Chapter 0696

“I mean, I prefer badass assassin one?” Tony says, grinning his wry half-smile as he steps forward to shake the duke’s hand. “But sure, that works too.”

Roger laughs, instantly liking Tony, as dad shoos us all forward into the center of the tent where there’s a large table waiting with the details of the battle clearly sketched out on it. Roger moves to stand with Jesse, draping an arm around his son’s shoulders and making it quite clear which of his parents Jesse more closely resembles.

I grin, suffused with happiness to see my family again so close together, wishing with a sudden vehemence that Mom and Cora and and Junie and Mark were here too. And all five of Jesse’s siblings. But even as I wish it, I know it’s ridiculous – we’re here for war, not a reunion.

Still, I lean close against my dad, feeling quite warm and cozy with Jackson on my other side. Quite passively, without realizing that I’m doing it, I reach out and slip my hand into Jackson’s. He makes no protest, simply wraps his fingers around mine and gives my palm a little squeeze.

“How are you all?” dad asks, looking around at the group. “I know this was all rushed, but it’s important. Tonight we’re going to make a serious strike in Moon Valley’s favor – one which we very much need.”

“We’re fine, dad,” Rafe says from dad’s other side. “Glad that we can help.” I peer around dad to see my brother give a very casual little shrug, looking dad evenly in the face. I grin, looking between them in their military uniforms, reminded again of just how much Rafe is my father’s younger double.

“You were all briefed last night?” Roger asks, looking around at us, his humor falling from him so that his much more serious side can come forward- a side which I know the rest of the world is more familiar with but which is rarer for us, to whom he is close.

We nod, confirming this, and dad and Roger turn their eyes to me. “Good,” dad says. “Then I think it’s time that we see what you can do, Ariel. I doubt that we’ll use your abilities in the strike tonight, but if it’s as powerful as your mother and the Captain suggest then we’ll want to start making you a more intrinsic part of our battle plans.”

I gulp a little because…I mean, while I told the Captain that I was a powerful weapon in this war…I don’t know, to hear my father say it makes it much more real.

“Okay,” I say, straightening up from dad’s side and tilting my head back to look up at him properly. “But, I mean, it’s…flashy. If we do it in camp people are going to notice.”

“Can you downsize it?” Jackson asks, peering down at me.

I turn my face up to him in turn, a swivel that’s threatening to pinch a nerve in my neck from bending my head back so much. I scowl a little, thinking that I might need a stool if I’m going to be on a war council with

all of these big men. Conten

belongs to

Jackson, sensing my thoughts, nearly laughs out loud.

“What do you mean, downsize it?” I ask, frowning at him.

“You’ve gone small before,” he says, shrugging. “You concentrated on melting a marble and didn’t set your chemistry book on fire. Can you do the wind and the flame and the shadows just…a tenth of the size?”

“Um,” I say, standing up straight and looking at the table before us. “I mean, we can try.”

“By all means,” dad murmurs, gesturing towards the table.

I give a brief description of everyone’s roles as people make space and we all shuffle into new spots. Jacks stays on my left and Luca comes to take my right hand while Tony steps close in case

close control. Jesse stands behind me, again placing his palm against my neck.

“Ew, why is your hand all sweaty?” I ask, turning to glare at him.

“Just do the trick, shrimp,” he snarls, making me laugh and face forward.

I catch a little glimpse of dad and

Roger standing side-by-side, smirking at us, both of them with their arms folded and looking so. much like brothers that my heart swells. But I turn my attention back onto the table and exhale a deep breath.

Rafe, ever helpful, rips a piece of paper from a notepad and wads it up, tossing it onto the table – a little piece of kindling for me to get started.

I take a deep breath, hoping I don’t burn this whole damn tent to the ground.

Chapter 0697

A wild grin crosses my face as I fix my eyes on the ball of paper and set it ablaze before it even stops rolling. It only takes a second longer to pull on Luca’s wind to lift the fire higher, creating a tiny whirlwind of flame just above the table, feeding it with Jackson’s power after the paper itself fully disintegrates.

Experimenting, being quite careful, I push on the wind, lifting the flames into the air and letting them spiral.

When I feel quite in control, I let it ride, powered by my bonds but not pushing it left or right. “So, it’s kind of like that,” I say, turning to my dad and Roger with a shrug.

They just stare at it in the air, their mouths open in awe.

“She’s playing it cool,” Tony says, glancing at me from the side of his eye with a smirk. “It’s this, but like, a thousand times that size.”

“How…how big can you go?” Roger asks, glancing at me before returning his eyes to the flame, fascinated.

“Um, we’re not totally sure,” I say, glancing over at Jacks.

“Really big,” Jackson says, answering for me with absolute confidence, his own eyes on the magic before us. “Really, really big.” “Jesse?” I say, inviting him to join in.

“Yes, finally, thank you, you big attention hog,” he murmurs, making me laugh, but only because I know he’s not really jealous. Dad and Roger actually gasp when Jesse’s shadows are added, leaning forward to study what we can do.

“The effect is truly amazing at night,” Rafe murmurs, likewise watching, unable to draw his eyes away. “Nearly invisible flame.”

I sigh, dropping the fire all at once and basically just pulling the magic from the air. “So, that’s pretty much it,” I say, turning to the Alpha King and his Duke, who just stare at me slack-jawed. “Jesse and I want to experiment more to see what happens when I give him my power instead of when he gives me his, but -“

My words are cut off by my father’s snarl as he crosses the room in a few long strides, sweeping me up in his arms and holding me tight before I even really know what’s happening. I gasp, but then laugh as my dad cradles my head to his chest, rocking me slightly from side to side.

“My girl,” dad growls, tucking his head down next to mine, his voice nearly choked with pride. “My amazing little girl – god, Ariel, you’re such a wonder.”

My eyes mist as dad loosens his

net

grip on me, allowing me to turn my face up to his. He cups my cheek in his palm, looking down at me, his eyes crowded with tears. “I’m so proud of you, darling,” he murmurs, his whole heart in his face. “If this does what I think it can, then I think you may have just turned the tide of this war I think…god, Ariel, I think that you may yet save us all.”

I bite my lip, completely overwhelmed, and tuck my face close against my dad’s shirt as he again hugs me tight.

“I mean, I helped,” Jesse says, only a little bit sour.

But we all burst out laughing, which is really what we need.

Something which my cousin, in his own way, already knew.

About half an hour later, after a great deal of discussion, dad and Roger decide that they still need to give a lot of thought to how my magic can be used in the war. Consequently, int they decide that it will not be on the agenda tonight. “Too new,” my father says, shaking his head, his mind clearly working on the problem. In the meantime, though, those in command decide to move forward with tonight’s assault in which my little team will only have a small, non-magical role.

We’re dismissed from the command tent and ordered to prepare ourselves for battle, primarily by changing into uniforms that mark us more completely as members of Moon Valley military and not as under-trained Academy Cadets.

When we arrive at the large white tent set aside for us to sleep in tonight, a problem immediately presents itself.

“I mean,” I murmur, holding up the gigantic grey-and-black set of fatigues sent for me to wear, “there is…no way that this is going to fit.”

Jackson smirks, looking the uniform over and leaning close to murmur in my ear. “Second time I’ve heard you say that in two days, Clark. But in this case, I agree with you.”

I snap my head up to stare at him for a second and then burst into laughter, shocked not only that Jackson is making a joke, but that it’s a dirty one. Jackson’s face breaks into a huge smile, but he moves on and straightens up, not wanting to draw too much attention. “Can you just roll the pants up a lot, like you did when you were a Candidate?”

I scoff a bit, my pride rankling at the

де

idea that I’m going to go into my first military engagement with my pants rolled at the ankles and threatening to fall down at my hips. I sigh as look over the uniform again, realizing that I’ve perhaps gotten used to the idea of my personal tailor being on hand to ensure that all of my uniforms fit me perfectly. “Daphne did not do all of that ironing last night, Jacks, to turn me out like this.”

Chapter 0698

“Fatigues aside,” Jesse sighs, coming over and picking up my body armor. “This is…not going to work. This is going to hang down to your knees.” I laugh, shaking my head and pressing my hands to my cheeks. “God, what are we going to do?”

Rafe curses lightly, glancing towards the door, clearly trying to come up with a solution fast because dad ordered him, Jesse, and Jacks back to the tent to discuss strategy as soon as they get changed.

“It’s cool,” Tony says, coming around the corner from the little latrine already changed and buttoning up the front of his fatigues. “I’ll take you down to the requisition point to see if they have anything smaller. You can’t be the only Shrimp in the army.”

Luca nods, pulling off his Cadet shirt and starting to shake out his new grey fatigues. “Wait two minutes, I’ll come too.”

As I take a moment to quietly ogle my shirtless mate from the side of my eye, Rafe and Jackson look at each other and simultaneously give a nod, agreeing to the plan.

“I, the person in question and the ultimate decider, also agree to this plan!” I say loudly as I snap my attention back to them, not-so-tacitly reminding them that I’m in charge of my own life and decisions.

Rafe, Jesse, and Jackson both just look at me like I’m crazy for a second and then move on. “Cool!” Rafe says, pointing a finger seriously in Luca and Tony’s faces. “Protect her with your life.”

“Yes sir,” Tony says, giving him a half-assed salute as Luca just sits down on his bed, tugging off his boots and nodding. I mean, that command is nothing new to him he’s heard it a thousand times.

I sigh, giving into it and gathering the useless uniform up into my arms as the boys finish getting changed and Jacks, Jesse, and Rafe all head out. When Luca is likewise suitably disguised as a military grunt instead of an elite Cadets, he and Tony duck out of the tent with me. We head down the dirt path between the tents, looking around for where the supplies might be kept.

“Wait here a second,” Luca murmurs, quickening his pace and stopping a soldier in the path ahead to ask for information about where to go for this sort of problem.

As I watch him speaking to the tall soldier, whose handsome face sports a familiarly straight nose, I gasp and spin back towards the main tent, cursing under my breath.

“What?” Tony asks, straightening at my side and looking around with concern for any threats.

“No, it’s nothing,” I sigh, reaching out and putting a hand on his arm. “Sorry. I just…crap, I forgot to ask Rafe again about Blythe.”

“What about him?” Tony asks, frowning down at me.

I sigh, dropping my hand and stepping close to my friend. “He just…said something in the Game. About Juniper. Just something in passing -” “About your sister?” Tony asks, shocked, his eyebrows flying up.

“Yeah,” I say, pursing my lips. “It…I mean, it was just an off-handed comment, but it sounded like he’d talked to her -“

“You need to shut that down right

now, Ari,” Tony snaps, looking down at me, his face perhaps more serious than I’ve ever seen it. “That guy-gon’t trust him. He’s a sycophant and a parasite – he’ll do anything he can to climb the ranks.”

“How do you know that?” I ask, frowning up at Tony, concerned.

“I’ve just been watching him,” Tony says quietly, frowning and looking down the dirt road between the tents. “The way he moves – he

doesn’t have like…friends. He ju

moves towards the richest or most powerful person in a group and sucks up to them until he sees

someone else he can glom on to.”

“Wait, seriously?” I ask, staring up at Tony. “How do you – how do you know all that?”

“Because I’m a keen observer of humanity,” Tony says, turning back to me with a shrug. “Or, more precisely, because I’m nosy.”

I laugh, shaking my head a little and glancing over at Luca, who turns away from the soldier and starts to walk back towards us. “Good to know. How come you didn’t tell me this before?”

“I told Rafe about it,” Tony says with a shrug, “but he already knew. But if Blythe is saying something about Juniper, I think you need to make a bigger deal about it. She’s only eighteen, right?”

I frown at Tony, turning my head to the side. “Junie is seventeen.”

“Not anymore,” Tony says, smirking and shaking his head at me as Luca comes up. “Juniper Sinclair is famously a Capricorn. Did someone miss her little sister’s birthday?”

I gape at Tony, appalled at myself when I realize that he’s right.

Chapter 0699

“How did you know that?” Luca asks, frowning at Tony as we stand together in the middle of the road and I melt in my mortification. Poor Junie – and why the hell didn’t mom scold me for it when she was just here!? I can’t believe I forgot her eighteenth birthday!

God, I’m just the worst sister in the world.

“Some of us read the tabloids,” Tony says, giving a casual shrug and smirking at Luca like he knows all of his secrets. Which, honestly, I’m not putting past him at this point.

“Whatever,” Luca murmurs, looking at Tony like he’s a little bit insane and nodding down the road. “Come on, it’s this way.”

I stick close to Tony’s side as we move swiftly towards a large beige tent. “Thanks for the tip on Blythe,” I say, glancing up at him, still wanting more information but acknowledging this as a start. “And for keeping tabs on my family calendar.”

“Anytime,” Tony murmurs, smirking at me as he reaches for the tent flap and lifts it, bowing dramatically.

I follow Luca, ducking inside with Tony coming in after, my mind turning about how to get a minute alone with Rafe and Jesse to fill them in. I’m starting to get a very, very bad feeling about whatever is happening with Redman Blythe and my sister – and I’m deeply regretting that I’ve put off making this a priority until now.

“Hi!” Luca says to the woman behind the table at the front of the tent. I glance up at him, sufficiently distracted from my worries when I see that he’s putting on his best mega-wat smile. I laugh a little, looking at the woman and seeing that she is a little bit dazed, staring at him – either star-struck or immediately crushing on my pretty-boy mate.

“Um, what is it that you need?” the woman asks, looking anxiously between the three of us, even though her eyes move eagerly back to Luca’s face. Luca leans forward and clearly explains our problem, gesturing towards me and my comparatively tiny frame. I laugh a little when I see the woman’s dazed expression as Luca speaks, his dimples flaring, and I wonder passively if she’s processing any of this or if she’s just lost in Luca’s rather maic pull.

Tony, at my side, just rolls his eyes, making me laugh.

“Jealous,” I murmur, elbowing him in the side.

“Completely,” he acknowledges.

“You’re pretty too, Tones!” I say, laughing, meaning it. Honestly, Tony isn’t as pretty as Luca or as stunning as Jackson, but as far as boys go? There’s something quite nice about his lanky frame, his easy smite, his sharp grey eyes.

“Can’t make ’em fall at my feet like he can, though, can I?” Tony murmurs, nodding over at Luca. I shrug like it’s not that big of a deat because Tony has his own great traits. If I were him, I wouldn’t be trading them in for anything Luca has.

“Um,” the woman says, turning her eyes to consider me with a grimace when Luca finishes outlining the problem. “I’m honestly not sure we have anything…at all that smalki mean, we were told to

Ο

expect… Alphas.”

“He’s a mini Alpha,” Tony says, grinning and resting his arm on my shoulder as I scowl. “Pocket-sized for quick deployment.”

“Um, I can look?” she says, grimacing and turning towards the back.

Luca nods, again giving her that devastating smile as she turns towards the back of the tent, seeing what she can do.

“I need Daphne,” I sigh. “She’d fix me up good.”

“You’re developing quite the entourage, Clark,” Luca says, grinning at me and ensorcelling me a bit in turn with his bright brown eyes. “Seriously, you can’t go anywhere without your personal seamstress?”

“Oh, I’m not that spoiled,” I say, laughing and reaching out to swat him on the arm.

A muffled crash comes from the back of the tent as well as a little yell of surprise and then a curse from the woman. We all turn towards it, mildly concerned.

“Sounds like she dropped some stuff,” Luca murmurs. “I’ll go help her out.”

I nod to him, turning back to Tony as Luca swiftly moves around the table and towards the back of the tent.

“So, what are you going to send your poor forgotten sister for her birthday?” Tony asks, grinning at me, clearly not letting me off the hook.

Chapter 0700

“Tony!” I sigh, slipping out from beneath his arm and swatting him in turn. “I already feel horrible about that, you can’t -” “What the hell are you doing here?” Tony snaps, interrupting me and frowning over my shoulder towards the entrance.

I turn suddenly, surprised, and blink in the sunlight coming through the tent flap, silhouetting a figure standing there.

When he drops the flap my mouth falls open in surprise to see Perry Gibson standing there, his mouth drawn into a straight, determined line. He doesn’t say anything.

Tony goes rigid, stepping slightly in front of me. “Don’t come another step closer, Gibson.”

“I have work to do,” Gibson growls. My eyes go wide when he speaks and I see his extended canines flash.

“Here to finish Wright’s job?” Tony snarls. “Always the fucking lackey, Gibson -“

My heart starts to pound even as Tony steps fully in front of me, as my eyes dart between them. No – there’s no way – Gibson always tried to calm Wright down – always the voice of reason –

“No,” Gibson snarls, his eyes shifting to me. “This isn’t for Wright. This is for Atalaxia.”

Then he moves.

Gibson darts fast towards us as a panicked shout breaks from my lips, knives slipping from his sleeves and into his hand. Faster than should be possible, he’s across the tent to me, dodging around Tony, slashing.

My hands are up, blocking the blow, and I scream as I feel the knife rip across my palms. Instantly flames erupt somewhere in front of me – but I’m too panicked to aim – don’t know what they’re catching on –

There’s a guttural yell and suddenly Tony is knocking me backwards, knives in his own hands as Gibson comes again. They move too fast to see, grappling wildly, until there’s a shout of pain and a groan as Tony’s body comes flying back, slamming into mine, taking me to the ground.

I scream as my back hits hard, Tony’s body sprawled over mine. Tony gasps, thick and wet, reaching for his throat –

But the flash of steel above me draws my attention upwards as it arcs down towards my face.

I scream again, shoving hard at Tony on top of me, trying to get away, feeling something wet seep all over me –

A sudden roar distracts from all other sounds, all other motion, and the steel flashes to the side before a wild brown blur flashes before my vision snarling and hurling itself into Gibson, knocking him down to the ground.

“Tony!” I scream, doing my best to sit up, baffled by all the wet – all the warm, wet… “Luca!”

Tony goes still, his hands falling to his side, and finally manage to shove him enough to sit up, panting, my eyes flashing around the tent as the woman working the counter screams too – but it’s all happening so fast, too fast to process it all –

MS

My hands grapple for Tony, trying to see if he’s okay – but my eyes move instinctually to Luca’s wolf form as he stands panting and snarling with small flames flickering behind him, his face and jaws covered in blood, his body heaving over Gibson’s limp form, a ragged hole where his neck used to be.

But Tony –

Tony still doesn’t move, doesn’t get up, doesn’t look – doesn’t see what I’m seeing.

“Tony!” I whisper, sitting up further, grabbing for him, finally looking down.

But I still when I look down at the boy who stepped in front of me, who saved my life. Because all I see is red.

Red, just…everywhere.

Red all over my hands, my clothes – red all over him, his face, his pale skin –

Red, where Gibson slashed him across the neck.

Red smeared across his face, his cheeks – his eyelids, which have fallen shut.

“Tony,” I whisper, my whole body starting to tremble as I stare down at his empty face, at the wound across his throat still pulsing blood.

And then I gasp and grab for my friend as Luca transforms again and falls to his knees before us, reaching out a hand for Tony’s throat, clasping his palm against it like he can do something to stop the flow.

“Medic!” Luca screams, panicked, his eyes flashing up to the woman behind us. “Get a fucking medic! Now!”