Chapter 11 Heath
HEATH
It took us no time to cut down our assigned opponents.
Jared had paired my quad with a six-man Support Squadron group that included Ian, Brody, and their cat friends, presumably because we were the two top groups coming out of training this past semester.
We’d been assigned to the blades team because no one wanted Elijah’s beast to make an appearance, and we’d bled the opposing team’s beasts dry in about three minutes.
All the while, Commander Moss had strode through the field, barking instructions.
“If your opponent has drawn blood, you’re out! That means you, Killion! I don’t care that you can still fight with that gash in your leg.”
“Support Squadron should be clearing a path through the ordinary beasts! Assist your Guardians with a kill only if you’ve eliminated the smaller opponents first.”
“No shifting, Moore! You’re on team blades—you should be able to stab that gorilla without use of your beast!”
“That’s it, draw the most powerful of the group away. Isolate him from his teammates!”
I lingered on the edges of the field as I caught my breath and cleaned my sword with the hem of my shirt.
I was also ignoring the intense loathing radiating in my general direction from Ian.
Even with the short duration of our bout, we were lucky Ian’s blade hadn’t “accidentally” found its way into any one of us.
“Fuck, they’ve put her on the beast team,” Aiden said, glaring across the field to where Cash directed Avery’s group to square up against Brayden Davidson’s trio plus one and their assigned Support Squadron team, who all carried their various bladed weapons.
“Cash is a sadistic asshole,” Wyatt growled. “He knows she won’t shift, so he’s sending her against a bunch of blades with only her fists.”
I was about to grind my teeth to dust. “Ellison’s quad is decent, but they aren’t us, and there’s no reason for them to prioritize Avery’s safety during any of this.”
“Our mate is resourceful,” Elijah pointed out. His body and beast were miraculously relaxed—for now. “But I’m going over there, anyway.”
Ian and his crew had already taken off and were marching around the perimeter of the field, heading toward Avery and her team.
We followed, the grunts and roars and shouts of our fellow trainees who were still engaged in battle echoing through the clearing.
The air was thick with shifter aggression, the beasts around us pumping it into the atmosphere like a fog machine.
We weren’t the only ones who’d noticed Avery’s predicament.
A small crowd had gathered, consisting mostly of trainees from our class who were probably there for one of two reasons: They were hoping to finally get a glimpse of Avery’s beast, or they were delighting in the fact that Cash had just hung her out to dry.
“Nope.” I snatched Ian’s katana from his hand and slid it neatly back into the sheath on his back. “That’s not going to help her.”
He whirled on me, his eyes lit the same electric blue as his sister’s were whenever I agitated her enough to bring her beast out to play.
The ache I worked to suppress damn near every hour of the day bloomed to life in my chest, and my wolf whined.
“Don’t touch my sword, Blackwell,” Ian snapped. “And I won’t be taking advice on how to help my sister from the guy who’s hurt her worse than anyone ever has, save the three assholes standing behind you.”
Aiden let out a defeated sigh, and the red flames of Wyatt’s bear rage seeped into the air, tempered not at all by the flash of cold from Elijah’s beast. My wolf shoved to the surface and directed all three of them to keep it together.
“You can’t just run out there into the middle of your sister’s fight and save the day,” I said quietly to Ian.
“Nor can you lend her your sword. I know you know that, and I sympathize. My mate is constantly finding herself in situations that leave me feeling helpless, and that’s something only my father ever managed to make me feel before now. ”
Ian studied me with narrowed eyes like he was surprised by but also suspicious of my candor.
After a moment, he relented, softening slightly.
“I’m so fucking pissed at you, Blackwell,” he said wearily, and then he cut a glance over my shoulder.
“At all of you. The Moon gave my sister the strongest quad imaginable because she needs you, and you fucked it all up.”
Aiden cleared his throat. “Was…. Was your mother the same?” he asked softly. “The same as Avery?”
Brody had slipped quietly to Ian’s side during this exchange, and he grabbed Ian’s hand, giving him a knowing look full of sympathy. He knew, I realized. Brody knew, but I didn’t, and Avery was my mate.
Ian looked me in the eyes and lifted his chin. “Yes, she was.”
Wyatt swore, but none of us were surprised. We’d suspected it from the moment we were able to wrap our heads around what Avery was and what she could possibly be doing in the Guardians.
“Listen up, Baxter,” I said, allowing him to continue to hold eye contact with me.
My beast recognized our now-familial connection and only chuffed at the little fox’s bravery.
“I don’t care if Avery hates us for the rest of our days.
We are her Fated, and we will never let what happened to your mom happen to her. Do you understand me?”
He sniffed, finally looking away from me and wiping his eye.
“Yeah. I believe you, Blackwell. And I’m grateful.
But it would be a lot easier to watch her back if she didn’t hate you, or even better if—and I can’t believe I’m about to say these words—you were actually bonded.
But the hole you’ve dug is fucking massive. I have no hope for you.”
Elijah chuckled. What the fuck he found funny about that, I had no moondamned clue.
“Thanks, man,” Wyatt drawled. “We’re aware.”
“Why the fuck are you all standing around?” Cash bellowed at the combatants on the field. Mark Ellison, to his immense credit, had pulled Avery aside and appeared to be conferring with her. “We don’t have all fucking day. I better see beasts on this field in thirty seconds.”
The teams lined up facing one another, each in the basic unit formation.
The four Guardians stood in a square, two in front and two in back, and the six support men fanned out in front of them in a V-shape, the point of the spade meant to carve through the swarmers so that the stronger shifters could attack the bigger threats.
After removing their clothes, Avery’s team shifted into their animals. A jaguar and a snow leopard took the front, and Avery was positioned on the back right next to a panther.
Aiden huffed a humorless laugh. “They have a full quad of Prime felines and don’t even know it,” he murmured.
On the front line stood two small bobcats and two ordinary wolves. At the last moment, the final two Support Squadron members burst into feathers and launched into the air, one of them a large hawk and the other an even larger falcon.
“Oh, good,” Elijah mused, his yellow gaze tracking the raptors. “Maybe they’ll peck Brayden’s eyes out. I don’t like the way he’s looking at my dove.”
I concurred. Brayden Davidson would be tempting death if that ridiculous mace he was swinging around his head like a lasso went anywhere near my mate.
Avery bounced on her toes and shook her arms loose, her gorgeous face focused on her opponents and devoid of anything resembling fear or even mild concern.
While I was on the verge of an aneurysm.
Cash blew his whistle, and the two teams attacked.
Davidson’s Support Squadron did what they were supposed to—carved straight through the four smaller beasts on the front line and separated them into manageable groups. It was three blades against two land-bound beasts while the avians took turns dive-bombing everyone in the group.
The Prime beasts on Avery’s team didn’t wait for Davidson and his quad to charge through the opening created by the Support Squadron.
The snow leopard and the panther bolted down the path and leapt together onto Steven McConnell, the first man they encountered.
Claws raked across his chest, opening deep gouges through his T-shirt, but he managed to get his sword through the snow leopard before he was taken down.
“McConnell and Atkins, you’re both out!” Trent shouted.
The panther pounced on Bruce Rosenburg, another of the blade-wielders, from behind. Bruce whirled at the last minute and managed to slice the panther across the belly. The panther staggered, and Bruce jeered at him, taking precious fucking seconds to revel in his victory.
It was enough to allow the hawk to attack him from the air. It dove at him, and he’d hardly been able to cry out before its talons opened deep puncture wounds in his neck.
Cash’s lip curled as he watched the guy stumble around with his hands on his neck, frantically trying to staunch the bleeding. “Get the fuck off my battlefield, Rosenburg.”
That left two Guardian blades versus Avery and Mark Ellison’s jaguar. Mark snarled at their approach while Avery lurked behind him, her hand resting on his flank.
Aiden exhaled an angry breath through his nose and commenced an agitated prowl next to me.
Commander Moss had finally made his way over here, too, and he observed the proceedings without an ounce of emotion.
“Give it up, Ellison,” Brayden said with a sneer, swinging his mace lazily. “It’s the two of us against you, and all you have is that broken female behind you. Yield now, or I’ll bleed you all over this fucking field.”
The jaguar snarled again. Powerful muscles bunched under fur, readying to strike, as Brayden and Damien Jones, who was brandishing a falcata sword, advanced slowly toward him.
Suddenly, Avery slapped Mark’s flank and shouted, “Now!”