by C. J. Cooke
I dressed in my gym clothes and headed down to the gym where Sykes and Kyle were waiting for me. My shower had lasted slightly longer than usual because I had to try and tame my cock before being able to get out. I glanced around the gym as I walked inside. Aria didn’t seem to be here yet.
“If she was here, she would be with us brother” Kyle smiled watching me search for her.
“Do you both feel it as well?” I asked trying to be vague because who knew who was listening to us. We should probably have discussed this yesterday but between being desperate to be back with her and then beat when we finally made our way to bed in the early hours of the morning, we just hadn’t had the chance.
Sykes signed dreamily and then tried to subtly adjust himself in his joggers. Kyle laughed “I think we can take that as a yes.”
I was just about to ask them what we should do when she walked into the gym looking hesitantly around her before seeing us and giving us a shy smile. She was wearing a slightly embellished gym uniform and I wasn’t sure how well that was going to go for her. They were pretty strict here. I hadn’t realised it until yesterday but she was right that the girl’s uniforms were pretty revealing but that was just the way of our society. Females were rarer than males and they tended to put it all out on display to try and tempt the right mate to them. Not everyone found their fated mates and some just settled with whoever took their fancy. From what I could see she had the same yoga pants, sports bra and gym shoes on as everyone else but she had also slipped a black t-shirt on over the top. It shouldn’t matter because all the guys were wearing joggers and black t-shirts but Caleb who taught this class was a bit of a hard ass. I was just about to warn her when he walked in and the first thing he obviously saw was Aria.
“You must be the new student,” he said looking her up and down. My panther growled in my head at his blatant inspection of our mate “you’re two weeks behind the others but we can catch you up. From where you lived I guess you’ve got some fight experience.” He asked looking at her. This surprised me. I knew she had a sassy mouth on her but where had she lived that made him think she could fight.
“I’ve got some moves” she replied coolly.
“New students run through the fight simulation at level one. This gives you one combatant to take down. You can incapacitate or kill, it’s an illusion so it doesn’t matter. Once you run through the first level I will assess where you will place in the class rankings by trying you out with higher levels if necessary.” Caleb explained.
Della the witch bitch who had tried to make a show in the cafeteria yesterday came sauntering in and stood next to Caleb with a devious smile on her face. She was going to be trouble. She clearly fancied herself as top bitch and was worried that Aria would take that spot from her. Which was actually quite funny. If she had even bothered to get to know Aria she would have realised that she wasn’t bothered about those kinds of things.
“Sounds fair” Aria nodded. She was clearly taking this seriously and from looking at the figure which her uniform did absolutely nothing to hid she was no stranger to working out.
The whole class was murmuring and shuffling about behind us. They were clearly anxious to see what Aria was capable of. I don’t think she realised just how significant her presence here was. No one had ever had any interactions with a halfblood before and when it came out that she was mated to us opinion was going to be split. Kyle’s father was the Alpha of our pack and every female in the school had set their eyes on him and Sykes and me by extension. I was a rare shifter and that came with its own prestige. We were always going to be a package deal. It wasn’t because they liked him. They just liked the idea of what his position in the pack could do for them. Aria had no idea about his father and no idea about pack politics. It was one of the things that made her perfect for us.
“Before we get started you need to take off the shirt, it’s not part of uniform” Caleb said pointing at her.
“Sorry but no” Aria said crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t need to run around with tits bouncing free to be able to show you that I can fight” she said gesturing to Della’s very revealing sports bra.
Caleb at first seemed taken aback. He was fair but he was also strict. “It’s the uniform, we don’t get any say in what it is, it just is. You will need to remove it before we can start.” He shrugged.
“Again, sorry but no” she shrugged. It seemed that there was going to be a bit of a stalemate here.
Della’s evil grin stretched wide. “What’s wrong you keeping some halfblood deformity under there” she laughed. A few of the students behind us laughed as well and I could feel Sykes slight tremble as he tried to suppress his growl.
“Look, I get that you enjoy having it all bouncing out there for the world to see but I don’t see why it’s necessary. I’m happy to explain my view to the headmaster if that is going to make your life easier.” She reasonably said to Caleb who looked a little like he wasn’t sure what to do about the situation.
“No need” said Della raising her hands and with a flick of her wrist the t-shirt which had been on Aria just disappeared leaving her in the standard uniform.
The whole class gasped. There was no suppressing the growls coming from Sykes and Kyle as well. Everyone had a clear view of Aria’s back and I couldn’t even wrap my head around what she must have been through. There was not a single piece of her back which we could see that wasn’t covered in scars. Some were thick lash marks, others were thin lines, there were even round scars that looked like cigarette burns. She had been tortured. Consistently. Over a very prolonged period of time.
Caleb who was stood in front of Aria with the smirking Della clearly didn’t realise what was going on but could see the shocked looks on everyone’s faces. Perhaps he just thought it was the disappearing top that had upset everyone but his next words out of his mouth couldn’t have been any worse as he tried to diffuse the situation. “Look, Aria I know that being ripped from your old life must have been painful …”
“What do you know of pain?” she screamed at him.
Della’s smirk stretched even wider and Caleb’s face just turned an angry red. He was clearly getting ready to blow. Kyle ripped his own t-shirt off and stepped to Aria’s side. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder and tried to pass her the shirt. She shrugged him off before storming past Caleb towards the doors. She never took the shirt and she never attempted to cover her back and a part of me was proud of her for not trying to hide away. Caleb turned to shout at her as she stormed past but as soon as he saw the scars littering her back, he blew out an exhale and softly swore “shit”.
Aria paused at the double doors leading out the gym with a hand on each door. She clearly wanted to leave and I would definitely go with her if she did. I wasn’t about to leave her with this alone but I held my breath and just hoped that she would turn around and come back. She needed to see this through. She couldn’t let the rest of the class see any weakness in her. It felt likes hours that she stood there while we all waited with bated breath but in reality, it must have only been minutes, if that. Her hands turned to fists and she slammed them against the door before turning back around and storming back to us.
“Fine, you want to see what I can do? Set it up, I’ll show you what I can do” she seethed.
I had never been more proud in my life.
Chapter Nine
Aria
That mother fucking Sex Shop Barbie bitch! How fucking dare she! I know her type. She wants to humiliate and rule over everyone else. Well fuck that. I am not ashamed of my past, I am done hiding what makes other people uncomfortable. If they can’t accept what I am then fuck them all. If they want to see what I can do, I’ll show them what I can do and then Sex Shop Barbie can see who’s going to be top bitch around her.
Even though my rage felt like it was melting my insides I still felt like I was going to throw up when I turned around. I don’t know how I would take it if my three guys looked at me with pity
or disgust. I know my scars are ugly but they are my battle scars and they brand me as a survivor. I may hate them but they are still a part of who I am. Evidence of the fire I came through to get to the place where I am now.
When I looked over to the three of them all I saw was pride in their eyes and I knew that I could do this. I felt like I could do anything if they were right there beside me.
“Fine, you want to see what I can do? Set it up, I’ll show you what I can do” I declared striding over to the empty area which was clearly where the simulation was set up.
“Dylan, fire it up” I heard Caleb say to a kid sat in the corner with what looked like some kind of iPad. He pushed a few buttons and an image flickered in front of me of a hugely built twenty something year old man. He dropped down into a fight stance and waited.
“Anything goes?” I asked over my shoulder as I assessed the image in front of me.
“Give it all you’ve got” Caleb laughed. He was clearly underestimating me.
I took three steps closer to the illusion of the man which was about twenty feet in front of me then I pulled a throwing knife in to my hand and fired it across at him. It sunk into his right eye and the image flickered and then dissolved. I heard Sykes whoop behind me “Yeah she did!” and a few others chuckled with him.
A glanced over my shoulder at Caleb and raised an eyebrow at him. That wasn’t even challenging. He regarded me coolly clearly trying to get a measure of me. Della just glared like the bitch she was realising that round two was about to go to me too. “Dylan, crank it up to level ten” he smirked.
“Sorry, did you say ten” Dylan sputtered. Clearly not thinking that was a good idea. My magic ran like burning lava through my body. The rage was flowing and I felt like level ten was a fantastic idea.
“Yeah.” He answered before looking at me “It goes up to twenty but first years rarely make it past level five.”
I grinned at him like a madwoman. This was going to be fun. I turned back to the fighting area as the illusion flickered to life. There were another five versions of the stacked men, I think they were supposed to be shifters, but there were also three fucking huge monsters which looked like demons. They had a dark charcoal scaly skin and the closest thing I could think of that they resembled was a cross between a shaved gorilla and a crocodile. I cocked my head to one side. I was going to need some kind of ‘Monsters for Dummies’ book, with illustrations, to wrap my head around this place. I could hear the whispers behind me as my fellow classmates seemed to be taking bets on how long I was going to last. I filtered them out. This is what I was made for. I dropped into a fighting stance before assessing the scene in front of me. I had three of the shifters to the front and two to the right with the three demon type creatures taking up the centre. Time to even some odds. I started to run towards them and this time pulled on my throwing stars. I took down four of the men, lodging a star in their throats. They flickered out of existence whilst they bled out. I pushed my magic down through my arms and pulled the short swords in to each of my hands. I ran at the last of the shifters and dropped to the floor at the last second as he raised one leg to try and side kick me in the head. I skidded along the floor and slashed his femoral artery on the leg he was still standing on with one slice from my sword. It hadn’t even been a minute before the fifth and final shifter flickered out of existence. I brought my skid to a stop before pouncing back to my feet. That just left the three demons in front of me. I had no idea how to kill them. I didn’t even really know what they were. But hey I figure not much can keep going without a head. In the time it had taken me to take out the three shifters they had barely moved. But they had turned to face me. They were clearly slow and I would use that to my advantage. I ran at the group of them. I was going to have to do this with my swords, I had no idea if the throwing knives or stars would do enough damage and I didn’t want to waste the energy on them. The one nearest to me threw a left hook at me and I bent backwards as it sailed over my head. I brought both swords up and slashed out at his arm as it went past and it let out a roar as it went. It overshot on its punch making it turn away from me and it was almost too easy to bring my sword back and take off its head as it turned its back to me following through on the punch. These things really weren’t too clever. Whilst I had been dealing with the first one the next closest one to me managed to get a sucker punch in to my gut and fuck me did he pack a punch. The air blew out of me and I stumbled back a step. This might be an illusion but it still fucking hurt and I needed to keep my head in the game. Luckily as it had stepped forward to deliver its punch it provided me with the ideal jumping off point in the form of a bent knee. I got one foot on its knee before pushing up. A slash of my sword took off its head just as my other foot landed on its shoulder and I vaulted off it towards the final remaining demon. I sailed straight over its head before flipping over and landed on my feet behind it. I whipped myself around swinging my sword and the final head rolled to the ground.
I turned around to face Caleb and the rest of his class. There were several open mouths hanging open, including Sex Shop Barbie. I should probably try and learn her name at some point. The guys were grinning and Caleb just shook his head with a look of absolute hate on his face. “I should have realised when I saw your bank account that this was how you made all that money.”
“What do you mean?” I asked cocking my head to one side.
“I didn’t think that there was much call for Assassins in the human realm.” He snarked. Dick! There were several gasps in the class when he made that remark.
“There probably is but that is not how I make my money” I said walking over to my guys. There was no judgment and no question in any of their faces. Just smiles and eyes shining with pride. Kyle handed me a bottle of water which I took a grateful swig of.
Caleb had followed me over to the side where I was stood with the guys and the rest of the class didn’t even try to hide the fact that they were watching and listening. “There is no way you made that much by waiting tables” he stated scowling at me.
“No. Maybe I’m just really good at shaking my ass” I grinned taking another swig of water. I wasn’t going to let his judgmental ass bring me down. I feel like I just achieved a major life hurdle. I’m standing here scars on display and not having any kind of emotional breakdown. I just proved that I kick ass and I actually feel quite proud of myself for once.
“No one would pay to look at that” Della quirked.
Caleb swivelled on the spot to face her. “Della get to the headmaster’s office immediately.” She spluttered her indignation at him not managing to form any kind of argument. “You took the shirt off a female student in front of the class without her permission. I will send a message to the headmaster to inform him and deal with you appropriately now remove yourself from my class.” He turned back to look at me questioningly but thankfully he didn’t seem to be quite so mad at me for reasons I had absolutely no idea about. Perhaps because, you know, he assumed I was some kind of murderer for money.
Della stormed out of the class. Sex Shop Barbie was a far better name for her. That girl clearly had some issues and I doubted that this would be the end of her taking shots at me. Meanwhile, the guys and I took a seat on the bleachers that ran down the length of the room.
“Well?” Caleb asked hitting me with what I am sure was his hardest stare.
“No, I am not some shady halfblood assassin. Sorry to disappoint. I merely … liberate … objects from men of questionable morals.” I embellished.
“So you’re a thief” Caleb stated.
“Of a fashion.” I don’t know why I felt like I had to explain myself but for some reason I didn’t want this teacher to think badly of me, let alone my guys. Not to mention the entire class that was listening in as well. “I take certain things that terrible men use, to hold over women, to force them to remain in abusive relationships. Once they no longer have whatever it is the organisation that I work for arranges for them to disappear and st
art a new life under a new identity.” I explained.
Caleb actually looked taken aback by this. A feeling of smugness slipped over me. I loved proving people wrong. That’s right I kick ass and I save people … basically I should be a superhero.