average human’s Reviews > Clash of Claws > Status Update

Clara tapped her lips, still perfectly lined and colored even after all the nonsense earlier. I’d have to ask her what brand of lipstick she used. “It’s here somewhere. Heath always stays with Aiden on the weekends, and they wouldn’t be off campus during curfew, right?”
“We’ll find out.” I was just glad Clara had insisted on tracking Aiden down at his house instead of marching us through the dorm, looking for Heath’s room. I was a little too blood-spattered for polite company, and faculty housing was much more isolated over on the west side of campus.
“Oh! Do you think George knows the way?” she asked.
I must’ve taken a harder hit to the head than I’d thought, because duh. At the moment, George was gliding lazily through the manicured lawn next to the sidewalk. “Hey, buddy, can you show us the way to Aiden’s house?”
He dipped his head in a nod.
Perfect.
We followed him down the street to the first intersection, where he made a right turn, and then he slithered up the stone walkway and onto the porch of the house on the corner. It was a two-story home with a sloping roof and windows framed by dark blue shutters. Thin white columns stretched from the edge of the roof down to the porch floor. Under one of the large front windows, there were a couple of weathered rocking chairs with a small table between them. A black coffee mug sat abandoned on the table, forgotten from sometime earlier.
I jammed my finger into the doorbell, then rapped a fist on the door for good measure. I was out of patience. This night needed to be over already.
The door swung open. It appeared the Moon had decided I deserved a reward for my suffering tonight, because there stood Aiden, wearing only a pair of navy sweatpants. Unlike his brother, he did not have his beast tattooed across his broad chest. No, he was all smooth, tan skin over taut muscles. The dim light from the bulb above us seeped into the grooves of his abs, and I allowed myself a single second to trace those lines with my tired gaze until the V-cut at his hips disappeared into the waistband of his pants.
“Clara? Avery? What the hell⁠—”
Clara sobbed and threw herself into his arms. He caught her, wrapping her in a hug, his defined biceps flexing as he squeezed her tight. His gaze was pinned on me, though, confusion and alarm written there as he took in the state of me.
“Woah, Clara? What’s going on?”
Heath appeared over Aiden’s shoulder, disappointingly fully clothed in a simple white T-shirt and soft gray pants. He took one look at Clara crying into Aiden’s bare shoulder, and then he saw me. His jaw slackened, and then his eyes narrowed dangerously.
“Good, you’re both here.” I sounded as exhausted as I felt. “We have a problem, and you’re going to need to clean it up.”
Heath lunged past Aiden and Clara and grabbed me by the arm. He pulled me into the house, slammed the door behind us, and maneuvered me right onto the couch in the cozy little living room.
“What happened?” he growled as he hovered over me, grasping my chin in his hand and using the other to gently probe the cut on my head. “You reek of feline hair and blood. Are you hurt anywhere else? Take your sweatshirt off.”
He reached for the hem of my shirt, and I swatted his hands away. “Stop that. This blood isn’t mine. That would be Paul’s, the piece of shit your parents sent your sister on a date with.”
Aiden set Clara on the couch next to me, and now we had two bossy Blackwells staring down at us, concern warring with rage across both of their stony faces. Clara sniffed and grabbed my hand. She was trembling again, so I gave her fingers an encouraging squeeze.
“Clara,” Heath said, forcing some softness into his voice that he hadn’t bothered with when speaking to me. “Did Dad send you on a date with Paul Blankenship? How did you end up all the way up here?”
She nodded. “It was Paul and Harrison. They were… they were awful, Heath. I had to get away, and I didn’t know where else to go.”
She recounted the details of her date, her escape, her frantic drive to the school’s front gates, and the events that unfolded when Harrison and Paul tracked her here. Gold rolled over Heath’s irises as she spoke, and Aiden’s had lit up in my favorite neon turquoise, both riled and fighting the urge to murder.
Good.
“I don’t know what would’ve happened if Avery and George hadn’t been there,” she said, sniffling. “I mean, they would’ve been in a lot of trouble if they’d have hurt me, but teenage shifters…”
“Aren’t always in control of their beasts,” Aiden finished for her. He ran a hand through his wavy hair, and then he speared me with a look. “Avery, for fuck’s sake. You took on two Prime beasts with only your swords?”
“Really, it was just the lion,” I replied. I flapped a hand at George, who had curled up in front of the fireplace and was snoozing away like he hadn’t choked out two large animals tonight. “George took the wolf down all on his own, and then he finished the lion off for me. If he hadn’t, I might still be underneath that little bastard, waiting for him to bleed out.”
Heath scrubbed a hand down his face and groaned. “Shit. Fuck. I don’t know whose throat I want to rip out first—Dad’s or those shitty little assholes’. Clara, I am so sorry this happened.”
“It’s not your fault, Heath.”
He stared at her, his hazel eyes despondent. “We’re going to figure it out, okay? Just keep… being disruptive when they force you to meet these dickhead Primes. Buy us some time.”
Clara gasped. “Oh! Can Avery teach me how to use a sword? That way when someone touches me in a way I don’t like, I can stab them.”
“No,” they both replied.
“Yes,” I said, glaring at them. “I would be happy to, though it’s not like your brothers aren’t good with a blade. You should ask Elijah to teach you to use a dagger.”
“Ooh, you’re right, I should,” she said and hummed thoughtfully. “He doesn’t say no to me either. Not like these two.”
The front door blew open, and Wyatt stomped into the living room. He wore workout clothes and smelled like sweat and delicious male pheromones. “Hey, why the fuck isn’t anyone answering their phone? Willow just called, and she said Clara’s fucking missing—oh.”
Clara waved at him. “Hi, Wyatt. Did my mom call your mom, looking for me?”
“Yep.” His gaze slid from Clara to me, two dark emeralds boring straight into my chest. A red sheen rolled over those emeralds, a fucking siren call to my beast. “What in the actual fuck is going on here?”
“Good, you’re back,” Heath said. “I need you to stay with Clara. She can sleep in my room tonight—I’ll bunk with Aiden.”
Wyatt was still looking at me. “Someone needs to start fucking talking. Why is the wildcat covered in blood and stinking of feline?”
“Clara will explain,” Aiden replied. “Heath and I have to go take care of something, and we need you to watch over her while we’re gone. Do not answer the door for anyone except us, and if your parents call again, don’t tell them she’s here.”
He blew out a breath, his big shoulders dropping. “Okay, I got it. Go.”
Heath held out a hand to me. “Let’s go, Killer. You’re coming with us.”
“Me?” I stared dumbly at his hand. “No, I did my part. I’m going to bed.”
“Yes, you did a whole hell of a lot tonight, but I’m not letting you out of my sight. We’re going to go deal with the two little shitheads who thought they could put their hands on my sister, and then you’re going to the infirmary, even if I have to hogtie you and drag you there myself.”
I lifted my chin. “I don’t take orders from you, Heath Blackwell.”
Clara snickered.
Aiden shouldered Heath aside. He leaned in, hovering over me, and placed one hand on the couch’s armrest to my right, his long fingers curling over the leather in a way that shouldn’t have been hot, but ugh, it was. He bent down further, our noses nearly touching as he growled softly, “You’ll take orders from your professor, Miss Baxter. You’ll get that perfect ass off my couch, and you’ll stick with Heath and me until I release you to go back to your dorm. Understood?”
His eyes blazed turquoise behind his glasses, challenging me. Instead of the appropriate response of wanting to bite the head off this presumptuous jaguar, my beast flicked her tail lazily, ears perked in interest.
YOU. ARE. NOT. HELPING.
I glared at Aiden as he stood up again and waited for my response with his bare arms folded over his chest, a perfect brow arched. Heath watched me intently, and Wyatt smirked at my plight. Clara, the ungrateful traitor, just giggled more.
“Fine,” I said. “But no infirmary. Mallory can stitch the cut in my head closed and magic away my headache. There’s nothing else wrong with me.”
Heath and Aiden shared a look.
“Deal,” Heath said. “Let’s go. I want to get to those fuckers before they become wraith food. They’d deserve it, but it would be a hell of a lot harder to clean up.”

57%

But I’d also dragged her here because she’d done something I couldn’t—she’d been there to save my sister, and the wolf within me had needed to show this female that we could take care of our own business.
And now the wolf within me wanted something else, and I’d lost the will to maintain control of that beastly urge.
Aiden boosted me over the gate, and he followed right behind me, scrambling up and over with ease. He’d always been a better climber than me.
Avery stood up and dusted herself off. Even in a blood-stained sweatshirt, more blood caked in her blonde hair and dried on her face, and exhaustion weighing down her ethereal blue eyes, she’d never looked more beautiful to me.
“Well, now that that’s done, I’ll just be going⁠—”
With a snarl, I pushed her into Aiden’s waiting arms. She gasped as her back hit his chest. He held her tight and pulled her away from the gate, bracing against the brick wall that separated the college from the rest of the world.
Avery didn’t breathe as I pressed into her, crowding her front while Aiden held her in place, one arm banded across her stomach and the other over the top of her chest. No question that Aiden and I were on the same wavelength. My brother had cut the cord and wanted this as badly as I did.
“I am so fucking frustrated, Avery,” I growled softly, wrapping my hands around her hips. They fit perfectly in my grip, and it pissed me off even more. “I’m furious at you for traipsing around this campus alone during a New Moon. Our wards are excellent, but nothing is infallible.”
She writhed in my grasp, but she sure wasn’t trying very hard to escape. “Fuck you, Blackwell. I had my swords and George, and for the last moondamned time, I don’t take orders from you.”
She gasped again as Aiden chuckled, his mouth up against her neck. “Such a brat.”
“But you know why I’m so frustrated, Killer?” I went on, running my nose up the side of her pale neck that Aiden wasn’t occupying. She smelled of sweat and blood and fucking flowers. “Because I’m also thankful you were wandering around tonight because you found Clara and put yourself in harm’s way for her, a girl you’d never even met before.”
“We don’t know what to do with you,” Aiden said. “You saved Clara, just like you try to save everyone in your neighborhood each lunar cycle, but you’re also on a path that’s going to get you killed.”
“Mmm,” I grunted in agreement, caving to the urge to taste her skin. I licked a stripe from her collarbone to her ear, and the tiny moan it elicited destroyed every brake I had left. “Can’t have that. We could threaten you, but you don’t appear to fear anything.”
“Would love to fuck some sense into you,” Aiden mused, and she shuddered in my hands, “but I don’t think that would work, either.”
“We really are at a loss,” I whispered in her ear. “So, for now, I’m just going to… thank you.”
Her hooded eyes fluttered. “What⁠—”
I dropped to my knees and ripped her leggings down to her ankles. She gasped and clawed at Aiden’s arm, but he only chuckled and nipped her ear. I yanked one of her boots off and pulled her foot free from her pants. I tossed that smooth, shapely fucking leg over my shoulder, and then I buried my face in her hot, wet cunt.
“Oh shit,” she moaned as I took a luxurious lick of the tastiest pussy I’d ever encountered. I was going to be so fucked after this, but my rational brain had left the building. “Don’t stop, Heath.”
A Giant could’ve barreled through the wall, and I wouldn’t have stopped. I was in this until she came all over my face. Her little moans and mewls spurred me on at a breakneck pace, and I devoured her.
Aiden did his part, crooning dirty shit in her ear. “You’re shaking, sweetheart. Does that feel good, having Heath’s tongue between your gorgeous thighs? I’m so damn jealous of my brother right now. I’d love to be the one making you moan.”
“Aiden,” she said, sounding breathless. “Are you even supposed to be touching me like this?”
We both laughed at that. “That’s the thing about being a Prime in an unbonded quad,” he whispered, like he was telling her a secret. “I could rut you like an animal up against the Magical Ed building, and the dean would give me a hearty slap on the back for trying to find our bond. Well, he would, if you weren’t lying about being latent.”
She groaned. “If I’m not a special blue-blooded latent, then why does Heath have my clit in his mouth?”
It was my turn to groan, her dirty words turning me on even more, which I hadn’t thought was possible. I sucked hard on her clit in retaliation, threading a finger into her hot center as I lashed her with my tongue. She was tight and wet and fucking perfect.
“Heath doesn’t go down on those girls, sweetheart,” Aiden murmured. “He takes them on boring dates, where they talk about school and family and what kind of boat their parents just bought for the lake house.”
I rumbled a noise of agreement, then added a second finger. I hammered them into her because she was the strongest female I’d ever met and could take everything I wanted to give her.
She screamed, her muscles contracting around my fingers as she climaxed, gushing hard just for me.
“Fuck yes,” I groaned against her slick skin.
“Good girl,” Aiden said. “I could listen to that beautiful sound all night.”
She moaned, sagging in his arms, still spasming around my fingers. My dick had never been harder in my life, and my beast lounged with a level of primal satisfaction he’d never cared to feel when I hooked up with a girl.
I gave her a few more languid licks, and then I helped her back into her pants. Aiden pulled them up her legs while I slid her boot back onto her foot. Satisfied she was dressed and comfortable, I stood up and wrapped my arms around her. She buried her face in my T-shirt while Aiden ran a gentle hand up and down her back.
My brother and I exchanged a look over her shoulder. We’d just done something neither of us could take back, but he didn’t look like he regretted his part in it even a little bit, and neither did I. Sex wasn’t a declaration of intent to date or bond, and Avery wasn’t the type to make this something it wasn’t.
But she deserved to feel something tonight other than the pain inflicted on her by more powerful shifters, and I’d wanted to give it to her. Soon, I would have to scrub this fascination with her from my soul—as would the rest of my quad—but tonight, I’d let myself have what I wanted, and it’d been fucking glorious.
“Let’s get you to your room,” I said into her hair. “Call your medic friend and have her meet you there.”
“Okay,” she replied easily.
Aiden chuckled. “Maybe fucking the sass out of you actually does work.”
“Maybe,” she replied, releasing me and stepping out of my arms. It took everything I had not to grab her again. “Or you might get your dick sliced off the next time you try. Still want to chance it?”
“Yep,” I said.
“Sure do,” Aiden added.
She rolled her eyes, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. She swiped her swords from the ground and shrugged them on, then pulled her phone from her pocket. “Hey, Mal, you still up? Oh…. No, I didn’t need to know that…. Uh-huh…. Well, can you put some clothes on and meet me at my room with your first aid kit?… No, just some minor scrapes and bruises…. Yep, okay, thanks.”
We walked her back to the upperclassmen dorm in comfortable silence. It was nearing one in the morning, and since it was a curfew night, no one was out and about. That relative privacy was all I needed to chance holding Avery’s hand on the walk. I was shocked she allowed it—or the hand Aiden kept on the small of her back as we went.
Aiden made her hand over her blood-soaked sweatshirt and sent her inside wearing his fleece jacket instead. We watched her disappear through the doors of the dorm, and once we were satisfied she wasn’t going to sneak back out, we began the hike to Aiden’s house.
After a few minutes of walking in silence, Aiden said softly, “I don’t know what to do about her.”
I knew what he meant. “Me neither,” I replied with a sigh. “But right now, unfortunately, it’s time to deal with Dad.”
His face hardened. Getting lost in Avery had been a nice little interlude before what we really needed to accomplish, but I hadn’t forgotten, and neither had he. “Yeah,” he said. “We have to end this soon.”
He was right—on several counts.