Page 119 of Brutal Reign
“Seeing how my wolf reacted to you guys went a long way with him,” she muses, the corner of her mouth lifting as she turns her head to meet my eyes. “And my mom thinks you might be onto something with the whole marking thing.”
My pulse picks up speed, my inner wolf surging forward eagerly at her suggestion. “I’m ready whenever you are, babygirl. Just say the word.”
“Soon,” she replies with a coy smile, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “So, are you gonna tell me what I missed at training this morning?”
I fight back a wince, but evidently not well enough because her expression falls.
“What?” she frowns.
“Jake and Chandler were plotting to get you thrown out of camp, so we handled it,” I say coolly.
River narrows her eyes on me. “How?”
“By telling everyone you’re our mate.”
She draws a short gasp, eyes widening.
“Is that a problem?” I ask carefully, searching her eyes for any flicker of indecision. “I mean, now that your dad knows, we figured it wasn’t a secret anymore…”
“No, you’re right,” she breathes, her brows furrowing and a little crease forming between them as she glances away. “I just… it’s weird to have it all out in the open, y’know?”
“Nah, because now I can do this whenever I want,” I growl as I roll onto my side, cupping her cheek and leaning down to capture her lips. She melts beneath me as I kiss her hard, nipping her lower lip before pulling back to gaze into her eyes again.
“Hey, that reminds me,” I murmur, reaching behind me to grab my phone and earbuds out from underneath my pillow.Handing her the earbuds, I unlock my phone, queuing up the last song I listened to as she slips them into her ears without question. This is kinda our thing, so there’s no explanation necessary.
I hit play on ‘Carry You Home’by Alex Warren, watching her face intently as the music starts to play. I’m not sure if she’s heard it before, but when I listened to this song earlier, I knew it was perfect for her. Forus.
The corners of her mouth lift as her lips spread into a smile, her wide hazel eyes colliding with mine.
Yeah, she gets it.
She reaches a hand out to grab a fistful of my t-shirt, pulling me back in for another kiss. I smile against her lips, stealing a headphone from her ear and slipping it into my own so we can listen together.
I’ve always loved music, but I swear it sounds ten times better with her.
39
Sparring with Ace is always top tier. I have no idea how we were lucky enough to be paired together for this morning’s training exercises, but you won’t hear any complaints from me. I’m thoroughly enjoying every second of it.
When the other recruits spar against me, they typically fall in one of two camps. They either hold back because they’re scared, or they go all out, bound and determined to prove that they can go toe to toe with an Alpha. Either way, the involvement of emotion makes their technique sloppy, never presenting a real challenge. On the flipside, Ace isn’t afraid of me, and he’s got nothing to prove. He’s as skilled as I am and matches me blow for blow.
He just landed a solid kick that almost took me down.Almost. I stumbled, but I didn’t fall, recovering quickly enough to go back on the offensive. My Beta grins in morbid delight as I launch myself toward him, winding up to strike.
I land a punch to his ribcage, but strangely, I’m the one who feels a hit of pain. Not anywhere on my body that I can pinpoint, but deep in my chest, almost like it’s coming from…
Ace and I both freeze, exchange a look before simultaneously jerking our heads in River’s direction and taking off when we see that she’s down on the ground. She’s clutching her outer thigh, the sight of blood seeping between her fingers immediately sending my wolf into a panic. He shoves forward, clawing at my mental barriers as Ace and I rush across the field to get to our mate.
We’re not the only ones. The other recruits are already drifting toward her to see what’s going on, the squad leaders snapping into action. Ares crouches down beside River to assess her injury while Archer questions Nate Hines, her sparring partner, about what happened.
I already wasn’t happy they were paired together to spar, but if he contributed to causing her injury, I’ll show him no mercy.
“She fell on that branch,” Nate pants as he points to a stick on the ground, the sharp edge of it stained crimson.
“Must’ve come down in the storm over the weekend,” Archer mutters, bending to pick it up.
“Shit, this is bleeding pretty bad,” Ares grumbles to River, using the hem of his t-shirt to smear the blood away so he can examine her wound properly. “Must be deep. You’d better get it checked out at the infirmary.”
“We’ll take her,” I cut in as Ace and I make our approach, shoving past the other recruits to get to our girl.