Love's Entanglement

by Flynn Eire

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  1

  2 ~ Philo

  3

  4 ~ Philo

  5

  6 ~ Philo

  7

  8

  9 ~ Philo

  Sneak Peek: Denver

  Find A New Series To Love…

  Or A Different Genre…

  Sneak Peek: The Transition

  About the Author

  Other Titles by Flynn Eire

  A Supernatural Script Inc. Book

  Months after the Zakasacs attack the camp, Norris Adley is doing everything he can to get through the day-to-day and back to the program where he will actually learn something. He’d always dreamed of becoming a pilot, and during stressful times that’s where he takes sanctuary—in the camp helicopter. Unfortunately, Philo Sutton, the warrior in charge the chopper, finally catches Norris in the act. Norris, in his socially awkward fashion, runs his mouth and gets himself further in trouble with Philo.

  Not sure what’s really been going on at the camp, Philo’s got more than a few questions as to why this post-trans is in his space and messing with his things. Normally a quiet person, Philo decides that helping the group is better than keeping his past private, so Philo shares his family with the residents of the camp and somehow agrees to take on Norris as a student. Can Philo keep his personal, family, and teaching lives separate, or will everything become part of love's entanglement?

  1

  I was hiding. I did that a lot. But I was in my favorite place to hide, to think, just have a minute to myself, away from the pressures of watchful eyes, way too much to study, and the constant threat of another attack. Granted, it had been months since the Zakasacs had tried to infiltrate the camp, but everyone was always on high alert knowing they wouldn’t just let go of losing Gilroy and not try again.

  It really made everyone cranky and on edge. I didn’t do well with that and now that Verge had passed his tests to be a full warrior, I was the oldest post-trans in my class… Not that it meant much because I was as clueless as the rest of them. No one seemed to be able to get back on point and focus us.

  So when they got scattered, or the newer ones to have transitioned started pestering Matteo with questions he couldn’t answer—hadn’t been able to answer for months—I snuck off and went to my favorite place.

  “Roger, tower, I’m at echo location,” I muttered into the headset, jerking at the controls. Then just to put the final nail in my dork coffin, I pushed air through my lips to make chopper sounds. “I’ve got the cargo and I’m coming back. No sign of hostiles but I’ve got the guns loaded and we’re ready.”

  “Helps if you get in the air to be much use,” a deep voice chuckled in the headset. I froze and slowly turned to look over my shoulder, meeting the bright hazel eyes I avoided like the plague. “So you’re the one who keeps messing with my seat.”

  “I put it back,” I practically squeaked. He raised an eyebrow at me and I winced. “I thought I did.” He took off the headphones, and I did the same, realizing he put them on just to talk to me. “Sorry.”

  “So what am I going to do with you, huh? A real live stowaway on my whirlybird.” He eyed me over and then a wide smile formed on his lips. “Oh, you’re swabbing the deck, matey.”

  “There’s no deck on a chopper, sir,” I hedged, sliding out of his seat.

  “Doesn’t mean it can’t be washed.” Philo threw back his head and laughed as he climbed out. I followed after him, hoping he really was kidding. I might have transitioned but it wasn’t like I had fully filled in yet. My lean six-two frame was nothing compared to his six-seven one. I mean, he had to have over a hundred pounds of muscle on me.

  I didn’t think I could reach everything.

  “There’s a stepladder by the buckets,” he called over as if knowing what I was thinking while staring at his whirlybird.

  “Not sure the punishment fits the crime,” I grumbled, heading to the supply cabinet in the front of the garage. “I just sat in the damn thing. There’s no rule against that.” I grabbed what I needed and closed the door, swallowing my tongue when those hazel eyes were right there again.

  “Do you not talk enough to know who can hear your muttering or did you want to end up cleaning my room too?” Philo challenged.

  “I never say anything I wouldn’t say to someone’s face,” I answered, still, ducking my head in embarrassment. “I’m not a gossip. No one said we couldn’t sit in the chopper, and once we became post-trans, we got more liberties and freedom.”

  “Nice way to frame it, but I’m pretty sure you still can’t sit at Rune’s terminal at the command center and have playtime there either. It’s not about you being in the chopper. You need to learn you’re messing with people’s work space and not screw with things you could fuck up. You could forget to flip a switch I never touch and could miss before taking off and we crash. You could break a dial or a hundred other things.”

  “Yes, sir,” I whispered, hurrying off with the bucket before he said something else. Philo had this great knack of making me feel about two inches tall. Playtime? I hadn’t been taking tea in the chopper with my stuffed animals. Granted, I was playing, but people play video games and it didn’t sound so demeaning.

  And I hadn’t screwed with his precious controls.

  “Where does Matteo think you are, Norris?” Philo asked after I pulled the hose over.

  “I don’t know. He was too busy answering all the panicked questions of the other post-trans and being distracted by the attack and what it means like always,” I bitched and then shut my mouth. I slowly turned around to take in Philo’s shocked expression. “I didn’t mean that the way it came out.”

  “Oh, I think you did.” He studied me closely and then nodded. “Wash my baby good while I go talk to your instructor. I’ll see you at my room when you’re done so you can clean that too.”

  “You’re going to tell him what I said, aren’t you?” I whispered, shaking so bad I dropped the sponge. “They’ll kick me out of the program.”

  “It doesn’t seem as if this program is a very good fit for you though, Norris.” Philo turned and headed off and my heart crushed into dozens of pieces. I didn’t want to get kicked out.

  Truth be told I wanted the program it was before the attack. Everything got so screwed up since then. Either way, getting kicked out of a program meant I couldn’t ever be a warrior and I’d wanted to be a warrior since I knew what one was and seen my dad’s sword for the first time. I hadn’t understood I’d been born to be one, and still I had wanted it.

  Now I was going to lose it. It really was salt in the wound that he was making me wash the damn chopper I dreamed of flying first. How horrible it was to use my sanctuary against me.

  2 ~ Philo

  I walked into the gym where the training offices and classrooms were and found chaos. Matteo looked ready to pull out his hair or maybe praying it was time to hit the bottle.

  “How much longer until they come back?” one post-trans badgered.

  “Will they mate us? Someone said they can mate us now.”

  “Would they take the pre-trans first?”

  “Oh for the love of fuck, shut it,” I growled at the dozen post-trans. Then I shook my head. “How did we go from one to over a dozen?”

  “Apparently the stress and fear of the attack pushed up several transition dates, which we didn’t know could happen,” Matteo mumbled, moving closer to me and scrubbing his head. “Which has, in turn, freaked them out even more. I don’t know what to do anymore.”

  “Have you talked to Alexander?”

  He shot me an unfriendly look. “Yeah, who doesn’t want to go to their boss and admit they can’t do their job anymore.�
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  “Dude, you rock your job, but I think this is bigger than that. They all looked…” I trailed off and glanced at the post-trans. “Panicked. Maybe we just need a counselor in here.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been thinking that too but it’s not like we’ve got a lot of them available.” He blew a harsh breath out and then shook his head. “What’s up? Why are you actually in the training gym, flyboy?”

  “Umm, I found one of your post-trans playing in my whirlybird and from the amount of times I’ve noticed the seat out of place, it’s not the first time.”

  “Norris,” he sighed, scrubbing his face. “He’s the only one not affected and freaked out. He’s getting the short end of all of this, and I’m not surprised he’s sneaking off to entertain himself.”

  “Dude, how long has this been going on?”

  “Since the attack.”

  “That was four months ago, Matteo!” I couldn’t even hold back my shock. He’d had this kind of chaos going on since then? Holy shit!

  “No kidding, Philo, I was there,” he growled. “Everyone was panicked. Then we had twelve transition when only six were supposed to. That was more panic. Pushing them isn’t always the best plan. It’s just been festering and snowballing.”

  “Dude, you need a vacation,” I mumbled, taking in his exhausted state.

  “Sure, as soon as someone else steps up and helps me with this mess or figures out what to do,” he drawled. “I’d love to see my mate or, hell, breathe.”

  Matteo and I weren’t all that tight, but we were still brothers in arms and I was seriously scared for him. “Does Norris want to be a pilot?”

  “Yeah, that’s his preferred field. Marked it down his first day here as if anyone cared when he was a pre-trans,” Matteo chuckled. “We all thought it was adorable.” He shook his head and headed towards his office. “Until we had him tested. His aptitude is off the charts. We’ve screened him for pilot aptitude as well and he’s aced it.” Then he snorted, glancing at me over his shoulder once he reached the filing cabinet. “He’s memorized the manual for your whirlybird and I’ve seen drawings for new designs.”

  “Wow, not bad.” I cleared my throat and took the file. “Doesn’t mean he can fly.” Still made the resume hot. I mean, Norris was cute as a pre-trans, enough so that he’d stood out to me with those turquoise eyes and caramel hair, but now he was, yeah, good-looking, since he wasn’t a twerp. I flipped through the file and nodded. “Okay, I’ll take this one off your hands while you get the others figured out.” I shut the file and smirked at Matteo’s shocked expression.

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, seriously, man. You’re drowning here. I don’t mean to be a dick, but get some help. Get a shrink in here, stick them all in group therapy for a week, you go to a spa and recharge, and then get back to it.”

  “That should be everyone’s advice around here,” he grumbled, crossing his arms around his chest. “You can’t not have noticed that most people are in just as bad of shape.”

  I shrugged, having caught the tail end of people’s extra cranky but nothing like what I was seeing now. “Then we all need counselors. I don’t know. I fly and I do my shit. That’s it.”

  “Must be nice. Sounds nice. We do all need a vacation but it’s not like we can leave the camp.”

  Again I shrugged. “Call in some of the Wyrok. A few of them could handle it and I think they’d do it in a heartbeat to get one of the best camps back on track.”

  “And where would we go?” Matteo pushed, raising an eyebrow at me.

  I opened my mouth and then shut it, not wanting to get too personal with everyone, but I had a feeling we were definitely at desperate times level. “I might actually have an idea on that too, with counselors. You get the first part, the base covered and the brass to okay it, I’ll handle the rest.”

  “Where are you going to pull a destination vacation out of your ass with counselors who can help traumatized pre and post-trans not to mention bitchy warriors?”

  “Ever heard of La Salvezza?”

  “Yeah,” Matteo hedged, frowning as if trying to place it. “It’s where our kind go if they lose their mates, right? They try to help people to survive the loss of the bond. It’s The Salvation in Italian, right?”

  “Yeah.” He waited for me to say more, so I sighed, scrubbing my hand over my head. “It’s my family’s estate. They run it. My parents both lost their first mates and it took my grandparents, who were friends, coming together and finding a way to save them. As fate would have it, somehow, over the years of helping others, my parents fell in love while raising the kids they had. Then they had more kids, and turned the estate into a haven for those who lost their mates.”

  “None of us lost our mates,” Matteo hedged.

  “No, but we need some salvation and a haven it seems,” I muttered, nodding back to the post-trans who were arguing amongst themselves. “Plus my entire family besides me are counselors or shrinks. They’re actually the most mentally healthy people you’ll ever meet.”

  “I’ve known you for years and I didn’t know any of this.”

  I shrugged once again. “I keep my work and personal separate. I’ll take Norris on, but let me know if Alexander approves it and Helios can get some Wyrok guys in here to help out. I can get my parents to make room for us. The pre-trans are small, and at worst, we’ll have to double up on rooms.”

  He looked back at the guys and nodded. “Yeah, I think we’re definitely at DEFCON extreme.

  “The Zakasacs never grouped up like that and full-out attacked before. I was ready to shit a brick too, but we’ve seen other battles. This was their first.”

  “I know, which was why I was giving them time to come to terms with this, but it’s getting worse, not better.”

  “As is losing a mate sometimes.” I gave him a knowing look as to why I thought of my parents’ home, and he nodded.

  “I’ll talk to Alexander right away.”

  We said our goodbyes and I headed back to my new charge. Here I’d planned to give him a little shit, find out what was going on with Matteo’s normally pristine program and how Norris could have fallen through the cracks and what was up with the attitude. I really, really hadn’t planned on adopting a protégé.

  I tucked the file away in my desk at the garage where those of us in charge of the equipment or who used it ended up instead of the command center. Then I went to tell Norris the good news.

  “So apparently I’m taking you on as—” I called over.

  “What?” he exclaimed, turning to face me with wide eyes.

  Unfortunately he was using the hose at the time. I sputtered as he squirted me with the power washer, moving my hands out in front of me. “Shut it down!”

  “Right, sorry,” he muttered as he cut off the water. “What did you say? I thought you were getting me kicked out.”

  “Now I might be considering that,” I growled, wiping my face. “Get me a fucking towel, you twit.”

  “Sorry.” I heard him run off and then come back, shoving one in my hands. I hurried to wipe off and heard him hiss. “Umm, is your face all red because you’re that mad at me or because the high pressure hurts?”

  “What do you think?” I snapped. “I was too close to you to take the power washer to the face.”

  “I’m really sorry. You startled me.”

  “Apparently.”

  “Ouch, that really looks painful. Anything you need?”

  I had lots of scathing comments, but considering he was all blurry and my eyes burned from getting hit by a pressure washer by about five feet away, I just wanted to heal. “No, my head throbs, mostly with the need to strangle you. I’m going to go lie down and curse myself for what I just agreed to. Come see me when you’re done and don’t fuck up my baby.”

  I didn’t wait for him to say anything, heading blindly over to where I knew the warrior building was. By the time I reached the elevator, my eyes had healed enough that my vision was simply drunk blurry, no
t punched-in-the-eyes-miserable burning. Either way, I was seriously rethinking what I’d just agreed to with Matteo.

  But it wasn’t like I could back out.

  And really, one stupid incident with him being startled while holding a power washer that he’d probably never used before from his lack of skill with it, didn’t mean he couldn’t be a great pilot who wasn’t meant to wash the helo.

  It did mean not to startle the idiot.

  I hit the bed the moment I reached my room, debating if I should call my mum and warn her what we might be planning. I thought better of it after a few minutes of lying there. There was a slim to nil chance that the brass of warriors was going to allow a healing trip after we were attacked and, before that, lost one of our own and another taken. We didn’t work like that.

  And normally I would be cool with that, but things were changing. The stakes of the game were raised and we seriously needed to be on more solid ground. I fully thought we needed it. Then again, I had been raised with very mentally stable people who believed mental health was as important as physical conditioning for any war.

  I wasn’t sure I always agreed with that, but after seeing how the post-trans and Matteo had fallen apart and the training process in shambles, I was thinking my three hundred seventy-five years didn’t hold a candle to what my parents knew. So that was why I let the cat out of the bag as to where I was from and who my family was. Maybe it would help, maybe it wouldn’t. Either way, Matteo wasn’t the type to run his mouth so I didn’t think everyone would be gossiping about me having grown up at La Salvezza.

  I must have zonked out for a bit because the next thing I knew there was a timid knock at the door. “Yeah?”

  “It’s me, sir. You told me to come when I was done.”

  “Yeah, I know, come in,” I grumbled, pushing up. I blinked around the room and sighed with relief. My vision was back.

  Then Norris stepped into the room and squatted down in front of me. “Your face looks all better. Does it still hurt?”

  “No, I’m fine. It just stung a bit right after and it was mostly my eyes.” I shut my mouth, unsure of why I was being so forward when I never really said much of anything. “I’m going to go take a real shower so you can get started in here.” Norris stood back up as I swung my legs over the bed and got to my feet. I moved closer and lowered my face to his. “Unless you have a problem with the assignment and want to give me more lip? I’m sure there are other warriors who could use clean rooms too.”