by J Bree
Ouch.
I mean, it’s true but that doesn’t mean those words coming out of that mouth don’t hurt. Especially when he's standing there shirtless as he rifles through his bag for something. God, even his back is tightly muscled, how the hell do you even get that ripped at our age? Doesn't that kind of shit take time? Maybe the shifter genes do it for him and, God, am I enjoying the fruits of it.
"You're drooling," Gabe says, smugness dripping from every syllable, and there's something about this moment that makes it safe to flirt back just a little.
I know I look nothing like the perfectly toned and perky girls in this class but I've been shown enough interest in the past to know I'm not a complete hag. When I drop my bag down next to his and pull my shirt over my head, leaving me in just my sports bra, I make a show of bending over to dig my workout tank out of my bag.
He makes a strangled noise and then stops breathing.
I have to swallow the gloating cheer that works its way up my throat and when I pull the tank over my head, I arch my back a little more than necessary, my tits looking perkier than usual.
“That’s just fucking mean. I’m here to help you and you’re the one that took sex off of the table,” Gabe chokes out, grabbing his water bottle and stalking over to one of the weight machines.
I snicker out a laugh, sounding like a depraved idiot, but too tired and smug to care about how I look to him right now. “I play to win, you should learn that lesson now before it bites you in the ass.”
He shrugs and starts setting the machine up for me. “You’ve done enough damage that I’m bulletproof now, Fallows. What’s the most you can bench now?”
Dammit.
I have to ignore his jab at me and I force my voice to be even as I reply, “Five pounds.”
He rolls his eyes at me and then shoots me a glare. “I know you’re being a brat right now but if we have to start at five, this is going to go on forever. You’ll never get out of here.”
I mean, I wasn’t actually joking, but I don’t argue with him when he adds twenty pounds on and then jerks his head at me to get started. I take my time, mostly to mess with him, but also because I have no idea if I can actually do this.
Half an hour later I decide that I’d rather just die.
I would rather lay down and die if the Resistance comes after me because there’s nothing in the world that could be worse than all of this working out. Fuck, and to think that I’d thought Vivian’s training circuit was bad. Gabe puts him to utter shame and I start to regret ever extending that stupid fucking olive branch to him.
This is how he’s punishing me for leaving them.
“I’m not doing anything else. If you attempt to put me on another machine, I’ll scream murder and run out of here. I’m going to the police, the non-Gifted will definitely help me escape this kind of abuse.”
Gabe rolls his eyes at my dramatics, and even though he’s also sweating at the workout, his voice comes out steady and with none of the panting I’m doing, “You can bitch Gryphon out for this later if you hate it, he’s the one who set the reps. He seemed to think you could handle it, but I guess I can call him and tell him you bitched out.”
Fuck.
Goddammit, he’s figured out how to play me like a fucking fiddle because that shit is a red flag being waved at me and instantly I’m back to lifting weights and hoping to die. It takes every distraction technique I’ve ever learned to get through it but I last the entire hour, my body collapsing on the mats the moment he mutters that we’re done.
“I’m not carrying you back to the dorms so you better pull yourself together, Bond.”
I curse him out but it comes out a garbled mess of groans and panting that he just laughs at. There’s no way I’m ever moving again so I just accept that I live here now, in this exact spot on the mats. I really need to change out of my gross, sweaty clothes, but my bag is at least four feet away from me and I almost cry at the very thought of getting over to it by myself. Gabe huffs at my whimpering and slings the bag over to me on his way through to the guy’s locker room. I hear the shower cut on and I guess I have about ten minutes to heave myself off of the ground.
I need every second I can get.
I decide that being friends with Gabe might end up harder than it’s worth if he insists on making me train every morning, but once I finally scrape myself off of the ground, he takes us over to the dining hall and we eat together in a pleasant sort of silence that neither of us want to break.
It’s shocking to me how many students know and love him, and I spend half the time we’re eating being introduced to someone new who’s stopped past the table to talk to Gabe about some sporting bullshit. I’m polite but not friendly because, honestly, my circle is already looking a little too big for my liking. I was happy with just Sage but now there’s Sawyer and Felix and Gabe and, fuck, Atlas, whose messages are still the first thing I see when I wake up and the last thing I read before I fall asleep every night.
I can’t afford to have all of these people to miss when I leave them behind.
I make excuses to Gabe about needing to get assignments finished and he walks me back to my dorm without questioning the sudden shift in my mood. When I get back to my room, I text Sage and Atlas with the same story about studying and then I spend the rest of the day messing around on my phone and trying not to lose my goddamn mind over being trapped here with all of these people I’m starting to… need. Fuck, I need them all. I need their friendships like nothing ever before and I’m completely screwed.
I finally force myself into cracking open my textbooks in the afternoon and then I crawl into bed when my eyes feel as though they’re bleeding around midnight.
I’m woken at four in the morning by my phone ringing.
I ignore it, because fuck whichever one of my Bonds is trying to ruin my week by waking me the hell up right now. I roll back over on the shitty, tiny bed and then shove a pillow over my head when the phone starts ringing again. I know better than to ignore it, I know they wouldn’t be fucking with me like this and there’s probably something major going on, but after the training with Gabe yesterday, I’m freaking exhausted.
The thumping on my door that starts ten minutes later isn’t as easy to ignore.
I might murder whoever the fuck is here.
I spring out of the bed and rip the door open, ready to spill some goddamn blood, only to find Gabe standing there, panting and freaking the fuck out. I forget my fury at the wake-up as I take him in. He’s wearing nothing but a pair of basketball shorts, every inch of his golden skin gleaming in the glow of my shitty bedside lamp.
He’s freaking magnificent.
A few of the doors down the hallway open, scowling girls popping their heads out to glare at me like it’s my fault Gabe has shown up like a raging goddamn bull in a china shop at the ass crack of dawn.
“Where’s your phone? Why the hell didn’t you answer it?” Gabe croaks but I’m too busy trying to restart my now very broken brain to reply, all of my usual sass and sarcasm just freaking gone thanks to the sight of him, and as he brushes past me to stalk into my room, I notice his bare feet. My brain might not be at full function but something does click for me.
He shifted and ran here.
“What’s happened? Fuck, Gabe, what the hell is going on?” I shut the door and lean back against it, trying desperately not to look at him as he paces around, eyeing everything like he’s expecting to have to defend us both against an entire freaking army that’s lying in wait behind my shitty, cracked mirror.
“Twelve Gifted were taken tonight. Three of them were from this building, heading back from a party and taken outside. North said your GPS hadn’t moved but… I had to check for myself.”
Fuck.
Fuck. This is getting out of hand, if they don’t let me go soon then I’m going to be caught and that’ll be the end of everything. The fear has me snapping at him, “I don’t need a fucking babysitter!”
He spi
ns back around to snarl at me, “Then answer your fucking phone!”
I’m more open than I would normally be because it’s actually too freaking sweet to think he ran the whole way here just because I didn’t answer my phone, but I’m still freaking the hell out over having friends and ties holding me here. “You just said North checked the GPS, there’s no reason for you to be rushing over here and waking the whole goddamn building up!”
His eyes narrow at me and then his chest heaves as he takes a deep, calming breath, the type that probably means he’s trying to find a little patience to deal with my bullshit. “You said we were friends… well, this is what friends do, Oli. When you didn’t answer the phone I had to be sure that you weren’t taken. This is what friendship with me looks like, take it or leave it.”
I have no choice but to take it because I’m so fucking tired of arguing with him. I can’t change our situation, and I definitely can’t let my guard down around him, but all of the fight in me that I usually have for him is just gone.
“Okay. Alright, fine, now you know I’m alive and I promise I’ll answer my stupid phone next time. Go home and let me get a few more hours of sleep in.”
I slump down onto my bed, finally realizing that I’m wearing nothing but a pair of ratty old shorts and a tank, but Gabe hasn’t noticed or commented on exactly how homeless I look, thank God. I lay back against the terrible pillow and attempt to get comfortable but it’s impossible to do with the way he’s just standing there watching me like I’m so fucking interesting here in my shitty room with absolutely nothing personal. Not even a decent set of sheets or a blanket.
I give him a look which he completely ignores as he slides down onto the floor, his back pressed against the door and his eyes glowing in the darkness just a little, the only proof that he’s struggling with his gift at the moment.
I really can’t be fucked fighting with him, my voice wrung out and exhausted, “I’m still tired, Gabe, please just leave me to sleep.”
He shrugs and glances away to look out the tiny, grimy window. “I’m not leaving you alone here while there’s fucking Resistance snatching people. Just go to sleep and in the morning I’ll head over to the dining hall with you before class.”
I huff and pull the blanket up to my chin but it’s too freaking weird to attempt to sleep with him sitting there so I give up before I really give it a try. “What’s the Council doing about this? You can’t tell me they’re just sitting around letting people be kidnapped.”
I hear Gabe exhale in a long stream but I keep my eyes on the ceiling. “Some of them want to do exactly that. They’re too fucking gutless to form a plan and go after them, spouting some bullshit about higher ground and keeping the peace.”
Fuck that, there’s no such thing as higher ground when it comes to these people. They’ll take any weakness or show of morality and they’ll use it to destroy you.
I know this for a fact.
“And what does North think about it? What’s he doing for the community with all of that money and power of his?” My voice is scathing and Gabe doesn’t answer me for a minute, the room settling into a charged silence that’s full of all of our secrets.
My phone buzzes under my pillow and, without thinking, I pull it out to see Atlas’ message.
I heard about the abductions. There’s been seven here overnight as well. I’m going to push for a transfer, I’m not going to sit by and leave you alone to face this shit.
I swallow because I really don’t want him to come. He’s the tiny bit of joy that I allow myself because of the distance between us. If he shows up, then I’ll have to put that same distance between us that I have with the others and that feels fucking devastating to me right now.
“Whose phone is that?”
Fuck.
I drop it down onto the covers but there’s no use hiding it now, Gabe’s seen it and realized it’s definitely not the older model iPhone that North had given me. Nope, it’s the shiny and brand new one that Atlas had couriered to me. It’s on his phone plan and I allow myself to accept that from him because he’s the only one I ever message on it.
“Oli, where the fuck did you get that?”
I roll my eyes and then turn my back on him because he’s once again proving to me that they all think they own me and have a right to take away every last one of my freedoms. “Atlas sent it to me, now run along to snitch on me to North like the good little lapdog you are.”
There’s silence again and then he mutters quietly, “Fuck, you’re a bitch, Fallows.”
He still doesn’t move to get up and eventually sleep claims me.
Chapter Eighteen
We’re thrown right back into our classes like nothing happened and it’s so fucking strange.
Gabe pretends that we hadn’t argued over his impromptu trip to my dorm and our fight over the phone, and we start spending every morning at the training center working out and going through Gryphon’s self-defense training routine. North doesn’t show up at my door to snatch it off of me so I have to assume Gabe kept his mouth shut about it. No one else seems worried about the abductions, though I do notice the extra security on campus, subtly watching over us all as we move through the buildings.
Sawyer glues himself to Sage’s side, only leaving her to go to his own classes, and I’m sure he only does that because he knows Gabe is shadowing us both. The more I look around the hallways, the more I see that everyone is moving in clusters, like all of the Bonded groups are sticking to each other for safety, so maybe they’re not as unaffected as they first seem.
On Friday, Gabe and I split off from Sage and Sawyer to head to TT and even with the extra workouts we’re now fitting in before class, I find myself dreading going back in there with the other students. I’m waiting for Vivian to take us down to the maze again, my body still feels the aches and pains from the last time.
He doesn’t.
Once I’m dressed in my workout gear and I step back out into the training area, I find a lot of TacTeam guys standing around. Half of them turn to get a good look at me which is really off-putting, especially when it becomes clear that I know them.
They’re the ones that grabbed me and dragged me back here.
I’m about to walk over to one of them, the guy who had tackled me and slammed me into the ground at the cafe I’d been working at, and kick him in the balls so hard his goddamned ancestors feel it, when Vivian calls out to start the class, “We’re going to be working on self-defense techniques and head back to the mats.”
I’m expecting the same sort of groaning that the basement had pulled out of everyone but instead there’s a buzz that goes around the room instantly. The girls all start looking each other over and the guys start flexing like this is an opportunity to impress.
I stay in my usual spot at the back of the group but Gabe comes over to stand by me, a couple of his football friends joining us with a respectful nod in my direction. I bump Gabe gently with my shoulder and point out the Tac guy I want to murder in cold blood and ask, “What’s his name?”
He frowns at me and leans down to murmur quietly in my ear, “Kieran Black. He’s Gryphon’s second and he’s got a temper, so stay away from him.”
I nod but I think he’s forgetting that I also have a temper and it’s been ignited, burning inside me and ready to burn that asshole to the ground.
“Let’s see how much you’ve all forgotten, shall we? Hanna, Ty, get on the mats and run us through the stances, hits, and blocks we’ve already gone through.”
One of Gabe’s football buddies walks over, as well as one of the girls. Hanna isn’t a gossip or a flirt, and her shoulders are so muscular and defined that I think she’s going to crush anyone who goes up against her, because she’s clearly a badass. It’s almost enough to make me feel intimidated as hell.
Well.
Except the thing is, I’ve already been working on these positions, thanks to my time with Gabe, but I’m not stupid enough to say that to anyone. I j
ust watch as Hanna and Ty go through the motions like I’m soaking in something new.
Hanna is much better than I am, obviously, but Ty’s footwork is sloppy. I spot it at the same time Vivian does, his mouth turning down, and when he kicks out Ty’s ankle, the pair of them go down in a breathless, groaning pile.
I smother a giggle that earns me a scowl from Kieran. Gryphon doesn’t attempt to look over at me, which I already know is thanks to his belief that I’m a worthless brat, so that burns a little.
Once they’re back on their feet, Vivian steps up into the empty space and calls out in his booming voice, “The rules are simple; first one to get their opponents shoulders onto the mat, wins, and under no circumstances are you allowed to use your gift.”
Ah, perfect, the exact type of competition I actually have a chance at winning and with the stances and throws Gabe has been going over with me, I’m quietly confident I’ll beat… someone. Even if it’s just the first person who underestimates me, it’ll be good for my confidence and mood after the shit-show of a week we’ve had.
Maybe my Bonds will back off a little if they know I can defend myself even without a gift. I doubt it but, hey, here’s hoping.
“Fallows, get on the mats. I need to see how far behind you are with this so I can figure out how the hell I’m going to catch you up.”
I roll my eyes at Vivian before I shoot him a grin. “If you keep picking on me, people will talk, old man.”
The TacTeam guys in front of me all stiffen up like they’re in shock that I’m talking to their beloved trainer like this, but Gryphon just shakes his head, his eyes still anywhere but me.
I hate it so much.
“Quit your shit. I’m not letting you off just for running your mouth. Off you go, take Hanna to the mats and I’ll be impressed enough not to make you run suicides for giving me lip.”