Chapter 303

“That was awesome!” Jesse pants, pumping his fists in the air when we arrive back at the Castle forty-five minutes later. Both Jackson and Rafe beam at each other as they, too, catch their breath, apparently agreeing with him.

But as I drag myself gasping up the last little hill towards the door, my arms screaming against the weight of the rifle, my legs aching and my heart pounding, all I can do is glare to demonstrate that I vehemently do not agree with them.

Jackson’s plan was as devious as it was simple. All I had to do was run our regular route and then, at intervals that he planned out, stop and…shoot. You know, just attempt to aim and fire accurately at a moving target – usually Jesse – while my heart pounded, and my breath rasped, and my hands struggled to hold the gun steady.

And then, as I usually failed miserably to hit anything I aimed at, I had to run to catch up with the group! Just start sprinting, as soon as my heart rate lowered enough to fire, to catch up with these stupid Alphas and their big long legs.

“I hate,” I pant, gasping in air as I glare at all three of them, finally getting to the group, “all of you.”

“It’ll get easier, Ari,” Rafe says, grinning at me with his hands on his hips. “Though this was an amazing idea, Jackson – I love it – I want to do it too –“

I glare at my brother, my fingers tightening possessively on the rifle, making him laugh.

“You did so good, Ari!” Jesse laughs, turning a little so I can see the splatters of purple paint that stretch down his back where I hit him twice. “You actually got me! I’m very impressed.”

“Seriously, Ari, you’re going to get better and better as we do this every day,” Jackson says, grinning at me and putting an encouraging hand between my shoulder blades.

“Every. Day?” I gasp, staring up at him in shock.

My mate’s grin deepens. “It’s a useful way to combine fitness with a new skill. We’ll run further and further apart – we’ll have you basically sniping on the run in no time -”

“I’ve changed my mind!” I groan, my shoulders slumping as I take a stumbling step towards my mate, looking up at him with pleading eyes. “I don’t want to be ambitious anymore! I don’t want to learn new things! Or, if I do, I want to take up something quiet and peaceful, like illustrating manuscripts – I’ll knit for the war effort -“

“Nah, it’s a great idea,” Jesse says, coming to my other side and adding his own hand to my back so that he and Jackson can sweep me forward between them into the Castle. “And when you get really good at it, you can run, and I’ll shoot at you!”

“Never,” I growl, whipping my head to glare up at him. My cousin just laughs at me, looking forward with interest as we enter the castle. And even if my lungs still ache, and my body feels absolutely wiped of any energy that Jackson gave me this morning – I do have to admit, I see how the skill is useful. If I can move and shoot as accurately as I do laying calmly in a blind?

Yeah. I get it.

“Hurry up, Clark!” Rafe says, clapping his hands behind me and making me skitter forward as he laughs. “No dragging your feet now! We’ve got breakfast to get to!”

I snarl as I glance over my shoulder at my brother, but I hurry my steps as told. Because breakfast – and all the coffee I can drink – sounds amazing right now.

Unfortunately, the moment we enter the breakfast hall, our little group of four goes completely still. Because as we look around, it’s perfectly clear that…something is very different here. That something quite big has changed.

“Where…where is everyone?” I whisper, noting that half of the tables in the hall are empty – aren’t even set for breakfast.

“Holy shit,” Rafe whispers next to me, looking over at Jacks.

Jackson just looks grimly over at him.

“What’s going on?” Jesse asks, as anxious as me. “What am I missing?”

“Come on,” Rafe says, his voice grim, reaching out a hand and wrapping it around my arm protectively. “Let’s talk about it as a group.”

The four of us walk over to our little table where Luca and Ben are already sitting. As soon as we do, someone stands up from a table halfway across the room and begins to walk towards ours as well. Despite everything, my face brightens to see that it’s Tony.

“Does this mean what I think it means?” Tony asks, arriving at the table as we do.

I sit down in my seat, craning my neck to look around at my friends, my hand slipping instantly beneath the table cloth and into Luca’s, who sits on my right. He gives it a squeeze.

“Look,” Rafe sighs, looking first at Tony and then around at everyone else. “Jacks and I don’t have more information than anyone else but…”

“But yeah,” Jacks cuts in when Rafe’s words fail him. “Yeah, I think that the room is empty because they sent the second-year Cadets to the front.”

I gasp, my eyes going wide, my free hand flying to my chest as I process this.

“What the fuck man,” Ben murmurs, running a hand through his hair and looking anxiously towards the empty half of the room. “Cadets, at war? Has this…ever happened before?”

“It hasn’t,” Rafe answers, raising his head, the set of his mouth grim. “In the twenty years that the school has been open, Moon Valley has never called up its Cadets, its least-trained warriors.”

“This is bad,” Luca whispers, and I raise my eyes to look into his worried brown ones. “Really bad.”

I squeeze his hand, agreeing with him, and then cast my eyes around at all of my friends. “Are…are they going to call us up to?”

“No way to know,” Jackson says, staring down at the table, his mind clearly working as he sits down in his spot next to me. “If they do it means that it’s…dire. That the war is going very badly and that they’re getting desperate.”

“Shit,” Tony whispers, crossing his arms and looking down at the floor.

Rafe and Jesse sit too, but silence reigns around our table, just as it does all of the others.

Because even if I did spend the morning chasing my brother and my cousin around with a paintball gun…it’s never been more obvious than it is right now that we’re not playing games. Not at all.

That this is very, very real.

“Whoa,” Tony says, causing each of us to raise our heads and look at him. But he’s looking over my shoulder at the door, one eyebrow raised in significant Alpha interest. “Who the hell is that?”

As one, we all turn in the direction of his gaze and I sigh when I see that the person who’s caught his interest?

She’s here for me.

Faiza’s mouth quirks into a smirk as she strides confidently over to our table, dressed as usual in her form-hugging black leather-and-spandex outfit, her silky dark hair swinging moodily into her face. “Well,” she says, her smirk deepening as she crosses her arms and looks each of the boys over in turn. “Good to know I still command attention when I enter a room.”

“Hey, Faiza,” I sigh, turning in my chair and staring worriedly up at her.

“Give me a minute,” she murmurs, taking her turn running her eyes over each of the boys in turn. “I’m not done here.”

“Faiza!” I scold, jumping to my feet. “You’re a professor!”

“I’m your professor,” she says, laughing, grinning and finally turning her eyes to me. “Not theirs. Who’s your new boy?” She points her thumb over at Tony.

“Hi, I’m Anton Davis,” Tony says, moving smoothly around our table and looking Faiza slowly over from head to foot. “And where have you been all my lif–“

“Oh, cut it, Tony,” I growl, moving fast and stepping in front of Faiza – holding out a hand to block him. Tony stops in his tracks but otherwise ignores me, giving Faiza a vicious grin over my head.

“Hey, Tony,” Faiza says, her voice low and sultry. I spin with a gasp to see her wrinkling her nose at him, clearly enjoying this. “You look like fun. Like someone I could toss around.”

“Listen, you can toss me around any time you want –“

“Ew, ew!” I shout, slapping my hands over my ears and glaring between them. “This is done! Over! Faiza!” I turn to her now with a glare. “Did you need me for something!?”

“Sure did, cream puff,” she says, turning her eyes cheerfully to me. “Class is starting early today. Let’s go.”

“Why?”

“Because I said so,” she returns, giving me a too-sweet smile, violence lurking beneath it as she silently dares me to defy her.

“But –“ I gasp, risking life and limb as I turn desperately back to the table, my eyes flicking over the pastries in the basket. There are even donuts today –

“Oh, just take it with you,” Faiza says, reaching out and grabbing a whole carafe of coffee off the table, which makes the majority of the boys gasp in protest. “Quiet, minions,” she sighs, rolling her eyes at them. “They’ll bring you another.”

“Here, let me carry that for you,” Tony murmurs, moving closer to us, “it’s very heavy –“

“Away,” I snarl, giving Tony a sharp push on the chest before reaching for the pastry basket that Jackson pulls closer to me, handing me a wide white napkin in which to wrap my choices. I send Jacks a warm pulse of thanks down the bond and his wolf responds with a snarly little growl of love that makes me beam down at him for a spare moment. It’s very difficult to resist dropping a kiss to his cheek as well, but somehow I manage it.

“All right, let’s go,” Faiza says when I straighten up, my pastries secured. “See you boys later,” she says, glancing back at the table of Alphas, her voice dropping a sultry octave as she again lets her eyes slip over each of them in turn.

“Don’t torture them,” I sigh, shaking my head at my professor as we head for the door.

“Aw,” she says, giving me a sneaky wink, “don’t take away my fun. I have so few pleasures in this dank little castle, Ari.”

I just roll my eyes at my professor and follow her down the stairwell to her office, wondering what the hell she’s got in store for me next.