Chapter 11 Heath #2
The jaguar lunged at Damien, who slashed at him wildly with his sword. Mark ducked the blade, his belly hitting the dirt, which allowed Avery to vault over his back. She slammed into Damien from the side, knocking his sword from his grip and taking him to the ground.
The jaguar launched immediately to his feet and pounced on Brayden while Avery punched Damien right in the fucking throat.
The crowd hissed.
“Perfect,” murmured Elijah. He hadn’t even twitched a muscle since the fight began, but the icy shroud of his basilisk hovered at the surface of his skin.
Damien gurgled an enraged sort of noise as Avery rolled off him, snagging his sword from the ground as she went. Black fur rippled down Damien’s neck and arms as he leapt to his feet. A neon-green sheen rolled over his eyes, and his fingertips elongated, claws threatening to erupt from them.
My beast growled in my chest, pushing hard against my control.
Damien launched himself at Avery, a vicious growl erupting from him as his wolf pushed the shift. She plunged his sword straight into his gut and jumped clear of his attempted tackle.
“Fuck yes,” Wyatt said, bouncing on his toes. “That’s my girl.”
She wasted no time in running to the aid of her teammate. Mark and Brayden were locked in a standoff, the jaguar dodging the mace while Brayden evaded the swipes of Mark’s claws.
Avery jumped right onto Brayden’s back and put him in a chokehold.
“For the love of the fucking Moon,” Aiden groaned.
Brayden flailed, the mace swinging wildly. The jaguar had the opening he needed to duck under the mace and sink his teeth into Brayden’s meaty thigh.
“Fuck!” Brayden shouted. The jaguar unlatched, and deep-red blood seeped into his shorts and ran down his leg.
Avery released Brayden’s neck, her sneakers landing lightly on the grass. She grinned and dusted herself off.
“Bout goes to the beasts,” Cash yelled. “Fucking pathetic, Davidson.”
Brayden staggered on his injured leg, bellowed in rage, and then, to my absolute fucking horror, swung his mace at Avery’s back as she walked away from him.
Wyatt’s bear burst from his body and shot onto the field.
“Avery, watch out!” I shouted.
She turned at the last second, and genuine fear flashed across her face as she registered the heavy ball of the mace and its sharp studs coming straight for her. She dove out of the way, her insane speed allowing her to dodge a direct hit that would’ve shattered every bone in her rib cage.
But it wasn’t quite enough.
My wolf howled as those sharp studs caught the skin of my mate’s hip, slicing up her left side and her arm as she dropped to the ground. Blood—my mate’s precious blood—ran in rivulets down her arm. It bloomed under the tears in her black shirt, and she hissed as she tried to climb to her knees.
Utter chaos erupted.
Wyatt’s bear slammed into Brayden, taking him to the ground. He roared and sank his teeth into Brayden’s throat. The crowd began shouting, the aggressive pheromones in the air whipping everyone into a frenzy.
Kellan fucking Crimson and his quadmate, Teegan the Alpha wolf, inserted themselves between Brayden’s remaining trio members and Brayden’s prone body as he struggled under Wyatt. Kellan shouted something in their faces while Teegan loomed silently.
Brody and his bobcat friends had managed to tackle Ian to the ground ten feet away from where Brayden had been standing before Wyatt’s bear mauled him.
Commander Moss marched into the mix, barking orders.
Aiden stood in front of Elijah, hands braced on Elijah’s shoulders and neon eyes locked on Elijah’s glowing yellow ones as his jaguar tried to radiate calm he didn’t feel.
I sprinted past them and into the fray, needing with every fiber of my soul to get to my mate.
“Avery!” I bellowed. I hurdled Wyatt, who had regrettably been pulled off Brayden by Commander Moss before he’d done more serious damage, and I landed at Avery’s side.
Just as she was helped to her feet by Teegan of the fucking Crimson Quad.
“I’ve got her, Blackwell,” he said, his voice calm and full of quiet menace.
“Like fuck you do,” I snarled. “Give her to me. I’m taking her to the infirmary.”
“Heath, quit it,” Avery said wearily. She hissed in pain as Teegan looped her arm around his shoulders. “I don’t feel like dealing with your bossy Alpha nonsense right now.”
“You know that’s not what this is,” I replied between clenched teeth.
Teegan’s face remained placid as ever, but his eyes sparkled with quiet glee. “You heard her. I’ll get her to the camp doc, if that’s what she wants.”
“I will kill you.”
“Heath,” Avery growled.
“That is enough of this bullshit!” Commander Moss announced from somewhere behind me. “Davidson, shift and heal, and then you and your trio are dismissed from this program. Teegan, escort Miss Baxter to the doc. The rest of you, get your asses off my drill field and out of my sight.”
The corner of Teegan’s mouth lifted a single millimeter, his version of a smug smile. “Come on, Baxter,” he said softly, still looking at me, “before you lose too much more blood.”
“Yeah, okay,” she said. Her eyes met mine. Pain, sadness, anger, and for the briefest second, longing all flashed in those blue depths before they iced over once more. She lifted her chin. “I don’t need your help, Heath.”
She might as well have cracked open my ribs and ripped out my heart. I couldn’t watch yet another person take my injured mate away when it should be me with her.
“Avery,” I whispered, the desperation leaking into my voice and laying me bare in front of her and fucking Teegan, “please, baby. Please let me take care of you.”
She stared at me for a beat, and then she shook her head sadly. She turned her back to me and limped away, leaning on Teegan as she went.
It was nearly half an hour before I managed to get myself to the camp infirmary.
I’d had to make sure Wyatt wasn’t going to be punished for attacking Brayden.
(He wasn’t because Commander Moss clearly thought Brayden deserved it, and it didn’t hurt that Moss had trained Wyatt’s fathers back in the day.)
Aiden volunteered to be on Elijah duty until Brayden and the rest of his trio had packed their shit and left the campgrounds. There was a reason Wyatt hadn’t even tried to hold his bear back after Davidson’s chickenshit attack on our mate.
It was better him than Elijah’s beast. If the basilisk had come out, Brayden would be dead, and we might’ve been the ones sent packing.
Out of the Guardians, away from Avery. An unfathomable disaster.
Cool, sterile air engulfed me as I marched into the reception area. There was a large desk where two nurses in blue scrubs manned the computers. A hallway to the left of the desk led to what I assumed were offices and other staff areas.
It was the large double doors to the right that I was more interested in.
“Excuse me,” said one of the nurses as I breezed past the desk. “Where do you think you’re going—”
I shoved at the doors. Locked.
My wolf growled. He could feel his mate behind them.
“Sir—”
I kicked the doors in. The steel caved under my shoe, crunching inward before the doors flew open, and the clang of something metal hitting the floor announced my entry into the treatment wing.
Snarling, I stalked inside. A long white room with high ceilings and harsh fluorescent lighting greeted me. Hospital beds lined both sides. Light-blue curtains hung between them, separating each treatment station.
Dr. Lee looked up from where he was sitting on a rolling stool at the foot of a nearby bed. He wore his white coat over scrubs, and his finger hovered above the screen of a tablet.
Avery was perched on the bed, looking tired and wearing only shorts and a sports bra, her ruined T-shirt in her hand.
Her perfect skin was clean and free of blood, but Dr. Lee had placed bandages along the left side of her body.
A girl with deep-brown skin and long braids was wrapping another bandage around Avery’s upper arm.
She wore the same blue scrubs as Dr. Lee and the nurses out front, and I vaguely recognized her as a fellow Proteus student.
“Can we help you, Mr. Blackwell?” Dr. Lee asked, lifting an eyebrow in my direction.
Avery did not appear surprised by my arrival, and she let out a resigned sigh.
Alpha dominance flared in the air, and Teegan appeared from wherever he’d been lurking. He slid in front of me, blocking my way to my fucking mate, his arms crossed over his chest and a flat look on his face. “She doesn’t want you here.”
“You have no idea what the fuck Avery wants,” I growled. “Get out of my way.”
“No.”
“Move.” My beast poured the command into the space between us and pressed.
Teegan’s brown eyes flared amber, and his already tight jaw clenched harder. The faintest tremble ran through his body.
“That’s right,” I whispered menacingly. “You’re strong, but you’re no match for my wolf, who’s spent the past decade keeping a basilisk in line. If you ever stand between me and Avery again, I’ll tear your fucking head off.”
He glared, brown fur ghosting along his extremities. He pushed back, the seconds dragging by, and then blood began to leak from his nose.
Shit. That was dangerous, and he should’ve yielded, but apparently Teegan was a stubborn asshole who would rather pass out on the floor than submit to me.
“Damn it,” Dr. Lee said, sounding only mildly perturbed. “Aisha, get some gauze. Heath, release him now, or I’ll ban you from my infirmary for the rest of the summer. You can figure out how to stitch your own wounds.”
I did as I was told. Teegan sucked in a harsh breath, but he recovered quickly, his wolf falling away and his posture returning to its usual ramrod straight.