Bloodline Alchemy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 6), Lan Chan [free ebook reader for android TXT] 📗

He watched me this time with the patient expectation of a teacher. Pack circle meant a lot of things at different times.

Leaving aside all the mating stuff, right now, it was about my place here and making sure that I wasn’t deemed a threat regardless of what the will of the supernatural council had been. If I chose to disobey their rules, Max would have to punish me. If he couldn’t do that, and I knew he wouldn’t, then he’d be removed as alpha. Forcefully if need be.

With heavy limbs, I raised myself up. “I will not discuss anything about mating,” I said, already moving towards him.

“Nobody said a word.”

Hunching my shoulders, I pressed past him as quickly as I could and out the other side onto the raised wooden platform that ringed the tree trunk. The railing was a few paces in front of me, and beyond that was a rope bridge that linked this room to many others amongst the canopy. On the way here, I had been too nervous to appreciate the sights and sound of the Reserve. For months I had existed within the stench of rotten things in the fens. Taking in a clean breath was a guilty pleasure.

Sighing, I placed my hands on the railing and grinned. It lasted all of a second as a wall of heat rolled down my back. He wasn’t even that close. Two feet at least, and my skin had become a livewire.

Smirking, Max led the way to the pack circle. While the conference buildings had been erected to cater for meeting with other species, the shifters kept their internal dealings as secretive as any other race. They were notoriously insular, their sense of loyalty unbreakable and backed up by the pack link. This location would only be temporary. Once it was dispensed with, it would never be used again.

Keeping a safe distance, I followed Max down the warren of rope bridges and onto solid ground. The soft tread of rich earth and damp grass beneath my feet was a blessing. So much so that I lagged behind a little as I took off my sneakers and socks. During the summer, Lex and I would run barefoot around Basil’s mansion. She felt a connection to the earth that was intrinsically linked to her hedge magic, and I loved the feeling of grass on my feet. Two little barbarians, Betty had dubbed us.

As always, the memory ebbed from joy into a bone-deep sadness. I glanced in the direction of the mansion, knowing that it was just a collection of bricks and mortar now that its heart had been ripped out. Clutching my shoes to my chest, I forced myself back into the present and the very long distance Max was making me walk.

We were well past the inner perimeter of the Reserve. The shifter civilisation was sectioned off into areas where different people were allowed to go depending on their rank. They designated play and learning areas for the younglings to protect them from themselves and from external threats.

The living quarters were in another area that was patrolled day and night by sentries who were trained to kill on sight. Past the general living space were the different environments meant to mimic the natural habitat of the shifter species. Some of it was well beyond my ability to navigate with my mundane human appendages. I wouldn’t even dare.

After another ten minutes, the grass began to turn sparse and sharp. I had to put my shoes back on as tiny pebbles dug into the soles of my feet. The earth morphed from the rich loam of the jungle to a sandy red. Gum and wattle trees replaced the ash and oak pillars that ringed the conference rooms. This was the Australian desert.

I swallowed a hard lump in my throat. The Aussie landscape was harsh and unforgiving. Lex always said it was constructed to kill you. And yet, I was suddenly aching to be in the presence of one of its killers.

“Max,” I asked. “Is Trey here?”

“He’s on guard duty elsewhere,” came the curt reply. Oh.

My hope shrivelled. I missed my friends desperately. I hadn’t been able to get word to any of them. Neither had Andrei. Upon my request, he had scoured Cardinal City for word of Sasha. But there was none to be had. It was as though they had ceased to exist as soon as I had made the decision to leave.

“What about Dev?”

Up ahead, I watched Max’s shoulders tense. “Not here.”

“How about–”

“Are you just going to name every shifter you’ve ever met?” His warning tone made me frown.

“I just want to know if my friends are okay.”

He choked out a laugh. “It’s a bit late for that, don’t you think?”

“Why are you angry?”

He whirled around, his posture suddenly tense. “You disappeared off the face of the earth. Did you think you would come back to the same world you left behind? That we’d all be waiting around?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Coming to a standstill, I refused to close the distance between us. For a moment, his nostrils flared before he could pull himself in check. Fury. That was the thing lurking behind his placid facade. Underneath all of that possessive need, he was furious with me for rejecting his offer of mating and leaving.

“Max,” I whispered and then caught myself. What was I going to say? Try as I might, I couldn’t think of anything that would appease him. Every word out of my mouth was a lie because of the ball of fire in my chest. “I’m sorry.”

He snorted. “Thanks. That makes it all better.”

“If I’d had a choice, I wouldn’t have left.”

He turned his back on me but didn’t start walking again. “There were plenty of choices. You were just too chickenshit to stick with them.”

My jaw hit the ground. “I beg your pardon?”

“You heard what I said. You want acceptance, but when things get hard, your first instinct is to wipe your hands and run.”

I