Chapter 495

While | expected Calista to support Lily, it was nice to have it confirmed. As much as | want to be the one Lily goes to when she’s worried or upset, our relationship isn’t at that point yet. She needs the support of her lifelong friend.

As we're pulling up into the parking lot, Calista asks one more question. “So, Alpha Patrick knows what happened, but who is looking out for you? You're not 18 yet.”

“Alpha Patrick has taken over as my parental guardian. My mother could have come to stay with me, but | expected her to stay with my father, and she did.

“Well,” Calista says as we exit the car, “I guess I'll just have to come to the packhouse to so we can do our homework together.

| watch as she wraps her arm around Lily’s shoulders, and they begin walking to the school entrance. Anders and | walk behind them, almost in a protective stance. I’m not sure what look we have on our faces, but no one approaches us as we walk inside.

We split off to go to our lockers. | can see that Lily and Calista are still whispering to each other, but Lily has relaxed a little bit.

Anders closes his locker and steps up beside me as we watch them. “She'd make a great Luna, wouldn’t she?”

My snarl is instantaneous. | turn to my friend, ready to fight for Lily if that’s what it takes. She was worried about Anders forcing a mate bond on her and here he is confirming her suspicions.

To my friend’s credit, he doesn’t flinch or take a step back. “I’m speaking about Calista, of course.”

| immediately relax and smile apologetically at my friend. “Yeah, she would.” | turn to look at them as they start to walk to class.

“She handled that situation really well.”

As | watch, Lily turns and looks at me. | smile and nod at her. I'll see her in class. Hopefully, she'll handle the rest of it just as well.”

“She will.” | look at my friend. He’s never shown this kind of interest in someone before. We start to walk toward our classes.

“You really think she’s your mate, don’t you?”

He never takes his eyes off her. “I do. Zakai has never shown this kind of interest in someone before. It’s almost like he’s ready to roll over and show her his belly.”

I snort. “Donovan's the same with Lily and Andra. It’s like he’s willing to do anything to make them happy.”

‘She’s our mate. | will do anything to make her happy.” Donovan says to me.

Chemistry class goes much better today | realize that when we're actually working together, Lily and | work very well together. |

feel like something has changed between us. | don’t know if it’s that she feels at some level she can trust me, or just knowing that we share a bond now, with both of us being Guardians, that something in her has relaxed around me. Whatever it is, if our teamwork in Chemistry is any indication of how our lives will be when we're mated, we'll be unstoppable. It’s effortless, easy and unlike everyone else in the class, our experiment worked perfectly.

In Literature, I'm behind again, but | plan to catch up. If Calista is going to come to the packhouse to study with Lily, Anders and |

will be joining in. That will not only give us more time with them, but it will also give me a chance to spar with her mentally about some of this crap we're reading. Okay, maybe it’s not crap, someone somewhere decided that these books were good enough to be considered classics. It's just never been important to me. But it is to Lily, she seems to really like what we're reading, so now, it's important to me too.

“When are you going to tell Calista the rest?” | ask her as we walk to our lockers at the end of the day.

She shrugs. “I'm not sure. | laid a pretty hefty bomb on her this morning. | don’t want to overwhelm her.”

“If | may, I'd say she was a bit hurt that it took you that long to tell her. She’s stronger than most people give her credit for.”

“She definitely is.” Lily immediately defends. “I just...”

I stop, pulling her to a stop, making her look at me. “You just...?”

“What if knowing puts her at risk? Maybe it’s better that she doesn’t know.”

“Do you want my opinion?”

She nods. “If you trust her, tell her.”

We start walking again. “Did you tell Anders right away?”

“Yes, but it was different for me. | was 10, he was my best friend, and | was excited that it meant that no one would ever be able to separate us.”

She nods again. “I'll tell her.”

We drop Calista off at her house, and she promises to come by after dinner to do homework When we get to the packhouse, |

tell Lily she’s got to minutes before it’s time for training.

Since the warriors are using the obstacle course this afternoon, | take her closer to the forest where we can have some privacy, just in case Andra pushes forward. | don’t know how long Patrick plans to try and keep Lily’s existence as a Guardian a secret, but the fewer people that see her sparring, the better.

“Do you want offense or defense?” | ask her.

“Offense.”

| take a defensive stance and nod that I’m ready. Her speed and strength are almost identical to what they were last week. | give her a few minutes to start pushing herself. When she doesn’t, | start to push her. | push her hard, forcing her to become more defensive in her fighting.

After knocking her to the ground, | give her a hand to help her up. “You’re not pushing yourself. You're still acting like you have the same strength you've always had. You're stronger than this. Again.”

Again, she fights. She’s good, but | know she can be better. After taking her down again, | can see she’s frustrated.

“I'll take offense this time. Stop holding yourself back. Trust Andra and let her Guardian spirit flow through you.”

She's breathing heavily, but she gets in a defensive stance. | come at her hard. Harder than I’ve ever come at her before. As hard as | went at Patrick, Calvin and Anders. | increase my speed, forcing her to act on instinct rather than thinking about her moves.

I can tell the moment she gets out of her head. Her eyes rim with gold and she’s able to block me, her speed matching mine. |

push even harder, my hits coming faster. She continues to block everything. When she goes on the offensive and is finally able to hit me, | call the match.

“Nice!” | say, as we both bend over, our hands on our knees, sucking in air.

| look up at her. “Did you feel the difference?”

She nods.

“Good, that’s the strength you need to tap into when you spar with Patrick, Calvin and Anders.” | tell her, before leading her back to the packhouse. Time to get some food and then meet up with Cali and Anders for homework.