“You said it,” he chuckled, “so it must be a word.”
“I meant, soft, as in feminine,” she corrected.
“I don’t want a female I’m going to have to babysit, Jade,” he said. “I’d given up the idea of having a mate for that reason. I have this protectiveness inside me that is extreme. If my mate were unable to care for herself, I would kill every male who looked at her wrong.”
“I’ve kept males from touching me for six years now, Booth,” she responded. “I’m quick. If a male wants to touch me, he’s going to have to catch me.” Once the words left her mouth, she saw the challenge in his eyes, and it sent another wave of heat between her legs.
“So, you want to play catch, huh?” he teased. She loved the playfulness in his eyes. For some reason, she wanted to see more of that from him.
“You’re massive,” she stated, wanting to play with him. “I’m smaller, stealthier. I’m certain you couldn’t catch me. I’m really fast.”
“I’ve never run with you in your human form,” he replied, acting nonchalant. “Maybe we can do that today since your training at the facility was canceled due to the females meddling in our date night.”
“Yeah, but date night is over,” she reminded him.
“It is,” he agreed, standing from his spot. “So, head to your room and change. Don’t shower because we will be running today.”
“Seriously?” she balked.
“Oh, I’m so serious,” he warned, winking as he walked away. “You have twenty minutes. If you’re as fast as you say you are, you’ll be ready ten.”
“Booth,” she growled in warning, but the narrowing of his eyes told her he wasn’t joking.
“Nineteen minutes, female,” he warned again. “Time’s ticking.”
“Fuck,” she swore and grabbed her shoes, slamming the door on the way out. Her enhanced hearing picked up his laugh as she took off running toward the dorm.
Chapter Thirteen
“Fourteen minutes,” Booth announced as she opened the door. Her wide eyes only lasted a second before they narrowed them at him. “Not bad.”
“So, running?” she smirked.
“Yes, running,” he replied. “In combat, you engage with your enemy, but you also need to know when to flee. Like when you have seven males trying to snatch you.”
With his words, six other males stepped around the corner. Axel, Malaki, Taze, Diesel, Lucky, and Ranger moved as a unit as they approached. Each one of them was dressed for training. “This is a joke, right?”
“No,” Booth snarled. “This is a real life simulation. Jade, if something were to happen when the males are gone, and the other female protectors were killed, what would you do if you had to defend yourself against seven males our size?”
“Fight until the death?” she replied.
“Okay, but the alpha’s mate and cubs are in the safe room,” he continued. “You don’t want to draw attention to them. So, what do you do?”
“Fight until the enemy is dead,” she said through gritted teeth.
“No,” he shook his head. “You run. You run into the woods, and you partially shift, calling for your alpha. You tell him your location and the location of his mate. That’ll give enough distraction to get the enemy away from the house so the alpha and Guardians can get in. Some of them will come for you while the others secure the house.”
“So, again, why are they here if you’re just telling me what to do?” she huffed. “I’ve got it: run, shift, and call for backup.”
“They’re here to help train you today,” he advised, looking over his shoulder. “They are acting as the enemy, and you need to make it to the pond before one of them catches you.”
“Ah, but none of them will touch me,” she smirked, knowing she had them. She was of age and none of the unmated males would attempt to touch her. She wasn’t stupid.
Well, she thought she had them. All of the males removed what looked like riding crops from behind their backs. Her eyes went wide.
“You better run now, Jade,” he warned as the males took a step forward. Booth tapped the crop to the palm of his hand, and she didn’t let the image stick in her mind. “If you’re tagged, you’ve been caught.”
“Shit,” she gasped when their eyes flashed amber.
With all the speed she could muster, Jade took off around the side of the building, looking for her options of trails to take. She knew the one to the left by the road leading to the cabins was the shortest route, but it was also the most difficult, dipping into valleys and coming back up steep inclines. The one to the far right was immediately crossed out because it doubled back to the trail in the middle, which was the easiest, flattest.
She could hear them behind her, but she didn’t let it discourage her. They were big males, and in their human form, they were slower than their beasts. She had long legs and agility on her side.
She ran toward the middle trail, darting to the left when she approached. Once she reached the harder trail, she used her powerful legs and got ahead of them on the first incline. Seven males tearing through the woods at full speed sounded more like a herd of elephants. Even in their human form, the shifters should be quieter. She knew they were acting like human males would, not caring about the branches they were snapping or the brush of limbs against their skin.
She could detect all of them. One, slight larger, was to her left, and she knew it was Booth from the way the wind blew his scent toward her. First mistake, Guardian. Three of the other males were directly behind her. With the sound of their breathing, she knew they were running in a straight line; one following the other. To her right were the other two. Malaki didn’t stick to the trail, preferring to leap over downed trees. Ranger was faster, and she could feel him gaining speed as the next incline approached.
With precision, she pushed off with her dominate foot and jumped half the distance, never missing a step as she forced her powerful legs forward. She knew this was a drill, but she also knew she needed to do as she was instructed.
Jade allowed her beast to rise just under her skin. The bones of her face changed, her human nose recessing into her face as her canines thickened. Over the next hill, she saw the next one coming up, and she was more than ready for the challenge.
Talon, training exercise. The enemy is far enough away from the home for you to save the princess.
She felt the push of power from her alpha, but she also felt something else.
Pride.
Knowing she was only training, but had made it far enough to successfully save the alpha’s mate and cubs, gave Jade her own sense of pride. Feeling it come through her connection with Talon made her push herself harder.
When the next dip and rise in the trail came, she pushed off the ground at the top of the rise, launching herself across the valley and landing on top of the next hill. She didn’t even need to look back, she already knew the males had lost speed when they missed her maneuver.
Her panther snarled out loud when it scented the pond water, and she knew she’d won. Refusing to shift, she used her power to climb the large oak tree on the bank, running down the long, exposed limb and diving headfirst into the pond. When she came up, there was nothing that could wipe the smile of victory off her face.
“Ah ha!” she laughed, slapping her hands against the water. “I made it!”
“Yeah, you did,” Booth scowled, crossing his arms across his chest. The six other males mimicked his pose. They stood there for so long, she stopped treading water and swam toward the bank, ringing out her tank top when she came to stand before Booth.
“What?”
“Too bad you got your shoes wet,” he grunted, his eyes roaming her body. She looked down at herself but didn’t say anything about how the water made her tank top stick to her body. She could see the heat in his eyes.
“I can walk barefoot back,” she pointed out, kicking off her pond-soaked shoes.
“There will be no walking back,” Booth replied.
&n
bsp; Jade’s eyes grew wide when his words sank in. He wasn’t serious, was he? When she glanced at the other Guardians, they stepped back, making a space for her go through.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” she gasped, swinging her head around to glare at Booth, but his glowing amber eyes gave her pause. She felt the power of the males as they prepared to chase her. There was an electric charge in the air; one that proved they were chosen to be Guardians by their strength and knowledge. Booth was the most powerful, and even though she caught his mating scent in the air, this was not going to be playtime getting her ass back to the dorm.
“Run,” he barked, giving the only warning she needed.
“You do realize the female is as good as any Guardian you have on your team, right?” Liberty pressed. Her mate was struggling with the new arrival, and she’d found him at his desk with his head held in his hands. She knew Booth and several other Guardians were putting Jade through the paces today, and she also knew Talon was waiting for the magical call from Jade during the simulation. Hence, his deep thought process. From the way he looked conflicted, she knew Jade had bested the males.
While she understood their ways, Liberty, having been human once, knew a female was capable of many things, fighting alongside a male being one of them. She was an expert in firearms, unlike her mate. Being a shifter was different. They used their claws and teeth instead of human-made guns. She got it, she really did, but these males did not.
“She’s nothing like I’ve ever seen, Liberty,” he said in awe as he wiped his hand over his shocked face before looking up into her eyes.
Okay, so Liberty was rubbing it in his face a little. From her first meeting with Jade, she knew the female was going to turn this pride, and probably other prides around the world, upside down. The female claimed she wasn’t an alpha, but she sure as hell carried herself like one.
Talon understood the alpha gene more than Liberty did, and she trusted her mate’s questioning of the female’s bloodline. Talon wasn’t worried anymore about Jade coming to fight him for his leadership, but he was worried about her wanting to fight during the solstice next week.
“I understand why you can’t let females fight,” she began, hoping he would just hear her out on this one. “I’ve seen the males when their mates have been hurt or changed. I get it. I really do, but Talon?”
“Yeah?” he frowned, not knowing where she was going.
“Females are strong, stronger than you think,” she reminded him. “Evie and Hope would make excellent Guardians, and Calla, with more training, could be great as well.”
“Do you know what would happen if I forbid the males from coming to the solstice?” Talon asked, standing from his seat to pace his office floor. Instead of calming him, she took his seat behind the desk and kicked her bare feet up on the edge of the desk.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she sighed, waving a hand out dismissively. “They’ll kill each other trying to save the females.”
“This isn’t a joke,” Talon reminded her, growling when she rolled her eyes.
“Easy there, Tonto,” she demanded. “Hear me out.”
“Fine, what do you have to say?” he grumbled and took a seat in front of his desk. It was odd seeing him there, being on the other side of his father’s desk.
“So, how did your brother, once he finally accepted Evie’s training, handle seeing her get knocked down on the mat by Ranger? Savage, even?”
“He wasn’t happy,” Talon replied, narrowing his icy blue eyes. “He dealt with it, because he knew she was learning.”
“Because she was training, you mean?”
“That was different,” he argued, resting against the back of the chair. Liberty knew her mate was going to hear her out by the way he crossed his ankle over his knee and rested his chin on the back of his hand. He was relaxed, and that was a good sign.
“I think you need to train the males to handle a female fighter,” she announced, holding up her hand when he began to speak. When he made a noise like he was going to talk anyway, she leaned forward as if she was waiting to see if he’d challenge her. When the alpha pressed his lips together and resumed his relaxed position, she continued. “We’ve trained them to fight. We’ve trained them to kill, but have you ever thought to train them to control themselves when their female is capable of defending herself instead of rushing into the fight like a knight in shining armor?”
“You can’t train a Guardian to not protect a female,” he warned. “It just can’t be done.”
“It can’t or you won’t train the males?” she argued. “When I started the firearms class, you allowed me around sixteen untrained males with weapons that could kill me, and I still trained them not to shoot each other or themselves.”
“Still doesn’t mean the mated males will want to allow their females to be beaten in the circle at the solstice.”
“When Hope and Evie are fighting in the gym, does Ranger or Kye freak out and try to stop them?” Liberty continued.
“Well, no,” he frowned. “They’re training.”
“No, Talon,” she snarled, feeling her panther getting agitated. “They’re fighting!”
“But they’re in a training scenario,” he continued, and Liberty wanted nothing more than to shake some sense into him and put on her gloves to go knock some sense into the Guardians.
“There’s no difference, Talon, and you know that,” she accused.
“I know the females who have trained to be protectors are capable of so much,” Talon admitted. “I also know what my males are capable of and how much they can take before they snap.”
“So, if the females can evolve over the last hundred years and fight back instead of hiding in safe rooms or wherever the males of a pride would hide them in a time of war, why can’t the males evolve to lift up the females who are willing to make a sacrifice for their pride and give them an honorable title?”
Talon couldn’t respond. He stared at her like he wanted to take her over his knee, but he didn’t. There was confusion, worry, and even anger in his eyes, but it wasn’t toward her. No, her mate was having to make a huge decision on behalf of not only his pride, but a generation of shifters. He was alpha for a reason, and she knew he would come to his senses.
Booth’s heart swelled with pride when they reached the Guardians’ dorm and Jade was safe. Laying on her back, panting for all she was worth…but she was safe from their test. They’d chased her for the longest time, but she was the one who outran seven Guardians without any mistakes.
Even on her way back, she avoided the tougher trail due to her wet clothes and bare feet. She took the easier one, relying on her speed to make it back. As frustrating as it was not catching her, Booth was proud she did it on the first try.
“You okay down there?” he asked, leaning over her. Her hair had dried slightly from the run back, but her bountiful breasts raised and lowered rapidly as she sucked in the much-needed air.
Seeing her laying on her back in her running shorts and sports bra did something to his insides. The beast bellowed with lust at the way she looked. He couldn’t keep denying his beast’s need to mate her because his human mind couldn’t get on board.
Oh, who was he kidding? He wanted her. He wanted to protect her from herself and anyone who came after her.
A low growl came from deep inside his chest when Axel and Taze came up next to him to peer over his shoulder at the female laying on the ground just outside the door to the dorms. They heard his warning growl and backed away, stopping the other males from coming close.
“Is that growl a protective one or an angry one?” she smirked.
“It’s going to be both if you don’t get your ass up and change clothes,” he warned.
He didn’t know why she just lay there, staring up at him like he’d grown horns instead of fangs. The males left without a word and they were finally alone. His beast was present, but it stayed just under his skin.
“And if I don’t?” she taunted,
finally catching her breath. “Are you going to make me move?”
“You are stubborn,” he accused, turning on his heel. “Be in the facility in ten minutes.”
“I’m coming,” she huffed, groaning when she climbed to her feet. Booth didn’t look back to see if she needed help. A woman like Jade O’Connor didn’t need it.
He flipped on the lights as he entered the training room and found his phone where he’d left it. He texted Hope and turned around when Jade walked in with fresh workout clothes on. She didn’t leave him waiting.
“What are we going to work on today?” she asked, hiding a yawn behind her hand. Booth wanted to stop training for the day as soon as it registered that she was exhausted, but she needed to push herself. Enemies didn’t care if you were tired.
“Hope is coming to do ground work with you,” he replied, grabbing the focus mitts. “Until then, we are going to go through some easy stuff.”
“So, I get to punch you?” she smirked. “I’ve been wanting to do this ever since this morning.”
“Well, baby girl, here’s your chance.” He winked and took a step back when she passed him to grab her gloves from the bag she’d brought down.
When she turned on him and raised her gloves, she inhaled deep, her eyes changing over to the amber of her beast. “Let’s do this.”
She focused on the mitts, punching as she went through the motions. His hands and mitts took the impact and he leaned into her attack. She was strong despite her size. There was no other woman as strong as her, and it made him wonder how she didn’t know she was carrying an alpha gene.
After seeing her father in the bar that night, he knew she didn’t get it from him. Was her mother an alpha? Was she from a lost bloodline or something and didn’t know it? It was tradition for the mothers and fathers to pass down their family trees to their cubs. Every family had a story about their ancestors. It was odd Jade did not have a clue about her relatives beyond her parents.
“Shit,” Jade hissed when she lost focus and her glove slipped off his mitt, hitting Booth in the shoulder. “Sorry.”
Booth (Rise of the Pride, Book 9) Page 10