Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Romeo Ballet Academy, Sanctum
I shiver, pulling my long, black coat around myself. The coat is too thin to keep me warm over my leotard and tights, when I’m standing freezing my ass off outside the academy.
The cold seeps through my shabby shoes, turning my toes to ice.
The wind bites my cheeks. My nose is stuffy and red.
The air smells crisp. It’s strange, after being stuck inside for weeks in the stuffy atmosphere of the dorms and dance studios.
The winter sun struggles to escape through the heavy snow clouds. It glitters over the icy courtyard in front of the Romeo Ballet Academy. The courtyard is surrounded by high stone walls, which are topped with snow like icing.
I stare longingly up at the castle-like academy.
Glistening steps are flanked by gray stone columns, which are carved with entwining roses. The sweeping steps lead up to the intimidatingly large front door.
Warm, golden light spills out of the barred windows.
I wish that I could be snugly inside right now.
“It’s been two days.” I rub my arms briskly to get the warmth back into them. “How can all the practice rooms be booked again?”
When Swan twirls around the statue, which is the center of the courtyard, I turn back to watch him. His coat, which is the same as mine, flutters behind him. Somehow, he manages to make it look badass.
The marble statue depicts the star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. Romeo is kneeling and holding his Juliet up in a beautiful pose above him like he’s worshiping her or trying to allow her to fly free.
Roses and their thorns strangle the tragic lovers, however, as if it’s inevitable that they never will be free, apart from in death.
It’s beautiful and haunting.
Since I arrived here, I’ve been drawn to the statue but also, filled with dread every time that I glimpse it from the windows.
“It’s Ari’s trick.” Swan tosses his hair out of his eyes. “She’s determined to win. So, she’s roped Rem and her gang in to mass book the practice rooms. We should have risked sneaking into the abandoned studio again.”
I narrow my eyes. “We shouldn’t. It’s daytime. Unless you enjoy having your balls busted.”
“I don’t know. We could try it.”
I blush. “Feathers…”
Swan laughs. “Uh-huh? Or is there something else that you want to try tonight?”
I bite my lip. “I want to rehearse.”
“Not what I was talking about but okay. Then we risk breaking the rules and going out after curfew again. And for now…” He throws out his arms, dramatically. “I present the one place that Ari can’t book: The courtyard.”
I smile, as Swan explodes into a breathtaking series of pirouettes, before stopping with a smirk on his face that does funny things to me.
Swan may have an astounding level of technical skill, but it’s his personality that makes me wet.
I clap.
Swan’s smirk widens. “And the audience are throwing roses.”
“Are you sure that it’s not tomatoes?”
Swan grimaces, clutching his stomach. “Fuck, I wish that it was tomatoes. I’d open my mouth like a baby bird. That knothead, Dimitri, has put me on a punishment ration diet.”
I ball my hands into fists. “He’s trying to weaken you, so that we lose.”
“He doesn’t know how strong I am.”
“How strong we are.”
Swan has already shoveled the snow to the side and gritted the floor with salt. If Dimitri thinks that starving Swan is going to stop him physically, then he truly doesn’t know how much of a fighter Swan is.
“Are you frightened about Friday?” Swan studies me, closely. “Is that why you’re always awake, when I fall asleep? Or do you get a kick from watching my handsome sleeping face?”
“Perhaps, I’m making the most of being able to snuggle in the same bed with you at last. But I am nervous,” I admit. “I do have fears. I’m scared that the stunts that Ari and Rem are pulling will stop us performing at our best. I’m fucking terrified that they’ll become the principals, rather than us. What about you, Feathers?”
“I don’t care about what happens to me.” Swan avoids my gaze. “The only thing that truly scares me is the thought of dropping you.”
My breath catches. “I trust you.”
Swan tilts his head, meeting my eye. “Don’t worry, JuJu. These arms are like steel. I spend longer in the gym and do more push-ups than the other male students combined just to be certain that I’ll never drop you.”
I believe him.
My gaze slips to the high, iron gates that stand open. I can only see the beginning of the forested road that leads down the steep mountain.
It’s been four years, since I’ve been outside those gates.
It’s been sixteen years for Swan.
I turn to scrutinize the open gates more closely.
It’s fucking tempting to take just one step outside them.
One step into freedom.
When freezing, slushy snow slides down the back of my neck, I yelp.
“Don’t even think about it,” Swan snarls, pressing the snowball against my neck.
“Did you just…?” I twist to face Swan. “Jerk.”
Swan’s eyes blaze. “We swore to each other that running away was the one rule that we’d never break.”
“I won’t try to escape,” I promise.
And I won’t.
The last Beta, Felix, who did was caught and sent into exile to the type of country that Katerina told us about.
The type that makes our academy look like a holiday camp.
I snatch the snow from my neck and shove it down the front of Swan’s top in retaliation.
He whines.
Then I turn to run, as he lets out a growl.
A shiver runs down my spine, anticipation mixed in with pleasure, as Swan growls again and chases me.
My pulse is roaring but in the best way.
I only get a couple of strides, before Swan grips my arms and turns me, pulling me hard against his chest.
“Don’t leave me.” Swan’s look is scorching. “We belong to each other.”
I’m desperate to nuzzle him.
Purr.
Fucking kiss him and never stop.
But I can’t.
“Miss Katerina is watching us from the window,” I urgently whisper.
I scan the window on the second floor.
I can only see Katerina’s outline. But the Alpha is unmistakable.
She’s standing still and looking down at the courtyard… at us .
Swan’s mouth twists up at the side, as he bares his teeth. He doesn’t seem able to let go of me.
Instead, he lowers his mouth to my ear. “Then let’s put on a show and at least pretend to be dancing, while I tell you the things that I’d like to learn tonight. After all, we must train hard in all areas.”
My heart speeds up.
Fluidly, Swan lifts me and begins to go through the holds, pressing me to his body. He tells me in each move how much he loves me.
My eyes flutter closed. I lose myself to the emotion.
This is what we know.
What our talent is.
We may be rejected.
Trash.
Abandoned
But we can do this.
Swan and I can move an audience with our dance. We can touch their souls.
Surely, that means something?
Our lives have some meaning, if we dance a story across the stage? Bring it to life?
If I twist my body, an audience feels my pain. A leap, fills them with my new found love. If I fall to my knees, they experience my despair.
This is how our voices are heard.
Please, let them hear me…
When I open my eyes, I meet Swan’s molten silver gaze.
“I can’t wait to be alone with you.” Swan’s gaze becomes wicked. “Tonight, I’m going to let you do whatever you want to me, my Ash Queen. Start planning.”
I choke, almost swallowing my tongue.
My core throbs, becoming wet with slick.
I start purring and I’m glad that Swan is the one doing the work of holding me or I’d definitely have fallen.
My mind whirls.
So many possibilities…what shall I train him in first?
I want to try everything.
But mostly, I want to teach that wicked tongue to do the same things to my pussy that his fingers did at the weekend.
My purr becomes louder.
“Seems that you’re planning already,” Swan murmurs with the trace of a satisfied smile. “You do have every inch of my hot, tight body to play with.”
Unexpectedly, my ears prick at the faint, guttural growl from outside the academy gates.
Is that an engine?
A motorcycle?
“Shh,” I hiss, “someone’s coming up the road.”
Carefully, Swan lowers me to the ground, before gripping my hand. “It’s a strange sound. It’s not the delivery van or a car.”
“It’s a motorcycle.” I’m certain now.
It makes my stomach swoop with fear.
I don’t remember anyone arriving at the academy by motorcycle in the years that I’ve been here.
It’s rare for anyone but the instructors or the occasional billionaire in a chauffeur driven Bentley or Rolls-Royce to turn up, apart from delivery vans.
Swan’s face lights up with glee. “Fucking awesome. I’ve always wanted to see one of them. I’d look like a proper rebel on the back of a—”
“Rule number one.” I tug on Swan’s hand, yanking him after me toward the academy’s steps. “Students aren’t allowed in the courtyard, when guests arrive. We one hundred percent aren’t meant to talk to strangers. And have you forgotten Miss Katerina’s warnings about kidnappings?”
Swan’s nose scrunches up. “A motorcycle riding Alpha does sound the type who’d kidnap pretty Betas, but still, worth it for a wild ride on the back of a Harley or a—”
“Say that, when you end up tossed to a gang of illegal cage fighters.” I drag Swan after me up to the front door. He’s still straining to catch a glimpse of the motorcycle and it’s rider over his shoulder. I should have known that he’d have a thing for bikers. “Laurent told me that’s the rumor in Sanctum.”
“They sound like my type of people. Perhaps, they’d let me fight.”
“Shut up.” My lips twitch.
When I push on the front door, however, it doesn’t budge.
Fear courses through me.
I let go of Swan’s hand and frantically push harder.
Nothing.
“It’s locked from the inside,” I gasp.
“You mean someone locked it,” Swan says through clenched teeth. “My money’s on Ari. Here, let me.”
He rests his strong shoulder against the door and pushes.
Still nothing.
The engine is louder now. Whoever the guest is, they’re almost here.
Desperately, I scan the courtyard.
It’s an open space with only the statue to shelter behind. But if the guest drives in through the front gate, there isn’t truly an angle that they won’t see two people in black coats against the snow white of the marble.
We’re in trouble.
I glance back at the statue.
“I’m going to take a look,” I say.
“What?” Swan furrows his brow, still putting effort into opening the door because he’s never one to give up or accept defeat, even though it’s obvious that we’ve been locked out.
I scramble down the icy steps, slipping and catching myself in time. My breath puffs out of my mouth in misty clouds. I slide to the statue. My fingers, which are numb with cold, clasp around the marble roses.
I haul myself nimbly up onto the statue of Juliet who’s being held aloft by her Romeo.
I kneel up, peering over the wall.
A flash of red and black through the white of the snow.
My breath hitches.
I can’t help the excitement that floods through me, despite the danger.
A young man with black hair is driving a Harley straight toward the open gates of the academy.
He’s almost here .
“For fuck’s sake, get down,” Swan snarls.
I twist around to see Swan dive down the steps toward the statue as well. His coat flies out behind him like wings.
“Climb up with me.” I struggle to the edge to make space. “Technically, we won’t be in the courtyard then.”
It’s a long shot. But I’ve become creative about getting around the rules.
Adrenaline is surging through me. Yet I know that it’s as much from the thrill that I’m about to meet someone from the outside world, as fear.
This biker isn’t a typical member of the ballet circle.
It’s like smashing the mirror and stepping through to the real world on the other side to see him here.
I reach toward Swan, but yell out in shock, as I slip on the icy marble.
“JuJu,” Swan calls.
The air whooshes from me.
My heart stills.
No…
The moment feels like it drags on forever — I’m frozen in the split second that I’m falling from the statue.
And it feels like flying…or dying .
I close my eyes.
Then I hiss in pain as I land in Swan’s outstretched arms.
The impact carries us both backward to the frozen ground. My landing is softened by Swan’s body.
Swan can’t hide his groan.
Shit, have I hurt him?
“I’ll always catch you,” Swan rasps.
He tightens his arms around me.
I stare down into his face that’s tight with pain, rubbing my cheek against his in comfort.
I’m trembling. My breathing is shallow. My heartbeat is rapid and irregular.
Ashen, I cling to Swan tighter.
I’m too dazed to raise my head, as I hear the motorcycle roar into the courtyard.
It’s so fucking loud in the silence.
To my shock, the driver parks the beast of a black-and-red Harley directly beside Swan and me.
We’re trapped in its shadow.