Chapter 34 Avery
AVERY
“Come to kill me?” I asked lightly, though I already knew the answer. Cold fury washed through me, numbing me to anything resembling fear.
Ian.
Heath.
Wyatt.
Cash chuckled. “You’ve pissed off some powerful people. You could’ve just stayed in the city, hiding from shifter society with the rest of the cowards in your family, but no, you had to butt your way into the Guardians, and now everyone knows you’re an abomination that needs to be put down.”
Jared’s wolf snapped his jaws at me. I sliced at his face with my sword, and he danced away.
“Who exactly have I pissed off?” I asked even though I had a sneaking suspicion that I already knew that answer too.
“Don’t play fucking dumb,” Cash spat. “If you would’ve just died like you were supposed to when the wards were down on campus, we wouldn’t be here right now. It would’ve saved us all so much fucking trouble.”
The cold turned to ice. “The breach of the campus wards was targeted at me?”
Cash rolled his eyes. “Your pathetic little perimeter walks were easy enough to track on the security cameras. Do you know the skill this quad had to possess to herd a group of wraiths of that size and power at the exact section of the wall where the wards were down right as you were walking past?”
I blinked at him. I’d known Cash had it out for me, and I’d definitely thought the failure of the wards had been deliberate, but I’d assumed my presence out in the campus woods when the wraiths had come over the wall had been an unfortunate coincidence.
Of all the shit Cash had tried with me, I had not suspected that. It had taken an incredible amount of planning and skill.
An overt and coordinated sabotage of the campus wards.
The regional Council was in charge of those wards.
And there was at least one member of our regional Council who was aware I was harboring a particularly powerful beast.
That fucking asshole.
Jared snapped at me again, and I opened a cut right across his nose.
I didn’t have time for this.
I needed to get to my brother.
I needed to find Heath.
I needed to help Aiden save Wyatt.
And I needed to find Elijah and bring him back from the basilisk.
“And it almost worked,” Trent added, sneering at me. “If it hadn’t been for those sorry-ass excuses for Primes, who decided to start caring about you again for some fucking reason, you would’ve fucking bled out in the woods, just another casualty of the war against the plague on our kind.”
“Those pathetic little shitheads have been such a fucking pain in the ass,” Cash said.
He flicked away a stream of blood that’d dripped into his eye.
“Traitors to their bloodlines, that’s what they are.
They’d clearly gotten over their fascination with you, but then they show up to fucking camp acting like they might actually want to bond you. Can you fucking imagine?”
Trent scoffed. “Fucking messed up.”
“What’s up with that, Baxter? Your pussy just that tight?”
I gave him the coldest, blankest stare I could muster.
His eyes blazed with the molten amber of his lion. “Whatever their deal is with you, I’m tired of it fucking up my plans. So many opportunities for fatal accidents at training camp, and yet, here you still fucking are, standing upright and breathing my fucking air.”
“It sure sounds like you and those powerful shifters who gave you this murder assignment went through a whole lot of trouble,” I said evenly. “It would’ve been easier to just sneak into my cabin and slit my throat.”
Cash pointed his sword at me. “You’re so fucking right, and I would’ve relished taking the opportunity if there hadn’t been a moondamned basilisk in your tree every fucking night.
But unfortunately, we were under strict instructions to make it look like a tragic accident.
Wraith death, training mishap, anything to prove that female abominations don’t belong fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with men in the Guardians. ”
Ah. “Men die all the time in the field,” I pointed out.
“For the love of the Moon, shut the fuck up.” He began to pace. “I am so fucking sick of you, and your inability to just die already has been laid at my feet like I’m a failure. Me. Son of Northeastern Council members and leader of the most successful Guardian quad in a generation.”
I held my swords aloft and tracked his movements. He seemed one last frayed string away from losing it completely.
He stopped pacing and smiled. “Lucky for us, there’s been so much carnage tonight, and no one will think twice when we tell them the claws and teeth that ripped you apart were wraiths, not beasts.”
I bared my teeth at him. “You’re still so sure I’m weak.”
“I don’t know what the fuck you are,” he barked. “But the powers that be want you put down, and I am happy to oblige.” He looked at the wolves and threw a punch of dominance into his command. “Get it done.”
As if struck with a whip, they snarled and attacked me.
I screamed, my rage burning me from the inside out. I pulled from the Moon, begging for help. Her power was a weak trickle, but I was desperate.
Desperate to get back to the men who would both kill and die for me.
Just as I would for them. I knew it now, as sure as if it’d been inscribed on my skin.
The bear with a cocky smirk and a heart of gold. The professor whose mind was as sharp as his sword. The Alpha who lived his life to care for those he loved. And the cunning, ruthless basilisk, my sunshine, who’d never left me, even when he did.
How dare Cash and these assholes keep me from my mates?
STOP.
The tiger’s will exploded from me like a bomb. The blast hit Jared and Alex as their teeth and claws were inches from my body. They yelped, freezing for only a second, but it was enough.
I twisted my body hard to the left and slashed the blade in my right hand down over Alex’s neck. Blood sprayed, coating my face, and his severed head fell to the ground.
Jared’s wolf unfroze and pounced, jaws snapping and aimed at my face.
I dropped and twisted again, stabbing the wolf in the belly and then jerking my blade in a vicious upward strike. I disemboweled him before his paws hit the ground.
He crumpled at my feet.
I flipped the hilt of my blade in my other hand and dropped to one knee, stabbing wolf Jared in the heart, just be real fucking sure.
Cash gaped at me, blessedly speechless in my presence for the first time ever.
Trent roared, burst into his snow leopard, and charged me from the left.
Cash blinked away his shock, and his face flushed the deep maroon of pure unadulterated rage.
Of deep, visceral hatred.
He shifted into his lion and attacked from my right.
I dropped my blades next to the bloody carcass that was Jared and threw open the door to my tiger’s cage. She had clearly reached into some deep reservoir within our shared soul because she came out brimming with power that should’ve been depleted long ago.
Trent didn’t have time to adjust to the shock of the much larger Prime feline that’d appeared in front of him. I slapped him in the head with my giant paw and sent him staggering away.
Cash managed to halt his assault out of reach of my paws. He growled menacingly and prowled around me, taking my measure.
Yeah, look your fucking fill, asshole.
His oppressive dominance fanned out in front him. Just as I had last night, I flicked it away like it was a fucking gnat.
His lion eyes widened again. He growled, but there was uncertainly growing in those liquid brown eyes.
Finally, he lunged for me, snarling and snapping his jaws.
I met him with everything I had. We grappled, raking claws across fur, tearing chunks of skin and muscle with powerful jaws.
Trent recovered and attacked my hindquarters. I jerked my body violently and threw him off. Cash barreled into my side and knocked me to the ground.
Claws pierced my flesh from all directions.
I let out an angry roar and tossed Cash off me.
Trent was there again, sinking his teeth into my left flank.
I twisted and locked my jaws around his neck and yanked hard, the way I’d seen Heath do with his absurdly strong wolf muscles.
Trent flopped in my hold like a rag doll as I shook him savagely.
His spine cracked, and I tore his throat out with one final jerk of my head.
He dropped to the ground, unmoving.
I didn’t have time to contemplate whether I’d managed to kill him. Cash was on me again, bleeding profusely, but the wounds I’d made with my claws and teeth had only slowed him down a little bit.
We clashed again, tearing at flesh, snarling, drooling, bleeding.
I ripped a huge chunk from his shoulder, and he stumbled, finally giving me an opening.
I roared and pounced, ready to pin him under my bigger bulk and end this once and fucking for all.
His lion eyes widened. He knew this was going to be the killing blow.
In a blink, the lion disappeared and morphed into Cash the man, crouched low.
He grabbed a blade from the ground.
My fucking blade.
Cash thrust the blade up, aiming for my belly.
I threw my weight to the left, trying to dodge in midair, but he managed to stab me deep in my side.
I landed on my feet but staggered, my body screaming, the strength gushing from me along with the blood from where Cash had stabbed me.
Cash’s laugh was demented as he twirled my sword in his hand. He began to stalk toward me.
“You’re dead now, betrayer spawn bitch—”
A monster bellowed in the woods.
Cash paused, no longer laughing.
The basilisk tore out of the trees, roaring his head off. He was a wall of gray-green scales, yellow eyes ablaze, wraith guts splattered across his face.
Cash was frozen in place, his head tipped back to stare into those burning eyes. He dropped my sword. “Oh fu—”
Elijah unhinged his terrifying jaw and struck.
He snatched Cash up into his mouth and swallowed him whole.
Holy shit.
The world spun around me.
I lay down on the grass and blinked up at my basilisk. Glowing yellow eyes regarded me from above. He dipped his big serpent head to nuzzle gently at my fur.
Elijah came for me.
Of course he did.
Cool scales wrapped protectively around my beast body. I let out a big feline sigh and relaxed into him.
The last thing I saw before I surrendered to the darkness was Kellan, standing at the tree line, sword in hand, gaping at me like he’d seen a ghost.