Chapter 17
“Well?” Jackson says, his voice low, and I flinch again god, that’s getting
annoying as I snap my head up to look at him. He gestures towards the head
table. “Hand in your test.”
“Um,” I say, and then another chair scrapes in the room. Someone else is
finished too, and headed this way. “You take it.” I say, making a snap decision
and nodding towards it.
“You finished first,” he growls, taking a menacing step towards me.
I shock myself by holding my ground. “Just turn in your test, Jackson,” I growl,
looking up into his eyes, starting to get pissed. Because if one of us doesn’t do it,
whoever finished next certainly will.
Jackson comes to the same conclusion that I do at the same moment, seeing the
next candidate. walking towards us. He snaps his gaze to me for a moment and
then turns, expressionless, and places his test face—down on the table. I follow,
doing the same, fully aware that if Jackson did as well as I did on this exam he
just took first.
Which…well, it doesn’t really make much of a difference to our rankings, not
really. But at least, to me, it feels like we’re more even now.
He gave up one for me, even if he didn’t mean to. And now? I’ve given one back.
As far as I’m concerned, we’re square.
face And as I walk about ten feet behind him towards the barracks, doing my very
best to turn my away so that I don’t catch any spare sniffs of his scent. I very
much hope that that’s the end of any interaction that me and Jackson McClintock
get to have for my entire time at the academy.
Or, at least that’s what I tell myself.
My wolf, who lifts her head in the air and eagerly sniffs at his scent, her eyes
half-lidded, her tongue. lolling from her mouth?
She, clearly, has other ideas.
Get ahold of yourself, I growl to her.
No way, she says, shaking her fur out as a shiver passes through her. Do you
remember the way pinned our wrists above our head? Imagine what he could do
in bed
“Oh
my
y god,” I murmur aloud, clenching my fists and storming past Jackson as we both
walk through the door, locking down my mind and not letting any more of my
wolf’s ridiculous thoughts in.
Because the last thing I need to be thinking about now is…
Anything close to that.
he
1 climb up into my bed and lay down on top of my blankets, tucking my cap low
over my eyes before I close them, waiting for Jesse and Rafe to come back so
that we can take our showers and end this crazy day.
Luckily, I don’t have long to wait. They’re not stupid, after all.
“Cousin!” Jesse says, popping up by the side of my bed and making me gasp a
little in surprise. He laughs as he reaches out to shake my shoulder. “Nicely
done! I saw you get up first.”
“Maybe you’d have been done a little faster,” I say, raising an eyebrow at him as I
sit up, “if you’d kept your eyes on the exam, instead of worrying about how
everyone else was ranking.”
“How could I do that,” he says, rolling his eyes, “when the exam was so boring.”
“Not everything is fun, Jesse,” I say, sighing and hopping down from my bunk,
starting to gather my
bath stuff.
“Nope,” Rafe says, walking up and putting out a hand out to stop me. “Not yet.
We’re not done today.”
“What?” I ask, looking between them. I mean, the day is done there is nothing
else scheduled, and frankly I am beat. So what…
“Come on,” Jesse says, slinging an arm around my shoulders and leading me
away. “We’ve got a surprise for you.”
1 groan, but Jesse grins and Rafe is solemn as they walk me through the
barracks and back towards the door. I have a bad feeling that whatever this is?
It’s not going to be fun. But before we can get to the door, Rafe pauses, peering
into one of the bunks.
“Ternicki,” he says, and I turn curiously to see Ben’s head snap up, confused.
“Come on,” Rafe continues, nodding to the door.
“Where?” Ben says, a line of confusion forming between his brows.
“Does it matter?” Rafe asks, dry, and Ben laughs a little, shrugging and getting
out of bed, slipping his boots on and starting after us without tying them. He
catches up fast, looking between us all curiously but not asking any questions. I
shrug at him, letting him know that I don’t know either, and we both sigh as Rafe
and Jesse lead us back into the gym.
“We’ve got an hour,” Rafe says, flicking on the lights and striding into the room.
“Let’s go.”
“Wait, what is this?” I ask, looking around, confused.
“Look at it as…extra credit,” Jesse says, turning to grin at Ben and me as he
walks backwards into the room after Rafe. “You both need the extra work if you’re
going to make any progress on these physical exams. So,” he shrugs, “we’re
going to help you do that.”
“Which,” Rafe says, turning to glare at us a little, “is Jesse’s nice way of saying
that we’re going to spend an extra hour kicking your asses every night until you
can make the cut.”
Chapter 17
“Wow,” Ben says, his eyes going wide.
“Ohhh no,” I groan, simultaneously, looking over my shoulder at where the
showers are probably already filling up with cadets, all of the lovely hot water
running down drain…
“Come on, Ari,” Rafe says, nodding towards a pull up bar. “You need this.”
1 sigh, dragging my feet and heading over to him, but Ben’s words stop me…
“Wait.” Ben says, taking a step forward but frowning at my brother and my
cousin. “Him, I get,” he says, gesturing towards me with his thumb. “But why are
you helping me?”
Rafe just shrugs. “I think you got a bad turn, being pitted against me in the bout
today. So, I figured, why not give you a shot. We were doing it anyway one more
isn’t much.”
I smile at my brother, who is trying to play off his kindness, even though we all
see through it. The truth is that Rafe likes an underdog — he can’t help it, he’s
soft-hearted like mom, even if he pretends that he’s not. It’s probably why he
acts tough all the time — so no one figures it out.
“Well, thanks,” Ben says, smiling and running a hand through his hair. “I mean it.
Thank you.”
“It’s no bid deal,” Jesse says, gesturing for him to come over. “I noticed, on the
first day, that you’re… kind of shit at throwing a punch. Let’s work on that.”
Ben laughs and nods and the two get to work as I walk over to Rafe and wrap my
arms around his waist, unable to help myself.
“My big brother is nice,” I say softly, grinning and giving him a squeeze.
“Don’t tell anybody,” he mutters, pushing me away. “Now stop trying to get out of
work. Up!”
I sigh and stare up at the bar, thinking that the last thing I want to do is chin—ups.
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But as I stand, staring, regretting my
choices, suddenly Rafe grabs me by
the waist upwards so that my only
choice is to grab the bar and swing
from it or fly across the room. The
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and hoists me
“Rafe!” I gasp, glaring at him. “I told you stop throwing me around!”
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“pr :

I’ll stop throwing you around the day

q — ”

you can do a chin—up unassisted,” he
says, smirking at me and putting his
hands beneath my feet so that he
can take a little bit of my weight,

making it just a little easier for me to

. . “ ’ :

lift my weight. “Now let’s go, Ari —

)
three sets of ten, and then we’re
: » 5

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I groan, but I get started because even as I complain?
I know they’re just doing it for me. That my brother and my cousin are skipping
their chance at a hot shower and first in line for food to help me.
And that outweighs any of the misery of chin—ups.
Chapter 17
Which is saying something
Because I am…really bad at chin—ups.
“Come on. Ari!” Rafe shouts, laughing at how much my arms tremble as I work to
pull myself up so
that my
chin rises above the bar. “Let’s go! Seven more, and then a break, and then six
thousand
after that.
“I hate you.” I grumble. But he just grins at me. Because he knows I mean the
opposite.
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And I sigh and get to work, trying very
very hard — and failing to not think
about Luca, who is probably stripping
down for his shower right about

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