“It’s cold, isn’t it?” Karma said. “Get out so we can see just how cold it is.”
They both snickered.
Unbelievable. I was right. Catastrophe. At least they worked together as a team. I had to give them that much credit.
I still had one trick up my sleeve they wouldn’t be expecting. I grinned mischievously, and then sank down in the water as I called my lion. I saw Andra’s eyes widen just before I shifted. Both girls turned and took off running for the side gate as I bounded out of the water a full-grown jungle king and gave chase without bothering to shake the water from my fur.
Prey. They were only mice, and this cat was about to play.
Thursday, February 5th 2015 10:51 a.m. PST
Las Vegas, Nevada
Slade
As the pride was finishing up their third set of pushups, squeals erupted from the side of the mansion, and Slade looked over just in time to see Andra and Karma round the corner, both of them running as fast as they could toward the group.
“I only have to be faster than you!” Karma yelled, then laughed over her shoulder.
“Good luck with that!” Andra smiled as she passed Karma, waving something orange in front of the girl’s face, something that looked a lot like… Ace’s shorts?
Slade did a double take as Ace’s massive lion form lunged from the corner shadows of the manor, his gait quickening as his long strides propelled him forward. “Oh, shit,” Slade muttered.
He didn’t bother telling the group to continue their warm-up with overhead arm claps, because he knew there was about to be a gigantic interruption in their workout routine.
Before he had a chance to wonder why—or better yet, how—the girls had disrobed Ace, they ran behind him and grabbed his arms, offering him up to Ace as a sacrifice for their wrongdoings. It was clear the girls were having fun with this, but Slade couldn’t tell if Ace was pissed or playing.
His eyes popped wide when he realized Ace had no intention of stopping, and there was no time to get out of the way before the huge cat pummeled all three of them to the grass.
One of the girls broke his fall, and he turned his head to the sound of giggling to see that Ace had Andra pinned under him and he was licking her face with his big tongue. He realized then that the girl who had broken his own fall was Karma. Her groans came from under him, and he grinned as he pressed his weight into her more, causing a string of strained curses to fly from her mouth.
“Stop it!” Andra laughed as she tried to push him away, failing miserably. “Get off me and I’ll give them back, Ace!”
Way to ignore her, bro, Slade thought as he got to his feet, pulling Karma up with him.
“Ouch!” Karma said as she limped, favoring her left foot. “I think you broke my foot when you stepped on it, you overgrown house cat!”
Ace stopped drenching Andra with his spit long enough to glance over at Karma, and then he shifted back to his human form and grabbed his shorts out of Andra’s hand, without making eye contact with her. He stood with his back to the group as he put them on, and then turned around to glare at Karma. “You’re not getting out of training today, so you can give up the act now.” He pointed to the backyard. “You and Andra get to go fishing for my sunglasses and cap in the pool. My tennis shoes and socks are down there, too. Be back in two minutes or I’ll think up another super-fun duty for you to do.” With a beep, he started the stopwatch on his wrist. “Better hurry.”
Slade watched in amusement as the two women ran for the backyard. “May I ask what happened?”
Ace shrugged. “I underestimated them.”
“Plan to do that again in the future?” Slade said.
“Nope,” Ace replied.
“Did they finish tread duty?”
“Yeah, and Andra even learned something new about being an Alpha. She saved Karma from drowning.”
“No shit!”
Ace nodded. “Yeah, but Karma wasn’t exactly appreciative of the gesture. She accused Andra of being the reason Rogan got killed. I think they’ve reconciled their differences since then, hence why I ended up naked in the pool, but I want you to talk to her about it later, let her know that shit ain’t gonna fly.”
“In other words, you want me to fuck her,” Slade said as a statement of fact, already knowing how that particular discussion would end up.
Ace nodded. “Pretty much.”
Slade sighed. “It isn’t like it’s a hardship, but why?”
Ace glanced down at his stopwatch as the soaking wet girls ran back around the corner of the house, each with two items of his in their hands. “You have ten seconds!” he shouted, and then turned to look at Slade. “I don’t want her interfering in my relationship with Andra. She needs a distraction.”
“Why didn’t you just say so?” Slade said with a smirk. “I can do distractions.”
“Because I want you to make sure she understands that Andra had nothing to do with Rogan’s death. She told her that if she had never come here, Rogan would still be alive.”
Slade sucked in air through his teeth. “Harsh,” he said. “Okay, I’ll do it.”
Ace clapped him on the back as Andra and Karma arrived out of breath and handed him the accessories. He put them on as the girls fell into the first line of the group, both of them wearing wide, satisfied smiles, like they had just won a new car on The Price is Right.
Chapter 21
Thursday, February 5th 2015 11:01 a.m. PST
Las Vegas, Nevada
Ace
“Everybody warmed up and stretched out? Good,” I said, without waiting for a response, “because we are starting with a fifteen-mile run around Sin City, and then immediately following that up with the obstacle course.” Nobody groaned or said anything; they all knew my training days weren’t a walk in the park. I avoided looking at Andra. I knew by her memories that she was an experienced runner, but I also knew that she hardly ever ran more than five miles in a day. Adding in the miles she’d run on tread duty earlier, she would just fall short of twenty after she finished the run today.
She was a shifter now, so I didn’t see the task as impossible for her to accomplish. Worst case scenario, she would be tired tonight and sore tomorrow.
“Remember that we are only as fast as our slowest person. Don’t leave anyone behind, and no walking. Walking is for pussies and stopping is for failures, not strong and determined lions, like us,” I clapped my hands together as the group roared in agreement.
“Ahem,” Andra cleared her throat, and I stopped to glance at her out of the corner of my eye. She raised her eyebrows and puckered her lips.
“Walking and stopping are not for mischievous and diabolical wolves, either,” I said, and she rolled those gorgeous green eyes, but grinned. I made a point not to smile back at her. Licking her earlier while in lion form had been a complete accident; I couldn’t stop myself after I started. Her laughter had been intoxicating. It was harder to act like I didn’t care about her when she was so carefree. The biggest reason I couldn’t stop was because I knew I was the only one she was thinking about in that moment.
Maybe it helped more than hurt my plan. I made a point to do something similar later to test my theory. After all, she said she hadn’t browsed through any of my memories, so she really didn’t know me at all, other than that I had practically been begging her to fall in love with me and forget about her boyfriend.
Dear God, had I been going about this all wrong? Time to make a few adjustments to my plan.
“Pair up with your buddy and let’s do this,” I said, and jogged to the head of the line to lead my pride on the run.
Thursday, February 5th 2015 12:31 p.m. PST
Las Vegas, Nevada
Andromeda
The first eight miles or so were a piece of cake. After that, not so much. Her legs felt like the rubber of a Stretch Armstrong doll, her lungs burned and she could have sworn there was a silver knife stuck in one of her vital organs in her right side. She wouldn’t
even comment on what she must have looked like; sweat had been pouring out of every pore on her body for the last four miles.
Andra needed water, and she silently cursed at herself for not remembering to hydrate properly before exercising. If she had been thinking clearly, she would have. Instead, she had been consumed with the fact that Ace was flirting with another girl.
“So not smart, Mena!” she scolded herself.
Karma was having an even worse time of running than Andra was. She kept slowing down and falling farther and farther toward the end of the line of runners. The top of Ace’s black cap was getting smaller and smaller. He had told them to stay together, so Andra fell back, too, not that going slower was helping any. She needed to freaking stop! She couldn’t do that, though. Not unless she wanted to be a mischievous, diabolical failure. Damn Ace and his clever, motivating words.
Andra reached down and took Karma’s hand when she noticed they were nearing a huge fountain that was shooting water up in the air to the beat of music. “Come on, girl. Give me one last push and I promise it will be worth it.”
Karma let Andra pull her through the running bodies without complaining much, but just as they ran up behind Ace, Andra glanced over and smiled as she nodded her head toward the fountain. Karma almost cried as she let go of Andra’s hand and they ran to the dancing water.
Andra didn’t stop or slow down when Ace shouted at them. She was well aware that they would probably be reprimanded for pausing for a drink and an outside shower, but she didn’t care.
Cheers erupted from behind her and she realized, after the first spray of water hit her body, that the whole pride was joining them.
She collected the water falling from the bursts in her palms and drank greedily for a few seconds, before dancing her way across the concrete to sling the cool, heavenly liquid on the back of a girl who was desperately trying not to get her hair wet; she thought she’d heard someone call her Daria at some point.
The muscles in the girl’s body instantly tensed and she slowly turned around to see who the culprit was.
Andra laughed at the shock on the girl’s face, and then she splashed her again. “It’s only water, Daria. Looks a whole lot better on you than sweat, honey.”
The girl’s fists came up to rest on her hips as her lips thinned. “My name is Sadie,” she snapped, and then a grin spread across her face as a burst of water shot up beside her. Andra barely had time to squeal before Sadie ran her hand through it and splashed her in the face.
Laughing, she turned to run away and ran smack dab into a rock-hard chest. Ace. Oh, shit. All the humor and excitement swiftly drained out of her when she raised her head to see that he was beyond pissed.
“Ace, I’m really sorry, but I was dying of thirst and—” she began, but then the corner of his lip twitched and a mixture of confusion and desire made her forget what she was saying. “Dang it! Why does he have to be so damn sexy?” she thought, and then the breath was ripped from her lungs as several gallons of ice cold water were poured over her head.
Ace dropped the bucket as a chuckle bubbled up out of his throat. “You didn’t think you could do this and actually get away with it, did you?”
He was silent after that, but she didn’t think it was because he was waiting for her to answer. Even though his sunglasses were mirrored, she would have sworn to anyone that he was staring at her lips.
For the first time since they had bonded, she wanted to kiss him and not blame the bond for her decision. That thought brought her back to reality, the reality that she couldn’t do that because she was involved with another man.
She gave him a sad smile as she took a step back. “It was worth it,” she said, and then turned and ran to find Karma.
Thursday, February 5th 2015 12:42 PST
Las Vegas, Nevada
Ace
I let them take a ten minute break before being the bad guy again. Stopping at the fountain had been in my plan from the get-go anyway. It was the reason I had chosen this route to run. But I was happy Andra had seen it and dragged her buddy to enjoy the refreshment without asking first. That meant I could punish her for doing something I told her not to do: stopping. Oh, don’t worry, I found Karma and poured a bucket of water over her head, too, not that she cared; the girl looked like she was about two seconds away from passing out before Andra got her to the water.
Like I said, I wasn’t mad that Andra disobeyed me. I was actually thrilled to pour the water over her. And that look she gave me after I did it… I could have sworn that she wanted to kiss me in that moment.
Before, I would have confronted her about what she was thinking, but that way didn’t work into my new plan. I had changed a lot since the bond—most of it forcefully—but now I was choosing to change. It felt good.
I led them straight back to the compound, cutting off about a mile and a half of my originally planned route, but they all did well on the run, so I decided to reward them by calling it a day. I wasn’t even going to make them do the obstacle course. I had no intentions of telling them what my motives were for letting them off so easy, but I’m sure Andra knew.
I could feel her emotions again, which meant that she could feel mine and the meditation bubble had burst. I was thankful that her mood was light, but I could tell that she was getting tired, and not just physically. The bond was about to interrupt our scheduled program.
I nudged her mind, hoping she would feel it and let me into her thoughts. “Andra?”
“Ace,” she responded back through my mind. “I couldn’t feel you all day. Is the bond getting weaker?”
Closing my mind up tight again, I turned left at the driveway of the compound and slowed to a walk. Bringing my hands up behind my head, I linked my fingers together before I replied to her question. I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to tell her, but I didn’t think using one of my two lies was a good decision. She fell into step beside me and brought her hands up to her head to mimic mine. “Uh, no,” I said out loud. “I meditated this morning. That’s why you couldn’t feel me. I couldn’t feel you, either.”
“Oh,” she said quietly, and I had to look over to make sure the sadness in her voice matched the look on her face. It did, but what did it mean? Was she sad that the bond wasn’t weakening or sad that she couldn’t feel me today? Did she miss our connection? Dammit, this was driving me crazy!
I decided not to pry. It was too early in my plan to get comfortable with her again. I was supposed to be acting like I didn’t care.
“Anyway, the meditation is wearing off, and I can feel the effects of the bond pressing on me. I was wondering if, you know—”
Andra reached over and grabbed my elbow, pulling my arm down so that she could link her fingers with mine. The sigh left my mouth before I could stop it, but she was in her own moment of sighing bliss and didn’t seem to notice.
Andra had said that we would only touch in a professional manner, and only when the bond required us to do so. I just hadn’t expected it to be so awkward to let her know that I needed her to touch me. I felt like I was missing a part of my body when we weren’t touching. Why did she have to be so damn difficult?
“Are we doing the obstacle course?” she said.
Shaking my head, I turned to look at Slade. “Tell them they all did a great job and to meet back here after breakfast tomorrow to do the obstacle course.” After he gave me a nod, I led Andra up the front walk and into the house. “You need to hydrate. Are you thirsty?”
“More than I’ve ever been in my life. You take training seriously, don’t you?”
I smiled as I opened the fridge to grab two Gatorades. “If you want to beat the best, you have to train harder than the best.”
“No truer words have been spoken,” she said as she uncapped the bottle I gave her and turned it up, not stopping until the last drop emptied into her mouth.
I looked away and took a drink before she could catch me staring at her. I almost did something stupid, like opening my mouth an
d blurting out that what I’d told her this morning was the truest words I had ever spoken: that I was falling hard for her.
Taking her hand, I led her to the staircase, and then stopped, completely at a loss of how to say what I needed to. I had no idea what her reaction would be. “Do you want to go shower in your bathroom or mine?”
“Uh… How about we stop by my room? I’ll grab some clothes and shower in your bathroom.”
I couldn’t stop myself from smiling, but I could look away, and look away is exactly what I did as she pulled me up the stairs. I had no idea what room Slade had put her in, so I was blindly following her lead. Instead of taking a right after we reached the second floor, Andra took a left and stopped at the second door on the right.
My eyes slammed shut when she opened the door and walked into Karma’s room. I knew exactly what the inside of that room looked like, every fucking inch of it. I knew she would be able to see it on my face if she turned to look at me, so I cleared my throat as I let her hand go. “I’ll just wait out here for you.” I pressed my back against the wall and plotted different ways to kill Slade. He didn’t allow women into his bedroom, either, so how in the hell was he supposed to screw Karma if Andra was staying in there with her?
Time to adjust the plan again.
Andra closed the door behind her. “I’m ready.”
Without looking at her, I took her hand and we walked to my room. I didn’t want to let her go, but I knew I would have to soon. She would have to shower, and so would I. “You can go first,” I said after opening the door. I had to demand each of my fingers to unclench from around hers, and then I walked straight to my phone to keep from looking at her.
“Oh, crap!” Andra said.
I looked up from the text Clay sent me to see that her hand was on her forehead and her eyes were closed. “What?”
“I left my phone down by the pool before I did tread duty earlier.”
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