Chapter 16
"Again," Lucien said, his voice calm, cool, and utterly maddening.
I wiped sweat from my brow. We were in the old gym—the one behind the bleachers that smelled of chalk dust and floor wax. It was Saturday, and the campus was quiet, save for the occasional patrol of Stone's Enforcers.
"I'm tired, Lucien," I panted, my hands resting on my knees. "I've absorbed enough energy to power a small city. If I take in any more, I'm going to glow in the dark."
"You don't need to absorb it," Lucien said, stepping closer. He was wearing black workout gear that highlighted the lean, dangerous lines of his body. "You need to redirect it. You're treating yourself like a storage tank, Lina. You're not a tank. You're a conduit."
Rhett was standing on the other side of the room, holding a heavy punching bag. He grinned, his gold eyes flashing. "Come on, princess. Hit me."
"I don't want to hit you," I argued. "I love you. Hitting you feels counter-productive to the whole 'fated mates' thing."
"I can take it," Rhett promised, slapping the leather of the bag. "Besides, if you don't learn how to push back, Marrow is going to pop you like a balloon next time he grabs you."
That silenced me. I thought about the Dean's office. The feeling of his cold, dry hand on my wrist. The way he had looked at me—like I was a juice box.
"Fine," I said, straightening up. "How do I push?"
"Don't think about holding the magic," Lucien instructed, moving behind me. He placed his hands on my hips, his touch grounding. "Think about water. It flows in, it flows out. You are just the riverbed."
"Be the riverbed," I muttered. "Got it. Very Zen."
"Focus," Lucien whispered, his breath stirring the hair on my neck. "Kai is going to push energy at you. Take it, spin it, and throw it at Rhett."
Kai, who had been sitting cross-legged on the floor playing with a vine, stood up. He looked apologetic. "Ready?"
"Ready," I braced myself.
Kai flicked his wrist. A surge of earth magic—heavy, rich, and smelling of damp soil—hit me in the chest.
Usually, my instinct was to clamp down. To hold it. To keep it safe.
Let it flow, Lucien's voice echoed in my mind.
I didn't clamp. I opened.
The magic rushed into my core, swirling with the static energy I already held. It felt chaotic. Too much.
"Push!" Lucien commanded.
I shoved my hands forward, aiming for the bag Rhett was holding.
GO AWAY! I thought, screaming the intent.
A blast of white-hot energy erupted from my palms.
It didn't hit the bag.
It hit Rhett.
There was a crack like thunder, and my 200-pound werewolf mate was lifted off his feet and thrown backward. He flew ten feet through the air before crashing into a stack of gym mats.
"Oh my god!" I screamed, running forward. "Rhett!"
Kai winced. "Ooh. That looked expensive."
Lucien didn't move. He just watched, a small, satisfied smile playing on his lips.
I reached the mats just as Rhett sat up. He shook his head, looking dazed. His shirt was singed, and there was a smell of ozone in the air.
"Rhett, I'm so sorry!" I grabbed his face, checking for injuries. "Are you okay? Did I break anything?"
Rhett blinked, his eyes focusing on me. Then, slowly, a massive grin spread across his face.
"Do it again," he breathed.
I stared at him. "What?"
"That felt... wild," he laughed, grabbing my waist and pulling me down on top of him. "You hit like a truck, Lina. A sexy, magical truck."
He flipped us, pinning me to the mats. The sudden shift in gravity made my head spin.
He was heavy, hot, and smelled of ozone and arousal.
His eyes glowed with a feral golden light, and claws extended from his fingertips, scraping lightly against the mat beside my head—partial shift kicking in, his wolf rising to the surface from the adrenaline rush.
"Rhett," I gasped, my hands finding purchase on his broad shoulders. "We're in a gym."
"Don't care," he growled, burying his face in my neck.
He bit down on the sensitive cord of muscle there, not gently—his fangs grazing skin, a low rumble vibrating through his chest. It sent a jolt of electricity straight to my core.
"You have no idea how turned on I am right now. Seeing you like that... dangerous."
"It was an accident," I breathed, my hips instinctively rocking against him.
But the power high from the blast surged through me—my magic buzzing, alive, demanding.
I wasn't just reactive anymore. I flipped the script, channeling the static into my palms and shoving against his chest—not to blast him away, but to test my control, to ground his wolfish intensity.
Rhett growled deeper, loving the pushback, his claws digging into the gym mat as he resisted, the locked doors and empty gym amplifying the forbidden thrill—like we were stealing this moment in a space not meant for it.
"Fight me, princess," he rasped, eyes fully wolf-gold now. "Show me what that power feels like."
I bucked my hips, wrapping my legs around his waist and using the momentum to roll us again, pinning him beneath me this time.
My hands pressed his shoulders down, magic humming under my skin, grounding his feral energy—drawing the wild storm from him into me, stabilizing it like a circuit breaker taming lightning.
He bucked up, testing me, but I held firm, riding the edge of dominance, my body grinding down against the hard length straining his shorts.
"Perfect," Lucien said.
I looked up. He didn't offer to help me up. Instead, he knelt, his hand sliding up my thigh, his grip bruising.
"The power suits you, Lina," Lucien murmured. "It makes you shine."
"We should..." I tried to think, but Kai was there too, locking the gym doors with a wave of his hand. Vines twisted around the handles, sealing us in.
"No escaping," Kai said, his golden eyes dark with a predator's focus. He walked over, stripping off his shirt. "You started this fight, Lina. Now you have to finish it."
The air in the gym changed. It wasn't about training anymore.
It was thick with adrenaline and magic. The ozone smell of my blast mixed with the musk of three aroused, powerful males.
The secrecy of the locked doors, the echo of our breaths off the high ceilings, made every touch feel stolen, urgent.
Rhett prioritized action over words. He ripped my tank top down the middle, claws shredding fabric with controlled ferocity.
"Hey!" I protested weakly, but I arched into it, high on the power rush. "I liked that shirt."
"I'll buy you a store," he muttered, his mouth capturing mine in a kiss that tasted like trouble.
It wasn't sweet. It was rough, frantic. A release of all the tension we’d been holding back for weeks.
The fear of Marrow, the stress of the training, the constant pressure to survive—it all exploded into desire.
His claws raked lightly down my sides, not breaking skin but marking territory, while I ground down harder, drawing his wolfish storm into me, grounding it until his growls turned to groans of surrender beneath my control.
Lucien pulled my leggings down, his cool hands a shock against my overheated skin. "You need to ground," he whispered against my ear. "You're vibrating."
"Help me," I begged, still pinning Rhett, testing how far I could push before his wolf snapped back.
"Gladly."
He didn't wait. He lifted my hips and entered me with a single, smooth thrust.
I screamed, the sound echoing in the empty gym. It was too much sensation—Rhett’s mouth on mine, Lucien inside me, the hard gym mats beneath my back, the locked doors sealing our raw intensity.
"Take it," Rhett growled, pulling back to look at me. His pupils were blown wide, claws flexing against the mat. "Take everything."
Kai was at my head, his fingers tangled in my hair, anchoring me. "Look at me, Lina."
I looked up into his golden eyes. They were glowing.
"You are powerful," he said fiercely. "You are not a victim. You are a queen."
He kissed me, stealing the breath from my lungs.
The friction, the heat, the magic—it built a pressure in my chest that rivaled the blast I’d just thrown. But this time, I didn't push it away. I pulled it in—grounding Rhett’s primal wolf energy, channeling it through me as I rode the wave of dominance, my body dictating the rhythm now.
I felt Rhett’s hand slide between us, finding my clit. His touch was rough, calloused, perfect—claws retracted just enough not to hurt.
"Come for us," he ordered, his voice breaking with need.
I fell apart.
It was violent and beautiful. I shattered into a million pieces of light, my body bowing off the mats, held down only by their strength.
I felt their magic flooding into me through the bond—earth, fire, shadow—mixing with my own until I couldn't tell where I ended and they began. The power play peaked as I grounded Rhett’s intensity fully, his wolf submitting with a final, shuddering growl beneath me.
They followed me moments later, their groans echoing in the large space, a chorus of worship and claim.
We lay there for a long time, a tangle of limbs and heavy breathing on the blue gym mats.
"Okay," Rhett wheezed eventually, rolling off me but keeping an arm draped over my waist. "That was... better than burgers."
"Debatable," Kai murmured, tracing a pattern on my stomach. "Burgers have cheese."
"We can still get burgers," I said, my voice hoarse. I felt drained, but in a good way. The static hum in my veins was gone, replaced by a warm, heavy contentment.
Lucien stood up, looking remarkably composed despite his disheveled hair. He offered me a hand.
"Up," he said. "Showers. Then food. Then... The Burger Pit."
I took his hand, letting him pull me to my feet. My legs felt like jelly.
"You guys represent a serious workplace hazard," I noted, leaning against Rhett for support.
"We try," Rhett grinned, kissing the top of my head.
We ended up at "The Burger Pit," a greasy spoon on the edge of town that Stone swore had the best fries in the state. (He was right).
We squeezed into a booth—Rhett and I on one side, Kai and Lucien on the other. It was tight, cozy, and perfect.
"So," Rhett said around a mouthful of bacon cheeseburger. "Chapter 15 of 'How to Destroy a Dean.' What's the next move?"
"The Union is forming," I said, dipping a fry in milkshake. "Amelia and Arthur are coordinating the dormant networks. The Chess Club, the Gardening Society, the frantic Nursing Students... they're all in."
"Ivy has the underground moving," Lucien added. "The vampires are restless. They don't like Marrow's 'purity' laws. Bad for business."
"And Stone?" Kai asked.
"Stone is... handling Security," I said carefully. "He's deleting footage. Misplacing files. He's walking a fine line."
"If he falls," Rhett said darkly, "we catch him."
"We catch everyone," I promised.
Just then, my phone buzzed.
I pulled it out. A text from an unknown number.
He knows about the Union. Be careful. - A Friend.
I frowned. "Who is this?"
"Show me," Lucien said, taking the phone. He studied the number. "It's encrypted. High-level spellwork."
"Arthur?" Kai guessed.
"Arthur uses carrier pigeons or encrypted emails," I said. "He's old school."
"Rook?" Rhett suggested.
"Rook would send a singing telegram," I countered.
Lucien handed the phone back. "Whoever it is, they're inside. Deep inside."
"Another ally?" I hoped.
"Or a trap," Lucien said. "With Marrow, it's always hard to tell."
I looked at the message again. Stay safe.
I looked at my mates. laughing, eating, planning a revolution over curly fries.
"We're not safe," I said quietly, answering my own thought. "But we're ready."