❝ Heavy is the head that wears the crown ❞
Emily Grimm is a seventeen-year-old high school student. She is surly and stoic, unhappy with everything. At the beginning of senior year, she finds out that she is not human but part of a race of extinct...
She kicked out, the wolf flipped over her head with an impressive amount of force. He hit the trunk of a tree, hard enough to splinter the bark. The wolf let out a sharp yelp of pain and lay still.
"Oh hell,"
The wolf stared at her out of the side of his eye, as he struggled to breathe. His chest rose and fell with quick, pained movements.
"Damn you. This is your own fault or Sable's,"
She picked up the large Timberwolf, with as much effort as if he were a child. The wolf's uncanny icy-blue eyes locked onto hers, they were narrowed with pain. He whimpered as she draped the large animal over her shoulders, and continued down the trail.
***
Sable came out of the cabin and towards the campfire. Emily watched her out of the corner of her eye. The shifter who was her so-called mentor was temperamental at the best of times. Now was not one of those times. Sable was no stranger to hands-on chastisements, especially since most of her hunter healed fast. Emily was among them now, as her powers grew she healed faster and faster. However, as she became stronger, she was pushed to do more dangerous things by Sable and her team of huntresses. Now it was doing collab training with Grayson's team of hyper-macho dicks. She was beginning to regret asking to learn from the hunters.
Sable sat down across the fire and looked at her through the flickering flames. The light caught her green eyes and reflected back with predatory light.
"Is he going to be okay?" Emily asked.
Sable glared and opened her mouth to answer as Grayson approached her and spoke into her ear. She pursed her lips and walked back to the large wooden structure they called the cabin or base camp.
"Hey," Grayson said.
His voice was soft and resigned, which was his default state: frustrated with everything she did. She resisted the urge to sigh herself. It was getting tiring that all the problems always had to be her fault. She tried to smile but it felt like her muscles resisted the action. Emily felt exhausted, smelled like wet fur -- all she wanted to do was sleep and let today end. No, what she really wanted was for Grayson to stop looking at her with that strange mix of pity and worry.
"How's your guy?" She asked.
"Cam is going to be fine. He wouldn't shift back for a while. He was in too much pain but once we got him to shift back to human the healing began, he'll be fine by tomorrow," Grayson said.
"It takes that long for a few ribs?"
"You pretty much crushed his left side,"
Emily winced and looked up at Grayson. His face was drawn and pensive, it made him appear much older, and not like the high school jock she knew him as. He was a caring leader, even though his team of hunters comprised of meat-headed losers, who she clashed with every time they met up.
"Uh, my bad... He caught me off guard. I wasn't trying to... I used too much force. Sable didn't tell me I'd be fighting anyone," Emily said.
Grayson shrugged, his aqua eyes fixed on the fire.
"Come on, you don't think I did it on purpose?"
"How long are you going to make excuses? The whole point of you being here is to learn self-control, but you constantly fall back on the fact that you don't know your own strength. That's wearing thin," he said.
"Fuck you, Gallagher. I am here because my alternative is a slow and painful death at the crusty hands of the vampire council. I'm not here to play buddy-buddy with your team of testosterone-fueled assholes. He shouldn't have come at me--I'm not obliged to play nice," she said.
Grayson's eyes narrowed at her words but he remained silent. His turquoise eyes, bright in the firelight, were impassive like the rest of him. He sighed and leaned back into his seat. She hated when he did that, just went quiet on her in the middle of an argument. Whatever, she knew she was in the right. Cameron had come at her viciously and she had reacted. There was a reason she only sparred with Sable or Grayson, she was too strong. Sable was always testing her limits, pushing her further, she hadn't had to hold back in a fight before.
"The whole exercise was bullshit. It was like asking me to swat a fly without smashing it." Emily said softly.
"Well thanks to you my team is down one, you'll be taking his place starting tonight," Grayson said.
"No, no way I'm doing that,"
"You don't have a choice. The council told Sebastian to have this nest of rogues handled tonight. Unless you want to go and tell Sebastian why my team can't operate because of you... I'm sure the council would love that."
Emily cursed and kicked her boot into the dirt.
"Get ready, you kinda stink-- we leave in an hour,"
"Yeah, I smell like your fucking dog,"
"Would you stop calling him that, you know it pisses him off,"
"It's not my fault that's all he can shift into," she quipped.
She pushed herself up and began towards the house, she really could use a shower. She walked backward keeping an eye on Grayson, as she undid the buttons on her oversized shirt. His eyes were locked on her-- they always were. Teasing him was the only fun she could have these days. What had her life become?
"You live for chaos-- do you ever even think to work with people, instead of against them?" he said.
Even at this distance, she could hear him as clearly as if she was still sitting next to him; see each freckle on across his nose-- even catch his scent which was tinged with equal parts frustration and arousal.
"Where's the fun in that?" she said, her eyes lit up as a vicious grin spread across her full lips.
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