Page 28 of Rising Reign (The Wolves of Crescent Creek #3)

WREN

The brutal call of one of those party air horns blasted into the soft glow of the rising sun. I jerked upright in bed, the guys all around me doing the same: Puck and Brix on my left, Locke and Kingston on my right, and Ender and Princess on the couch.

Princess hissed at the offender, and I had the urge to do the same.

“What the fuck?” Puck snarled.

“Time to train, Little Vixen,” Rhys announced. “We’ve got lots of work to do.”

“Someone kill him,” Locke muttered, flopping back onto his pillow.

“I’m immortal,” Rhys huffed.

Kingston narrowed his eyes on the vampire. “There are ways.”

And there were. Lore said that an enchanted stake to the heart would do it. Or removing the vampire’s head. Or burning them alive.

Rhys let out a little huff. “You could always try, but do you want the little firecracker to live or not?”

I threw off the covers, making the guys groan. “Nothing like the threat of death to get you going in the morning.”

“I’ll show him a threat of death,” Brix growled as he rose from the bed and prowled toward Rhys.

The vampire simply tapped the side of his head. “Remember who gets the visions.”

Brix kept right on moving. “If we remove his head from his body, think the visions will keep coming?”

“Possible,” Ender said, stretching.

Princess leapt from the couch and stalked over to Rhys. She swiped at his calf and hissed before taking off down the hall.

“Ouch,” Rhys said, bending down to rub his abused leg.

Puck grinned. “At least I’m not the only one she hates.”

The windows to the gym were open, letting in the air that had tipped cooler with the arrival of early fall. I stretched toward one leg, grabbing my shoe.

“At least she’s bendy,” Rhys muttered.

“Stop staring at her cleavage,” Puck griped, then smacked Rhys upside the head.

“Ow,” Rhys said, affronted.

Puck simply arched an eyebrow.

Rhys straightened. “I can’t ignore the fact that she’s beautiful.”

“I could pluck out your eyes,” Brix offered. “That would help.”

Locke snickered. “I’m so glad you haven’t fully lost your edge.”

Rhys’s nose wrinkled as he warily looked at Brix. “I did think that whole feral-demon thing had eased.”

“The psycho twins are still in full effect when they need to be,” Puck assured him.

Kingston crossed his arms over his muscular chest. “Tell us what we’re doing here.”

“I told you,” Rhys began. “Training. But we’re waiting for one more.”

“I’m here, I’m here,” Hera grumbled. She half-stumbled into the gym, wearing pale-green sweats with different types of plants emblazoned on them. Her face was bare, and her strawberry-blond hair was tied up in a haphazard bun.

Rhys studied her. “Not a morning person?”

Hera bared her teeth at him. “You woke me up at five-thirty. In the morning .”

“No rest for the wicked,” Rhys said cheerily.

“Easy for you,” Hera muttered. “Bloodsuckers don’t sleep.”

“You know,” Rhys began, “I could start taking serious offense to that term.”

“Maybe you’ll remember that the next time you try to wake me up before dawn,” Hera snarled.

Rhys held up both hands in surrender. “Touchy, touchy.”

“Why do you need Hera here?” Locke asked. “No offense.”

Hera waved him off. “None taken. I’d much rather be in bed.”

“We’re going to need her magic as the training progresses,” Rhys explained. “But first, I wanted to go over some weaknesses I saw in Wren’s hand-to-hand skills.”

I bared my teeth at him. “What weaknesses?”

Rhys shifted into professional mode. “You drop your guard when you’re thinking about your next attack move. It gives your opponent a chance to get in a blow.”

I thought about the battle with Dent in the alleyway and cursed. The damn vamp was right. It had begun to slip twice, allowing a blow to find purchase. My back teeth ground together. “All right. What else?”

“Your speed is one of your greatest hand-to-hand skills, but you don’t use it to its full potential,” Rhys went on. “You’re good with certain evasions, especially ducking low, but your footwork could be quicker. I’m going to set up some obstacle courses to help with that.”

“Running, yay,” I muttered.

Brix’s lips twitched, and he bent to kiss my head. “I’ll do them with you.”

I looked up at him. “You’re my favorite today.”

“Hey,” Puck protested. “I told you I’d make your favorite breakfast after training.”

I grinned at him. “Maybe you’ll be my favorite later.”

“That’s a little better,” he huffed.

“I want to know what you need Hera for,” Kingston demanded. “You aren’t telling us something.”

Rhys’s focus moved to the Arcane alpha. “After hand-to-hand, we’ll move to Wren’s shifting speed. She needs to work on her quick changes.”

I frowned. Rhys hadn’t seen me shift, so how would he know if they were fast or slow?

“Why?” Kingston ground out.

Rhys was quiet for a moment, but then he spoke. “I had a vision. If we don’t work on Wren’s shifting and empath gifts, she’ll die.”

Each word detonated like a bomb, leaving shrapnel in its wake. It wasn’t just the word die that left a heavy weight in the air, though. It was the word empath . No one but the guys knew what I was or that I had that gift. No one else knew because it put me at risk.

But, somehow, Rhys had found out. And as my mates all circled him, I knew this wouldn’t go over well.