Chapter 28 Avery
AVERY
Icame to under the bright lights of the college’s infirmary. I recognized the same small med room Heath had dragged me to after Rip and his gang of idiots had challenged me on the campus lawn the first week of school.
“Awake now, Killer?”
Think of the devil, and he shall appear.
Heath sat in his usual chair in the corner of the room, arms crossed, reproachful quad-leader face out in full force.
Yes, he had a “usual chair” now that we’d done this twice together. I had no idea if we were in the same room or if all the patient rooms looked the same in our infirmary, but wasn’t it nice for Heath to always have his chair?
I groaned and attempted to sit up on the bed.
My shoulder ached, but it was a dull, persistent ache rather than the horrendous screaming pain from earlier.
I no longer wore my Guardian T-shirt—probably destroyed by that traitorous fucking wolf—and was in my sports bra, leggings, and a lovely bandage that was wrapped snugly around my injured shoulder.
“Don’t start with me, Blackwell,” I said wearily. “Why are you in here?”
He cocked his head, studying me intently. “I think we’re on a first-name basis now, since I’ve had my tongue in your pussy, don’t you?”
I looked for something to throw at him, but all I had were the clothes left on my body and the treatment table underneath me, and its pillow was firmly attached. “You want to bring that up now?”
He was unmoved. “To answer your question, I’m in here because I’m the one who brought you to the infirmary. Again.”
“I didn’t ask you to do that. Where’s Ian?”
He jerked his chin at the door. “In the waiting room. Under guard.”
“He’s what?” I snapped.
Heath raised his brows like he was inviting me to change my tone.
I glared daggers at his stupid, perfect face.
“Wyatt’s watching him, or did you want your brother to run off and try to kill Kace Mahoney? Because he’s tried twice.”
My beast, thankfully back online, roared in my chest.
“He can get in line,” I growled.
“You’re not going to kill him either.” He pointed at my eyes. “Put her away. I have enough to deal with between you, your brother, and Elijah, who Aiden had to drag outside to run laps around the school so that Kace didn’t end up basilisk food.”
“No one asked you to deal with me or Ian, and you should’ve let Elijah eat that backstabbing asshole—”
A polite knock sounded at the door. Dr. Lee slipped into the room, all sharp cheekbones and kind eyes. His shiny black hair was a little disheveled, like he’d been rushing around saving lives all afternoon. Swoon factor: doubled.
“Oh, good, you’re awake,” he said cheerfully.
He rolled his little doctor stool next to my bed and sat down, and then he gently prodded my bandaged shoulder.
“Usually the magically simulated soul death will knock you out for about half an hour, but we thought the, ah, non-simulated injury and blood loss might keep you down longer. I’m pleased to see that it did not. ”
I arched a brow. “Is that what we’re calling it? A non-simulated injury? I was attacked and sabotaged by my own teammate.”
His dark eyes were full of sympathy. “You were. Treating injuries inflicted by students upon one another is very common in my job as lead physician at a shifter college. This isn’t even the first time I’ve treated you, Miss Baxter, for injuries caused by other students.
But your outrage is valid. I’ve never seen an unprovoked attack like this from within a team training with the Guardians.
” He glanced over his shoulder to give Heath a pointed look. “Have you, Mr. Blackwell?”
“No,” Heath grunted. He was eyeballing Dr. Lee’s hands on my skin like they were a personal affront.
Dr. Lee unwound my bandage and checked my injury. “We did a combination of regular sutures and magical healing to treat your shoulder. Your bone and muscle should be back to normal within a few days, and the stitches will dissolve in a couple of weeks.”
After he rewrapped me, I did a little arm circle. Stiff, and there was a small pinch of pain. “Thanks, Doc. When am I cleared for full combat?”
His amused smile could’ve launched a thousand Tumblrs. “Can you give me two weeks?”
I shrugged, very casual and coy. “I can try.”
Heath muttered something unintelligible.
“You do that, Miss Baxter.” Dr. Lee pushed his rolling stool back from my table and stood up. “I’ll process your discharge, and then you can be on your way, okay?”
As he exited the room, he had to squeeze past the imposing figure that had just appeared in the doorway.
Ward Gale. The big bear, in the flesh.
Paying me a personal visit.
“Miss Baxter, may I have a moment?” The deep rumble of his voice might’ve rattled the door hinges.
“Um, sure.” I waved him in.
Heath didn’t appear particularly surprised by Ward’s visit. He blew out a breath and slumped a little in his chair. Maybe he was relieved it was Wyatt’s dad here instead of Cash to address the incident.
That would make two of us, even though of the two, Ward Gale was the one who intimidated the shit out of me.
Ward shut the door and leaned against it, folding enormous arms over his barrel chest. He wore top-to-bottom Guardian fatigues today, and his bald head shone under the harsh light of the room.
This close, I could see his bushy beard was a rust-red color, more like Wyatt-the-bear’s fur than Wyatt-the-man’s dark auburn hair, and his eyes were a deep coffee brown, unlike Wyatt’s vibrant green.
It was possible he was Wyatt’s bio-dad, but I’d gathered from chatter among the trainees that all four of Wyatt’s dads were Prime bears, and they’d all done at least some stint in the Guardians. Like me, Wyatt probably didn’t know which father had sired him and liked it that way.
“I’ve come to inform you of the state of things after what happened today,” Ward said. He looked me over briefly and seemed satisfied I was in one piece. “Despite the blatant sabotage from your teammate, there is no way to undo the loss of points for the L4 death you experienced against the SWIM—”
I sucked in a harsh breath. “What?”
“—as well as the loss of points for the second L4, which your teammates also failed to kill.”
I cut Heath an incredulous look. “What the hell?”
He sighed and ran a hand through his lush blond hair.
Hair I didn’t get to dig my fingers into while he had his head between my thighs because Aiden had trapped my arms in his unyielding hold.
“Kace ran out of bounds rather than be killed,” Heath said, “which, as you know, causes the same points deduction as a death. Drew got knocked out by the other wraith, and Blaine didn’t manage to inflict enough damage to matter before they cut the program off. ”
“As a result, the Mahoneys have fallen so low on the leaderboard, they have no shot at making the cut for the summer field training,” Ward went on.
“Normally, we don’t make cuts until the end of the semester, but in this case, I’ve informed them that they’ve been dismissed and are not welcome to return to training. ”
“Oh.” I chewed on that, then gave Ward a curt nod. “That’s good, then.”
“I don’t think I have to tell you, Miss Baxter, that losing this many points this late in the year leaves you with a bit of an uphill battle to make the cut as a Guardian.
You’ll be sidelined for a few weeks until Dr. Lee clears you for full-contact combat, and there’s only one more quad competition on the schedule for the semester. ”
He was right. I’d need to earn points as both an individual fighter and with a group of four, specifically to kill Giants, if I had any hope of making it to the next stage of training.
I lifted my chin. “I’ll be ready by then. As long as I’m assigned to a group that doesn’t try to kill me.”
Ward’s face softened the tiniest bit, giving me a glimpse of the man rumored to be the doting father of four daughters.
“I believe you, Avery. But I also wanted to let you know that if you don’t make the cut, we’d welcome you back next year in the Support Squadron, even if that isn’t the usual course for a Guardian candidate who fails to advance.
You and your brother are both extremely talented.
I admire your tenacity, but the odds were always going to be against you to become a true Guardian without a Prime beast.”
Props to him for not also including my lack of penis in that statement.
“I appreciate that, sir, but I’m here to become a Guardian. Any assumptions about the existence or nature of my beast are, at the moment, just that. Assumptions.”
Heath dropped his head into his hands and fisted his hair with a very put-upon groan.
“What’s wrong with him?” I asked. I jerked a thumb at Heath and blinked big innocent eyes at Ward.
Ward grinned, and there was a hint of Wyatt. “Go easy on him. It will take these boys a while before they’re a bit less flummoxed by the mysteries of the female.”
Heath snapped to attention. “Come on, Ward.”
Ward ignored him. “Rest up, Miss Baxter. I hope to see you back in the top half of the leaderboard soon.”
“Thank you, sir.”
After Ward left, I didn’t have to look at Heath to know his full focus had slid back to me. The hot blaze of his stare did things to my body, and in this state, I didn’t have the energy to fight against it.
“I wish you’d reconsider,” he said after a minute.
I frowned. “Reconsider what?”
“All of this.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and a golden sheen rolled over his hazel eyes.
“It isn’t safe, Killer. We’ve just seen what can happen against a fucking magical simulation, which, as you have shouted repeatedly at all of us, isn’t even real wraith combat.
You refuse to shift when you’re injured, and I can’t promise that you, as a female, won’t always be a target for the backwards, small-dicked assholes among us, whose beast brains can’t handle a female in battle. At some point, it isn’t worth it.”
Sexy tingles—gone. Rage hackles—up.
“After everything I’ve done since the day I showed up to this ridiculous school—” I said, seething.
“My performance in training. Putting down student challenges. Helping your sister.” I looked down at my feet where they dangled over the edge of the table, wishing I didn’t care so much. “You still don’t believe in me.”
“What I believe is that I’m tired of watching you get hurt!”
He stood up suddenly and began to pace the small space between us.
I sighed. “It isn’t your concern—”
“It is agonizing, Avery.” He stopped pacing, his stoic face slipping into something that looked almost despondent. “I just want it to stop.”
We stared at each other. I didn’t know what to say to that, and I wasn’t going to give him the answer he appeared to want, which was something along the lines of, “Okay, Daddy, I’ll put down my swords, quit the Guardians, and go back to pretending to be a well-behaved latent female just here for some bonds and a degree in Literature. ”
But I didn’t like that my tendency to get banged up was hurting Heath. I didn’t ask for him to care about me like that, but I couldn’t pretend the thought didn’t make me gooey in my girly center.
And if I sat with my own feelings for two seconds instead of trying to pretend they didn’t exist, I’d probably find the idea of Heath being seriously injured in any way was pretty agonizing to me too.
What the hell was I supposed to do with that?
We were saved from having to continue this conversation when a nurse bustled in and announced that I’d been discharged. I slid from the table and made my way to the door. Heath followed silently behind me.
In the waiting room, I found a very surly Ian glaring at Wyatt from his seat in an uncomfortable-looking plastic chair. Wyatt leaned against the wall across from him, arms crossed over his black T-shirt, cocky smirk affixed to his handsome face.
Brody sat on one side of Ian, and my swords and gym bag occupied the chair on his other side.
“You can’t watch me 24/7, Gale,” Ian was saying, his tone taunting. “You gonna become Mahoney’s bodyguard full time? I won’t even need to lift a finger. I’ll just ask my buddy George to slither through Mahoney’s window and suffocate him in his sleep. You know he’d do it for my sister.”
Wyatt rolled his eyes. “George doesn’t take orders from anyone, Baxter. You need to chill the fuck out. Your boyfriend and I both agree that your sister will burn down the school if we let you run off and get yourself killed by Kace Mahoney.”
“He’s right,” I said as I strode into the room. “It’s been dealt with for now, Ian.”
He launched himself out of his chair and threw his arms around me. “Fuck this, Aves. That was the second-worst thing you’ve made me watch in the past three months. I can’t do any more.”
Wyatt shot me an incredulous look. “What the fuck happened to you that was worse than this—”
Nope, not talking about the reason I was in this entire mess to begin with. I ignored him and squeezed my brother. “I’m sorry,” I told Ian, really meaning it. “But Dr. Lee fixed me up. Make me one of your painkiller elixirs after this, and I’ll be right as rain.”
Ian released me, took a moment to scan my body for any stray damage, and then he waggled his blond eyebrows. “Dr. Lee came to give me a status report earlier. I think I might let Mahoney maul me if that man will be the one to put me back together.”
Brody sighed wistfully. “He healed my broken leg once. I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to break the other one.”
Heath grumbled some kind of annoyed nonsense.
Wyatt snatched my hand and pulled me away from Ian, who huffed irritably. He looked me over, his gaze caressing my entire torso, and I became acutely aware that I still did not have a shirt on. “Better now, Wildcat?”
“Yep, I’ll live.”
His jaw tensed, and his eyes flashed a red hue as he ran a gentle hand over the bandage on my shoulder. “I would hope so.”
I stepped away from him before I caved to the urge to melt into those strong arms. I was very tired, and it would be very easy to let Wyatt carry me out of here and all the way to my bed.
After a quick dig through my gym bag, I located a long-sleeved T-shirt. I pulled it on, and then I carefully affixed my swords to my back, the press of their weight between my shoulder blades soothing the itchy feeling within me.
“Let’s go,” I said to my brother. “I want ice cream, a bath, and ten hours of sleep tonight.”
He grinned. “Coming right up.”
I left the infirmary with Ian and Brody flanking my sides like two adorably unnecessary sentinels. I didn’t have to look back to know that Heath and Wyatt watched me until I disappeared through the front doors.