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

carried. Huffing, I packed my things and let him lead us out. To my surprise, there were still people milling about on the Academy grounds. I saw Kieran and a few of his friends huddled by the Grove. Through the dense brush, I watched Peter tending to the Arcana trees, as Isla and some of the students who used to be in Herbology sat around weeding.

Noah followed my line of sight. “Comfort,” he said. It was all he needed to say. That simple word rang in my ears as the kids and I lit the bonfire and ate outside in the clearing again. We had only started on the bruschetta appetizers when Charles’s voice dropped low.

“Don’t make any sudden moves,” he said. Over his shoulder, I saw a hesitant group of about four or five people moving towards us. They didn’t come close enough that they would disturb us, but laid their own picnic rug and sat down in the grass. A little fire started in the grass between them. Not long after, I scented burned sugar in the air. They were toasting marshmallows.

About ten minutes after that, Kate turned up with Edward and a little girl with hair so black it looked like she was trailing the night behind her as she walked. “I’m babysitting while his parents have date night,” Kate said, her eyes blinking too quickly. I sensed that was code for Cheyenne and Mark needing to have a quiet conversation about the current situation. “Can we stay here for a bit?”

“Of course.”

“This is Lizzie,” Edward told me. Lizzie gave me a toothless grin.

“My daddy is up there,” she said, pointing towards the conference rooms.

“I see.”

“Jeremiah and Amy,” Kate informed me, while the kids stuck their fingers into the food and laughed as they destroyed it.

“Ah. I didn’t know they were a couple.”

Kate shrugged. “You can hardly call it that. They’re always at each other’s throats. Both equally dominant, so they can never settle on who’s in charge. It drives me nuts.”

Said the dominant lynx shifter.

By the time we were finished eating, four other groups had joined us. They spoke in hushed tones, as though what they were doing was condemned. Like they thought happiness was a red flag that would draw the malachim to us.

Charles saw the grimace on my face. “They’re not used to this,” he said.

“They shouldn’t be. This is insane. It’s almost like they’re afraid to be around each other anymore.”

“Maybe they are.” He picked at the grass in front of him. “Who knows how much time we’ve got left together?”

I was still thinking about what he said after Cassie and Luther went home and Charles had turned in for the night. Stealing out of the mansion, I sucked in a breath and went hunting for Max.

Even if the mating link didn’t tell me where he was, the law of elimination made him easy enough to find. As alpha, he couldn’t afford to be on patrol. Durin hardly did it anymore, but I knew Max would go out of his mind if he sat behind a desk all day giving orders. At his core, he preferred violence over diplomacy. Action over words. When he wasn’t out watching the borders, he would either be in his office, in a meeting with the pack circle, or in the gym.

The latter was where I found him. The gymnasium was an out-of-place structure constructed by the mages. It sat smack bang at the start of a torturous obstacle course that wound around the many sectors of the Reserve and was designed to test the endurance of the shifter guards.

Through the window, I spotted him lying back on a bench, stripped down to just his sweatpants. Despite the urgency of my message, I stood frozen outside the door just watching him do reps, his muscles straining as he pushed the bar up and down repeatedly. My mouth went completely dry as a fantasy I’d always had came to life before my very eyes.

The layer of sweat that clung to the coarse, dark hairs on his chest said that he’d been doing this for some time. Still contained behind the barrier of blood, the mating link sat up in interest. It pressed itself to the barrier and nudged. As it did so, I was hit with a sudden ravenous need to run. It was so unlike me, so unlikely, that I somehow knew these were Max’s emotions.

With each rep, I felt the walls closing in around him. The need to hunt was a fire brimming so close to the surface that I was amazed his skin didn’t light up. Invisible enemies snapped at him from the darkness, and he couldn’t do anything to stop them. The rage was almost claustrophobic. He pushed the bar harder and faster, letting out a husky groan that made something tighten in my core.

Unable to torture myself any longer, I was about to open the door when somebody’s tight grip landed on my shoulder. Nails dug into my flesh. Rough hands spun me around. My back was pressed to the wall. I looked up into yellow eyes so filled with hatred I forgot to scream.

21

Max

The moment Sophie’s scent became blanketed with apprehension, the lion snapped to the forefront of my mind. Securing the weights back onto the peg, I moved towards the door and stopped when I caught the hint of Anastasia’s musk. The lion became hunting still. I lowered myself into a crouch and waited. The instinct to barge in and save her was overwhelming. My beast sensed her distress and it immediately wanted to snap into violence. All day, all night, since we’d first gotten word of the attack on Seraphina, I’d been fighting with myself not to give in to the urge to draw blood. Watching Astrid go down, her wings contorted out of shape, had eaten me alive.

She’d withdrawn into herself since Kai disappeared. It was worse than the quiet rage she displayed after Kai and Chanelle’s bonding