Chapter 5

Lillian

I woke up the following morning alone in my bed and huffed. The twins knew I hated waking up alone.

Thanks to the early morning barge-in, five-minute training, and encounter with the twins, I'd slept well past noon yesterday. When I woke up, the twins told me Keir had gone to work, so we spent the day hanging out like we always did. Keir still wasn't home by the time the twins and I headed to our room for the night.

I got out of bed, not bothering to make it, and marched down the hall to the kitchen. Everyone turned to look at me when I plopped myself down on the barstool.

"What's wrong?" Aiden, who was in the seat next to me, gave my cheek a quick peck.

"Nothing," I grumbled.

"Don't lie to us, baby," Nicholas said from the other side of his twin. "We'll have to punish you."

My core immediately ached, and I cursed myself for being so trained to respond to them like their personal sex slave.

"You guys left me," I said, trying my best not to sound like a whiney puppy.

The twins sighed together.

"Sorry, little one. We were just excited to get today going. We didn't mean to." Aiden grabbed just above my knee and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"Won't happen again. I promise," Nicholas said as he held up his hand like he was swearing an oath.

I rolled my eyes and let the grin I'd been fighting spread across my face. It was impossible to stay mad at them.

"Why excited? Is something special happening today?" I asked, looking between all three brothers. They all looked eager, even the broody one. "What?" I asked again.

Keir put a plate of food in front of me. There were four slices of bacon, three sausage links, two eggs, and two slices of toast. I'd been eating more since moving to Hell, but never this much.

"Why is there so much food?" I gave them a suspicious glare, but no one answered me. "I'm not eating until someone gives me answers." I crossed my arms to further prove my declaration. The food looked delicious, but I was willing to go on strike to get the answers I wanted.

"You start training today." Keir turned around to pick up the twins' plates. They had picked up their forks before he'd even laid the food out in front of them. "For Satan's sake, you two eat like children," he sneered when they started shoveling food into their mouths like cavemen.

"I started training yesterday, though."

Keir scoffed. " That was not training, princess. You abandoned the gym before we'd even really begun. It doesn't count." I started to open my mouth, but he continued talking. "Besides, you aren't just training with me, remember? You'll be working with Aiden on strength, and you'll work on your endurance with Nicholas."

"Yeah, she will," Aiden joked.

"Satan help me. We are screwed." Keir rubbed his face with a sigh. "It wasn't funny yesterday; it's still not funny today." He narrowed his eyes at the twins, pointing a menacing finger at each of them. "Absolutely no sex during training. At least promise me that. Lillian's life is at stake here. All of you…" he paused to give us each a sharp look, "should be taking this more seriously."

No one said anything, which wasn't what Keir was looking for, because his eyes turned to slits as he glared at us again.

"No sex during training. I promise," Nicholas finally said.

"No sex during training," Aiden mumbled, sounding like he'd been inconvenienced.

Keir looked at me.

I put my hands up in defense. "Don't look at me. I'm the victim."

"You are no victim, princess. Remember that. You may not ask for it with your words, but you don't need to." He set his plate on the counter, eating while standing. "Now, promise me you'll take this seriously."

"Yes, sir," I said with a wink.

Keir's eyes darkened, but his face remained unreadable.

A scene that was not my own thoughts flashed through my head. I was bent over his knee, his hand slapping my ass. I sucked in a breath at the spicy image he'd let slip past his walls, but as quickly as they appeared, they were gone.

His eyes warned me to drop it, so I did. I wasn't in the mood to fight him anymore. I was in the mood for something else—something he'd never give me. The twins would, though.

NO.

I pinched my eyebrows together and shot a look at Keir. That asshole was listening to me, in my fucking head.

Stay out of my thoughts, jackass.

Keir snorted. Keep those filthy thoughts quiet then, princess. Trust me, I don't want to hear every time that pussy is screaming for attention.

My cheeks burned, and I avoided looking at him. How could he talk to me like that and feel nothing?

Aiden cleared his throat, making it known he'd seen the odd exchange between us.

"So do I get her first?" Aiden asked, earning him a look from both of his brothers. "I swear, I didn't mean it like that. I meant training," he defended himself.

I laughed, and Nicholas laughed with me. The corner of Keir's mouth even started to curl, but it came back down rather quickly.

Keir looked at me, his serious, stern mask back in place. "You'll train with Aiden in the morning after breakfast, then do some training with me. After lunch, you'll train with Nicholas; before bed, you'll train with me again."

I waited for him to tell me he was kidding, but after several moments of silence, I realized he wasn't.

"So that's all I get to do all day?" I asked him. "Train?"

He nodded, offering me nothing else.

"And I have to train with you twice?" Why him twice? The prince who hated me the most wanted to force himself to spend even more time with me?

"You need to be able to defend yourself and possibly learn how to disarm, maybe even kill, someone. We have no idea what our father will throw your way. You need to be prepared for anything." His face softened, just barely. "You do understand you may have to kill someone or something to complete these trials, right?"

I nodded, my appetite suddenly leaving me.

"I'm serious, Lillian. If it comes down to it, you do what it takes to survive. Whatever it takes. Promise me." He looked so grim, worry etched into the lines of his face.

I nodded again, unable to find the words, certain that if I did speak, my voice would shake, and I didn't want him to know just how terrified I was of these trials. I'd been playing it off, but I'd been constantly thinking about what awaited me.

"Lay off, Keir," Nicholas warned him. "She gets it. No need to put a damper on everything. We shouldn't be making these two weeks total hell when she'll be put through actual hell at the end of them." He turned to me. "You won't be spending every part of every day training, just a few, and we will find fun things to do too, Lilly. I promise. We will train, but then we will fill the rest of your time with positive things."

His promise softened me up a bit.

"That's good. Give me some good memories in case I die." All three princes looked at me like I'd lost my head. "I'm kidding," I said as I chuckled. "Just trying to lighten the mood."

The twins let out forced laughs.

"You aren't going to die," Keir muttered. I won't let that happen , he said in my head.

I looked at him. Oh? And here I thought you had too much on your plate to worry about some girl.

Keir's jaw twitched. Watch it, princess. You'll be training with me twice a day. Don't make it harder on yourself.

I swallowed hard as he stared me down with so much intensity, I swore my chest was going to explode.

You're not the only one who can make things difficult.

That so?

I pushed images of me on my knees, mouth open—practically begging for his cock—into his head.

Keir looked like a lion waiting for the cage to open so he could get a piece of his zookeeper. He was breathing deeply through his nose, fists clenched at his sides. I was winning this game, getting under his skin as easily as he got under mine.

Don't test me, princess.

I swiped my tongue across my lips. Or what?

He just looked at me, a spine-tingling gleam in his eyes.

Or what? I repeated myself, wanting to know what was happening in his head.

He didn't answer—just stared. It fucking pissed me off.

Keir let out a breathy snort and looked down at my plate. "Eat up. You need to be hitting the weights with Aiden before the end of the hour."

And an hour later, I followed Aiden as he led me back to the gym. We went into one of the smaller rooms in the back corner. The walls were covered with mirrors, and the space was filled with all sorts of gym-looking equipment.

"Let's get started," he said, clapping and rubbing his hands together.

Aiden walked over to a weight rack and picked up two palm-sized weights. When he handed them to me, I saw they were five-pounds each. They were not as heavy as I anticipated, and I actually giggled a bit after lifting them a couple of times.

"These aren't that heavy. I could handle more."

He snickered back at me and grabbed weights that were several times the size of mine for himself. "Take it slow, little one. You've never lifted weights before. We don't want you getting so sore you can't do anything. You'll be busy the next couple weeks, with no breaks, so we've got to take care of your body."

I nodded, suddenly feeling like the weights were on my chest instead of in my hands.

"Hey," Aiden's deep, feathery voice distracted me from the heaviness that had set in. "Everything's going to be fine. You are more than capable of taking this on and winning , Lilly. I believe in you. We all do, and we will do everything we can to help you. We'll be here through it all."

"What if I can't do it?" I asked, fear creeping in and squeezing my heart.

"We aren't going to even think about that, because it's not an option." He gave me a stern look when I opened my mouth to respond. "Positive thoughts only."

I smiled at my fiery prince, feeling the weight lift a little.

"Do what I do," he instructed. "Lift them like this. We'll do twenty reps to start." He lifted his weight-filled hands, his arms bending at the elbow.

We did many different ‘reps' in many different ways for what felt like forever, but when he took the weights from my numb, noodle arms, I looked at the clock to find it had only been forty-five minutes.

"My arms are going to fall off," I grumbled, wiping the sweat from my forehead with my shirt.

"And you wanted heavier weights," Aiden teased.

"Shut up." I pushed against him with my hands as he passed me, heading toward the door. He turned to face me, his nose nearly brushing mine. He was so close, all I could smell was his musky, post-workout scent and his familiar smell of spices and leather.

"Be careful, little one. My brother wants you after this, and I'd hate to break our little toy. He'd be very upset with me." His eyes brightened, and he seemed to start transforming, but we heard a throat clear and turned to see Keir casually leaning against the doorframe, as if he'd been there for a while.

"It's a good thing I came to check on you two," he said, his eyes darkening as they met mine. They drifted from my face to my neck, and his jaw twitched. I knew exactly what he was looking at: the mark Nicholas had left on me yesterday, though it had already faded quite a bit. "Let's go, Lillian. My turn with you."

His words burned in my lower stomach, and I had to remind myself he meant training.

I nodded, following him out into the larger room, marching over to the black mats that were still set up.

"Scream if he tries anything funny," Aiden remarked as he walked out.