Page 67

I grumbled curse words at him from the antique bed in the spare room of his underground den. The whole inside had been finished out like an aboveground home, including a hardwood floor.

“I don’t fucking want to,” I said, pulling the patchwork quilt over my head. It had probably been made by Jasper’s grandmother. “I’m tired.”

More tired than at least Sunday night.

“Yeah, and if ya’d wake up, ya’d be hungry. We’ve got to get started on yer training, or good ol’ Giselda will cause trouble in the pack.”

My stomach grumbled, and I opened one eyeball and moved the blanket out of the way of my face. “I am hungry. What do you have? Wheaties or something to start my day of training?”

He chuckled. “A hearty Irish stew.”

“For breakfast?” I made a face and rolled over, pulling the cover over myself once more. “Don’t you have waffles or donuts or pancakes or somethingmore… breakfast-y?”

“Bone broth, vegetables, meat. It’s the best short-notice meal I have to get ye started today,” he said. “All that sugary shite won’t give you the energy or the balance you need. When I have more time, I’ll make champ or boxty.”

“Great,” I said sarcastically. “That. Sounds. Great.”

He tugged the corner of the cover but left it in place. “Next time I come in here, I’ll have a bucket of ice water to toss on yer head. It’s time for shifter boot camp.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Try me, lass.” He marched out as though he didn’t have any doubt I’d be out of the bed ASAP.

Dammit.Shifterboot camp?

A tortured groan slipped from me, and I pressed my face into the pillow under my head, squeezing my eyes closed and trying to go back to sleep. Jasper was going to make me regret thinking Red Tail was the better place to be. He probably had a list of exercises and an eating schedule.

It all sounded like hard work, and I’d spent all night dreaming sexy fantasies about the broad-shouldered alpha of Six-Mile and wishing I could conjure him in my room for an overnight tryst with no strings and no prophecies.

No strings…My mouth twisted into a grin. Unless Logan liked strings… ropes… What kind of sex would he like? Would magic be involved? His? Mine? Both? Magic sex or sex magic?

He probably had all kinds of tricks up his sleeves… tricks I wanted to know.

My stomach growled, and I tossed the cover aside to sit on the edge of the creaky bed. It’d be hard to fuck quietly in this damn bed. Not that sex with Logan should be any kind of quiet. When we finally did it. If we spent any time around each other, it’d be a repeat of Vixen’s make-out but a lot less seat buckle in my ass crack.

No freaking way I was going back to sleep now, not with Logan sauntering through my head, smirking like he had incredible ideas for fantastic nights inhishead. I shivered and took a deep breath.

Jasper’s heavy steps signaled his return, and he stopped at the threshold of the room with a large, stainless-steel stock pot in his hands. He stopped short, and the ice cubes clinked against the metal. “Ah, good. You’re up.” He lifted the pan. “No need for this.”

“You were really going to do the ice bucket?”

He flashed a smile. “I would never joke about training the multimorph. Plus, maybe I wanted to see if ye’d shift into a polar bear or a penguin.” He turned around and marched back down the hall. “Breakfast is ready.”

An hour later, we stood in the middle of the clearing, surrounded by dens all around. I held another stick. This one hadn’t been sanded or polished or fashioned into a fancy weapon like Olivia had used from the wall in their gym.

No, this was a stick… from a tree.

I hefted the small branch up and down. “Your whole clan is into primitive, huh?”

Jasper picked one up from the ground. “Ye can’t always have specially made weapons at hand.”

“True, but I’m a shifter and I thought weapons weren’t the first line of defense.”

“They’re not but being wily means using everything around ye to win. This is a trait of all foxes. Besides, wearing ye out first thing in the morning with another shift wasn’t appealing.”

“I’m ready.” I raised the stick and held it up in the same way Olivia had shown me.

With a loudthwack!he brought the end of his stick down in the center of mine. The branch I held snapped in two, and my hands fell to my sides, still holding the pieces.