Chapter 40 #2
“Oh, my God. You were never a wimp, you just need a little instruction.” Zephyr said, exasperated. I only grinned.
“We could help,” Wyatt said. “We’re officially trained, of course.”
“I’m no street fighter,” Zephyr said defensively, because he was determined to make Wyatt a bad guy by any means necessary.
It was starting to bother me lately. I appreciated Zephyr’s loyalty, but my problems with Wyatt were mine, and I wanted to figure out how to handle him on my own.
Especially since Skye was ready to forgive him.
I rolled my neck for the twentieth time. Wyatt smacked a hand on the back of my neck, making me jolt as the warmth of his healing affinity spread through me. The pain in my knuckles faded quickly before Wyatt let go.
“Dick,” I muttered.
“Oh, what the hell?” Zephyr called out. “I was going to do that.”
“Too slow,” Wyatt drawled. “Seems to be a theme with you.”
“Oh, it’s like that?” Zephyr straightened, a strange gleam in his pale eyes I hadn’t seen before. I nervously moved back from Wyatt, then reconsidered. It was probably better to stay closer to him to keep Zephyr from hurting him.
“We don’t have to keep pretending to be civil with each other,” Wyatt said. “You don’t like me, I don’t like you. That’s that.”
“‘That’s that’?” Zephyr repeated in disbelief. “Holy shit. Aiden, call Skye. I’m gonna kill him.”
“Dude, no,” I stepped around Wyatt, angling myself semi-protectively in front of him.
I was pretty sure Zephyr wasn’t serious, but he had a weird, feral edge sometimes that kept me guessing.
I knew he was lethal, and I wasn’t exactly sure how serious he was whenever he threatened Wyatt. “He’s Skye’s problem, Zeph.”
“I don’t need you to block me, Aiden, I can take him.” Wyatt said.
I looked at him over my shoulder, my eyes wide. “No way, Wyatt. He’ll fuck you up.”
“Maybe I’ll fuck him up,” Wyatt shot back. “Then he can get over himself.”
“Get over myself?!” Zephyr’s eyebrows shot to his hairline. His gaze darkened as he raised his hands and began to gather his coils into a poof at the top of his head.
Fuck.
I considered reaching out for Skye. I’d never really…called for her in my mind before. I wasn’t even really sure how I could do that. Would she just sense I was stressed out and call out to me instead?
“Aiden, it’s fine. We’re just gonna spar.” Zephyr said, his hand landing on my arm and squeezing lightly. It was meant to be reassuring, but I was already too freaked. Zephyr took his hand off quickly, wincing slightly from the heat.
“Yeah,” Wyatt said, cracking his knuckles. His eyes flashed in the afternoon sunlight cutting through the window. “Just gonna spar.”
I groaned. This was gonna be so bad.
“Aiden, your new nickname is killjoy.” Rafe announced.
I dropped my face to my hands while he snickered.
“She’s going to kill both of us, you probably should’ve left.” I said.
“Oh, I wouldn’t miss this for anything.” Rafe said cheerily. He leaned against the wall casually, cracking his knuckles like he was the one about to spar.
“Don’t worry, Aiden. She’ll kill all of us when she finds out. We’ll all be together in the afterlife.” Zephyr said before using his teeth to rip the athletic tape he’d wrapped around his knuckles. “Well, the three of us. Wyatt will be looking up at us from hell.”
“I’d prefer to be cremated,” Wyatt said, like anyone fucking cared.
“Do not do that to me,” Rafe said immediately, pointing at me.
“What? Why would you tell me that?” I asked with a grimace.
“She won’t kill you. You’ll have to make sure our final wishes are honored.” Rafe explained.
“You don’t have a choice in what happens to you, Royal Ass,” Zephyr sneered. “They’re gonna preserve you and put you on display. People you don’t even know will be sobbing like they knew you.”
“I like the sound of that, actually. Displayed like a piece of art.” Rafe rubbed his chin thoughtfully, his hand scraping over the bit of stubble he hadn’t shaved yet. He’d been doing that more, lately, and I wondered if Skye was into that.
Hmm. She’d never said anything to me about it. I rubbed my own chin for a moment, wondering how long I’d have to let my stubble grow for it to look like Rafe’s. My facial hair, thankfully, was more brown than red.
“Aiden? Any requests?” Zephyr asked.
I blinked several times.
“For your final wishes,” Zephyr clarified.
“Oh. Cremate me,” I muttered. “She can sprinkle me on the hill by your parents.”
Zephyr barked a laugh of disbelief.
“Fuck, Aiden. We’re trying to have fun here.” Rafe looked a little pale.
“That was unnecessarily deep,” Wyatt agreed, rolling his shoulders as he stretched.
“Were you all not being serious? Because I am. She’s definitely killing us.” My arms shook slightly. Skye was really going to be pissed. And not in a fun, edging me all night kind of way.
“Aiden, I already told you. She’s not going to kill you. You’re the favorite.” Rafe sighed.
Zephyr offered Wyatt the athletic tape and he waved him away. Zephyr rolled his eyes before looking at me. “That was sweet, Aiden. I’m glad to know you’ll be with me when we die later.”
Joking or not, a bit of warmth filled my chest and I smiled. Zephyr had become a brother to me so quickly and naturally. I felt like I’d known him my whole life already. Skye probably wouldn’t kill him.
Rafe didn’t know what he was talking about. Obviously Skye’s brother would rank above me.
“Are we doing this or are you scared?” Zephyr snarked.
“God, do you ever shut up?” Wyatt hissed.
“Nope,” Zephyr said happily, popping the P. “Get on the mat, shrink.”
Wyatt scowled, but stepped onto the mat, bouncing on the balls of his feet while he warmed up. Zephyr stretched his arms over his head one more time, exposing his washboard abs as his tank top rode up. Rafe laughed, nudging me as he saw the same thing.
Wyatt was about to get crushed.
“Remember, no affinities.” Zephyr said.
“I don’t need any affinities.” Wyatt muttered.
Fuck. Now I wasn’t sure who was about to win.
Zephyr threw the first punch, advancing on Wyatt quickly. But Wyatt was an experienced fighter, trained in the Royal military. He blocked Zephyr easily before landing a few jabs to his ribs.
Zephyr barely winced, dodging another punch before he nailed Wyatt in the stomach. Wyatt grunted, but otherwise didn’t react.
They traded blows for several minutes, and it quickly became obvious that they were evenly matched. I started to relax slightly. Maybe if they didn’t hurt each other too badly, Skye wouldn’t be too angry. Or maybe if they hurt each other equally, Skye wouldn’t be too angry. At least not at me.
I glanced at Rafe next to me, unsurprised to see he was totally focused, his dark eyes darting back and forth in time with the punches. His hands were clenched into fists, his arms wincing to block or punch in time with Wyatt.
“This is too easy,” Zephyr panted slightly after nailing Wyatt in the jaw. Wyatt’s head snapped back, and he grunted.
“Fuck, not the face!” Wyatt growled.
“My sister is stuck with you, she won’t care if I break your jaw.” Zephyr said roughly. Wyatt threw a combo to Zephyr’s face, clipping his cheekbone. “Dude! She’ll be pissed if you hurt my face, though.”
“Your sister is already mad at me, how much worse could it get?” Wyatt said.
She actually wasn’t mad at him at all anymore, I was pretty sure.
She and Wyatt had shared a desperate kiss outside the door and then she’d invited him to stay with us.
Rafe and I made eye contact as he was obviously thinking the same.
Zephyr must’ve been too busy with Willow and Mia already to have known.
“Why are you okay with that?!” Zephyr shouted suddenly. He shoved Wyatt in a very non-sparring way. Rafe cringed.
Wyatt stumbled backward, then caught himself. “I’m not!” He cried, his voice raised. “It fucking kills me!”
Rafe hissed through his teeth.
“Why don’t you fucking fix it?!” Zephyr swung hard, and Wyatt barely shifted away in time. “Why do you keep making it worse?!”
“I’m fucking trying,” Wyatt panted as Zephyr landed a punch to his stomach. “I’m trying to–”
Zephyr clipped Wyatt’s jaw with another brutal punch, and Wyatt stumbled onto the mat.
“Ah, fuck.” Rafe muttered from beside me, looking like he wanted to intervene.
I was chewing my fucking nails, I was so stressed. Neither of them could get seriously hurt right now. Skye might actually be…disappointed in me.
Bile rose at the back of my throat, and I dipped my head slightly to try breathing through it. One of Rafe’s hands gripped my shoulder. He jumped at the heat rolling off of me, but then tightened his grip with resolve.
“He’s fine,” he said lowly.
I nodded, even though I wasn’t sure which man he meant. I was equally worried for both of them. I could only imagine how much worse this fight would be if Wyatt knew–
“I don’t know how your fucking sister puts up with you,” Zephyr growled.
“Don’t fucking talk about my sister,” Wyatt snarled. “You don’t know her.”
Zephyr snorted. “I know her a lot better than you think.”
“Oh, no.” I said out loud, then snapped my jaw shut so hard, my teeth clacked.
Rafe looked at me, then Zephyr, and then his jaw practically hit the ground.
“What?” Wyatt snapped. “What the fuck does that mean?”
Zephyr only shrugged.
“You fucker–” Wyatt cut off abruptly as Zephyr blocked his punch, landing a blow to Wyatt’s ribs.
“Damn,” Rafe whistled. “Zeph landed Willow?”
“And Mia,” I muttered.
Every man jerked their attention to me.
“Mia?” Wyatt repeated, his voice a little higher than usual.
I cringed. “Sorry,” I said to Zephyr. “We ran into Willow coming out of your room.”
Zephyr gave me a shit-eating grin in response, and Wyatt looked like he was about to enter another orbit.
“Fuck you, you fucking touched my sister?!” Wyatt cried.
“Yeah, and I didn’t run away after. It was pretty easy to stay with her, actually.” Zephyr said, still grinning.
Rafe hissed through his teeth again.
Wyatt exploded, sending punch after wild punch at Zephyr, but Zephyr was completely calm, blocking and dodging each blow like it was a dance.
It was quite a sight, and maybe I should have been paying better attention, since he was doing exactly what he’d tried to teach me this morning, but my focus was stuck on how pissed Wyatt was.
He wasn’t pulling any punches. His hits were growing erratic.
“You stay the fuck away from my sister,” Wyatt said, landing a hard hit to Zephyr’s shoulder. Zephyr hissed, but dodged the next blow.
“Funny, I tried telling you the same thing,” Zephyr panted, still determined to jab Wyatt emotionally.
“We’re in a fucking Chain!” Wyatt cried. “I can’t stay away even if I wanted to.”
“Oh? You don’t want to anymore?” Zephyr taunted. “Need her to fix your affinities, do you?”
“Fuck you!” Wyatt snarled. “You’re using Willow to get back at me.”
“I wanted her before I knew she was your sister,” Zephyr snapped back. “She’s perfect, Wyatt, and you treat her like shit. Seems to be a theme with you and women.”
Wyatt bellowed in frustration, launching himself at Zephyr and taking him to the ground.
Sparring time was over.
They wrestled around on the mat for a few minutes while I looked on, distressed as fuck.
I had my hands in my hair and everything, jumping up and down not knowing what to do.
I couldn’t interfere without potentially getting hurt, and I wasn’t the interfering type, anyway.
Especially not between two alpha males in a scrap like this.
“Fucking fuck,” Rafe muttered.
“Should we…?” I trailed off, hoping Rafe understood that we meant him and not us.
“No,” Rafe said. “This could be good. They might be getting somewhere.”
I didn’t think he knew what the fuck he was talking about, but all thoughts left my head as Zephyr pinned Wyatt.
“Fuck you,” Wyatt panted. “You’ll never be good enough for her–”
“No, fuck you, Wyatt.” Zephyr snarled. “I’d rather my sister never meet her full potential than connect with you. And if she ever asks me what I think, I’ll tell her to forget you fucking exist.”
Then, Zephyr slammed the heel of his palm down right on Wyatt’s thigh, and a sickening crack rang out as the bone snapped clean in half.