Chapter 8 Wyatt #2
Elijah was off his tire and stalking across the training grounds toward our girl before Cash had even finished barking his instructions. I tossed my ax onto my shoulder and followed him.
Avery didn’t want anything to do with us, but that was too fucking bad. The wraith realm would freeze over before we’d let one of these assholes swing a blade at her.
The clangs and grunts of our classmates attacking each other started up around us as we reached the other side of the training grounds.
“Hey, Baxter,” Hank said, sidling up next to Avery. “Wanna be my partner? I hear you’re vicious with those little swords.”
“Oh, uh,” she said, startling out of her squinty glare at Elijah and me as we arrived at her side. “Sure, why not?”
“Nope, not happening,” I declared, baring my teeth at Hank before I turned to Avery. “Work with Elijah, baby. He’s good with a smaller weapon, and your styles mesh well.”
She crossed her arms over her perfect tits, lifted her chin, and speared me with that look that made my dick hard. “No. I’m fine sparring with Hank.”
Hank decided at that moment that he did indeed want to die. He tossed a huge burly arm around Avery’s shoulders and stared me down, a red sheen rolling over his brown eyes. “You heard her, Gale. Back off and quit pissing a circle around her that she clearly doesn’t want.”
“Wildcat, go stand next to Elijah.”
“What? No—”
Elijah lunged with his snake speed. He snatched Avery’s hand and jerked her away from Hank just in time for me to swing the flat of my ax at Hank’s big fucking head.
He ducked, yanked his ridiculous two-handed longsword from his back, then sprang up and swung it at me with an obnoxious bellow.
I blocked his strike easily and kicked him in the groin.
“Wyatt,” Heath growled from somewhere behind me.
I used Hank’s momentary incapacitation to jerk an irritated glance over my shoulder, prepared to tell Heath to fuck off with his careful quad leader bullshit.
Instead, I found him leaning against a wooden pole of the nearby training frame with half a smile on his face.
Aiden was next to him, looking bored and unbothered.
“Try not to kill him” was all Heath said.
I grinned and whirled around, swinging my ax down in an arc, aiming right at Hank’s thick middle. He brought his blade up again and managed to knock my strike off target, but not before I sliced a deep gash into his arm.
He roared, brown fur rippling along his arms.
“Hold!” Kellan barked, his oppressive dominance saturating the air around us. He and the rest of his quad lingered at the edge of the trees behind Hank. “No beasts.”
Hank shook his head, and the fur disappeared. “Lucky for you, isn’t it, Gale?” he said. “My bear would crush yours one-on-one.”
“Your bear is fat and slow and only good for crushing wraiths that your quad has already managed to mortally wound. I would run circles around you before I tore out your fucking throat. Keep your hands off Avery, and we won’t have a problem.”
He swung his sword at me again.
I knocked it completely out of his hands with the head of my ax. “Still too slow,” I snapped.
He growled in frustration and lunged at me, fists raised.
I tossed my ax to the ground and met him hand-to-hand.
He managed a glancing blow off my cheekbone.
I sent an uppercut into his gut. We grappled, trading shots.
He had at least twenty-five pounds on me and hit fucking hard, but I was faster, in better shape, and was superior in pound-for-pound strength.
“You need to get over yourself, Gale,” he said, breathing hard. “You and your quad don’t own every hot girl you set your sights on. Or did things not work out for you with Callista Jackson?”
My bear snarled in my chest, and a red haze clouded my vision. I ducked Hank’s next wild swing at my head, crouching low as his fist sailed over me. I used his momentum and the last of my reserves to catch him around the torso and launch him over my shoulder.
Heath and Aiden scattered just as Hank’s giant body crashed into the training frame. Posts buckled and splintered. Chains and tires clattered to the ground, and then the entire structure collapsed in a heap. Hank rolled to a stop and groaned.
“Hey, what the fuck?” Cash shouted from somewhere across the grounds.
Heath swore. “Maybe we should disperse—”
My wildcat stormed up to me, her eyes electric blue, the strands of her hair that’d escaped her ponytail framing her gorgeous, furious face. She punched me in the chest. “What is your fucking problem, asshole?”
I scooped her off the ground and tossed her over my shoulder.
“Wyatt!” She thrashed, pounding little fists on my back. “Put me down, you insane bear!”
Ignoring her protests, I stalked away from the training grounds. Heath, Aiden, and Elijah watched me go without a word.
I didn’t stop until we were behind the field house and out of sight.
When I dropped Avery to the ground, I found myself shoved against the wall, her sword pressed to my throat.
“Finally, baby,” I groaned. “Bleed me. I deserve it.”
“Yes, you do,” she said, seething. “It is the first fucking day of camp, and we are not mates. Get control of yourself and your beast, or I will run you through with both of my blades.”
The edge of her blade broke through the thinnest layer of skin, and my blood beaded, warm and wet on the steel.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Wildcat,” I said with my most seductive grin.
“You can deny it until you can’t even fucking speak anymore, but we are mates.
You. Are. My. Fated. I won’t give you up, and my bear certainly isn’t going to let any other bastards put their hands on you.
It’s instinctual, primal, and all-fucking-consuming. Get used to it.”
She leaned in closer, our lips nearly touching.
“Oh yeah?” she whispered, and suddenly I knew I was in danger.
“But your bear doesn’t have any qualms about other girls putting their hands on you, does he?
How was your date with Callista, Wyatt? Did you fuck her this time, or did you just give her the honor of sucking your cock again?
Was she in the running for your quad’s bond, or were you just trying to get your dick wet one last time before Heath made you bond with Phoebe? ”
Furious despair flooded my entire body.
With a quick flick of my wrist, I disarmed her, removing her blade from my neck and dropping it to the ground. She screeched in frustration, but I’d already grabbed her by the hands. I spun us and pressed her back against the field house wall, locking her wrists above her head.
She fumed as I pressed my sweaty forehead to hers.
“Listen up, Wildcat,” I growled, “because I’m only going to say this once. What you saw at the ball was the extent of what happened with Callista. I was trying to convince myself that I could want to touch someone other than you, and I failed miserably.”
She struggled underneath me, but it wasn’t lost on me that she was keeping her beast leashed. I’d seen—and felt—what she could do to Heath’s wolf. Her eyes glowed, but she hadn’t struck me with the force of her tiger’s dominance.
I took that as permission to press my entire body against hers. She was soft and strong underneath me. My bear rumbled his approval.
“I hated every fucking second of it,” I whispered in her ear.
“Liar,” she snarled. “You looked like you were enjoying yourself plenty. Almost as much as you were enjoying rubbing my face in it.”
I kissed her behind her ear, and she shivered against me. I pulled away just enough to look her in her beautiful, livid eyes. “I was obsessed with you, Wildcat. But I thought I couldn’t have you, so I needed you to hate me.”
She blew out a harsh breath, and then the tiger came out to play.
Pressure crushed my skull, demanding that I yield. The sharp bite of her dominance struck me like a live wire, and my bear had no desire to fight his mate. I released her from my hold.
She shoved me away and then buried her fist in my stomach. I grunted and bent over because it fucking hurt.
“Job well done, then, Wyatt,” she said softly, “because it worked.”
She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, and I wanted to curl up on the ground and die.
“Baby—”
She turned, giving me her back. Without another word or a backwards glance, she swiped her sword from the ground and stalked off.