Chapter 24 Wyatt
WYATT
Hell yeah. I loved fighting with this girl, and my bear wanted to be on top of her now.
I backed away from her slowly. She watched me, expertly twirling her brother’s katana in her dominant hand.
Her pale skin glistened under the arena lights, her tight body on display in her sports bra, flimsy tank top, and spandex shorts.
Strands of her blonde hair had escaped her ponytail in a wild mess, and her blue eyes shone, bright and defiant, in a direct challenge to me and my bear.
She was so fucking hot, I wanted to punch something.
Later, I’d need to have a discussion with Franks, Guilford, and Holmes, sophomore Guardian trainees who were working out nearby.
I’d caught all three of them staring at Avery’s ass multiple times in the five minutes I’d been here.
The urge to gouge their eyes out was strong, and I had little desire to prevent my beast from getting what he wanted.
On second thought, I’d just report them to Heath. That sneaky, obsessed motherfucker would deal with it. It was obvious he was still high on the wildcat’s taste this morning, and it was driving me fucking nuts.
I shucked my fleece jacket and toed off my sneakers. Next came my shirt, which I pulled over my head with deliberate slowness so Avery could look her fill. She was made of tough stuff, though, her focus never straying from my face.
Brody whistled. “Ian, I think this resistance is futile,” he said over his shoulder. Behind Avery, her brother was sprawled on the floor, Clara digging her knee into his back. “The chemistry over here is about to melt my face off.”
“Just be ready to use your sword if any genitals start touching,” Ian ordered, his voice strained.
I chuckled, sliding my pants to the floor and stepping out of them. I was commando today, as usual, so I was now naked and ready to shift. My bear rumbled a pleased noise in my head, the shock of rage he usually felt when we were on the verge of shifting for a fight noticeably absent.
“Ready, baby girl?”
She scowled. “Call me that again, and I’ll make sure they’re wiping your blood from this mat for days.”
Fuck me. It was time to go furry before my dick turned into a moondamned steel rod.
I called my bear forward and threw open the mental gate I kept him locked behind. The hot sting of the shift was over in an instant, and I hit the ground on all fours, shaking out my coat with a menacing growl.
“Yes, very scary,” Avery said, still twirling her sword. “You’re such a big, sleek boy, aren’t you? If you yield now, I’ll give you some pets and ear scratches.”
As much as I was still ultimately in control, the bear’s instincts and desires were at the forefront now. He shocked the hell out of me by rumbling his approval, as if he was ready to forfeit the fight for some head rubs.
Cut that shit out. We have a bet to win.
I darted forward. My speed never failed to surprise those who expected a bear of my size to be lumbering and slow, but Avery was ready for me. She spun out of the way with her usual easy finesse, a deadly little dancer.
I whirled and attacked again, swatting at her with my giant paw. She ducked and slashed at my planted front leg, opening a shallow cut on my shoulder. We were both holding back—she could’ve cut me a hell of a lot deeper, and I’d avoided using my claws when I struck at her.
We went around and around like this for several minutes—I’d swat, she’d cut, we’d break apart and go again. Her face was flushed from the exertion and sweaty as fuck, but she still smelled like lavender.
I wanted a taste.
She was tiring, though, because she’d been at this for over an hour, while I had endless energy to burn.
After my particularly vicious strike at her abdomen, she stumbled a bit, and I had her. I reared up onto my hind legs, roaring, and I threw my weight right on top of her. The force knocked her off her feet, and I followed her down.
Right before her back hit the floor and my enormous bear body would’ve crushed her, I shifted back into a man.
“Wyatt!” she shrieked. Her fist hit the ground beside us, knocking her sword from her grip. It clattered to the floor.
“Hey, baby,” I said, my voice like silk. I straddled her thighs, clamping them together with mine, then I gathered her hands in my grip and pinned them above her head. “Time to yield.”
And she better do it quickly because pinning her underneath me like this had my dick half hard. There was no surer way of losing my most important body part than pressing a full erection against this girl without her consent.
“By the Moon,” Brody murmured from somewhere nearby. “That is a monster. Clara, avert your eyes.”
“I am not looking. Gross.”
“Well, he is a bear,” Ian mused. “Aves, just letting you know—if you take another temporary leave from your senses and slip and fall on that cock, you may end up in the infirmary.”
My grin was very smug. “Don’t listen to them, Wildcat. I’d make it good for you.”
My sweaty, beautiful girl bucked underneath me, but to no avail. I was a lot fucking bigger than her, and I had her solidly in my clutches. “Get off me,” she ordered through clenched teeth.
“Do you yield?”
“Wyatt,” she snarled.
“Yes, very scary,” I said with a little shiver, throwing her teasing from earlier right back at her. I dipped even lower, my nose now almost touching hers as I whispered, “Yield, baby. I want to collect my prize.”
A frustrated and beastly rumble sounded in her chest. Her eyes flashed the same electric blue that’d mesmerized the shit out of me back when she’d wrapped her hand around my throat, and her body warmed beneath me. “Fuck you,” she said, her voice a deep, inhuman growl.
“Yes,” I hissed. “There she is. Let that beast out, Wildcat. I want to meet her.”
My bear had shoved back to the surface, the eager motherfucker. I couldn’t remember the last time he’d tested my control like this when feeling something other than raw, terrifying rage.
The urge to slam my lips onto hers and shove my tongue into her mouth consumed me, but I wanted her to yield. I wanted her to want it.
“What the fuck is going on in here? Gale, get the hell off Baxter and put your cock away, for the love of the fucking Moon.”
I blew out the world’s most frustrated breath, and Avery sagged in my hold, Cash’s obnoxious fucking voice snapping the tension between us like a twig.
His presence was also an instant cure for my erection.
With an annoyed sigh, I climbed to my feet, and then I offered Avery a hand up. Brody threw my pants at my head, and in about five seconds, I was half dressed and ready to deal with whatever fresh bullshit Cash had in store.
“What is this, Baxter?” Cash demanded, his lip curling as he glared at Avery.
He’d freshly buzzed his dark-blond hair—so fucking weird for a lion—and he wore cargo pants, boots, and a black Guardian T-shirt, which meant he was dressed for work tonight.
“You opening your legs for Gale and the rest of that quad now? Ballsy, given you managed to set off the fucking snake.”
“Hey—” I started to say, but he barreled on.
“You know, Baxter, my quad was out on patrol last night. We chased a horde of swarmers and a few Rippers near the campus walls on the southwest side, so as a matter of protocol, I went over last night’s security camera footage this morning. I saw your pathetic little perimeter walk.”
To Avery’s immense credit, she just stared at him like he was boring the shit out of her.
Heath had made sure one of his little techy wolf minions had erased the footage of the shit that went down at the front gate last night and looped a non-incriminating few hours so no one would suspect anything. It appeared his foresight had paid off.
“What did you think you were gonna do, huh?” Cash continued, sneering.
“The Board of Trustees and the Council spend a huge chunk of the college’s endowment on those wards, and they pay the best security specialists to reinforce them monthly.
But even if they failed, you have no fucking chance against an entire horde of actual wraiths.
They’d tear you apart, devour your soul, then go on to kill every weak-ass shifter in this place. ”
“I’m not sure why you’re so concerned,” Avery said in the world’s most blasé tone. “If a wraith eats my soul, I won’t sully the Guardian training program with my presence any longer.”
He gave her a slimy smile. “How true that is. Are you fucking Ward Gale too? I can’t think of any other reason for him to be so insistent on this farce—”
I stepped right into that motherfucker’s face.
His shitty attitude was on my last nerve, and I wished for the eightieth time that Cash’s quad wasn’t so skilled at wraith combat.
Not only would it have spared us from being subjected to them as our trainers, but they’d probably have been tossed from the Guardians by now.
My dad had taught me that the Guardians valued integrity and independence above almost everything, but Cash was so far up the asses of not only the members of the Northeastern Council, where several of his fathers served, but also our local Council members, including the asshole Blackwells, that his loyalty was real fucking questionable.
His quad was in the small minority of the force that were in it only for the prestige and the money, and it made them terrible team players.
“That’s enough,” I said to him, a lazy smile on my face, while my tone was one of barely restrained violence.
“We get it, man. You’re embarrassed about how small your dick is, so you take it out on the only female who’s forced to be in your presence on a regular basis.
I have to tell you, man, none of us are buying the act, and if you piss Avery off more, she’s going to relieve you of that small dick, and my dad isn’t going to have shit to say about it. ”
Cash’s amber eyes went molten gold, his lion popping up to say hello. Dominance pulsed from him and battered against me, like cresting waves against a seawall. He was trying to force me and my beast into submission by sheer will alone.
In a horrifying turn of events, I stumbled a few steps backward before I was able to dig in and hold against him. My bear, loath to give a shit about Cash normally, jolted to life within me.
Avery put a gentle hand on my bare back to steady me, probably unconsciously, but she quickly dropped it. Her gorgeous eyes narrowed, studying Cash, a mere hint of her beast glinting there.
Few things in my life had ever infuriated me as much as Cash’s smug fucking smirk did in this moment.
“Oh, did I forget to mention?” He lifted a hand and flashed us a view of the new bonding tattoo encircling his ring finger.
“My quad bonded under this past Full Moon. She’s lovely—a latent from a long line of Prime lions.
She just graduated from the shifter finishing school in Virginia, and our fathers introduced us over the holidays.
No sense in waiting when you find the one, am I right, Gale? ”
Just fucking perfect. Cash’s quad now had their central, which meant their beasts were all connected, able to share power with each other through their bond with her.
I’d trained under Cash since the start of this school year, and what he’d just blasted me with was a noticeable and substantial difference in the force and dominance of his beast. As their quad’s leader, he would reap the most benefit.
I would still crush him, but this had caught me off guard, damn it.
“Mazel tov,” I said flippantly. “Is there anything else you needed? We’re not in training, so you have no reason to be harassing Avery or any of the rest of us.”
“Watch yourself, Gale. Eventually, you and your girlfriend won’t be cradled in the soft embrace of the SWIM and the training program and your father. You’ll be out in the field with the rest of us, and well….” He smiled at Avery. “Things can happen.”
I gritted my teeth and bore the next onslaught—this one from within. My bear was about to rip out Cash’s throat.
“Can’t wait,” Avery said, smiling serenely back at him. “When I become a Guardian, we’ll settle this shit like real shifters, Cash.”
“Avery,” Ian hissed from somewhere behind us.
Cash barked a loud laugh. “Sure we will.”
He turned and strolled out of the arena without a backward glance.
I shook out my limbs and took a few cleansing breaths. The bear had settled, and my boner was well and truly gone.
I turned to Clara, my good humor also vanished. “Let’s go, princess. Your brothers need time to take you home and then get back onto campus before curfew.”
She didn’t argue. “Okay. I’m coming.” With a sad smile, she handed Avery one of her little swords, which she must’ve borrowed at some point. She hugged Ian, then Brody, and then Avery last. “I’ll wash the clothes I borrowed and send them back with Heath when I can,” Clara told her.
“Don’t worry about it,” Avery replied, giving her one last squeeze before pulling back and giving her a pointed look. “You have my number, so call if you need anything, okay?”
Clara nodded, releasing her reluctantly, like leaving her new friends was the saddest thing she’d ever experienced.
I jerked my head toward the doors and ensured my attention was anywhere but on Avery. “Come on.”
Clara followed me obediently as I strode from the arena, away from those electric blue eyes and the harsh fucking dose of reality I’d just been handed.