Read Training the Warrior for Free Online

To her it appeared to be a cross between a castle and a fort. A
thick tall wall made of huge slabs of black granite encircled the entire
perimeter. From her vantage point, she could see the top half of the fortress.
In a way, it was just a fortified enclosure, which surrounded the massive citadel
standing tall and proud within the center. Cinderella’s castle it wasn’t. She
thought it resembled Hollywood’s version of Dracula’s instead. She prayed Kern
wasn’t thinking about taking her inside the creepy-looking structure.
    She followed him off the rail and they made
their way to the entrance. As they came closer, the crowd grew sparser.
Apparently, there weren’t too many visitors today. Perhaps the fortress wasn’t a
tourist destination, she thought nervously.
    Once at the gate, Kern motioned for her to
wait for him. He approached one of the warriors on guard and they clasped
forearms. As required, they both wore their forearm restraints. It was a
friendly greeting Lydia recognized. Her mate knew the other warrior, who shot
her a polite glance, but didn’t let his gaze linger. He motioned toward the
gate while grunting out an order. Kern returned for her and then ushered her through
it, which was opened by another warrior just wide enough for them to both pass.
    Once they were inside, Kern made an
immediate right alongside the wall and led her up a set of narrow stone steps.
Reaching a walkway running along the inside of the wall, he told her, “Continue
on until you reach the exercise area ahead. The field between this wall and the
citadel is where all the warriors train after they’re bladed. Every young warrior
you see out there is under eighteen…” He sighed and then snarled, “Twenty-seven
years of age, Galactic Standard. None are younger than twenty-four, Lydia.”
    Lydia walked to the area he’d indicated
before she stopped. There were six warriors, all wearing thick forearm
restraints and fighting each other on the field right below her, no weapons,
just hand-to-hand combat. Others were in groups scattered out over the vast site.
They were all huge, heavily muscled, just like her mate. And if Kern told her
the truth, none were over twenty-seven Earth years old. She glanced at him,
puzzled by what she saw.
    “How can you tell? They all look as if
they’re about Braedon’s age,” she said, knowing Kern’s partner was twenty-five
years past birth. She did the mental calculation. Braedon was a few months over
thirty-seven Earth years old.
    Her mate’s broad smile widened. Damn him. He’d
made his point. He didn’t have to gloat about it. She fumed as she frowned back
at him.
    “Lydia, I had to show you. Would you have
ever believed me?”
    She focused her attention down on the young
warriors. “No, but I still don’t understand how they can mature so fast.”
    “The ones you see here are only a few
months into their sixteenth year past birth.”
    “A little over twenty-four in Earth years,
right?”
    Physically, they appeared much older. The
only evidence to the contrary was a slight hint of youthful freshness in their
faces, especially around their eyes. Once they perfected what she termed a warrior’s
“proper scowl” then she suspected any trace of youth would be erased forever.
    “Yes. They aren’t allowed to fight with
weapons for at least three months.”
    Lydia was completely stunned. A matter of
weeks separated these warriors in age from the unbladed youths who reminded her
of overgrown puppies. They aren’t human , she reminded herself. They
aren’t even like normal Taurans. Aliens. Would she ever get used to these
beings and their strange world? Her human ideals didn’t always mesh well with
theirs at times.
    “I’m sorry, Kern. For me it just still
seems so impossible. I know what my eyes see. It’s just my mind tells me
something different. How is it possible for them to change so much in just a
few weeks?”
    She gazed at the alien male she’d fallen in
love with.