Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
“No one will die,” Tristan said, peeling away as I neared Austin.
Austin stopped talking and turned, his stern shifter persona melting into a grin. “Hey, babe.” He checked his naked wrist for the time. “Mr. Tom is keeping you on schedule, I see.”
I furrowed my brow. “We’re fighting about that.”
“Right now?”
“Yes, right now, we’re in a fight.”
His smile was a thing of beauty as he let his arms fall around me. “We can’t bang it out here, I’m afraid. Time constraints and all.”
It was hard to keep a straight face. I angled for a kiss, and he complied eagerly, his lips soft. Afterward, I glowered. It was important to keep up pretenses.
“You could’ve just told me you wanted me to get better about watching the time instead of throwing me to the wolves,” I groused.
He smoothed his hands down my back, holding me close. “I’d intended to. This was Niamh’s idea, actually. Not just to corral you and your crew, but to help Tristan step into a more active role. Where it concerns you, he’s languishing. She thinks he needs a kick in the arse, as she put it.”
I pulled back so I could get a better look at him. “How did she know his managing my schedule, of all things—or even that he would end up managing my schedule—would be that kick in the ass?”
His eyebrows rose. “Was it?”
I told him about Mr. Tom and Patty arguing about managing me, and Edgar pushing for a meeting, and Tristan handling it all. “And then, on the way here, he’s suddenly talking about better aerial training and how to work as a team in the air, even when mages are present. Which…” I ran my hands down his chest to his flat stomach, thinking about it. “It’s a good idea. I’m like a hot potato with those guardians, a wild card that they basically improvise with. I always mess up their organization. It’s not like with my crew, where we’ve all learned to kinda figure it out and work off each other. With them, it’s more disruptive, which is dangerous in battle. I can’t just get out of the way like Cyra and Hollace do because I’m not strong or fast enough.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “Tristan’s right. You’ve never had any sort of proper training, not in a larger framework. If nothing else, it’ll help you to at least understand their structure. It certainly couldn’t hurt. If you’re to lead an army, you have to understand that army.”
“Yeah. True. Something we probably all should’ve clued into before now.”
Austin shrugged. “You’re a unique case. Your position in the army isn’t the same as everyone else’s, and you have different talents. It’s been working so far, but with all these new people, and with the size we are now, the system we’ve got going might become increasingly difficult to maintain.” He shook his head, baffled. “But how did a fight over a schedule get us here? Niamh…” He laughed softly. “She said she was feeling like her old self again and mentioned how happily meddlesome pucas were in olden times—I have a feeling we haven’t seen her real power yet.”
Not even close, Ivy House said. There is a reason she held a high position in that circle. I’d worried she wouldn’t reclaim her former glory. Looks like she just needed higher stakes. The mages pushed her. Their leaving was a blessing in disguise. She’ll rise again.
A feeling like Ivy House rubbing her hands together, as though she were some sort of villain, infused me. That couldn’t be good.
“Ignorance is bliss,” I mumbled. At least for a little longer.
A crease formed in Austin’s brow—he couldn’t hear Ivy House and had no clue how dark she could be—before he gradually pulled away. “Time to get to it. Are you ready?”
“She’s in no real danger, right?” I asked as he took my hand and led me toward the cluster of shifters. They fell silent as we drew near.
“No,” he murmured. “Less so than normal, I’d wager.”
I didn’t get a chance to ask why as the group fanned out into a haphazard line. Aurora stepped forward…along with a big dude stacked with muscle and sporting a hardcore resting dick face. He had tree-trunk arms and topped out at probably six foot three. There was not an ounce of fat padding his frame.
“She’s going to fight him?” I accidentally said, my face probably showing my intense unease.
Aurora’s eyes glittered in that way that said she was laughing at me. I had zero idea why. He was a monster compared to her.
“She wants the position he holds,” Austin said. “This is how she gets it. Now, Jess, as co-alpha, you will be monitoring the challenge. You’ve heard—”
“Wait, what?” I blurted.
He slowed his words. “You will be monitoring the challenge. I’ll help you. It’s important that you get practice on when to intercede and when to let it go. When it’s me being challenged, my well-being will fall solely in your hands, as will my status as alpha. Stop the fight too early, and you risk people thinking you have no faith in me. Too late, and…curtains. You’ve had experience being challenged and experience when someone—me—cuts your challenge short.”