Page 1 of Ascendant King

Chapter

One

The wooden walls came alive with magic. Tattoos covered every single surface, the dark lines of them branding the wood.

I grunted, sprinting for the one safe spot in the enormous, empty room.

As I slid under the table, even that began to glow, a long braid of tattoo dropping down, pinning my arm to the ground. It coiled, then began crawling up, until it reached my head. When it hissed into my ear, I realized it wasn’t a tattoo at all but Basil in his inky form.

Do you think either of us is going to let you get away with it?His tongue flicked against my ear.

I glanced at him, then smirked, reaching up and peeling him off my skin. The sentient magic came loose, and he hissed, wrapping himself around my wrists, but I was faster.

“Too slow, Basil.”

Flipping his tail around the table leg, I pulled it tight, leaving him tied there.

“Wrong.” Cade blazed in the center of the room, his hands open, fingers spread. He grinned fiercely. His blue eyes flared, two supernovas in the dark.

The room went silent, except for my panting breath. Cade raised one of his hands, a tsunami of ink peeling off the walls, headed straight for me.

I didn’t wait.

My shift came instantly, my bones cracking, skin growing fur, my entire body different by the time I slid low, coming close to him, ducking under the wave of magic. It singed my fur, taking off enough that I could smell the burning in my nostrils. Under my feet, the ground shivered and shook, and I didn’t need to turn to look to see there was a crater where the center of the room used to be.

My teeth grabbed hold of Cade’s pants, yanking on the leg so hard that he went down, his head hitting the wooden floor with a resounding crack. He hissed, sounding not unlike Basil for a moment. I was above him, my mouth open, a long drip of spittle landing on his neck.

He winced away, glaring up at me. I felt something tighten around my throat, wrapping twice before it began to burn.

Yelping, I fell back, trying to paw at whatever it was. But it was hard for me to hold on to magic in my wolf form. I could grip it with my teeth, but I needed my hands to tear it loose from my skin.

Shifting into my human form, I pulled the magic from around my neck. It burned like acid, taking pieces of skin with it. When I threw it to the side, it landed with a splat, my blood wet on the polished floor.

I could feel blood dripping down my chest, covering the bramble of Cade’s tattoos still on my skin. Panting, I grinned at him. “I got you.”

“Your pronouns are wrong.Igotyou.” Cade walked to the side of the room, picking up a gym towel and drying his face.

I took it as success that he was winded because I was panting so hard the air felt like glass dragging into my lungs.

“I could have ripped your throat out before you even touched me.” I winced, the skin at my neck raw. It was still bleeding, but not as heavily.

I needed to shift, but I glanced at Cade first. He wasn’t even looking at me, drinking from one of the water bottles we had left off the practice field. Swallowing, I shifted quickly, feeling the pop of my bones, the stretch of my skin.

Everything in my head went quiet as a wolf, my mind blank.

Cade still smelled like mate, despite the hatred when he glanced at me. I wanted to whine, rub my face against his hip, force him down to the ground with me so that I could rub my scent all over him.

Instead, I settled onto my stomach, watching as he dried his skin with the towel, then dropped it. When I no longer felt the uncomfortable burn of skin knitting together, I pushed myself up to standing and shifted back into my human form.

“It’s tonight?” Cade asked, not even looking at me as I approached.

The collar of his shirt hung slightly loose, and I could see the layers of ink covering his throat. When he glanced at me, he seemed to catch what I was looking at and reached up, buttoning the high-necked mage shirt closed.

I looked down, picking up my bottle of water and drinking from it. For a second, I struggled to speak in human words. Part of me was still a wolf, still growling, still ready for a fight.

I needed cuddling, the pressure of flesh on flesh. I needed Cade to wrap himself around me until the two of us smelled the same and everyone knew what we were to each other.

Cade glanced at me, the fire in his eyes burning away any hope that he would welcome my touch outside of a training fight.