Page 47 of Of Daggers and Deceit

“Win’s a win, Bohdi.” He raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

“You think you won?” he asked, blinking furiously at me.

“I know I won.” I damn well knew I’d won that. I would not have voluntarily choked on the sand and destroyed my lungs to come out with a loss. Absolutely not.

He jogged back down and held his hand out to haul me up. I quickly smacked my leggings, singlet, and arms to get as much sand off me as possible. In a few swipes, a fountain of sand came out of my hair and off my face. I knew I would be an absolute vision rocking up like this. The sand and I were well acquainted at this point.

Ever the gentleman, Bo reached out a hand to help me wipe some of it off, his mouth pressed tightly together to contain his laughter.

“We can call that a tie, as I think you need to be rewarded for the effort,” he joked, and I scowled. I wanted the win, but I knew it had been close.

“I don’t think we can do much about that hair. You will need to wash it.”

My scowl deepened. I knew I would, and he didn’t even consider it a clear win for me. At least nobody would notice when my cheeks reddened with embarrassment when they started to bag me out. I sighed. It’s not like I could turn back; Zander would know of my non-attendance, and I didn’t know how that would go for me.

Together, we walked forward, entering our code twice over in our descent. The distinct change in temperature as we trekked downward was wonderful for my searing skin, but the stairs did little to help my aching legs. Today would be long.

Bohdi pushed open the last door, and I prepared myself for the incoming humiliation.

“Late arrivals, as usual,” Klarissa drawled pointedly. I jolted in response to her commentary, the huddle of Alphas in the middle of the room already a surprise. I stayed behind Bohdi, using him as a shield from everyone’s view as we moved to the back of our small group.

Apple and Hayden both turned to greet me, both their eyebrows reaching their hairline as they checked out my dishevelled appearance. Apple brought a hand up to her mouth in an unsuccessful attempt to snuff out her laughter.

Then, it all went wayward. All eyes were on me as the room erupted into laughter.

I folded my arms across my chest, emulating confidence despite it, though my cheeks did redden beneath the sand coating them.

“Get here okay, Raya?” Hayden jested, Apple cackling along beside him. Even the stoic Klarissa was laughing amongst it all.

Bohdi gripped my hand and brought it to his lips for a soft kiss. “Still beautiful,” he murmured, and butterflies took flight in my belly. He released my hand from his grip before I even noticed I hadn’t yanked it away myself. He’d also done that in front of everybody. Secretly, I enjoyed the simple, brief moment far too much.

“Enough,” Klarissa commanded, breaking through the joy and embarrassment of the moment. “We are fortunate enough to have a guest with us today who is hoping to view some more of our sessions moving forward.”

Everyone looked around, trying to suss out who the guest was. By the looks on the others’ faces, this was an extremely unusual occurrence.

Weird. I followed the other’s movements, looking around the room to identify today’s so-called guest.

We waited in silence and confusion until the lock clicked over on the door that lead to the surface. A dark-haired, blue-eyed guard stepped into the room, followed by my delicate older sister.

I shielded my confusion from the others’ eyes when they turned to look back at me, likely wondering whether I knew what this was about. The sad thing for me was, despite us being family, I hadn’t known a thing. I rarely saw her anymore, and it was frustrating to have her here, so close to me but still so inaccessible.

The guard eyed us with interest, coming to a stop directly in front of us all. Riley positioned herself beside him, quite close, and smiled broadly at everyone in greeting.

Ugh, now I was even more embarrassed. Here I was, the feral younger sister, covered in sand whilst my sibling stood proudly in front of everyone in all her glory, with her unmarred skin, styled hair, and perfect makeup. Not even her white dress had a speck of anything on it, which confused the hell out of me.

“The Rose has a keen interest in meeting and getting to know our role here within the Haven. She will likely be attending a session a week with us, simply to view and understand what it is we do to prepare.”

Riley dipped her head in agreement, her eyes inspecting the space before resting for half a second more on me.

“Today, I want to discuss tactics and what we’ve learned about some of the regular infiltrators. Most specifically, I want us to share information on the silver-haired male, the dark-skinned shifter, the hawk shifter, and the brunette female, as they seem to be most problematic for us.”

Hayden was the first to speak up.

“I have names for the first two. I managed to catch them when they called each other. Funnily enough, the silver-haired is literally called Silver, and the big guy they refer to as Raid. He’s some sort of upright-walking lizard shifter with yellow slitted eyes. Scary as fuck, brutal. He knocked me out cold the last round of defence before I could even do any decent damage. His shifted skin is seemingly impenetrable. I landed a few decent bites, but not even my fangs could penetrate his skin.”

Lizard shifter. Interesting. But impenetrable skin? How the hell would we combat that?

I took the opportunity to contribute next, even though I looked like a fool. “I did a lot of damage to the Hawk shifter at the last thinning. He is rash. We could handle him if he returns.”

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