Chapter 23 Avery
AVERY
When I finally stumbled my bedraggled ass into the bathroom sometime well after the sun had risen, I was met by Brody, who was wearing only tight boxer briefs as he casually brushed his teeth at Ian’s sink.
I should’ve grabbed some sunglasses—that was a lot of bronze skin and toned muscle on display for this early in the morning.
His big brown eyes widened at the sight of me in only an oversized T-shirt and panties—not that he cared about that part—and he hurriedly spat toothpaste into the sink. “What happened to you?”
I took in my reflection in the mirror over my sink.
Mal had stitched up the gash in my head last night while Ian hovered over the entire process, as pissed as I’d ever seen him.
The stitches were hidden well enough in my hair, but I had a spectacular purple bruise blooming across my cheekbone where the lion had decked me.
And wait until Brody got a load of the road rash on my back. Mal had to clean that, too, while Ian had screeched something along the lines of, “What does not a toe outside the wards mean to you, Avery?” at me.
“Oh, hey, Brody,” I said lightly. “Ian didn’t, uh, wake you up last night, I guess?”
“I sleep like the dead. But it makes sense he didn’t really sleep until you made it back.” He looked me over, scanning for more injuries. “Did you get into it with a wraith?”
I flapped a hand. “Oh, nothing like that—”
The door to Ian’s room burst open, and my brother stalked into the bathroom. He wore nothing but an open silk robe and his tiniest briefs.
“My eyes!” I whined, throwing an arm over my face.
“Save it,” he snapped. “Now that you are no longer actively bleeding or covered in the stench and fluids of the teenaged lion you skewered last night—”
“What?” Brody barked. “What lion—”
“—we are going to discuss the fact that last night you also smelled a little bit like sex and a lot like a certain Alpha wolf and a certain feline professor of ours.”
I grimaced. “You caught that, huh?”
He threw his hands in the air, his robe swishing to reveal a glimpse of the fox tattoo on his ribs. “Of course I caught that. You’re lucky Mallory and I decided one insane story was enough to pull out of you while you were injured.”
Brody leaned against the counter, shaking his head like he was dizzy. “What the hell did I sleep through last night?”
So fucking much, Brody.
“It’s not a big deal,” I shot back at Ian. “Should I start stomping around like a pissed-off elephant every time you stink like sex? I’d never get anything accomplished.”
“Spill it, Avery,” Ian growled.
“Fine.” I grabbed my toothbrush, squeezed toothpaste on the bristles, and shoved it in my mouth. “Heathmight’vegonedownonme,” I mumbled as I brushed.
“What?” they both exclaimed.
I spat the toothpaste into the sink, rinsed, and wiped my mouth on my purple hand towel.
“Look, everyone was really keyed up after all the violence.” I gave Ian a pointed look.
“The beasts were keyed up. Things happened, I enjoyed it, and they both treated me nicely afterward. It didn’t mean anything. ”
I’d chanted that last part over and over in my head—at my beast—as I fell asleep in my bed, and I was doing it again now. Heath and Aiden had shocked the absolute hell out of me last night, and it was the hottest experience of my life. I would treasure it as such.
What I would not be doing was throwing myself into their arms the next time I saw them.
Even though my beast seemed to want exactly that. She’d always been an inexplicable slut for all members of the Blackwell Quad, and last night had made the problem ten times worse.
Ian and Brody both blinked at me like I was an alien before Brody finally asked in a low voice, “Was it good?”
Ian elbowed him. “Don’t encourage her.”
“You’re the one who’s been acting like my vagina will shrivel into dust if I don’t get laid soon,” I retorted.
He clicked his tongue. “If you want to get laid, Brody and I can marshal up a line of eager suitors from the ranks of the numerous attractive males in this school who are not members of a fancy Prime quad.”
Brody nodded solemnly. “Ask and you shall receive, Avery.”
“Especially that quad. I just worry they’re going to hurt you, Aves. Maybe not today, maybe not even this year, but eventually it will happen. I won’t have it.”
I sighed. “Ian, it was just a post-fight hookup. I’ll be okay.”
Because I had to be. I was here to become a Guardian and earn myself a cocoon of safety and relative freedom, full stop. I was not here to fall for the hottest, most powerful, and most coveted males on campus.
Ian and I had a thirty-second stare-off, and then Brody broke the tension. “Is anyone going to explain the whole lion-skewering part of the evening?”
“Yeah.” I waved my hands, shooing them away. “Get the fuck out so I can do my business, and then we’ll catch Brody up on the way to breakfast.”
They grumbled but complied. As they moved toward the door, Ian tossed me a look over his shoulder that was only concerned, devoid of all the ire from earlier.
“Love you,” I mouthed.
He rolled his eyes. “Love you too,” he mouthed back, before he shut the door behind him.
By the time we arrived at the dining hall for what was more brunch than breakfast, Brody was caught up. Since this month’s curfew nights had fallen over the weekend, most students had remained on campus, and the dining hall was hopping.
As we sat down at our table, I ignored the fact that Heath, Wyatt, and Aiden were also here.
They were sitting at one of their usual central tables, surrounded by their fan club.
Clara was also with them, wearing what looked like one of Heath’s sweatshirts over her skirt from last night.
She seemed cheerful, so I relaxed and tucked into the tall stack of pancakes I’d meticulously assembled at the buffet.
“Avery!”
Somehow, I already knew that voice well. Clara was waving exuberantly at me from her table, the girls seated nearby looking at her like she’d stripped naked and thrown her panties at me.
And now I also had the attention of her brothers and Wyatt.
They each wore their default facial expressions: Heath, serious and commanding; Aiden, aloof and slightly bored; Wyatt, cocky and smirking.
The difference was in their eyes. Three intense, probing, knowing gazes were aimed at me while my beast groomed a paw and preened under them.
Brody cleared his throat. “Is it hot in here, or—”
“Avery!” Clara called out again, now pushing to her feet, then trotting over to my table.
She wore her tall, heeled boots from last night, and they thunked loudly on the wood floors, drawing even more attention.
“Hi!” she chirped happily as she slid into the chair next to me.
“How are you feeling? Did you get all patched up?”
“I did. My friend is a healer and medic-in-training, and she took care of me.”
Clara blew out a satisfied breath. “Good.”
I couldn’t help but go a little gooey at her sincere hazel eyes. They were more reminiscent of Heath’s than Aiden’s, and I was yet again irritated that I knew that. She patted my hand, then she noticed Ian and Brody.
“Hello, I’m Clara Blackwell.” She reached a delicate, manicured hand across the table.
Ian snagged it first. “Aren’t you adorable? I’m Ian, Avery’s brother and a wily fox shifter.”
She gasped in delight as she shook Ian’s hand. “Avery, you have a brother? He’s so cute.”
“He knows,” I replied drolly.
Brody snatched Clara’s hand from Ian and gave her his winning smile. “I’m Brody. Lynx shifter and Ian’s boyfriend.”
“Aw,” she cooed. “So nice to meet you both.”
“I hear we had a bit of a ruckus at the gates last night, Miss Clara,” Ian said gently. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
She sobered a bit. “Thanks to Avery. She was amazing.”
“It was mostly George,” I muttered. That harsh reality had set in over the course of the morning.
Without George, that fight would’ve gone a lot differently, and I probably would’ve ended up letting my beast out of her cage and creating another huge mess.
I could do a lot with my swords, but I’d always be hobbled without the ability to freely shift.
“And,” I went on, nudging Clara, “your brothers are the ones who really put the fear of the Moon’s wrath into those little shitheads. ”
“Yeah,” she replied, wringing her hands. “Is it too much to hope that Paul and Harrison will tell all the other boys in our social group that I’m not worth the trouble?”
The anxiety simmering in my stomach from rehashing last night’s fight twisted into a ball of rage.
“You know what, Clara?” I slapped my hand on the table and stood up.
“We were headed to the gym after this to train for a few hours. Wanna come? We’ll go through some basics with a blade.
Ian’s actually a better teacher than I am. ”
“Yes!” she shrieked, jumping to her feet and clapping her hands. “Let’s go. Wait—can I borrow a sports bra and some shorts?”
“Yep.” We were close to the same size. I had a few inches of height on her, and she definitely had a cup size on me, but we’d make it work.
Brody and Ian were immediately on board. As we all gathered our things, Heath appeared at our table. He wore a snug-fitting white Henley and gray sweatpants that should be illegal, and he smelled like a forest after a rainstorm.
I became very focused on pouring my coffee into a to-go cup.
“Clara,” he growled. “Where are you going?”
She lifted her chin. “Avery, Ian, and Brody are taking me to learn swords.”
He sighed. “Clara—”
“Heath,” she said quietly. “Let me do this.”
He was no match for those big doe eyes. “Fine. One hour, and then we’re taking you home.”
“Yay, thank you!” She threw her arms around his neck.
He hugged her gently, but he was now focused only on me.
He didn’t say anything—just let his gaze roam over my face, pausing on my bruised cheekbone. His jaw tensed and his nostrils flared. I was in trouble all over again for last night, and warmth pooled low in my belly at the thought.
“We’ll be at the arena,” I told him briskly, and then I turned and high-tailed it out of there before my face flushed redder than Wyatt’s hair.
Clara’s overbearing brothers let us have her for fifty-two minutes undisturbed.
Brody assigned her a short practice sword that he’d swiped from the storage lockers, and each of us had gone a few rounds with her, walking through some basics.
She was with Ian now, swords down, while they worked on self-defense moves.
Brody and I were using the time to go full-on at each other, him with his rapier and me with Ian’s katana.
I was a sweaty mess, and I’d need to take another one of Ian’s concoctions that was like ibuprofen on steroids, but it felt good to work the soreness and kinks out of my body after last night’s activities.
At minute fifty-three, Wyatt sauntered through the doors.
A few other Guardian trainees were utilizing their free Sunday afternoon to run combat drills nearby, and all heads turned to Wyatt as he stepped onto the arena floor, his auburn hair glowing like garnets under the fluorescent lighting above us.
He had on athletic pants that molded to his thick thighs and a soft-looking V-neck T-shirt under an unzipped fleece, the tattoos that covered his chest visible through the sheer white fabric of his shirt.
“Wildcat,” he purred as he approached our corner of the arena. Brody and I paused our assault on each other, and both of us pretended we hadn’t been momentarily distracted by Wyatt’s pecs. “I’m here to retrieve our Blackwell princess. Thanks for helping her sharpen her claws.”
“I’m not finished yet, Wyatt!” Clara hollered. Ian lunged for her, and she managed to flip him over her shoulder. It was a bit clunky but a huge improvement from earlier.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead and arched a brow at Wyatt. “Did the bosses send you to charm her into leaving?”
He chuckled. “Something like that.”
“Let her go a few more minutes,” I said quietly. “It’s helping her feel safer, even if it’s mostly an illusion.”
Because when it came down to it, a latent shifter couldn’t do much against a Prime, especially in beast form.
Wyatt turned serious for a moment, his focus shifting to Clara and Ian as they grappled. Frustration radiated from him, his huge shoulders tense and his emerald eyes hard. He shook it off quickly and returned his attention to me, a sly smile creeping onto his face.
“Fine. How about a little wager while we wait, Wildcat?”
That sounded dangerous. “What did you have in mind?”
“My bear, your sword. If you can best me, I’ll leave and convince Heath and Aiden to let Clara hang with you guys for another couple of hours.”
“And if I can’t?”
His grin grew, and he stepped into my personal space, leaning in to whisper in my ear, “Then I get a kiss.”
I shoved him away. “Game on, Gale.”