Page 69

Chapter

Forty-Six

TATE

I don’t have to feign shock when Ara comes to formation in the skyrider uniform. She timed it perfectly. Nearly all riders are present, but leadership is still missing.

Holy mists, does she look good in leather armor. The dark gray leather hugs her curves, leaving little to the imagination, and I'm not the only one who can’t keep his eyes off her. I fight the urge to hit a few of my fellow riders, who are undressing her with their eyes.

Her golden hair flows down her back, brushing the curve of her ass, nearly glowing against the contrast of her uniform. She makes my mouth water.

Her hips sway while she sashays up to me, and I have a hard time keeping my gaze locked on her face.

I swallow, trying to cool the fuck down before I spontaneously combust. When she draws closer, I hook my thumbs in my belt in an attempt to keep my hands off her.

“Do you mind if I say a few words before we start?” She smiles at me with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

“Should have seen it coming,” I murmur, allowing my eyes to wander over her once. I bite my lip, fighting the smile that wants to split my face, and shake my head at her, gesturing to go ahead.

She steps in front of me, facing our division.

The rustling around us tells me she has the attention of the whole Aerie, but that doesn’t seem to bother her.

My fingers itch with the urge to pull her into my chest, to claim her publicly as mine.

But even though she spent the night in my bed, we haven’t even talked about that yet.

“Hey, everyone. I’m Ara. You knew me as Grayson before, and I thought I’d save you and myself the repetitive questions.

I hid between you guys because it was easier to go unnoticed that way.

My family didn’t want me to join the skyriders, and dressing as a man seemed the most practical way to keep them out of my hair until they couldn’t stop me anymore.

” She smiles, letting her eyes wander over to her squadron, her flight.

“Some of you have become very good friends, and I just wanted to say I’m still me.

I just have a different cover, and I’m sorry for deceiving you. ”

“Damn, Gray, you want to tell us we had…” Calix swept his gaze appreciatively up and down her body. “All of that under us while training on the mat and didn’t know?” He whistles. “That’s fucking cruel, girl.” I debated whether to kick his ass as an example, but I shouldn’t have worried.

“Well, at least I can tell you now that your moves have room for improvement.” Ara smirks, and everyone laughs. Calix clutches his chest theatrically as if she wounded him, but then his face splits into a smile.

She turns to me, and her smoldering look lets me know I’m not the only one fighting for control here. She winks, turns, and walks to her place in formation. There is a beat of silence before the whispers start. Many eyes are glued to her on her way back.

I don’t know what Blackstone said to Legatus Janus, but while he welcomes the new riders in our ranks and even singles Ara out for being the first Phoenix rider in decades, he doesn’t mention her lying about her identity.

I slowly relax. Not that I thought they would execute her while being bonded to a phoenix but I feared repercussions nonetheless.

“I guess it does pay off having brothers in high positions, huh?” Jared nudges me while we make our way to the strategy meeting.

I raise an eyebrow at him. “At least if you know how to wrap them around your finger. You have to work on that second part, you know. It would make your life much easier.”

“I’m not so sure about that. The easier part, I mean.”

“It works for Ara. Granted, you are lacking a few assets, very fine assets…”

“Jared,” I warn.

“What? I’m only saying that she has a very fine—”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” I growl.

“Alright, alright, relax.” He laughs, clearly enjoying winding me up. And I only now realize how effective those implications are concerning my…concerning Ara.

Ara sits only a few rows in front of us during the strategy meeting, joking and laughing with Mariel and Calix next to her. She bumps into Calix, her hair trailing over his arm that rests on the back of her chair. My fingers itch with the need to touch her.

I reach for her with my magic. A tendril of air slides up the side of her neck, then caresses her cheek. She shudders, and I suppress a grin when she shoots me a quick look over her shoulder.

“ Claim her as yours and be done with it,” Daeva grumbles in my head, and damn do I want to follow her advice.

“ We haven’t talked about it.”

“ Then talk to her. This is insufferable,” she snaps.

I have to agree.Right now, I’m even jealous of the air I command, since it gets to touch her while I can’t.

She is mine, and I want everyone to know it.

Jared looks over at Ara and her friends and then at my twitching fingers.

“Relax, she kissed you in front of her brother,” he says. “And she didn’t take me up on my offer either, so it wasn’t only to piss him off.”

I grin at the memory.

The hours pass in what has to be the slowest countdown in history. I don’t even have the chance to get my hands on her under the pretense of sparring because the freshly bonded riders spend the whole day with their birds.

Ara

“I shouldn’t have left you.” Calix shakes his head, looking guilty. Mariel nods.

“That is absurd, don’t you dare feel guilty about that.” I glare at both of them. I used dinner to quiz them about what happened during Picking, but neither knows anything about an attack.

“The way you looked, when Kyronos rushed you out of there…” Calix shakes his head again.

“We were so worried. Cassius was pacing the common room like a madman while you were in the healing quarters.” Mariel raises her eyebrows. “Anything you want to tell us there?” she teases.

I groan. “He is my twin’s best friend, and we grew up together, nothing more.” I shake my head at her.

“Wait, you have a twin brother?” Mariel perks up. “Do you look alike? Why do I only now hear about that?”

I laugh. “Oh, you would love Ben. But I told you I had four brothers.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t answer my question. Does he look like you?”

“Ben is me in taller, broader, and male,” I smirk, and Mariel’s grin widens.

Calix groans. “Now you’ve done it. Mariel, he is infantry. You wouldn’t go for an infantry guy, right?”

I laugh at my friends while they start bickering. I feel the lightest I have in a long time. I don’t have to pretend to be Grayson anymore, my family knows where I am, and I’m still here, I’m alive and bonded, and then there is Tate. Life is pretty damn good right now.

I’m still joking with Mariel and Calix, and we are on our way out of the refectory when Tate strides over to us.

A thrill shoots through my body when our eyes meet.

His gaze falls to my shoulder, and I’m suddenly aware of the arm Calix has thrown over Mariel and me.

Tate’s face is stoic, but his eyes narrow the slightest bit.

I can’t even blame him. If a girl had her hands on him, I would go ballistic.

I shrug Calix's arm off and take a step toward Tate, unsure how to approach him. Despite sleeping in his bed last night, we haven’t talked about this.

“Summer, follow me.” Tate’s voice is cool and clipped, but there is fire in his eyes.

“Sure.” I smile at him while my gut twists in a mix of need and nerves. I tell my friends I’ll see them later while Tate turns around and strides down the hallway without looking back.

Okay then.

I hurry after him, but my steps falter when his voice suddenly caresses my ear.

“You better hurry up, sunshine, because otherwise, I can’t guarantee anything.”

My eyes fly up and meet his where he stands at the end of the hallway, cool as the Ice Coast, watching me with a nearly imperceptible smile on his lips.

Heat explodes in my core, and his eyes glint with a mix of humor and male satisfaction, when my steps quicken. He knows exactly what he’s doing to me.

“I’ll be gone for the next…hours,” I tell Solaris while I’m hurrying down the corridor next to Tate. The Phoenix makes a sound resembling a snort.

“I’ll leave you alone,” he tells me, and the veil between us thickens until it’s a smooth wall. He shut me out. Perfect.

Tate opens a door to our right, pulling me into it, and I barely have time to register that we are in the same storage room Joel pulled me into all those weeks ago before the door locks behind me.

Then all I notice is Tate.

His body presses into mine, pushing me back against the door.

His hand cradles my head before it can collide with the wooden surface.

His lips are on mine, before the surprised “umpf” fully left my mouth, and holy mists, his mouth.

His kiss is demanding, possessive, and so unbelievably sexual I’m igniting like a Phoenix.

I drown in sensations: the hard planes of his body pressing into me, his lips on mine, his hand in my hair, the soft rasp of his calloused fingers on my skin, his scent, his taste, his magic curling all around us. My senses are flooded by him, and I want more.

“Sunshine,” he groans when we both come up for air, panting.

“You are driving me fucking insane. Do you have any idea how hard it was to keep my fingers to myself today? Whenever you are in the room, I can’t look away, and just thinking of being close to you has me instantly hard.

” He lets his brow rest against mine. “Watching you walk around in this uniform and, even worse, your hair trailing over Ilario’s skin instead of mine… I…Fuck, I need you.”