Chapter 17

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

I 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.”

I 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.”

I 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.

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.

and hoists me

“Rafe!” I gasp, glaring at him. “I told you stop throwing me around!”

“I’ll stop throwing you around the day 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 doing pushups.”

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.

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 now…