Chapter 15 Wyatt
WYATT
My dad glared at us from across his hulking metal desk. He’d trimmed his bushy red beard shorter for the summer, and his bald head gleamed under the harsh overhead lighting.
“To summarize,” he said, his tone that of a disappointed parent rather than a pissed-off commanding officer, which I would’ve preferred, “you all have—” He looked at me and began counting on his fingers.
“—collapsed one of my weapons training frames by throwing a fellow trainee through said frame, after which you put a hole in the wall of my field house.”
I shrugged. No regrets here.
His glare slid to Aiden. “Threatened one of my classroom instructors and then decided to break the finger of one of my best trainees without provocation—”
“Ward, there was some provocation—” Aiden began.
Dad held up a hand, and Aiden shut up. He addressed Heath next. “Ruined the door to my infirmary’s treatment room beyond repair and then nearly caused another of my best trainees to suffer a brain bleed—”
“It was his fault for not yielding when he should’ve,” Heath muttered petulantly.
“—and if that wasn’t bad enough,” Dad growled, finally turning his ire on Elijah, “you have also completely destroyed my obstacle course, much of which was brand-new, and probably endangered half the Guardian class by letting loose not one but two out-of-control mythics.”
Elijah kept the amusement in his expression to the bare minimum, but it was there nonetheless.
His beast rarely got to go all out against another shifter like that, so he was mellow as shit right now.
“I suggest you send the Crimson family the bill for the repairs,” he said lightly.
“Kellan was warned, repeatedly, and he chose to ignore those warnings.”
Dad narrowed his eyes at Elijah, crossing his giant arms over his chest. He was one of the few shifters alive who would dare to stare down the basilisk, but he was practically a father to Elijah, so he could get away with it. “Uh-huh,” he said dubiously.
“Dad—”
“Zip it, Wyatt.” He pinched the bridge of nose.
“It is the second moondamned day of camp. This behavior is completely unlike you four. You are one of the most talented quads to come out of Guardian training in a generation. You know how to control your beasts—yes, even you, Elijah—and you’ve always been single minded when it comes to your goals within the program.
What in the wraith-infested hell has gotten into you all? ”
His question was met with silence. Even Heath couldn’t muster the energy to come up with some diplomatic bullshit.
“Um, sir?”
Avery raised a tentative hand from her chair in the corner.
Dad’s face softened instantly as he turned to my mate. “You can call me Ward, Avery.”
She wrinkled her perfect little nose in confusion. “Oh, um, okay. Ward, I was just wondering why exactly I’m here?”
I’d been wondering the same thing, but we weren’t going to complain that Avery had been summoned to the principal’s office along with the rest of us, which meant we weren’t leaving her unsupervised in today’s classroom session while Kit Wells batted his lashes at her.
Heath had managed to keep his shit together after the obstacle course mess and hadn’t gone overbearing Alpha on our girl about going to the infirmary. He’d counted on Ian to do his dirty work, and it had paid off.
Avery had hardly been able to scarf down a sandwich before news of “the incident” swept through the chow hall, and after giving his sister the third degree, Ian had frog-marched her to the infirmary himself.
An hour later, after we’d all showered and changed for class, the text from my dad hit our phones.
“Well, Avery,” Dad said, “I wanted first to apologize to you regarding the rope incident. It’s true that all of us assume the risk of grave bodily harm and even death when it comes to our jobs as Guardians, but that isn’t supposed to extend to faulty training equipment.”
She gave him a perfunctory nod. “Apology accepted.”
Elijah shifted in his chair, his beast creeping into his eyes. “I’d suggest, Ward, that you reconsider Cash’s and his quad’s roles as our primary trainers if Avery’s safety is a priority of yours.”
Dad’s bushy brows lifted the tiniest bit. “What are you suggesting?”
“I’m merely pointing out that Avery’s rope had no issues remaining tethered through use by countless other trainees and that Cash, who has made it no secret how he feels about Avery’s presence here, happened to be stationed at the base of that obstacle when it broke.”
“Do you have any proof that Cash sabotaged Avery’s rope beyond his presence nearby when it failed?” Dad asked.
Elijah’s pupils slit, and the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees. “Do I need it?” he hissed.
“Elijah,” Avery snapped. “Stop it. You know as well as I do that there’s no way to prove Cash did anything.”
The cold press of the basilisk vanished. Elijah smiled fondly at her. “Whatever you say, Dove.”
Dad cleared his throat. “That’s the other reason you’re here, Avery. I commend you for your bravery in standing down a basilisk lost to bloodlust earlier today. It was reckless, but it worked. It is for that reason and a few others that I’ve decided to add you to this team permanently.”
I could not keep the gleeful smile from my face, and the others were no better.
Avery’s eyes widened in alarm. “What—”
“Our first Guardian quintet,” Dad went on, an excited gleam in his eyes.
“I don’t see how it wouldn’t work just as well as the usual quad formation, and you’re certainly skilled enough to integrate into this quad.
And having you on hand to settle Elijah’s beast in the event there’s a need is an added bonus. ”
“We’re amenable,” Heath said eagerly. “Avery is a perfect addition to our group.”
“No,” Avery snapped at him, and then turned to Dad, softening only slightly. “I’m sorry, Ward, but I have to decline.”
Now his eyebrows really did hit his nonexistent hairline. “Oh? And why is that? I’ve seen you all work together against the SWIM, and you can’t tell me there’s a better matched group of Guardian trainees for you. No one in your class comes close to your skill outside of these four.”
Dad’s compliment managed to momentarily crack her wall, and her cheeks flushed a pretty pink.
It was fleeting, though. She shook it off, the rigid set of her jaw saying she wasn’t about to back down.
“I have less fond memories of being paired with them for that last challenge in the arena than you do, Ward.”
He stroked his beard. “I do recall some friction, but that seems to have dissipated, yes? I may be an old bear, but I still remember what it was like to be young, hotheaded, and unbonded. It’s my theory that all of this bullshit—” He glared at us again.
“—will die down if Avery becomes a permanent member of this team. Am I wrong about that?”
“Nope,” I said.
“Definitely correct,” Heath added.
“The perfect solution,” Aiden chimed in.
“No,” Avery said again through clenched teeth. “Ward, please do not do this.”
He frowned, studying her for a long moment. “What am I missing here?”
Avery looked at me, her face incredulous and confused all at once. “You really didn’t tell your own father?”
I lost every ounce of good humor I was feeling. “Of course not, Wildcat. That’s our private business, and your secrets are always safe with us.”
Her lips parted for the quickest of seconds, like I’d surprised her, but then she snapped her mouth closed, lifted her chin, and gave my dad the coldest of stares.
Fuck.
My bear let out a pained whine in my chest, and I clenched the arms of my chair.
“Ward, last semester these men made the coordinated decision to spurn me publicly and treat me like shit. It is also their fault I almost died in the campus forest during the breach of the wards because they left me there, alone. They’ve only decided to care about me now because they found out our beasts are Fated. ”
Heath sucked in a shocked breath. Aiden went rigid in his chair. Even Elijah looked surprised.
My bear slammed against the bars of his enclosure. Our mate had claimed us, openly, in front of my father. It didn’t matter to him that she was only doing it to expose us for the assholes we’d been.
Dad stared at Avery in stunned silence. After a moment, a slow smile spread across his face. “You’re Fated? To my son and his quad?”
Avery blinked at him, realized she miscalculated, then sighed in defeat. “Yes.”
My dad’s grin grew, and he turned to me. “Truly?”
“Truly,” I replied. “She’s our mate, Dad, but she has every right to be pissed at us.”
His grin turned speculative. “You’ve seen her beast?”
“Yes, but don’t ask us about her. Ever.”
He held up his hands in surrender, then turned his attention back to Avery, wearing the same indulgent smile he reserved for my sisters.
“I am so intrigued. And thrilled, Avery, you have no idea. A Moon-blessed match for my son, and to such a talented young lady! I cannot believe how lucky these boys are.”
“Did you hear anything I said about how they treated me? Ward, they told me to fuck off out of their lives so they could focus on finding their latent princess.”
Aiden sighed wearily. “Avery, you know why we thought—oof.”
I elbowed the shit out of him.
Dad shot me a reproachful look before turning back to Avery, trying his best to tamp down the excitement.
“I’m sorry, Avery. I do perhaps have some idea about why all of that happened—” He darted a furtive glance at Heath.
“—but also, this explains so much. No wonder these four have been acting up.” He slapped the top of the desk, back to smiling.
“And this is why Elijah’s beast is so docile around you!
I should’ve known. I must be losing my touch. Fated bonds are just so rare—”
“Dad,” I growled. “You have to keep this to yourself. You especially cannot tell Mom, or half the population of the Hills will know our business within an hour.”