Chapter 7 Avery
AVERY
Kellan beamed with smug satisfaction as I marched his way. He was sitting with the rest of his quad—three large muscular guys I vaguely recognized from the elite student tables back in the Proteus dining hall.
I dropped my tray unceremoniously onto the table and sat down next to an attractive guy with wavy black hair and a short, neat beard. He appeared to be of South Asian descent and had the lean, powerful build of a feline shifter.
My beast bristled at his nearness. Oh, you love Aiden’s feline, but this one you have a problem with?
“Ari Syed,” he said, holding out a hand for me to shake. “Prime Sumatran tiger.”
Well, that was quite the announcement.
And now my tiger’s irritation made sense. Competition.
Tiger shifters were rare for the same dumb reasons I had to hide my beast, but there were a few males running around with the normal orange-and-black stripes of tigers in the wild.
No one seemed to think they were the second coming of “the betrayer” or the downfall of our kind, so they were revered just like any other male Prime with significant power.
Hard not to resent Ari for his good fortune of just being born male and bonding with a beast soul that had orange fur.
My beast licked a claw, supremely unbothered. Ari was a Sumatran tiger, but my girl most closely resembled a Siberian tiger, which meant we were larger and better.
But a lot more persecuted, so we’d call it a draw.
“Avery,” I replied with a quick shake of Ari’s hand. “Undisclosed.”
He chuckled. “Sure. You’re still pretending you don’t have a beast? Come on, we all saw you face the SWIM during the junior quad competition.”
I shrugged. “I work hard to be strong and agile, and I was taught how to use my blades by the best.”
The burly guy sitting across from me reached out a huge hand. “I’m Hank, Prime brown bear and big fan.”
“Oh, uh, thanks,” I replied with an awkward shake of his hand.
“And that’s Teegan,” Kellan announced, jerking his chin at the stoic guy with light brown hair and a jawline that you could break a crowbar over. “He’s an Alpha wolf. And as I’m sure you’ve figured out, I’m Kellan Crimson, quad leader and mythic.”
“A griffin,” I said, nodding. “Impressive.”
His smile was blinding white. “I like to think so.”
I began to shovel food into my mouth because I was not actually here to make friends with the Crimson Quad. I was going to fuel up for tomorrow, and I was going to pretend I didn’t feel the hot stares of my not-mates searing the skin off the back of my neck.
“She’s not that impressed with your mythic status, man,” Ari said, pointing his fork at Kellan. “I heard she’s close with Harrow and that crazy snake of his.”
“Snake, yes, Elijah, no,” I said around a mouth of mashed potatoes.
Kellan’s amber eyes took on a speculative gleam. “Uh-huh. What did happen between you and the Blackwell Quad, Baxter? Things seem a little tense.”
None of your business, Kellan.
“They made a decision about me and are now regretting it,” I told him, forcing a careless shrug.
“But they’re excellent fighters and will make top-tier Guardians.
Our combat styles mesh well, as I’m sure you observed in the arena, and that’s the extent of it.
We’ll figure out how to coexist harmoniously because lives depend on it. ”
They all stared at me for a beat. I’d taken the wind out of their sails by making this about the mission, which was serious as a heart attack.
“Right, well,” Kellan said, “I think you’ll find our quad a breath of fresh air.
Teegan’s sister has a wolf soul, on the cusp of an Alpha.
My aunt, who lives in Canada, has a lion, smaller but powerful enough to be considered a Prime.
We’re not backwards assholes who think females with a beast are an abomination. ”
“Glad to hear it,” I replied, and I meant it. A top quad who respected shifting females and didn’t outright object to my presence here was extremely welcome.
“And,” he went on, “not all of us think the strongest bonds require a latent central.” His amber eyes met mine, and a hot orange sheen flashed over them.
He leaned forward and lowered his voice, like he was telling me a secret.
“I couldn’t imagine throwing away a one-of-a-kind diamond just to pick through pearls. ”
My beast hissed like a cobra in my chest.
I sighed wearily. Yes, he went there. Do not kill him.
The sound of glass shattering behind me made me jump in my seat.
Hank let out a deep, rumbling laugh, and Kellan sent a sharklike grin over my shoulder. “Whoops. Those Alphas do have especially sharp hearing.”
They clearly knew more than they’d let on about the state of things between the Blackwell Quad and me, and Kellan was rubbing Heath’s nose in it.
Heath deserved it, but still.
This was what I got for thinking the Crimson Quad viewed me as an equal, a skilled and adept trainee destined to fight monsters alongside them under the dark skies.
No, Kellan had fuck-zoned me already, and I hadn’t even finished my potatoes.
I took one last big swig of blue Gatorade and got to my feet. “Thanks for letting me eat with you guys,” I said. “I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow.”
Ari the tiger nodded, his dark gaze dipping down my body. “The pleasure was ours, Avery.”
Kellan shifted on the bench like he was going to get up. “At least let one of us walk you back to your cabin—”
Loud swearing and the sounds of benches scraping the concrete floor cut him off. George appeared from under a nearby table, his thick body winding lazily in my direction, amethyst scales glinting under the bright lights.
I grinned. “No need,” I told Kellan. “My escort has arrived.”
Hank pulled his feet up off the floor, and Ari slid six feet down the bench. Even Kellan the great and powerful griffin looked unsettled by the arrival of a large purple python. Only Teegan the Alpha wolf appeared unbothered, but he seemed to only have one mode.
“Come on, George,” I said primly. “The testosterone in here is suffocating.”
He nosed my leg in agreement and followed me out of the hall.
The wind whipped through the trees, and I stumbled, blind to my surroundings. The darkness was suffocating. An ear-splitting screech sounded behind me, and I reached for my swords.
I grasped at nothing. The sheaths on my back were empty.
Where are my swords?
Teeth tore into my flesh, ripping skin and muscle from my thigh. I screamed and called my beast forward.
She didn’t answer.
I was still screaming as claws impaled me through the back.
My eyes snapped open. I shot up in bed, heaving panicked breaths. I reached for my sword where it hung in its sheath off the side of the headboard and found it exactly where it was supposed to be.
In my cabin. I’m safe and in my cabin.
I sucked in another deep breath and released my grip on the hilt of my blade.
And then I froze as my gaze met a pair of glowing yellow eyes through my window.
They were there, floating amidst the trees, pupils thin slashes, focused entirely on me as I panted and shivered in the chilly night air wafting through the window screens.
There was a monster outside.
But unlike the monsters that plagued my dreams, this one didn’t fill me with bone-melting terror. My beast wasn’t clawing her way to the surface, ready to throw herself into a fight we were destined to lose.
No, those eerie yellow eyes brought me comfort, at least momentarily, and my beast was merely alert, flicking her tail in interest.
The monster ducked away, gliding from under the tree outside my window and toward the cabin’s front stoop. I watched, fascinated despite everything that was wrong with this situation, as the towering serpent that was Elijah’s basilisk appeared in front of the screen door.
I’d only ever seen Elijah’s beast in his full glory once, and it was through my tiger’s eyes the moment our Fated bond snapped into place. I’d been torn apart, bleeding to death on the forest floor and clinging to consciousness.
Now, it really hit me how terrifying he was.
Or probably was to others. My body and my beast knew with soul-deep certainty that he would never harm us.
I’d be mad about that fact later.
His serpent body was as thick as the trunk of the large tree outside and covered in rough green-gray scales.
His head, almost too large for even that powerful body, was triangular, his nostrils two harsh slashes near the point.
Spiked scales jutted like a lion’s mane around his face and continued in a row down the center of his back.
The monster smiled, giving me a glimpse of dagger teeth as long as my hand and a jaw that I suspected could unhinge at a horrifying angle—one that would allow the beast to swallow an entire human whole.
In a blink, the basilisk melted into the stunning form of Elijah the man. He shoved through my screen door, breaking the flimsy latch that kept it bolted to the frame.
The darkness blurred his nude body, his glowing yellow eyes and the clock on my phone screen the only illumination in the room.
Suddenly, I was acutely aware that I wore only a flimsy tank top and no bra. I yanked the covers up to my chin and sank back into the mattress.
Elijah fell to his knees at the side of my bed. “Dove, are you okay?” he rasped.
“Why are you here?” I whispered.
His lips quirked. “Just keeping watch. George slipped out a few hours ago to explore the woods.”
I’d registered the absence of the large python at the foot of my bed when my nightmare had woken me up. George did like to come and go as he pleased. He was whimsical like that.
I glowered at Elijah, whose face was inches from mine. “I’m perfectly safe in here and can protect myself. Guard duty is unnecessary.”
“Tell that to the basilisk, Dove.”
I sighed. Exhaustion washed over me. I hadn’t had a nightmare that bad in a few weeks, but the cumulative sleep disruption was taking its toll. “You can’t be in here, Elijah,” I said softly.
“I know.” He caressed my face with cool fingers, his thumb rubbing a gentle path across my cheekbone. “But I am anyway. Have you been having nightmares, love?”
“Don’t call me that.”
Another grin. His breath somehow still smelled like minty toothpaste, even after the transition to and from his beast. “Okay. I’ll wait until you’re ready.”
“Elijah,” I growled. I nudged his hand away from my face. I’d only allowed it there in the first place because his touch had gone a long way to finally calming my erratic heartbeat. “You have to leave. We aren’t mates. I don’t forgive you for what you did.”
His smile slipped away. His eyes sparked, his pupils threatening to change shape again.
“I know, Dove. You shouldn’t forgive me.
I haven’t earned it yet.” He leaned down, bringing his face even closer to mine.
“But I will. Even if it takes me decades of my life. You are more than I could’ve ever fathomed to dream of in a partner and a bond.
I’m sorry that I gave you up. I should’ve fought harder to keep you. ”
I stared at him. He was so achingly beautiful, and it made me so violently furious. “You hurt me,” I whispered, my voice cracking. “I was falling for you, and you hurt me.”
His nostrils flared, and he ground his teeth together like he was enduring torture. “I’m so sorry, Dove,” he murmured. “We had a purpose when we did what we did, but we were very wrong in thinking you couldn’t be part of it.”
I didn’t want to hear any more, but curiosity killed the tiger. “Were you just going to bond with whichever latent princess the others decided on?”
He swallowed roughly and tore his yellow gaze from my face for the first time since he’d arrived. “Yes.”
Disgust curdled in my gut. I shut my eyes and burrowed further into my covers. “Please leave,” I croaked.
The air shifted between us, leaving a cold void in front of me.
Without another word, he slipped from the cabin and disappeared into the night.