26

G E O R G I E

✿

As soon as I opened the door behind the healing chamber, I pressed myself against the cool stone wall and narrowed my eyes. Breathe, Georgie, breathe. Tears ran down my cheeks and I brushed them away in frustration. That means nothing. He doesn't exist. It was just delusions, nothing more. I took a deep breath, buried all painful memories and swallowed.

I would go to Xenos now. He'd tell me that Deathbringer doesn't exist and none of those fat old books ever mentioned that name. It would just be a harmless imagination. A horror name, no more, no less. And Hades would never rise from his grave again. Exactly.

Before I knew it, I was standing in front of his study. Bum, bum, bum. I knocked three times before I heard, Come in.

Xenos sat in a large brown armchair behind his wide solid wood table and looked up from his stack of papers. “Georgie. What can I do for you?"

I cleared my throat. 'Well, I have a few questions. It's about, legends."

He looked at me in astonishment. "What makes you think I know about this?"

I shifted nervously from one foot to the other. "Well, Arya told me."

His face darkened for a tad, but then just when I thought things were about to get hot for me, he smiled and his blue eyes brightened. “So, has she. All right, then I'll help you. Just don't tell anyone else, or you'll see a new alpha behind this desk.” He winked at me, put down his pen, and stood up.

I highly doubted that anything would rob him of his dominating aura, or the deep loyalty and love of his pack, but I kept my mouth shut.

"What exactly are you looking for?" Xenos inquired as we walked down the paneled corridors, flanked by bright torches.

"About someone named Ruinbringer," I replied, following him down the wide staircase. My hand slid over the golden railing.

"Hmmm. tell me something I think I stumbled across it in the older legends.” he said and pushed open the large, heavy oak door that led into the spacious, light-flooded hall.

Xenos passed the fork that led to the shelves with the scrolls and strode down the main corridor. After a while he said, 'We're all proud of you, Georgie. You are sending an important signal.”

"Oh yeah?" I laughed dryly. What, I got admitted to the exam as the bottom of my class? Or that I was still suffering from nightmares? Or that I couldn't even convince my own mate that the bond was something positive for me?

He gave me a sideways glance. "Yes," he said seriously.

"Oh!" I swallowed.

We passed a towering wall of books that stretched so far that it took a ladder to reach the top copies.

“You've survived a lot, but you keep going. don't give up That means courage. Courage and Hope.”

I fiddled with my autumn brown sweater. "Thank you," I whispered.

He nodded. Then he turned down a narrow aisle and searched the shelves. 'Hm, where did we... ah! Here!” He pointed to a section in which one thick ham was lined up one after the other. They looked dusty and a little musty. "I'm afraid we don't have too many books on ancient legends that you're after, but I hope I've been of some help."

"Certainly, thank you very much." I stared at the cluttered bookshelf with as much enthusiasm as if they were boring, math textbooks for a censorship to study. He thought that was little?

O holy moon goddess, help me. I blindly reached for the first book. It's going to be a long couple of hours.

B E A U

✿

A month. The healer's words kept rattling around in my head. It has shortened to a month. One month Beau, nothing more.

She'd intercepted me as I dropped Georgie off in front of her healing chamber. That was three days ago. Three days that felt like stillness, a calm sea just waiting for the storm to break out and the waves to swell. Hawkings and I had put the inland navigation course and graduation ceremony on hold until the situation was secured and we had fought the battle against the pirates. But the Veshari remained quiet, almost extinct. No more ships were sighted, the black raiders who had ambushed us in the cave seemed to have retreated, and the islander continued to doze in her fevered state.

Georgie had either been training during this time, or had retired to the library, where she stuck her nose in some shitty books. She said she's trying to find out more about these cloaked beings, but so far she seems to have had no success. My wolf growled and I agreed with him. We would lie in wait, waiting for them to dare to take something from us again, and then bite their throats.

The oblong ceiling lamp whirred and clouded the large training hall with a yellowish light.

"Concentrate," I said, looking down at Georgie who was lying on her back on the dark blue mat.

She scrambled to her feet and automatically assumed a fighting stance. Slightly on the knees, arms in front of her body, ready to defend. 'It's six in the morning. By this time I am usually in my warm, cozy bed.”

My arm shot out, she blocked. Some of her black hair had fallen out of her high ponytail. Her cheeks were pink from the exertion. Like me, she wore black tracksuits.

"Good. You should get used to it.” I said, forcing myself not to follow the beads of sweat running down her neck and let my gaze sink lower. Fuck Beau, relax. I cracked my neck. "Now attack me."

She obeyed my command and I refused. "Again."

We continued to practice, I showed her what she had to improve. She attacked again, this time with a quick succession of a technique I didn't recognize. Stunned by this particular combination of moves, she managed to wrestle me to the ground. Wrapping her legs around my head, she squeezed. She got that from Arya.

I quickly freed myself from the stranglehold of her legs. She followed my movements, fended off my attacks, then tried to make new ones herself. I let her for a while. A smile tried to steel itself on my lips. It was a dance, back and forth and forward again.

"Well, who's to say," she said, smiling as I pinned her to the wall bars.

My hand lay on her soft abdomen. "You do realize who's got a blade in their stomach right now?"

'Not since I cut your throat before that. So you'd be dead already,” she said proudly with a triumphant grin.

I wanted to kiss that smile. "Then I'm lucky it's just a simulation."

"Hm." She ran her fingers down the backs of my hands, then asked, "Will you be there tomorrow for the exam?"

I loosened my grip on her wrists so as not to press them too hard against the wooden bars. "Yes. Finally, I have to convince myself what a spectacular teacher you had."

Her smile widened. "I assume you mean Arya." When I growled, her gray-purple eyes sparkled haughtily. "Or Hawking's."

I grabbed her waist. Wanted to touch that mouth. "Take it back."

"Let me think about it..." She bit her lip. My wolf went nuts. The man in me too. "No."

I gave in and ran my thumb across her bottom lip. “I think I must have misheard. What did you say exactly?'

She grabbed my shirt and pulled me towards her. Then she reached up to me, nibbling on my chin. "Kiss me and I'll tell you."

My claws shot out and I pulled them away before cutting into her lips. "Georgie..."

She kissed my chin, my cheek. Drove her hands over my chest. "What?"

I should turn away. Should leave this fucking room. But I couldn't, hadn't made it once in those three days, even if I tried. These girls. She just snuck under my hard built wall like all she had to do was blow on it and it fizzled out. I couldn't do anything about it, couldn't find the strength to push her off me. She got under my skin too much for that.

My wolf clawed at the walls, rampaged trying to get to her. Inhaling her scent, sinking teeth into her throat and fucking tagging her. "Distance. You should keep your distance from me."

Her kisses stopped and she put her hand on my forehead. "Do you have a fever? No? Then why are you spouting such nonsense?”

There was a clear line between us. At the moment she was still separating us, but Georgie was moving inexorably towards her, standing right in front of it. Did she know what she was getting herself into here? Did she know that after that, no matter how much she wished I would never let her go?

And she would, there was no doubt about it.

Memories of my mother's bloodied body flooded up, my sister's dead body lying motionless in my arms. The pool of blood that had formed around my father. It is all my fault.

Then she kissed me and the memories vanished even though I should warn her. Although I should confess to her what I had done.

My knuckles turned white as my hands tightened their grip on the wooden bars of the wall bars. I trembled from the tension. Don't touch her, just don't touch, Beau. I only allowed my mouth to touch her while holding back my fangs. I captured her lips in a hard, passionate kiss. “You don't know what you're doing. You don't know who you're kissing.” Which monster she was looking at.

She moaned into my mouth. 'Oh yes, Beau. I want you."

I bit her lip, giving her my mark. I wanted so much more than that, I wanted to lick her skin, dig my teeth into her throat. Suck, nibble, bite. Leave traces everywhere. I forced my mouth away from hers, but couldn't help tucking a strand of hair behind her ears. "Hawkings and the rest will be there shortly."

She nodded. "Okay," she said, looking up at me with those damn beautiful eyes. Neither of us did anything to break away from each other. Only when we heard footsteps in front of the door did I push myself off the wall bars. Shortly thereafter, the hall filled with loud chatter. Georgie joined her friends and sat next to Blair on the steel benches placed around the ring.

I went over to Hawkings, who was standing with his legs apart in front of the ring ropes and loudly announced, "Tomorrow will be the test. You trained hard and did your best. We are proud of you. So today is the last training session that consists of just one final drill.” Hawkings paused meaningfully. "The ring."

There was a murmur of excitement and my eyes rolled almost on their own until I caught her concerned look at the ring.

Hawkings clapped his hands and shouted, "Georgie, you go first. Come on, in the ring.”

Georgie, looking a little pale, rose from the bench.

I grabbed Hawkings' arm while I caught the corner of his eye as she ducked under the ropes and into the ring. "What the hell are you doing, Hawkings!" I growled under my breath. My wolf crouched down and prepared to leap.

He shook off my grip and said casually, “Relax, all my students go through this. It's a tradition, so to speak.”

So it was tradition. If I prevent this fight, I might as well spit on their pride.

Hawkings, whose grin I wanted to smack off his ugly face, then said to Georgie, "You pick someone."

"O-Okay." Her gaze darted around the room nervously.

I retracted my claws and aimed at Blair. Blair's forte was her wolf. So she wouldn't land particularly strong hits.

"I choose Isaac."

My head snapped to the blond haired kid sprinting to the ring and heaving his way over the ropes with his daft grin on his face. My wolf threw himself against the chains and this time I failed to retract my claws.

"Good. you know the rules Three seconds on the ground and it's a KO', Hawkings opened the fight and blew the whistle.

Isaac landed his first hit.

I saw red.