Page 73 of Phoenix Fall

“Yes. That’s her,” she whispered.

I knew it. Just as I knew I should get up and leave. No matter how much I owed Cara, I should run, as far, and as fast, as I could.

But I didn’t. Instead, I sat there with my entire body vibrating. Cara watched me, and her brows lowered as she transferred her stare to the beautiful young woman.

I mentally strung together every curse I’d ever heard. A nice, long internal tirade of obscenities. I’d been touched by Fate twice before. I recognized that piercing truth again.

The last two times, it had taken me where I shouldn’t have gone. It had almost destroyed me.

I’d sworn it would never do so again. A promise I be intending to keep.

21

Anna

When Mari and I entered the cafeteria, I thought we looked rather dapper, decked out in black.

I wore the tee shirt and leggings given to us, along with the hoodie. Black wasn’t a color I’d ever really worn much of, but it made me feel like an official Shade recruit.

Mari’s version had been tailored specifically for her, as her frame didn’t do tee shirts and leggings. Hers consisted of a black tunic that hung to her knees, cinched at the waist with a thick black belt.

As we filled our trays, I steeled myself for another team-building session. But one look at our Aussie teammate almost derailed me.

Even seated, Matt looked incredible in black. The tee shirt clung to his shoulders and chest. My mind instantly went to what was beneath it. And stayed there for an embarrassing length of time.

It was a bloody good thing Talakai just stayed to his body-hugging scales. I couldn’t have handled two of them dressed like that.

I took a deep breath, sat down, and yanked my mind back to the task at hand. But it turned out Darius was onto me.

He’d also decided to let Aaron off the leash.

“Have you considered our offer?” The beta bumped his shoulder into his alpha as his eyes fastened on my breasts through my new black shirt. “I think we should do a sampler, just to confirm it’s a fit.” He sneered. “Sometimes that’s an issue.”

From Darius’s other side, Matt went completely rigid and snarled. “You filthy bludger. Keep a civil tongue in your bloody noggin.”

My stomach twisted, but I shot Matt a look and gave the smallest shake of my head. Then I kept my voice steady and my face blank as I answered. “‘Considered’ isn’t the word for it. ‘Rejected’ is. In the interests of working together, and your future here at the academy, I am willing to forget you even made such a suggestion.” My eyes rolled from Aaron to where Amadeus sat at the staff table, and then back again.

Aaron’s confused look altered rapidly to a glare, but Darius’s lips twitched. The knot in my stomach twisted tighter as his glowing gaze slowly and deliberately appraised my boobs. He must be pretty damned confident that the sizable donation to get him here would protect him.

And that meant that I’d been right to not go to Amadeus about what happened in the woods.

I took a deep breath, ignored Aaron’s glower, and entered team-building mode. “So,” I asked Darius, “What do shifters do during their special ability class?”

Darius simultaneously lifted his eyes from my chest and a lip back from his canine tooth. “There is nothing they can teach me about being a shifter that I don’t already know.”

Matt managed to rip his glare from Aaron. His eyes still blazed emerald as he met my own, and then he swallowed and reached deep. “You blokes see a lot of fighting action up in Alaska?” The slight hesitation before “bloke” spoke volumes as to a word he’d rather have used, and he almost kept the snark out of his voice. But not quite.

Darius’s sneer expanded as he answered, “More than you, I’m sure, Pup.”

Matt’s jaw clenched. “The packs on the territories have enough problems without going off like a frog in a sock.” When I rolled my eyes, he added, “There hasn’t been a Dire conflict in the area for decades.”

Darius snorted. “Yeah, well, in Alaska we fight over everything. Keeps us sharp.”

Matt looked at me and tweaked a brow. I shared his skepticism. But at least we had Darius talking, even if it was more like boasting.

“Is that why you left?” a deep voice rumbled. Talakai didn’t look up from his sausages, but I had the feeling he was more attentive than he appeared.

“Why we left is none of your business, lizard,” Aaron snarled.

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