Chapter 14 Avery
AVERY
Iscreamed, clinging to my rope as I swung back toward the tower I’d just jumped from. My tiger roared in my ears, helpless to save me. My back slammed into the unforgiving wooden wall.
Bones cracked. My vision whited as searing pain shot through my back and into my chest. I tried to gulp in air, but it hurt too much.
I was still dangling thirty feet in the air.
My grip slipped. I had nothing left.
Male voices were shouting.
“Avery, let go! I’ve got you!”
I did let go. I had no choice.
With a silent scream, I plummeted to the ground.
Strong arms caught me easily, cradling me like a delicate maiden. “Fuck, are you okay?” Kellan asked, his eyes blazing.
“Yes,” I rasped. “Might’ve broken some ribs.”
Elijah must have sprinted up the hill because he arrived seconds later. “Dove. Are you hurt?”
I was a little dizzy, but my tiger was working overtime to squelch the pain and accelerate healing. I was able to suck in a shaky breath. “I’ll live,” I croaked.
Elijah hissed angrily, his pupils slitting in those yellow eyes. “Give her to me, Crimson.”
Kellan turned away from him, putting his back between Elijah and me. “Fuck off, Harrow. I’ve got her.”
I patted Kellan’s arm. “You can put me down now.”
He began walking down the hill. “No, I think I’ll get you down to the finish line and give your beast some time to heal the worst.”
Elijah appeared in front of us, blocking the way.
His wild, glowing eyes brimmed with an unsettling violence I’d never seen from him, not even the few times I’d met the basilisk.
“Remove your hands from my—from Avery, Crimson. Hand her to me, or I swear to the Moon, you will not like what happens next.”
As much as I disliked the fact that my not-mates had done nothing but piss a circle around me since camp began, and as much as it would normally give me satisfaction to see them suffer, I was not dumb.
Elijah’s beast was about to be in the driver’s seat, and that was a dangerous situation.
“Kellan, seriously,” I said, my tone more forceful now that I could breathe. “Put me down. I can walk just fine.”
Kellan’s body heated against me. His features sharpened, and his long golden hair seemed to thicken. “No,” he said, no longer looking at me, his glowing stare pinned to Elijah. His voice dipped into a rough growl. “I don’t think I will.”
Oh, for the love of the fucking Moon.
Elijah hissed again, gray-green scales blooming along his arms and neck.
With all the strength I had left, I drove the heel of my hand into Kellan’s throat. He coughed and sputtered in surprise, which allowed me to wrestle free of his hold. I dropped to the ground, the impact like knives through my back, and I rolled down the hill until I was clear of the two of them.
The basilisk erupted from Elijah’s body, his training clothes falling to the grass in shreds. He bellowed a monstrous noise and charged Kellan.
Kellan leapt into the air and burst into his griffin form.
His head was that of an enormous eagle with amber feathers and a sharp black beak.
The feathers faded into the body of a golden-furred lion, larger than any Prime lion I’d ever seen.
In place of paws, he had giant bird talons, the scaly brown skin ending in four toes and curved claws longer than my hand.
And then there were the wings. Powerful wings, the span of a small aircraft and covered in the same amber feathers as his head, jutted from the muscles of his lion back.
Those wings beat in forceful strokes, allowing Kellan to hover ten feet off the ground and let out a terrifying noise that was somehow the roar of a lion and the screech of an eagle all at once.
The basilisk slammed into the griffin and knocked him out of the air. Elijah sank his rows of dagger teeth into the feathers of Kellan’s neck as he whipped his thick, powerful body around him, constricting, and they tumbled straight through the tower that had just broken my ribs.
The impact knocked the top half straight off, and the rest crumbled into a heap of splintered wood.
“Oh shit.” I crawled to my feet and ran after them.
Shouting echoed behind me, followed by the sound of a stampede up the hill. The crowd was on the way to witness the mythics trying to kill each other.
After their crash through the tower, Kellan shook Elijah loose and dodged the basilisk’s next strike with a leap and a beat of his wings. He screeched and dove, talons aimed for Elijah’s yellow eyes.
Elijah zipped out of the way, whirling through the dirt like a giant scaled torpedo, and then he spun and launched himself at Kellan again. With another flap of his wings, Kellan avoided teeth around his throat by leaping to the top of the pile of wood that was the ruined tower.
It appeared that even those massive wings didn’t allow the griffin to fly like a bird—the rest of his body was too heavy—but Kellan could jump much higher and longer distances than any Prime animal on the planet with their help.
He dove at Elijah again, and they smashed together, a tangle of scales and feathers skidding toward the pylons holding up the rope bridge.
I ran past them, every breath a heroic feat.
“Get down!” I shouted at the trainees who were just about to reach the top of the rock-climbing wall, which was attached to the narrow platform that led to the rope bridge. I waved my arms and jumped up and down, which hurt like hell. “The bridge is coming down!”
“What—” Josh Anderson started to say with a confused look, and then the basilisk plowed through the pylons holding up the rope bridge like a bowling ball. “Oh fuck. Shift and bail out!”
A bear and two Alpha wolves fell from the rock wall, landed on their feet, and sprinted into the woods right as Kellan landed on top of Elijah, grabbed his body with his talons, and tossed him through the rock wall.
It didn’t splinter into shards, but it did come loose from the top platform. It fell over with a ground-shaking thud like a giant domino.
“Moon fucking damn it.”
For once, it was a relief to hear that voice.
Heath jogged into view, Aiden and Wyatt hot on his heels. The rest of the trainees fanned out around the edges of the course, trying to get a glimpse of the carnage without getting hit by a projectile.
“What in the name of the ancestors is going on?” Commander Moss shouted from somewhere in the crowd.
“We’ll handle it!” Aiden shouted back, although he did not look confident.
Hank, Ari, and Teegan went streaking by, shouting at Kellan.
Elijah had wrapped his thick body around Kellan’s beast once again and hurled him at the cargo net. Kellan bounced off it and launched straight at his quadmates, who scattered, swearing up a storm.
“Elijah!” Heath bellowed. He sprinted toward the basilisk and ducked a haphazard swipe of his spiky tail. “Enough! Get it the fuck together!”
Elijah hissed at his quad leader and then struck at Kellan again, who’d just leapt off one of the log vaults, screech-roaring his head off.
Wyatt stood next to me, as serious as I’d ever seen him. “Wildcat, what in the ever-loving fuck happened?”
“My rope broke, I fell, and Kellan caught me.” I pinched the bridge of my nose and took a moment to just marvel at how ridiculous my life had become. “And then he wouldn’t let Elijah have me.”
“Well, that’ll fucking do it,” Aiden said wryly. “Wait—sweetheart, are you hurt?”
It was as if there were no longer a terrifying serpent monster and a giant screeching bird-lion trying to kill each other in the immediate vicinity. Aiden and Wyatt closed in around me, their beastly eyes burning bright as I became their sole focus.
Aiden cupped my face in his hands and studied me. For a concussion? Wyatt pressed against my back and ran his big hands lightly over my ribs.
I sucked in a pained breath as his fingers hit a tender spot.
“Broken ribs,” Wyatt announced. “Shit, baby. Let’s go. Dr. Lee needs to fix you.”
My tiger stretched languidly, licking a claw. She’d been enjoying all of this—the basilisk’s extreme possessiveness, Aiden and Wyatt’s concern for our wellbeing, even Heath’s fearless march right into the fray to attempt to rein Elijah in like a proper Alpha.
Me? I was just tired.
I shook off my handsy not-mates. “Stop that. I’ll be fine. We need to get this situation under control before they break a person instead of property.”
Kellan roar-screeched from where he’d flown next—the top of the cargo net.
This time he dove at Elijah and Heath. Heath jumped onto Elijah’s back, clinging to him, and the basilisk rolled them out of Kellan’s path, knocking over a line of vault logs as they went.
Bellowing his displeasure, Elijah shook Heath off, unhinged his disturbing jaw, and struck at Kellan with all those teeth.
He managed to get a hold of Kellan’s back leg. Kellan screeched and pecked at the basilisk with his sharp beak until Elijah was forced to let go.
Hank was now a bear, and he lumbered over to roar some bear nonsense at Kellan. Ari and Teegan appeared to be trying to herd Kellan toward Hank. Maybe he planned to sit on him?
I’d had enough. I marched toward the basilisk.
“Wait, Wildcat—”
“Avery, no! Stay back,” Ari yelled, still waving his arms at Kellan. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Worry about your griffin!” I shouted back.
Elijah reared up, readying to strike again.
I jumped into the space in front of him.
Heath swore. “Avery, get clear! He’s lost control.”
I ignored him. “Elijah!”
The basilisk hissed, but I’d managed to pull his attention from where Kellan was beating his wings aggressively somewhere behind me. Those glowing yellow eyes and slitted pupils were now focused solely on me.
He hissed again, but it came out more like a purr.
“Come here, please,” I said, holding out a hand. The beast dipped his big scaly head, and I stroked his nose like I would George. “Ready to calm down now? You’re very impressive, very big and scary. You really showed that griffin who was boss, didn’t you?”
The griffin snorted angrily behind me.
“You need to lock it the hell up, man,” Teegan said in his monotone. “Or you’re going to get us all kicked out of here.”
The basilisk flicked his tongue a few times, and then he nuzzled my shirt with his colossal nose. I stroked him a few more times. “That’s better. Can I please have Elijah back now? I need him to take me to the infirmary so Dr. Lee can fix my broken ribs.”
That did it. The basilisk melted into a very naked Elijah, all olive skin over carved, sinewy muscle, his dark hair flopping onto his forehead, his eyes still those of the snake.
I swallowed my displeasure at the broken skin and streaks of blood that marred that perfect body.
“Dove,” he rasped, kneeling in front of me and grabbing my hands. “Your ribs are broken?”
“Fucking finally,” Wyatt said, jogging up. He shucked his shorts, which left him in only his tight black boxer briefs, and threw the shorts at Elijah. “Get dressed so we can take Wildcat to the infirmary.”
“Why does Avery need to go to the infirmary?” Heath asked, striding over with his big dick Alpha energy. “Killer, what happened?”
“Her rope broke and she fell,” Aiden announced. “Kellan caught her and set Elijah off by refusing to hand her over.”
Heath forced a harsh breath through his nostrils and cracked his neck. “Well, sounds like I need to kill him.”
“Ugh.” I wriggled free of Elijah’s grip and took several huge steps away from the group of them. “I do not need an escort to the infirmary. I just said that to get the basilisk to cede control.” I darted a half-apologetic glance at Elijah. “Sorry.”
He grinned, back on his feet, dressed in Wyatt’s little shorts, and looking more pleased than was appropriate given this entire mess. “It was good thinking, Dove. The basilisk would do anything you asked.”
“All right!” Commander Moss shouted at the crowd, which was dispersing now that both Kellan and Elijah were human again. “Let’s just let this be a lesson on the dangers of setting off a mythic. Now everyone get the hell off my obstacle course.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I retrieved my swords and began my march back toward the chow hall. Food would fix me as well as Dr. Lee could.
Heath, Aiden, Wyatt, and Elijah all fell in behind me, hovering as if they thought I was seconds away from falling apart and they were preparing to catch all my pieces. Exhaustion prevented me from doing much of anything except put one foot in front of the other.
This… sucked. These men—men I’d once known to be savvy, disciplined, and driven—were out of control. Acting like assholes. It was stifling, not to mention embarrassing.
How was I going to survive two whole months of this?
We walked past Kellan, sitting naked on a fallen log next to his quadmates and looking no worse for wear, save for the numerous deep gashes that marred his tanned skin. He watched me go with a speculative look on his face.
Everyone gave us a wide berth as we exited the obstacle course, and I ignored their wide-eyed stares.
They’d all watched me stand down the basilisk, sure, but they hadn’t seen me shift or anything more concerning.
I held out hope that the excitement over all of this would die down soon.
Shifters were hotheaded and aggressive and got into it with each other all the time.
This was just notable because the combatants were mythics.
Cash had reunited with his quad and was conferring with them over who knew what near the starting line, and he managed to toss one disgusted glare our way as we walked by.
At me. Not at Elijah, who’d just destroyed half the obstacle course. Not at Heath or his other quadmates, who’d failed to get him under control.
Just me.
And it struck me that I finally had the wherewithal to wonder how my rope had broken in the first place.