Chapter 24
MAXIM POV
Oh she’ll talk. She doesn’t realise the fucking challenge she’s just unleashed inside me. There is nothing more infuriating than her perked up little eyebrow. Or more devastating than her brown eyes quickly fluttering shut with pain.
She’s got a voice. She’s perfectly capable of using it.
But she’s going to ignore me?
When I fucking stood up for her? I’m going to the flogging of a lifetime for hitting Vigo but something about seeing her wolf limp past me, then the blood spatters in her wake.
It made something inside me tick. Not steadily or sensibly. More like a countdown. The fuse spiralling downwards towards some dastardly ruin.
I told flirty Allette to back the fuck off. I listened to my wolf’s sound advice.
But Tessa won’t take my guidance?
This was always going to happen! I should have known when Irene scampered past me. Even when in wolf form I know a sheepish, useless coward when
I see one
Betrayal is hard–wired into shifters. We’re a nation of throne–stealing, pack–building, paranoid animals after all. We feed on lies and deception. Districts don’t move, people don’t change. They obey. Pack animals obeying a leader most will never even meet in their lifetime.
How could the huge Vigo have swiped at her so cruelly?
Tracing my fingers over the wound, the depth his claws ravaged her was terrifying. Another few centimetres and her organs would have been ruptured.
What else should I have done but put the bastard in his place? In a battle to stay at the top of the pile, Tessa needs to learn it is aggression, not kindness that secures the top spot. That’s why ruthless bitches like Allette will be fine.
Annoyingly, Vigo was surprisingly strong. It certainly wasn’t the triumphant pounding I had intended to deliver. He matched each of my blows with his own return but I had the measure of the spineless bastard. Smashing my forehead into his wasn’t ideal but it did the job.
He was easy enough to find. Stood on his own. Long silver hair half–tied into a ponytail, the rest falling down past his shoulders. Icy gray eyes. Soulless. But then I just hate the fucker, others might find him handsome.
Today has also seen me lose three perfectly good dark blue shirts. What a joke.
The plan was so fucking simple too.
Show up with her arrows in a bouquet. Get back in the good books. Get her bite. Maybe indulge myself in a kiss before we part inside Block E. Bubble
restored.
Not to mention the impending death and destruction heading everyone’s way when Donlon and Luna Sabrina are eventually rumbled.
I bet that would make her talk.
If I don’t amuse myself about how shit this situation is becoming I’ll despair. And that can’t happen. Despair is the same as that fucking cliff drop. A journey with no return.
Tessa’s soft brown eyes meeting mine over the swinging door made a whole other emotion erupt. Frustration mixed with something else. Something warm and burning, deep inside my chest. So raw and hot a feeling, I found myself being too rough with her, forgetting myself.
Only to veer back into idiocy by kissing her soft, inviting stomach, inhaling her sharp citrus scent with genuine pleasure. So different from everything else around here.
1/4
Chapter 24
The same torturous, twisting feeling that led me to kiss her in the dark, assuming that would fix everything, it normally does
Untold amounts of arguments with women have been solved with a swaggering grab and a slam of the lips. Halfway through that torture with Werden Marshall and the log earlier today, during blinding pain and wandering hallucinations I wondered if there was a chance that might work on him
At least my bite mark is back is restored. One goal achieved.
I almost left her to it when she pushed away and began gathering her arrows. My wolf even pressed for me to call it a night. I could only fuck it up more from here. After she left, I leant against the doorframe, the cool breeze helping my pounding forehead.
“Fucking hell, what a night.”
Maybe Kai or Silas will walk on by. I can crash at theirs and give her Block E for the night.
Only to see her gently curvaceous figure striding the other way bow and arrows clenched tightly. My gaze is fixed, studying her fierce little expression. Realising she wants to practice I feel a grin surface for the first time in hours.
“Good girl Tessa,” fumbles its way out of my mouth.
Weirdly, I want to help her. I don’t know how but leaving it where we currently stand isn’t going to work. I don’t have a conscience. I do have a game plan.
Forgoing my usual approach of steamrollering into a situation I give it some consideration. There isn’t long until curfew. Maybe I can help. Like a fool who has learned nothing, I head towards the tall, twisting tower that landed me in so much shit last night.
Except Marshall and Donlon are stood talking outside, glaring at some late–leaving students.
“Oh!” Warden Marshall exclaims, pointing his metal truncheon my way. His blonde halo of fuzz is way too near to the firey torches. “You’ve got a fucking nerve. Come to rupture any more first–years faces have you? Prince Remy wants your balls on a platter!”
“Easy,” Donlon offers, his palms flat, smoothing down the situation like bed linen. “I’m guessing you’ve come to apologise, put this right?” He raises his eyebrow, the tiniest tilt of his head towards the seething man next to him.
My mentor, the man I’ve followed every step of the way, is giving me an opening. A way to make this situation better and keep my testicles. A few weeks ago I’d have jumped on it. Any way to save my own hide and dodge a punishment.
“Actually, no. The prick deserved everything he got. Or do we allow full combat in scent–tracing now?”
“We will not entertain a debate with you,” Marshall replies, gray eyes narrowing. The truncheon remains high in his grip.
Donlon’s hand remain flat and wide, attempting to keep peace. “We don’t know exactly what happened so let’s not-‘
“Tessa had the scent bag, he tackled her. She’s ended up with claw marks so deep I worried I’d be tucking her fucking organs back in! So unless you’ve started adding bear–traps into the mix, he’s fucking attacked her…but if Prince Remy wants my balls I’ll tell him exactly why I fought Vigo tonight.”
“You need to calm down,” Donlon urges. “I know she’s your mate but-”
“Didnt Princess Hazel do scent training for a year? So, what if she came back like that?”
“Don’t bring the Alpha’s family into this,” Donlon snaps, the flat hand turning to an accusing, jabbing point. “They are absolutely not part of this issue.”
“Maybe they should be,” I snap back, noticing the quick, tense clench to Warden Marshall’s jaw. Donlon’s poise doesn’t crumple for a second. He sees no double meaning, no veiled suggestions.
I’m in the clear with him. Clearly his mind was elsewhere last night.
“Tessa is being accused of cheating, favoritism. All kinds of shit.” meeting my mentor with a glare that makes Marshall’s truncheon rise a several inches higher.
Where the fuck this fire is coming from don’t really know. I’ve always pushed against authority then pulled back. Like a fat tuna out on the ocean,
2/4
Chapter 24
hooked on a line and destined to die. I’ve been playing the push–pull back and forth tease for years against these authority figures.
This is the equivalent of trying to swim away by ripping my own face off the hook.
“It’s almost curfew, you aren’t getting anything changed tonight.”
“I’ve come to ask for permission to break curfew.”
“You must think I’m soft in the fucking head Pagano,” Warden Marshall starts but I interrupt anyway.
“Tessa wants to practice the landmine archery drill. Can I run the target pulleys? She’ll want to practice until after curfew, so I wanted to get her some permission in place.”
Both men stand in quiet shock. Maybe they’re mind–linking. I hope so because otherwise it’s just two men in soft gray and white uniforms staring weirdly at me. But eventually, reluctantly they say yes.
“I’ll head down with you,” Donlon offers, a fatherly smile on his face. The one he always gives when I’ve dodged trouble by the skin of my teeth.
Marshall says flatly, “I’ll let the other Wardens know,” turning and heading back inside the packhouse. Like he always does when I’ve pissed him off.
We set off down the gravel path together. “Am I getting flogged for the Vigo thing then?”
Donlon scrunches his nose. “Nah. Sounds like the guy deserved it. I’ll try and smooth it over. I need you to do something for me though. This is serious
now.”
“What do you need?” feeling the air thicken around me.
Donlon checks around, talking out of the side of his mouth quietly. “You’ve got a mission coming up. don’t know much details. It’s coming. It’s your promotion shot.”
I don’t have words. Just a rush of adrenaline. Yes. About fucking time. Yes.
“Okay. I’m ready. I know I am.”
“I know. But…Your mate. This Tessa girl.”
“What about her?”
“What do you really know about her?”
“I know enough,” visibly bristling. Without realising we’ve come to a halt, just before the field containing a prowling, anxious Tessa. “Why?”
“Just…Sometimes firsts mate are more of a learning curve than a lifetime.”
“You’re saying I should reject her? Seriously? We’ve not even been mated a month.”
“That is a positive, it will hurt less! I’m just saying, it might benefit you both.”
My brain is slowly melting away. How can he be advising this? Are people seeing through us?
“There are plenty of other mated couples here. Didn’t Alpha Hale say he wants to encourage mate bonded-”
“They are not causing a scene. She just wants to pass. She doesn’t want your…notoriety, Maxim. You’re not cut out for a life of good monogamy. You’re going to be a fucking assassin! Seduction and all those tricks to con a partner’s affections are part of your damn sk…….”
and
“Just give me my shot. Don’t worry about my love life. Good night,” nodding with what little respect I have left for Donlon before snaking quietly through the field adjoining Tessa’s.
Watching her serious face soften when she saw me working the pulley’s was totally worth it. All of it. I’ll get my chance and I’ll prove what I’m worth. But
3/4
49
Tue, 3 Jun
81%0
Chapter 24
shit, the bubble I’m trying to keep around Tessa is getting more precarious by the second.
Just how many lies can I dance with before I fall over.
“Thank you!” she shouts out after two hours of practice. My arms are killing. “I think we need to call it a night though!” she adds.
I almost broke my own ankle jogging through the moss towards her.
“I agree,” was all I managed to answer before she grabbed me. Her quick hands yank my jacket towards her. This time she is the seducer and I allow myself to fall, hook, line and sinker into her charms.
Only for her to squeak when I lift her up with ease.
But I’m not carrying her back to that shitty, miserable bedroom just yet. No chance.
AD
