by Cooke, CJ
I looked over at Kyle, not sure if we were telling them everything. If they were part of the pack now, I suppose there was no reason not to, but I didn’t know how it worked.
“Aria is a Valkyrie,” Kyle filled in.
“That. Is. So. Cool!” one of Trent’s other friends said.
This was getting ridiculous. I couldn’t keep thinking of them as Trent’s friends or this shit was going to start getting confusing.
“You’re right, I am pretty cool. But before we start talking about how much of a badass I am and how we need to save the world, can you maybe tell me your names. It’s getting a bit weird that I just keep thinking of you as Trent’s friends,” I said, and they at least had the grace to laugh at me.
See, straight to the point is always the best approach.
Once I had the right names with the right faces, I was a little happier. It had been Ellis who was impressed by me being a Valkyrie. I decided I liked him already.
“Okay, so now we can all agree Aria is possibly the most interesting thing to have ever happened around here, maybe we need to fill them in on what’s going on,” Sykes added. He started with a smile on his face, but he just ended up looking serious and a little depressed. It was weird seeing Sykes being serious. I much preferred his playful attitude.
“It’s quite simple,” I shrugged. “In two months, demons are going to open a portal and destroy the world, killing everyone in it, unless I can find the other Valkyrie and raise some kind of army.”
Trent and the other new guys all burst out laughing. They quickly sobered when they realised we weren’t laughing with them.
Trent looked around at all of us as the realisation seemed to dawn across his face and asked, “So what do you need us to do?”
“We have to leave in the morning,” Kyle paused and thought for a minute. “I think you should stay here. No one knows we’ve merged packs and we need to keep it that way for now. I want you to keep an ear to the ground in the pack. Someone opened the portals at the academy; that person could still be here. Protect the pack. Keep an eye on the other Elites in case they need any backup. But most of all, be careful. You can’t trust my father with any of this.”
It was as we were talking through the plan of how we were going to sneak out that the door to the suite suddenly burst open and Caleb stumbled in slamming the door behind.
“What have you done?” he snarled.
“What? What’s happening?” I asked.
“Marcus is on a rampage. Isaac’s pack brought his body back, and they told him what happened—showing that much strength in front of them was stupid, Kyle. Marcus is going to come for you. He doesn’t care you are his son. You’re now a threat to his position as Prime. You have to leave, and you have to leave now.” Caleb rushed over to us. “He’ll send Wyatt after you, don’t make him have to do this Kyle, it will kill him.”
We looked around at each other, and the guys suddenly burst into movement. Thankfully the packs were already packed and stowed in the closet.
“We go out the bedroom window,” Kyle said as he started to hand out packs to the guys.
I noticed there wasn’t a pack for me. When he saw me getting ready to argue Kyle quickly said. “You can’t fly with a pack, and we may need you to be able to take to the air for scouting.” I just nodded at him. As much as I didn’t like it, it made sense.
I quickly looked over at Caleb. He was going to get into trouble for coming and warning us. They couldn’t find him here.
“Come with us,” I said to him. “If they find you here, they’ll know you told us.”
Caleb just shook his head. “There are other things I need to do when you’re gone. Anyway, don’t worry about it. You’ve made friends in the pack already Aria, and someone is about to create a distraction. I’ll slip out the window with you and double back around. In fact, I’d suggest we all do that,” he said, addressing Trent and the others as well.
This was crazy. Marcus was a massive dick but to want to kill his own son. That had to be whole new levels of dickishness.
Kyle slid open the window, and they threw the bags down to the ground. I ran to the bedroom and grabbed the compass from under the pillow where I had stashed it earlier. Caleb, Trent and the others were the first out of the window. Kyle gestured for me to go next when we heard the shouting coming from downstairs.
I climbed up onto the window frame and saw Trent standing underneath, acting as if he thought he would catch me. I gave him a look, and he just laughed and stepped back. As if I was going to let him catch me and ruin my badass reputation! Besides I’d jumped from a four-storey window before and been fine. This was nothing.
I jumped and landed gracefully and, if I might add, noiselessly on the ground. Trent raised an eyebrow, and I stuck my tongue out at him. They’d sounded like a bunch of bloody elephants dropping out of the window. There was a reason why I was a successful cat burglar, but I suppose with not being in our class at the academy he hadn’t been present when we did the show and tell about my life on the first day in combat class.
“Who’s providing the distraction?” I asked Caleb as we dashed for the tree line behind the house.
Once we were safely in the trees, Caleb filled me in. “Margie is going to start kicking up a fuss about the funeral, and I have it on good authority a fight is going to break out,” he smiled. Margie, she was definitely my kind of people. I could see where Britt had got her attitude from.
As Kyle, Liam and Sykes ran into the trees to join us, Trent and the others passed them the packs. I pulled out the compass Francesca had given me, and when I checked the dial, it was pointing away from the house. Thank god for that.
We quickly said our goodbyes, the noise in the house was escalating, and it wouldn’t take long for Marcus to get control of the situation again. I just hoped no one got hurt.
“You need to hurry and put as much distance between the house and yourself as quickly as possible,” Caleb said.
I nodded resolutely at him. Kyle, Liam and Sykes were whispering off to the side with Trent and the others. I wanted to know what they were talking about, but I had other things I needed to speak with Caleb before leaving.
“Caleb, what would it take to open up a portal like the demons needed to travel to the academy?” I asked him.
“Very, very strong magic,” he said thoughtfully. “After the Fae left the realm, our connection with the natural magic weakened. I didn’t even know there was anyone around who had that amount of active magic anymore.”
“What do you mean by active magic?” I asked.
“Witch or mage magic. The type of magic that you use. Not like the magic shifters have to change form. Shifters with active magic haven’t been seen in decades,” he said, looking at Kyle thoughtfully. “We had thought we would never see them return.”
“He’s getting stronger,” I said following his gaze, and Caleb just nodded.
“So, if no one has that amount of active magic any more, how would they have done it?” I asked.
“That’s the million-dollar question, as the humans would say,” Caleb grimaced.
The guys came over to join us, and Trent surprised me by pulling me in for a hug. “Look after them,” he quietly said to me, as he was hugging me. “I think we’re going to need them.”
I squeezed him back and then we all looked awkwardly around for a second.
“Oh, fuck it,” I muttered, grabbing Caleb and hugging him as well. He stood there, awkwardly. “Just go with it before you make it weird,” I laughed.
He chuckled with me and wrapped his arms around me. I pulled away and told him, “Be safe.”
He nodded, and I could see the indecision in his eyes. He didn’t want us to go, but he knew as much as we did, it was the only chance we had.
The others circled to the side of the house. They were going to wait out what was happening at the clearing where the funeral had taken place. I could see the remnants of smoke climbing above the trees in that directi
on. The Elite girls were standing vigil until the fire had died down. It was some kind of tradition to make sure the soul crossed over. I wasn’t sure why they were still doing it because we had all seen Britt’s soul leave. I suppose it was nice though, to think your friends would stay by your side right to the very end.
I set off running with my mates in the direction the compass was showing us. Night had already fallen, but we needed to put some ground between us and the house before we stopped to rest.
We ran for several hours in silence before we stopped in a small dell for a water break. Thankfully, because we’d intended to slip away in the early hours of the morning, we had all the equipment and supplies packed.
“What time is it?” Liam asked Sykes.
He glanced down at his watch before replying. “It’s getting close to ten.”
We all looked at Kyle. It was strange how I’d so simply accepted he was in charge. I’d meant what I had said to Caleb earlier. Whatever natural magic Kyle had, it was growing. Even I could feel that sense he gave out that set him aside as an Alpha. It didn’t make me want to bow down and do whatever he said, maybe because I wasn’t a shifter. But I could still feel it nevertheless. All of them were starting to feel stronger to me.
When I first arrived at the academy, the guys told me they could feel my magic. I didn’t understand back then what they meant. I didn’t feel anything from them I wouldn’t have from an average human. But I got it now. It was like a background hum around them. It was noticeably louder since we’d completed the mating bond, but I wasn’t sure if it was just because I was more aware of them now or because they were stronger.
“I think we should keep going for another couple of hours at least,” Kyle said. “If my father is as pissed as Caleb said, and he probably is, then we need to keep moving. He’ll probably send Wyatt out for us at first light.”
“Why Wyatt?” I asked them.
“Wyatt is his beta. His right hand. Back when the packs were at war, he would have been the enforcer. Basically, the wolf that got sent out to do all the dirty work. And by dirty, I mean bloody,” Sykes explained.
“But surely with his relationship with you, it would make more sense for Marcus to send someone else,” I argued.
“No. It doesn’t matter what relationship we have with Wyatt. His priority will always be his Alpha. That’s just the type of wolf Wyatt is,” Kyle replied. “When my father took the Prime Alpha position, he did it by challenging and killing Wyatt’s father. I was just a baby, so I don’t know anything about it. But apparently, everyone thought Wyatt would challenge him and take the role himself. They all knew Wyatt was the stronger wolf, and he would make a much better Alpha. But he never did. No one knows why.”
“So, what you’re saying is Wyatt is a good and decent man. He has the power to take the position and the morals to know what Marcus does is wrong,” I said.
“Basically,” Kyle simply said.
“I wonder what Marcus has?” I said, more to myself than anyone else.
“What do you mean?” Kyle asked.
“In my experience, good people do terrible things because someone is making them do it. Marcus must have something he is threatening Wyatt with to make him go along with whatever he says,” I theorised. “Or I could just be grasping at straws. Maybe he isn’t as good a man as you think he is.”
Kyle just looked at me. It was like I could see the cogs turning behind his eyes as he thought it through.
“I don’t know what he could have that would make him do some of the things he has,” he said in the end.
“It’s usually someone you love,” I said, looking at Kyle sympathetically.
I had a feeling Kyle could be that someone. I wouldn’t bet against Marcus having threatened his own son’s life to keep Wyatt in line. It was obvious how much he cared about him. But that wouldn’t make sense with Marcus being able to get Wyatt to follow us out here and kill us.
“It doesn’t matter now,” Kyle said, shaking his head. “Come on. We need to keep moving.”
And we did. We ran for about four more hours before finding a small outcropping of rocks that had formed a small cave, just big enough for all of us.
“Come on,” Kyle said, leading the way inside. “If we sleep for four hours, we can be up at daybreak and keep going.”
I rechecked the compass as the guys pulled out the sleeping bags. We were still heading in the right direction. I’d no idea how far we were going to have to go. It must be a long way, otherwise, surely everyone would have stumbled across the portal.
Liam changed into his panther and slipped out of the cave to hunt for something for breakfast. The woods were no doubt teeming with wildlife, and it didn’t make sense for us to break into our supplies if we didn’t need to. We planned to eat whatever he managed to catch before we left in the morning, and Sykes set about building a fire at the opening of the cave.
“Won’t they be able to find us from the smoke?” I asked, getting into a sleeping bag.
I was so tired. I didn’t care that I was sleeping on the ground. I’d be asleep in no time.
“Nah, this baby won’t smoke,” Sykes said, poking at the fire. There was probably a more technical term to it than that, but I’d be damned if I knew what it was. “You see the trick is … ” Sykes started proudly, and I drifted off to sleep listening to him talking about preparing the area and the right type of firewood.
Chapter 18
The rabbits Liam caught were delicious. I’d never eaten rabbit before. It was one of those things I just couldn’t bring myself to try. If I ever saw it all I could think of were the little fluffy bunnies you see in the pet shop window. But who knew they were so tasty!
“We should do this again when all of this is over,” I said tucking into my breakfast. “This is nice if you ignore the running for our lives and the impending war part.”
It was so pretty here. And quiet. I’d lived in a city all my life, and I’d never been somewhere like this before. It was peaceful, and I felt like I could relax out here. I didn’t think I’d ever had the feeling before.
“We’re going to have to leave soon,” Kyle said, as he rolled up the sleeping bags and stowed them back away in the packs. “We don’t know how close the pack could be.”
And with that, the relaxed feeling I’d been enjoying shattered. With a sigh, I pulled the compass out of my jacket pocket. As I was checking the dial, Sykes started to put out the fire. We all got ready to leave, and the guys distributed the packs between them.
“We need to keep heading in that direction,” I said nodding towards the trees—more running through the trees.
“How are we going to know when we get to where we’re supposed to be going?” Sykes asked, peering down at the dial.
“Hopefully we’ll know when we see it,” I said, but then when I thought about it, I added. “But I suppose the compass will swing in the opposite direction if we go past it.”
“Smart,” Liam said as we headed out.
“I can be smart,” I muttered to myself.
We kept jogging through the trees for about four hours. I checked the compass periodically, but it just kept pointing in the same direction. For all I knew, the bloody thing was broken.
“Maybe you should take the compass and scout ahead a bit,” Kyle suggested when we stopped for a water break.
I was reluctant to leave the guys when we didn’t know if the pack was still pursuing us or, if they were, how close they could be. I’d been thinking about it this morning while we ate breakfast. I wasn’t going to let Kyle have to face Wyatt. If it came down to it and he came after us, I would be the one to kill him. Kyle might hate me for it, but I’d rather that than he hated himself.
“I don’t know,” I hesitated. “Maybe I just scout behind us first, make sure we’re not being followed,” I suggested.
Kyle looked at me like I was crazy for a second. “You’re not going back to potentially confront the pack on your own,” he said.
/> “I wasn’t going to confront anyone. I was just going to scout behind and see if anyone is following us and, if so, how far out they are,” I argued. “It’d be sensible to know if we need to keep this pace up. It will only take me an hour to fly back to the cave site. We shouldn’t need to go much further than that.”
“No,” Kyle said resolutely.
I looked at the other two, and I could see they were wavering on the idea. Regardless of my reasons, we needed to know if we were being pursued. I turned my best puppy dog eyes to Sykes, and he just busted out laughing.
“Don’t do that to me,” he chuckled.
“Do what?” I asked in what I hoped was an innocent way. I wasn’t very experienced in this faux-innocent manipulation. This was something I’d have asked Britt to teach me.
“That,” he said, moving his hand in front of my face. “Just so you know, I was going to say this anyway and that doesn’t work on me.” He crossed his arms tightly over his chest, and I snickered internally—totally does work on him, score one for me.
Sykes looked over at Kyle with an almost apologetic look on his face. “She’s right,” he simply said.
I had to force myself not to bounce up and down in joy, but I’m sure my face gave it away because Liam nudged my shoulder with his, chuckling at me.
Kyle started aggressively pacing back and forth a few paces. You could almost see him trying to wrestle with his own Alpha need to keep me close. After a few minutes of him growling at himself, he turned and fixed me with a stare. I could see his wolf railing against him. It weirdly made me feel a bit turned on and I slinked across to him, almost automatically, and wrapped myself around him.
“When you look at me like that it makes me want to spend time doing other things,” I purred at him running my nose up his neck. I was such a weirdo.
Kyle shuddered and wrapped his arms around me. He held me so tightly I could barely breathe. When his lips slammed into mine, it was almost like he was punishing me. It wasn’t a loving kiss; it was an all-dominating needful kiss. And it immediately made me wet.