Page 51 of Outnumbered

My brows rose. “What?”

Her frown turned into a smile. “In a good way. You’re finally accepting that you are part of their pack and that you aren’t a stinky little hermit anymore.”

“Hey!” I said, but laughed knowing I did on occasion smell pretty awful when I was up for several days in a row tending to an injured patient.

“They’re going to be fighting for a bit, come inside and tell me everything that’s happened, especially about your sleepover at Leona’s,” she said, linked her arm through mine, and pulled me into the house.

Glancing over my shoulder, I caught Caleb’s eye just long enough to get a wink from him.

Once inside, Jolie spun around and set her hands on my arms, whispering so quiet it was hard to hear her, “I heard you used a teleportation spell.”

I nodded.

“Good. You’re in more danger than you or Caleb realize. We did some investigating while we were on vacation and the roots of H.E. have spread even farther than we dared think. I am going to teach you a spell, one you must only use in the deadliest situation, one where you think all hope is lost.”

My eyes widened and my heart pounded as she stared into my eyes, relaying information that was terrifying.

“This spell, if done correctly and if your power is enough, will ensure that you can all get to safety. A friend of mine has premonitions and she urged me to teach you. I dare not ignore her.”

“What is the spell?” I asked.

“A portal spell,” she answered. “You can create a portal door to a place that you’ve been before. This spell is one you can create and open beneath the feet of yourself and your pack, to send them to a safe location. Like this house! It requires a lot of magic for a single portal, so we’re going to spend the next two weeks devoting every hour of your training to learning to make portals, to teleport not just yourself, but all five of you.” She paused and cupped my cheeks. “You cannot tell your pack about this, especially not Caleb. As future king, he will not want an escape plan like this, especially because the magic requires a lot from you.” She paused. “It not only requires magic, but blood. Not a lot! But blood magic is heavily frowned upon despite it not being evil. Caleb especially sneers at it and this spell will be seen as a coward’s way out. He will not want you to risk yourself to save him. I cannot see my son, my only child, die because he is stubborn like his fathers … and his mother.”

Setting my hands on hers, I smiled and said, “I understand. Any training I can get is worth it.”

She pressed a soft kiss to my forehead and said, “Good. Now, let’s go to Nico’s lab and start your first day of training.”

Chapter

Fifteen

Jolie wasn’t joking when she said the training would be grueling. Every single night I crawled into my bed, exhausted and depleted of magic, energy, and mental focus.

Caleb was growing more and more concerned, probing his mother and I for information, but we managed to avoid answering directly about our training.

Each night, one or more of the guys would slip into my room and sleep with me, but my wearied state meant no time for sexy shenanigans. The mornings were a different story.

After one such morning, I lay cuddled between Triston and Riddick, sweat slicked and panting.

“Can I ask you both something?” I whispered, feeling my nerves building at what their answers might be.

“Of course,” Triston said and traced my jaw with his pointer finger.

“Why haven’t either of you marked me?”

Both tensed and held their breaths.

It was a solid forty-five seconds before either moved.

“We’re worried about possibly creating a mating bond with you if more of us mark you, you know that,” Triston replied with a small smile, one that didn’t reach his eyes.

“With two of us having a mark on you, it already keeps other males away and provides our pack’s scent to let them know you are in ours,” Riddick added.

Frowning, I rolled over and asked, “So, you don’t want to mark me?”

His eyes dropped to my shoulder where my mark from Branson was visible. “We definitely want to mark you, but we don’t want to take away your option to choose.”

“What if … I want to be marked by you both? What if I think the risk is worth it?”

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