average human’s Reviews > Edge of Steel > Status Update

And she was staring at Elijah like she knew what his cock tasted like.
My beast rose and prowled her cage.
“Damn, Aves,” Ian said, shivering dramatically. “What’s got your fur in a twist?”
“Nothing.” I flashed my tiger the image of Elijah walking into our shared class last semester and ignoring the shit out of me.
She returned the memory of a large, violent, terrifying serpent monster attempting to destroy a griffin for touching me and then his naked human body kneeling at my feet afterward.
Quit that, or I’m never letting you out again.
Elijah turned around in his seat at the bar and pinned me with his yellow gaze, a dark brow raised in question. My tiger’s agitation must have called to the basilisk.
Inconvenient.
I should’ve ignored him, but instead I looked pointedly at the beautiful pink-haired girl still staring at Elijah with bedroom eyes. He glanced her way, and then his mischievous smile fell away, replaced with a rigid jaw and the barest hint of guilt.
The tiger let out a menacing growl.
I cracked my neck. Nope, we are having a nice time with our friends.
Another boisterous group of Proteus students trickled in through the front doors, interrupting my fight with my beast.
“Oh, gross,” Mallory said. “It’s Callista and her flock of harpies.”
It sure was. A gaggle of latent princesses from the rising senior class flounced toward the bar, a few burly guys in tow. Callista wore a skin-tight black bandage dress that did amazing things for her ass, and she’d pulled her dark hair into a sleek ponytail. She had on her usual war paint—smoky eyes and deep maroon lipstick.
Her friends crowded the bar, but she homed in on Wyatt immediately, slinking in his direction, a sexy gazelle offering a tantalizing meal to a starving bear.
Wyatt was still lounging in his chair next to Heath, a lazy prince on his throne, when Callista appeared next to him. His smirk slid right off his face, replaced by the same damn guilty look Elijah had worn.
The image of the two of them at the ball assaulted me yet again.
Callista, humping Wyatt’s thigh.
Wyatt’s hands all over her body.
Her lips on his skin.
His crazed smile during it all.
It took everything I had to keep the fur from blossoming on my skin.
I shoved my chair away from the table and got to my feet. “I’ll be right back,” I announced. “I’m just going to get some air.”

43%

Willow held up what looked like her driver’s license. “By walking through the front door with ye olde fake ID, obviously,” she replied, giving it a flick.
He made a grab for it, but she snatched it away. “Willow, for the love of the fucking Moon,” he growled. “I expect this from you, but Winona is fifteen.”
“Like you didn’t get up to way worse stuff when you were my age,” Winona said indignantly. “I remember when Mom caught you sneaking two half-naked girls and a bong into the pool house on Christmas Eve.”
Wyatt heaved a long-suffering sigh, and his eyes met mine over the top of Willow’s head, frustration and guilt brewing in his gaze. He probably came out here looking for me, since I’d left the bar after the lovely reminder of his transgressions with Callista.
I locked the cage on my beast and returned his look with stone-cold nothingness.
“Our plans have changed anyway,” Willow announced. “Go away, Wyatt. We want to hang out with Avery.”
Wyatt squinted at her. “Why?”
“It’s girl talk!” Clara said brightly. “We’re not going into the bar. You can tell my brothers we’re just going to hang out with Avery for a minute, since I haven’t seen her at all since that night, you know?” She gave him a sad little look and wrung her hands. “Please? Then we’ll go back to Gale Manor. Promise.”
Wyatt was no match for the big pleading eyes of the angel among the little devils in the car. “Fine. But if I catch you three anywhere near a bar or club on this street, I will be escorting you home to explain yourselves to Mom.” He looked at Clara. “And you will get to explain yourself to Heath. He’s not in the mood, I promise you.”
“Yes, yes, we get it,” Willow said, shooing him away from the car. “Go waste your money on beer that won’t get you drunk and let the girls paw at you or whatever it is you like to do in bars.”
He clenched his jaw and straightened his posture. He sent one last dark look my way. “I want to talk to you later, Wildcat.”
As if my stare could get any more glacial.
“She doesn’t want to talk to you!” Winona hollered from the back.
I pointed at her. “What she said.”
“I mean it,” he growled.
I opened the car door, slid into the backseat next to Winona, then slammed the door.
Willow cackled. “Bye-bye, big brother.”
She cranked the wheel and hit the gas.
I fumbled for my seat belt and then clicked it into place right as Willow peeled out of the parking lot.

47%

If we left him long enough, his beast might be able to heal. Avery hadn’t taken his whole throat—the killing blow of most big cats.
Intelligent blue eyes took in each of the spectators surrounding her. Finally, she landed on Heath. There was a question there, maybe even a plea.
“Aiden,” he said softly. “Finish it.”
Before he’d even finished saying my name, I was striding forward, yanking my shirt off as I went, followed by my glasses, which I shoved in my pocket. My shoes were next, and finally my pants.
My body hardly registered the sharp pinch of the shift. My jaguar flowed more effortlessly from my body than ever before, the tiger’s presence a shining beacon calling him forward.
With an inhuman growl, the wolf rolled and began to climb to his feet. Blood dripped from his neck and his mouth, his insane silver eyes focused only on Avery.
He’d dug deep, lost in his beast, and he was going to attack her again.
Animal instinct melded with the very human need to protect Avery from harm, and I shot forward, sprinting on powerful feline legs toward the wolf.
With no hesitation, I struck, sinking my teeth into the back of the wolf’s skull and crushing it.
Killing him instantly.
“By the Moon,” Clara whispered.
Later, I’d probably be horrified to have killed another shifter in front of my little sister, but right now, I only had eyes for my mate. She stood over the wolf’s body, those luminous blue eyes blinking at me.
I slinked over to her, purring loudly. She lifted her chin with a haughty little snort, but she didn’t move away. I rubbed my head along her soft neck and then against her cheek. She rumbled a noise, not quite a growl, and not threatening enough for my jaguar to even consider stopping what he was doing.
I licked her face.
She snapped her teeth at me.
I nuzzled her neck and purred some more.
“All right,” Heath said, striding over to us. He gave my flank a grateful pat, and then he corralled our tiger with a burst of Alpha dominance and a few loving strokes along her furry forehead. “You were fantastic, Killer. You protected your brother and made quick work of an Alpha wolf lost completely to the beast. And you made it look easy.”
She huffed, but she couldn’t hide the tiger’s preen.
Elijah, looking only slightly less vexed, appeared on her other side. “Dove, you are viciously magnificent,” he said, running a hand along her back.
Wyatt joined us, giving my head a rub before he stole some ear scratches from the tiger. “That’s our girl, Wildcat. What a fucking show.”
She let them pet her for exactly three seconds before she shook them off. She growled, baring sharp teeth, and extricated herself from their huddle. With a shake of her silver fur, the tiger receded, and a gloriously naked Avery rose in her place.
My quadmates stared unabashedly at our mate’s strong, nude body, and I was no different, even in beast form. Her long blonde hair hung around her shoulders in gentle waves. We got a glimpse of perky, perfect breasts before she crossed her arms over them. The soft light from the stars and waxing crescent Moon above caressed her curves and the slight grooves in her toned stomach, which led to a trimmed patch of blonde hair between her long, bare legs. She was all silky skin and lean muscles, and the image would be branded onto my brain for the rest of my life.
She sucked in a deep, calming breath. The beast would be riding her hard after a fight like this.
I had to stow that thought before it made me insane.
“Shit,” she said.
She looked around the parking lot at the small group of friends and family that were now in on her greatest secret. The girls were still gaping at her. Brody had averted his eyes because she was basically his sister, and Allen had done the same because he didn’t have a death wish.
“Shit,” she said again.
I padded over to her and nuzzled her again.
She smelled like blood and jasmine and beastly violence and primal need.
“Damn it, Aiden,” she said. She exhaled another shaky breath and rubbed my neck, and I purred like a buzzsaw at my mate’s hands on my fur. She shook her head ruefully, then she pushed me away. “Okay, that’s enough out of you.”
“Avery.” Heath’s gaze on her was searing, ignited by the obsession that had consumed us all. “Don’t worry about any of this, okay? I’ll report to the Council that Mahoney challenged Aiden over some bullshit that happened during Guardian training last semester, and their beasts fought to the death, as is their right. The wolf’s wounds are consistent with those from a Prime feline. No one will know the difference between tiger and jaguar, and the killing blow to the skull rather than the neck is consistent with the jaguar. You were never here.”
She jerked a nod. “Thank you. He really was trying to kill Ian, so I had no choice.”
“I know, Killer. You did the right thing.”
Mallory sidled up to her. “Hey there, friend of mine. Quite a situation you have going on there. I mean, I’d have put my money on big cat, especially after the power your girl used to send my cat running through the woods during the whole campus breach thing, but damn. We can talk about it all later, after you’ve, uh, come down from all of this, but at the moment, how about I heal some of these gashes?”
“Do it,” Heath said. Avery and Mallory both gave him a flat stare. “Please,” he added.
He put his cell phone to his ear and wandered out of earshot, and Mallory began running her fingertips over the flesh wounds in Avery’s shoulder and thigh. The soft blue glow of Moon magic, stored like a battery by shifters with a competent healing affinity, bathed my mate’s wounds and unclenched the knot in my stomach.
While Mallory worked, Clara trotted up, fox Ian still in her arms. “You were amazing, Avery! I can’t even believe this—you could’ve ended Paul Blankenship’s lion with, like, two swipes of your paw and a scary roar! But instead you had to use your swords, and you were amazing then, too, don’t get me wrong! I mean, I get why you aren’t open about your beautiful tiger, I really do, but it’s such a shame. People are backwards and stupid about females sometimes.”
With one last burst of my will, I forced the jaguar back inside, and he was not happy to go. I shook out my limbs and pinned my sister with a grave look. “Clara, do you understand why no one can know about Avery’s beast? Especially Dad?”
She paled. “Oh. Yeah, definitely. Not a word from me. I promise.”
Avery’s ethereal gaze dipped down my naked body for a fraction of a second, setting every nerve I had on fucking fire, before she focused firmly on my face. Her eyes narrowed, studying me for a beat, and then she turned her attention to the fox in Clara’s arms.
She pointed at him. “I see you, Ian Baxter. You think you’re avoiding being yelled at by me and by your boyfriend, who you scared half to death, by hiding behind your cute little fox face. You are in for a rude awakening.”
His whiskers twitched, and then he buried his head in Clara’s shirt.
Brody walked over to Clara and held out his arms. “I will take him, please.”
“Sorry,” she whispered to the fox, and then she handed him over.
Brody clutched Ian to his chest and walked away, presumably so they could have a private chat.
Elijah wandered closer to Avery, bringing the chill of the basilisk with him. He chucked my clothes at me and then produced a T-shirt and offered it to Avery. “Here you go, Dove. Courtesy of Willow.”
Willow waved jovially from where she stood next to her car, clad in only a sports bra and jeans. Winona lounged against the door next to her, looking like a fifteen-year-old who’d just seen something extremely impressive but didn’t want to let on that she was impressed.
Avery pulled the T-shirt over her head, which only hit her mid-stomach. She cracked her neck and rolled her shoulders, agitation seeping from her every pore, but she managed a smile and a wave for Willow.
Elijah shucked his own shirt, and Avery tried but failed to smother a tiny moan at the sight of his naked torso.
“Fuck,” she swore, snatching the shirt from Elijah’s hands and tying it around her waist. “I mean, thanks, Elijah.”
“You’re very welcome, love.”
“Don’t call me that.”
He grinned. “Okay.”
Mallory cleared her throat and stepped away from Avery. “Finished. These should be fully healed tomorrow, so take it easy until then.” She gave Avery’s outfit a quick once over, her nose wrinkling. “I have some clothes in my car out front. How about I go grab you something and meet you in the bathroom so you can look less like you just shifted and brawled in a parking lot?”
Avery chewed her lip and shifted her weight from foot to foot. I bit off a growl at the fact that her feet were bare against the dirty asphalt.
“Go ahead, Dove,” Elijah said. “Wyatt ducked inside to update Bernard on the situation. He’ll keep everyone out of the back.”
She sighed. “Okay. Mal, I’ll meet you in there.”
Mallory ran off, her still-stunned mate in tow, and Elijah went to help Heath.
Avery glanced at me one more time, her beast still peeking through her eyes. “Thank you, Aiden,” she said softly. “I would’ve done it, but I’m glad I didn’t have to.”
She was so strong, so fucking beautiful, and it hurt so much.
“You’re welcome, sweetheart. I would do it again a thousand times to keep you safe.”
She managed a nod before she hurried away and disappeared inside.
And my world was dark again.