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

His big brown eyes widened at the sight of me in only an oversized T-shirt and panties—not that he cared about that part—and he hurriedly spat toothpaste into the sink. “What happened to you?”
I took in my reflection in the mirror over my sink. Mal had stitched up the gash in my head last night while Ian hovered over the entire process, as pissed as I’d ever seen him. The stitches were hidden well enough in my hair, but I had a spectacular purple bruise blooming across my cheekbone where the lion had decked me.
And wait until Brody got a load of the road rash on my back. Mal had to clean that, too, while Ian had screeched something along the lines of, “What does not a toe outside the wards mean to you, Avery?” at me.
“Oh, hey, Brody,” I said lightly. “Ian didn’t, uh, wake you up last night, I guess?”
“I sleep like the dead. But it makes sense he didn’t really sleep until you made it back.” He looked me over, scanning for more injuries. “Did you get into it with a wraith?”
I flapped a hand. “Oh, nothing like that⁠—”
The door to Ian’s room burst open, and my brother stalked into the bathroom. He wore nothing but an open silk robe and his tiniest briefs.
“My eyes!” I whined, throwing an arm over my face.
“Save it,” he snapped. “Now that you are no longer actively bleeding or covered in the stench and fluids of the teenaged lion you skewered last night⁠—”
“What?” Brody barked. “What lion⁠—”
“—we are going to discuss the fact that last night you also smelled a little bit like sex and a lot like a certain Alpha wolf and a certain feline professor of ours.”
I grimaced. “You caught that, huh?”
He threw his hands in the air, his robe swishing to reveal a glimpse of the fox tattoo on his ribs. “Of course I caught that. You’re lucky Mallory and I decided one insane story was enough to pull out of you while you were injured.”
Brody leaned against the counter, shaking his head like he was dizzy. “What the hell did I sleep through last night?”
So fucking much, Brody.
“It’s not a big deal,” I shot back at Ian. “Should I start stomping around like a pissed-off elephant every time you stink like sex? I’d never get anything accomplished.”
“Spill it, Avery,” Ian growled.
“Fine.” I grabbed my toothbrush, squeezed toothpaste on the bristles, and shoved it in my mouth. “Heathmight’vegonedownonme,” I mumbled as I brushed.
“What?” they both exclaimed.
I spat the toothpaste into the sink, rinsed, and wiped my mouth on my purple hand towel. “Look, everyone was really keyed up after all the violence.” I gave Ian a pointed look. “The beasts were keyed up. Things happened, I enjoyed it, and they both treated me nicely afterward. It didn’t mean anything.”
I’d chanted that last part over and over in my head—at my beast—as I fell asleep in my bed, and I was doing it again now. Heath and Aiden had shocked the absolute hell out of me last night, and it was the hottest experience of my life. I would treasure it as such.
What I would not be doing was throwing myself into their arms the next time I saw them.
Even though my beast seemed to want exactly that. She’d always been an inexplicable slut for all members of the Blackwell Quad, and last night had made the problem ten times worse.
Ian and Brody both blinked at me like I was an alien before Brody finally asked in a low voice, “Was it good?”
Ian elbowed him. “Don’t encourage her.”
“You’re the one who’s been acting like my vagina will shrivel into dust if I don’t get laid soon,” I retorted.
He clicked his tongue. “If you want to get laid, Brody and I can marshal up a line of eager suitors from the ranks of the numerous attractive males in this school who are not members of a fancy Prime quad.”
Brody nodded solemnly. “Ask and you shall receive, Avery.”
“Especially that quad. I just worry they’re going to hurt you, Aves. Maybe not today, maybe not even this year, but eventually it will happen. I won’t have it.”
I sighed. “Ian, it was just a post-fight hookup. I’ll be okay.”
Because I had to be. I was here to become a Guardian and earn myself a cocoon of safety and relative freedom, full stop. I was not here to fall for the hottest, most powerful, and most coveted males on campus.
Ian and I had a thirty-second stare-off, and then Brody broke the tension. “Is anyone going to explain the whole lion-skewering part of the evening?”
“Yeah.” I waved my hands, shooing them away. “Get the fuck out so I can do my business, and then we’ll catch Brody up on the way to breakfast.”
They grumbled but complied. As they moved toward the door, Ian tossed me a look over his shoulder that was only concerned, devoid of all the ire from earlier.
“Love you,” I mouthed.
He rolled his eyes. “Love you too,” he mouthed back, before he shut the door behind him.

By the time we arrived at the dining hall for what was more brunch than breakfast, Brody was caught up. Since this month’s curfew nights had fallen over the weekend, most students had remained on campus, and the dining hall was hopping.
As we sat down at our table, I ignored the fact that Heath, Wyatt, and Aiden were also here. They were sitting at one of their usual central tables, surrounded by their fan club. Clara was also with them, wearing what looked like one of Heath’s sweatshirts over her skirt from last night. She seemed cheerful, so I relaxed and tucked into the tall stack of pancakes I’d meticulously assembled at the buffet.
“Avery!”
Somehow, I already knew that voice well. Clara was waving exuberantly at me from her table, the girls seated nearby looking at her like she’d stripped naked and thrown her panties at me.
And now I also had the attention of her brothers and Wyatt. They each wore their default facial expressions: Heath, serious and commanding; Aiden, aloof and slightly bored; Wyatt, cocky and smirking. The difference was in their eyes. Three intense, probing, knowing gazes were aimed at me while my beast groomed a paw and preened under them.
Brody cleared his throat. “Is it hot in here, or⁠—”
“Avery!” Clara called out again, now pushing to her feet, then trotting over to my table. She wore her tall, heeled boots from last night, and they thunked loudly on the wood floors, drawing even more attention. “Hi!” she chirped happily as she slid into the chair next to me. “How are you feeling? Did you get all patched up?”
“I did. My friend is a healer and medic-in-training, and she took care of me.”
Clara blew out a satisfied breath. “Good.”
I couldn’t help but go a little gooey at her sincere hazel eyes. They were more reminiscent of Heath’s than Aiden’s, and I was yet again irritated that I knew that. She patted my hand, then she noticed Ian and Brody.
“Hello, I’m Clara Blackwell.” She reached a delicate, manicured hand across the table.
Ian snagged it first. “Aren’t you adorable? I’m Ian, Avery’s brother and a wily fox shifter.”
She gasped in delight as she shook Ian’s hand. “Avery, you have a brother? He’s so cute.”
“He knows,” I replied drolly.
Brody snatched Clara’s hand from Ian and gave her his winning smile. “I’m Brody. Lynx shifter and Ian’s boyfriend.”
“Aw,” she cooed. “So nice to meet you both.”
“I hear we had a bit of a ruckus at the gates last night, Miss Clara,” Ian said gently. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
She sobered a bit. “Thanks to Avery. She was amazing.”
“It was mostly George,” I muttered. That harsh reality had set in over the course of the morning. Without George, that fight would’ve gone a lot differently, and I probably would’ve ended up letting my beast out of her cage and creating another huge mess. I could do a lot with my swords, but I’d always be hobbled without the ability to freely shift. “And,” I went on, nudging Clara, “your brothers are the ones who really put the fear of the Moon’s wrath into those little shitheads.”
“Yeah,” she replied, wringing her hands. “Is it too much to hope that Paul and Harrison will tell all the other boys in our social group that I’m not worth the trouble?”
The anxiety simmering in my stomach from rehashing last night’s fight twisted into a ball of rage. “You know what, Clara?” I slapped my hand on the table and stood up. “We were headed to the gym after this to train for a few hours. Wanna come? We’ll go through some basics with a blade. Ian’s actually a better teacher than I am.”
“Yes!” she shrieked, jumping to her feet and clapping her hands. “Let’s go. Wait—can I borrow a sports bra and some shorts?”
“Yep.” We were close to the same size. I had a few inches of height on her, and she definitely had a cup size on me, but we’d make it work.
Brody and Ian were immediately on board. As we all gathered our things, Heath appeared at our table. He wore a snug-fitting white Henley and gray sweatpants that should be illegal, and he smelled like a forest after a rainstorm.
I became very focused on pouring my coffee into a to-go cup.
“Clara,” he growled. “Where are you going?”
She lifted her chin. “Avery, Ian, and Brody are taking me to learn swords.”
He sighed. “Clara⁠—”
“Heath,” she said quietly. “Let me do this.”
He was no match for those big doe eyes. “Fine. One hour, and then we’re taking you home.”
“Yay, thank you!” She threw her arms around his neck.
He hugged her gently, but he was now focused only on me.
He didn’t say anything—just let his gaze roam over my face, pausing on my bruised cheekbone. His jaw tensed and his nostrils flared. I was in trouble all over again for last night, and warmth pooled low in my belly at the thought.
“We’ll be at the arena,” I told him briskly, and then I turned and high-tailed it out of there before my face flushed redder than Wyatt’s hair.

64%

We went around and around like this for several minutes—I’d swat, she’d cut, we’d break apart and go again. Her face was flushed from the exertion and sweaty as fuck, but she still smelled like lavender.
I wanted a taste.
She was tiring, though, because she’d been at this for over an hour, while I had endless energy to burn.
After my particularly vicious strike at her abdomen, she stumbled a bit, and I had her. I reared up onto my hind legs, roaring, and I threw my weight right on top of her. The force knocked her off her feet, and I followed her down.
Right before her back hit the floor and my enormous bear body would’ve crushed her, I shifted back into a man.
“Wyatt!” she shrieked. Her fist hit the ground beside us, knocking her sword from her grip. It clattered to the floor.
“Hey, baby,” I said, my voice like silk. I straddled her thighs, clamping them together with mine, then I gathered her hands in my grip and pinned them above her head. “Time to yield.”
And she better do it quickly because pinning her underneath me like this had my dick half hard. There was no surer way of losing my most important body part than pressing a full erection against this girl without her consent.
“By the Moon,” Brody murmured from somewhere nearby. “That is a monster. Clara, avert your eyes.”
“I am not looking. Gross.”
“Well, he is a bear,” Ian mused. “Aves, just letting you know—if you take another temporary leave from your senses and slip and fall on that cock, you may end up in the infirmary.”
My grin was very smug. “Don’t listen to them, Wildcat. I’d make it good for you.”
My sweaty, beautiful girl bucked underneath me, but to no avail. I was a lot fucking bigger than her, and I had her solidly in my clutches. “Get off me,” she ordered through clenched teeth.
“Do you yield?”
“Wyatt,” she snarled.
“Yes, very scary,” I said with a little shiver, throwing her teasing from earlier right back at her. I dipped even lower, my nose now almost touching hers as I whispered, “Yield, baby. I want to collect my prize.”
A frustrated and beastly rumble sounded in her chest. Her eyes flashed the same electric blue that’d mesmerized the shit out of me back when she’d wrapped her hand around my throat, and her body warmed beneath me. “Fuck you,” she said, her voice a deep, inhuman growl.
“Yes,” I hissed. “There she is. Let that beast out, Wildcat. I want to meet her.”
My bear had shoved back to the surface, the eager motherfucker. I couldn’t remember the last time he’d tested my control like this when feeling something other than raw, terrifying rage.
The urge to slam my lips onto hers and shove my tongue into her mouth consumed me, but I wanted her to yield. I wanted her to want it.
“What the fuck is going on in here? Gale, get the hell off Baxter and put your cock away, for the love of the fucking Moon.”
I blew out the world’s most frustrated breath, and Avery sagged in my hold, Cash’s obnoxious fucking voice snapping the tension between us like a twig.
His presence was also an instant cure for my erection.
With an annoyed sigh, I climbed to my feet, and then I offered Avery a hand up. Brody threw my pants at my head, and in about five seconds, I was half dressed and ready to deal with whatever fresh bullshit Cash had in store.
“What is this, Baxter?” Cash demanded, his lip curling as he glared at Avery. He’d freshly buzzed his dark-blond hair—so fucking weird for a lion—and he wore cargo pants, boots, and a black Guardian T-shirt, which meant he was dressed for work tonight. “You opening your legs for Gale and the rest of that quad now? Ballsy, given you managed to set off the fucking snake.”
“Hey—” I started to say, but he barreled on.
“You know, Baxter, my quad was out on patrol last night. We chased a horde of swarmers and a few Rippers near the campus walls on the southwest side, so as a matter of protocol, I went over last night’s security camera footage this morning. I saw your pathetic little perimeter walk.”
To Avery’s immense credit, she just stared at him like he was boring the shit out of her.
Heath had made sure one of his little techy wolf minions had erased the footage of the shit that went down at the front gate last night and looped a non-incriminating few hours so no one would suspect anything. It appeared his foresight had paid off.
“What did you think you were gonna do, huh?” Cash continued, sneering. “The Board of Trustees and the Council spend a huge chunk of the college’s endowment on those wards, and they pay the best security specialists to reinforce them monthly. But even if they failed, you have no fucking chance against an entire horde of actual wraiths. They’d tear you apart, devour your soul, then go on to kill every weak-ass shifter in this place.”
“I’m not sure why you’re so concerned,” Avery said in the world’s most blasé tone. “If a wraith eats my soul, I won’t sully the Guardian training program with my presence any longer.”
He gave her a slimy smile. “How true that is. Are you fucking Ward Gale too? I can’t think of any other reason for him to be so insistent on this farce⁠—”
I stepped right into that motherfucker’s face. His shitty attitude was on my last nerve, and I wished for the eightieth time that Cash’s quad wasn’t so skilled at wraith combat. Not only would it have spared us from being subjected to them as our trainers, but they’d probably have been tossed from the Guardians by now. My dad had taught me that the Guardians valued integrity and independence above almost everything, but Cash was so far up the asses of not only the members of the Northeastern Council, where several of his fathers served, but also our local Council members, including the asshole Blackwells, that his loyalty was real fucking questionable.
His quad was in the small minority of the force that were in it only for the prestige and the money, and it made them terrible team players.
“That’s enough,” I said to him, a lazy smile on my face, while my tone was one of barely restrained violence. “We get it, man. You’re embarrassed about how small your dick is, so you take it out on the only female who’s forced to be in your presence on a regular basis. I have to tell you, man, none of us are buying the act, and if you piss Avery off more, she’s going to relieve you of that small dick, and my dad isn’t going to have shit to say about it.”
Cash’s amber eyes went molten gold, his lion popping up to say hello. Dominance pulsed from him and battered against me, like cresting waves against a seawall. He was trying to force me and my beast into submission by sheer will alone.
In a horrifying turn of events, I stumbled a few steps backward before I was able to dig in and hold against him. My bear, loath to give a shit about Cash normally, jolted to life within me.
Avery put a gentle hand on my bare back to steady me, probably unconsciously, but she quickly dropped it. Her gorgeous eyes narrowed, studying Cash, a mere hint of her beast glinting there.
Few things in my life had ever infuriated me as much as Cash’s smug fucking smirk did in this moment. “Oh, did I forget to mention?” He lifted a hand and flashed us a view of the new bonding tattoo encircling his ring finger. “My quad bonded under this past Full Moon. She’s lovely—a latent from a long line of Prime lions. She just graduated from the shifter finishing school in Virginia, and our fathers introduced us over the holidays. No sense in waiting when you find the one, am I right, Gale?”
Just fucking perfect. Cash’s quad now had their central, which meant their beasts were all connected, able to share power with each other through their bond with her. I’d trained under Cash since the start of this school year, and what he’d just blasted me with was a noticeable and substantial difference in the force and dominance of his beast. As their quad’s leader, he would reap the most benefit.
I would still crush him, but this had caught me off guard, damn it.
“Mazel tov,” I said flippantly. “Is there anything else you needed? We’re not in training, so you have no reason to be harassing Avery or any of the rest of us.”
“Watch yourself, Gale. Eventually, you and your girlfriend won’t be cradled in the soft embrace of the SWIM and the training program and your father. You’ll be out in the field with the rest of us, and well….” He smiled at Avery. “Things can happen.”
I gritted my teeth and bore the next onslaught—this one from within. My bear was about to rip out Cash’s throat.
“Can’t wait,” Avery said, smiling serenely back at him. “When I become a Guardian, we’ll settle this shit like real shifters, Cash.”
“Avery,” Ian hissed from somewhere behind us.
Cash barked a loud laugh. “Sure we will.”
He turned and strolled out of the arena without a backward glance.
I shook out my limbs and took a few cleansing breaths. The bear had settled, and my boner was well and truly gone.
I turned to Clara, my good humor also vanished. “Let’s go, princess. Your brothers need time to take you home and then get back onto campus before curfew.”
She didn’t argue. “Okay. I’m coming.” With a sad smile, she handed Avery one of her little swords, which she must’ve borrowed at some point. She hugged Ian, then Brody, and then Avery last. “I’ll wash the clothes I borrowed and send them back with Heath when I can,” Clara told her.
“Don’t worry about it,” Avery replied, giving her one last squeeze before pulling back and giving her a pointed look. “You have my number, so call if you need anything, okay?”
Clara nodded, releasing her reluctantly, like leaving her new friends was the saddest thing she’d ever experienced.
I jerked my head toward the doors and ensured my attention was anywhere but on Avery. “Come on.”
Clara followed me obediently as I strode from the arena, away from those electric blue eyes and the harsh fucking dose of reality I’d just been handed.