Zodiac Academy 6: Fated Throne
Fated Throne: Chapter 23

Having Orion’s new number was a treat in itself. I sent him daily photographs of me and Darcy together with captions like #sheaintblueoveryounomore and #teamDeth. He’d blocked my number after threatening to rip my intestines out and strangle me with them – amongst other murderous threats – but then I got a magical app which sent my texts from anonymous numbers so he couldn’t keep me away. It was hilarious. And very intentional. Because I was officially kickstarting Mission: Get Darion Back Together.

It wasn’t a complex or layered plan; it was based on one simple little emotion that made Fae fucking crazy. Jealousy. Orion had shown his cards as clear as day when I’d visited him with Darcy and Gabriel. I knew what jealousy tasted like, looked like and felt like. Just yesterday, I’d made a girl cry when I overheard her planning to sneak into Caleb’s room dressed in nothing with glitter covering her naked body to ask him if he was horny for the horn. Firstly, Cal was not into that shit as far as I was aware (but I’d be the first to paint my body in glitter and strap a dildo horn to my head if he was). And secondly, no bitch. Just no. I made her do a lap of the school while some of my pack chased her with pokey sticks.

So when Orion had thrown me face first into a window, I’d had an inkling he wasn’t over Darcy.

I ran with my pack in the early hours of the morning, the lasting light of the moon giving way to dawn as we made it to the pond out in The Wailing Wood. My pack slipped into the water to bathe and I padded off into the trees to be alone. I knew as soon as they shifted that washing each other would give way to fucking and I’d been avoiding that for a while now. Which made them all kinds of crazy for me, but they knew I liked fucking other Orders.

Now the law was in place to stop that I wondered how long it would be before they questioned me on it. They’d never snitch on me either way, but I actually hadn’t fucked anyone else for ages. Since I’d shared Rosalie with Cal, I was more hung up on him than ever. Even though the one I really should have been hung up on was the powerful Alpha Wolf who was hot as hell and could have fulfilled everything that was expected of me.

One day, I was destined to marry someone of my own kind who matched me in power as closely as possible. Rosalie was a pretty perfect pick for that role, but the idea of tying myself to her or anyone other than Cal just made me feel all kinds of anxious. But I was probably just kidding myself and Caleb would end up with some Vampire bitch I’d resent forever. It was a shitty destiny, which was why I was actively pretending it would never happen. Denial was my best friend who liked to braid my hair and call me pretty. So yep, Cal could definitely be mine inside my head in an alternate reality I liked to call Calaria.

I’d had obsessions before. I loved a challenge. Shit, Darcy Vega had been my desire for a long time. But with her, things hadn’t been clear cut. I’d been torn between my Heir bound duty and a bond between us I couldn’t ignore. Then I’d inadvertently initiated her into my pack and that had let the headfuck get out of control. I was naturally protective of her. I wanted to be around her all the time. And I’d finally realised that the way I felt about her was the exact way I felt about the Heirs. Only it had been hiding under so many layers of bullshit that I’d been confused as fuck about it. She was a Vega. And I’d been told my whole life that Vegas were the spawn of evil. I’d fucked with her so bad that I was going to be beating myself up about it for a long time to come. But now I finally had a way to make up for all the shit I’d done. I was going to get her back together with the love of her life and make Lance Orion my bestie in the process. Like, not at first. Man, he was going to fucking hate me. But long term, he was a bestie to be. Either that or I really was going to end up strangled by my own intestines.

I raced through the trees with a howl toward the morning sun as it split through the foliage overhead. Adrenaline rushed through my limbs and my ears turned left and right as I felt out my surroundings. I couldn’t hear anything unusual, but the hairs were rising on the back of my neck and I slowed as I reached a path, standing in the middle of it and sniffing the air.

A Wolf’s grin pulled at my mouth as a masculine and tempting scent reached me in the air. Caleb.

I padded on down the path, pretending I hadn’t noticed anything as he no doubt stalked me somewhere close by. But if he wanted a drink from me, he was going to have to fight for it.

I yawned broadly, turning off the path into the trees again and slipping between the boughs. I moved behind the trunk of a huge oak and lowered myself ready to pounce, tucking my huge body in close to the tree.

A rush of air sent fallen leaves swirling up around my paws as Caleb shot into the trees ahead of me. He stopped abruptly, turning his head left and right as he listened for me and I kept perfectly still, my ears flat to my head as I readied to launch myself at him.

I shoved my weight into my paws, throwing myself toward him and he twisted around, spotting me at the last moment. He shot away a split second before I could knock him to the ground and my paws hit the mud.

I kept running as adrenaline tore through my veins, taking off fast into the trees with a bark of laughter. He collided with my side, throwing me to the ground and the air was knocked from my lungs. I locked my jaws around his arm as he tried to pin me down and he growled in pain, but didn’t let go, trying to keep me in place as I thrashed. I rolled hard, throwing him away so he smashed into a tree. I grinned wolfishly in victory but he shot upright again and casually smoothed down his hair as his arm pissed blood.

“Damn animal,” he taunted.

He healed the bite and I took the chance to lunge at him again, my large paws hitting the tree above his head as I caged him in. He punched my ribs and I yelped as I fell back, uprooting him with one of my paws so he was knocked down with me.

I leapt onto him and shifted back into my Fae form, keeping him down with my weight and smirking at him. “Yield.”

His fist slammed into my jaw and he rolled us over with his Vampire strength, though I didn’t even bother to fight. I cupped my hands behind my head as my back hit the ground and he locked his fingers around my throat. His fangs snapped out and he grinned as he leaned down to steal his prize, pulling his hand away and driving his teeth into my neck.

I groaned audibly then bit my tongue as his muscles pressed to mine and I got rock hard for him. Oh shit.

He pressed me into the ground and my magic was immobilised by his venom as he crushed me beneath him. I was definitely not the submissive type, but if Caleb wanted to force me down in the mud and have his way with me, I was game. Of course, the way he wanted me was to take my blood, nothing else. I thought about what Darcy had said, wondering if I should talk to him, but surely my dick was having a whole conversation with his right now because it wasn’t being subtle.

He lifted his weight half off of me, sucking in a breath and drawing away from me so he was kneeling over my thighs.

He looked down at my solid cock and no matter how many people had seen it before, nothing beat him looking at it right now, exposing me for how much I wanted him. My eyes slipped to his crotch the same time his did and the bulge waiting for me there made my heart pound out of rhythm. Caleb glanced at me in confusion, an awkward silence washing between us.

“Erm,” I began and his brow furrowed just a little as he leaned back.

“Race you back to the Hollow.” He got up and shot away with his Vampire speed before I could stop him and my heart lurched painfully as he just left me lying there in the dirt.

I shifted back into a Wolf, howling after him in a plea to come back. But he didn’t and I had the horrible feeling I’d just fucked up everything.

***

I flexed my fingers, admiring the Phoenix metal gauntlets covering them. I obviously had the coolest weapon of all the Heirs. Darcy had tried to convince me to have something simple like the others, but I’d come up with this design myself after I’d dreamed of having flaming claws of death. The gauntlets were enchanted to expand when I shifted into my Wolf form, so they could pack a spectacular fire punch in Fae form and became flaming claws in my Order form.

We’d been tracking a few Nymphs out this way the last couple of nights. There’d been a bunch of reported sightings of them and we’d only managed to catch and kill three in the past two days. From the tracks we’d found tonight leading onto some old farmland, I was guessing we were about to run into a damn nest.

I moved through the cornfield behind Caleb, the others walking ahead of us following Tory and Darcy. Tory had some serious rage to vent and though it was risky bringing her on this run, it was also damn good for her. She needed to let her Order flourish and be reminded of how fierce she was, so when she went back to Lionel, she’d at least have that to hold onto.

I cast a silencing bubble around me and Cal, jogging forward to walk at his side. He glanced at me, then quickly away again, raising his twin knives. I knew talking about this now wasn’t really good timing, but he’d also been avoiding me since boner gate and the last thing I wanted was to lose my friend over this.

I cleared my throat, knocking my shoulder against his. Despite how much time I’d had to decide on what I was going to say to him, I now couldn’t remember any of that. What had Darcy advised? Don’t talk about my boner, or do talk about it?

Her plan to feel him out so far hadn’t gone too well. Apparently every time she tried to move the conversation in that direction, Caleb changed the subject. So maybe I was kidding myself thinking he really could be harbouring feelings for me. Maybe he’d gotten hard while drinking from me because blood turned him on. He was a Vampire, it made sense. So I probably just needed to Fae up, hit my feelings over the head with a sledgehammer then bury them six feet under forever.

My heart pounded harder as I stole a glance at his face, his perfectly straight nose, his eyes overshadowed and intense. I’d known him my whole life and I’d realised he was attractive some time around my twelfth birthday. It wasn’t news to me that he was hot. But somehow I’d always managed to compartmentalise that from my friendship with him before. Now it was all just melding into one so all I could see was how fucking amazing he was and how much I wanted him and how it had been staring me in the face all these years. No matter how much I hungered for him though, it clearly wasn’t meant to be. I just wasn’t sure how to make my heart get the message on that.

“Remember when we stole your mom’s fire crystals when we were kids and accidentally burned down her rose garden?” I said, wanting to remind myself as much as him that we had a whole lifetime of friendship regardless of one awkward boner moment. Nothing could break us apart. Not even our dicks.

Caleb chuckled. “Yeah, and I tried to ride on your back as a Wolf so we could get away faster.”

“Dumbest idea ever,” I laughed, remembering when Melinda had shot after us with her Vampire speed and dragged us both inside by the ears. She’d made us clean out the acid slug infestation she had in her gutters without any kind of magical protection as punishment.

Caleb turned to me, gripping my arm to stop me from walking on. He opened his mouth then closed it again and my heart thudded harder as I wondered what the hell he was thinking. My hand found his in the dark and I laced my fingers through his instinctively.

“Seth,” he said in a low growl that could have been to warn me off or draw me closer. I guessed I wanted to believe it was the latter so I stepped into his personal space, breathing him in and trying to fool myself into thinking there really could be something between us. That I wasn’t imagining it.

“Look, what happened in the woods the other day-” I started, but Tory shouted out a battle cry and the shriek of a Nymph filled the air, cutting that sentence off at the balls.

I gasped, turning to the path we’d been forging through the corn and replaceing the rest of our group gone.

“Shit,” Cal cursed and we started running after them, pushing between the stalks and hunting for them in the dark.

“Use your speed,” I demanded, but he glanced back at me with a look that said he didn’t want to leave me.

Another Nymph’s cry pierced the air and a blaze of Phoenix fire spiralled up into the sky a hundred yards away. We started running toward it and I shoved Caleb’s back to encourage him to move faster.

A towering shadow fell over us and Caleb yanked me aside with a shot of Vampire speed just as a huge Nymph came charging through the field toward us. I leapt away from Caleb, shifting in the air, shredding through my clothes and the gauntlets around my hands expanded. They encased my front paws so that ten sharp metal claws slammed into the ground as I landed, flames bursting to life around me.

I turned and started charging back toward the Nymph, my teeth bared and my bloodthirst rising.

Caleb was running around it in speeding circles, slashing at it with the dual knives in his hands, Phoenix fire blazing along the monster’s flesh. It swiped a hand through the air, knocking him away and he was thrown back into the dense corn out of sight.

A snarl of rage ripped from my throat as I leapt onto the Nymph’s back, tearing at its barky flesh with my flaming claws of death and sinking my teeth into its shoulder. It reached back to try and rip me off but I held on tight, clawing my way further up until I could see over its shoulder to where the rest of our friends were fighting five more of them out in the field.

The Nymph caught hold of my tail and I yelped as it whipped me forward and threw me to the ground on my back, making pain ricochet through me. It pinned me in place by the throat with impossible strength, its long probes extended and ready to steal my magic. Fear hit me as the rattle emanating from its chest immobilised the well of power inside me. It was going to take all my magic and my life with it if I didn’t get free.

I fought wildly, about to shift back into my Fae form even though I knew it would leave me vulnerable, but it might just give me room to wriggle free.

Caleb leapt out of the corn stalks with a yell of anger and sliced through the Nymph’s arm, making hope spark through my blood. The severed limb fell to the ground and I rolled over, scrambling upright to get away, but the beast snatched hold of my leg and twisted until it snapped. Agony spread through me as I yelped, slashing back at the Nymph with my Phoenix claws and ripping a gouge across its face. It released me with a shriek and I ran away, keeping my weight off of my bad leg as Caleb fought to bring the Nymph to its knees.

A Dragon’s roar filled the air and Darius’s huge golden form swept overhead, a blaze of fire pouring from his lungs. The heat of it warmed me through as he aimed it down at an enemy of his own and the others cheered, telling me this battle was almost over.

We could never leave a Nymph alive during these fights. If they reported back to Lionel about what we were doing, he’d hunt us to the ends of the earth for defying him. But we’d all decided it was worth the risk. We needed to be doing something to fight back against him in a real way while we continued our hunt for the Imperial Star and planned a rebellion for the future.

I lunged at the Nymph’s leg, slashing with my claws to help bring it down and it finally fell, crashing backwards and hitting the earth with a bone rattling thump.

Caleb dove onto it, showing no mercy as he drove one of his blades between its eyes and the Nymph burst into a cloud of shadows as it died.

He shot over to me in a blur, concern etched into his face as he ran his hand over my hind leg and healed the break.

I licked his face and he smirked at me, the sight making me howl excitedly. We sure made the perfect fucking team. And maybe I needed to accept that we were always just going to be friends, because I’d never survive losing him. But to keep things as they were, my heart was going to have to pay the price. And I was pretty sure I could already feel it breaking.