Page 11 of Brutal Reign
“Just listening to music.”
I flop down onto the mattress, my body bouncing as I land on my back beside him. “Sueco’s new album?”
“Nah, this old band I just discovered,” he replies, the corner of his mouth ticking up. “They’re pretty good, actually.”
I hold out a hand, wiggling my fingers, and he reaches up to slip the headphones from around his neck. I slide them on as soon as he hands them over, shutting out the sounds of the outside world as the music bleeds in through the earpieces to flood my brain.
He’s right, this band is good. I close my eyes and sink into the tune, feeling it flow through me down to my toes. I’ve loved music since before I was even born. My mom said she used to put headphones on her belly when I was in the womb, and she’d feel me dancing around in there to the music.
I listen to the song until it ends, then slide the headphones off and hand them back over to Ace. “Not bad,” I muse.
He smirks as he takes them from me, tossing them down onto the bed. “Actually, there’s this one song of theirs I wanna play you,” he murmurs, tapping on his phone screen to disconnect his headphones and queueing it up to play from the speaker instead.
As soon as it starts, he drops his phone between us on the bed, flopping onto his back again and tucking an arm up behind his head. I follow suit, reclining beside him as the song begins with a steady drum beat, my eyes sliding closed.
This is a familiar scene for us. Ace is drawn to music in the same way I am, and I can’t even count how many hours we’ve spent in this room just lounging around listening to it. As this particular song starts playing, though, the lyrics strike a chord with me. It’s a song about longing. About a guy throwing stones at a girl’s window, hoping for a chance.
I roll over onto my side, resting my cheek on a hand as my eyes map the sharp lines of Ace’s profile while the swell of the song’s chorus builds for a second time. I know boys don’t like to be called beautiful, but that’s what he is. From his strong brow to his harsh cheekbones, his features were clearly chiseledby some sculptor to the gods. Some of that boyish softness still lingers, but it’s fading every day.
I’m not sure when I started noticing the change, or more importantly, my reaction to it. Every time I’ve seen Seb or Ace recently, I swear my heart flutters around in my chest. Both of my friends have begun evolving into startlingly attractive men.
Ace’s eyes flicker sideways, catching me staring, and he rolls onto his side to face me, his hand landing right beside mine in the space between us. Close enough to touch. The key of the song changes as it slides into the bridge, and his ocean eyes lock with mine as I slowly move my pinky, brushing it against the side of his hand.
He doesn’t move away. Instead, he shifts his weight slightly, bringing our faces even closer. Those dreamy turquoise eyes of his drop to my lips, then bounce back up to meet mine just as the song nears its end.
I glance down at his lips, licking my own. “Dare you,” I whisper.
Ace freezes for a moment, then abruptly jerks upright, stabbing his fingers through his dark hair as he turns away. “River, I…”
“I was just kidding!” I rush out, curling up to sit as an uncomfortable laugh tumbles from my lips.
It’s easy enough to play off. ‘Dare you’ is basically our trio’s motto; we use it in challenge against one another to do all sorts of stupid, reckless things. We’ve been saying it for so long that I don’t even remember when it started.
“Yeah, I know,” Ace scoffs, snorting a hollow laugh.
Except maybe he doesn’t know, because maybe I wasn’t just joking around.
And this just got real awkward, real fast.
“Shit, well that was torture,” Seb groans as he barges into Ace’s room, flinging the door wide and stomping toward us. “Iget that my dad wants to show me the ropes of being Alpha, but if he wants me to get excited about it, then sitting through a council meeting isn’t the move.”
I feel a blush rise to my cheeks as I shuffle further away from Ace on the bed, turning at the waist to face Seb as he approaches.
He must pick up on the uncomfortable vibe between the two of us, because Seb pauses in his steps, his suspicious gaze sliding between Ace and me. “What’d I miss?”
NOW
The familiar tuneofMiles Davis & The Coolby The Gaslight Anthem filters through my earbuds as I lean up against the metal siding of the squad complex, staring out at the practice field while trying and failing to center myself. I’ve listened to this song a thousand times since Ace first played it for me in his bedroom a few years ago. I don’t know why I still listen to it so often, but something about the tune is oddly calming to me. Maybe because it’s reminiscent of simpler times, before the bottom dropped out.
I’m not the first out on the field this morning because I’m eager to get started with squad training. I mean, Iamlooking forward to that, but more importantly, I’m hoping to catch the squad leaders beforehand so I can ask them about moving from the barracks to the dorms. As a future squad leader myself, it’d make sense for me to be given a dorm assignment, and it’d also be nice to have somewhere to go to get away from it all… or from Seb Walker, specifically. I don’t know what the hell he was tryingto prove when he cornered me in the locker room last night, but it’s not a confrontation I care to repeat.
I startle when the double-doors of the building bang open beside me, jerking my head around to see Madd, Lo, and Tristan stepping out onto the field. I push off from the wall and yank my earbuds out, stooping to drop them into the bag at my feet and tucking my phone away, too, since I’ve heard Madd’s a stickler about no phones at practice. Then I straighten, jogging after the three squad leaders as they make their way toward the center of the field.
“Morning!” I chirp, prompting all three of them to swivel around to face me.
Madd gives me a critical once-over, arching a dark brow. “Since when areyoua morning person?”
“Since training starts at seven a.m.,” I reply sweetly, batting my lashes. “Wouldn’t want to give you a reason to cut me from the squad, right?”