He’d appeared at the door and was


    walking.


    toward us. “You’ll show me, Piper, right?”


    My cheeks began to burn.


    “Absolutely not,” Nichs said.


    “That hardly seems fair,” Julian continued. “I’m sure I could help offer some pointers.” He smirked. “Or


    perhaps too much point is the problem, eh, Nichs?”


    Nichs immediately lowered his hands, covering his crotch. “You are a bastard, Nichs.”


    “You wish I was,” Julianughed. “Then you’d have nopetition for the crown.”


    “I can help you stand, Nichs,” I said, and reached my hand out, as he had done for me.


    He looked at my hand, then my face. His eyes dropped to my breasts again for a half–second before his


    whole head dropped as if in shame.


    “I need to stay as I am for a few moments longer,” he said.


    Julianughed.


    “I didn’t hurt you?” I asked, suddenly concerned.


    “No,” Nichs said quickly. “Nothing like that.


    “Come on, Piper, it’s time for me to steal you away,” Julian said.


    “For what?” I asked.


    “Did you forget already? It’s time for your mental self-defense sses.”