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Chapter 16: Deadly Dozen
Start of Book 2:
It struggled against his hold. It was useless for it to resist him, but he was curious how long it was willing to fight him. It stood feet in front of him snapping its jaws at him, hissing and growling. It was pissed off, it was a good thing, and he was going to need it to be angry for when he finally released it. He chuckled, the deep sounds of his voice made the creature dazed for a second, then it would be back snarling at him. Its mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. Manticores were not an easy type to control, especially one so young and relatively new to its powers. It dropped on all fours, a lion ready to pounce on its prey. From this angle he could see the spikes jutting out of its spine, completely covered in poisons and paralytics. It flexed its claws on the soft dirt below it leaving marks. Dark reddish hairs covered its forearms and neck. They were spiky and sharp. To him, this thing was just an overgrown porcupine. Violently bri
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Royal Chapter 17: Start Over
The scent of the food hit Avery before he was even in the building. It was cheesy, greasy, and full of carbs, everything doctors told people not to eat. It was what made it taste so good. The scent alone made him smile. It had become a familiar scent, a distinction of somewhere he belonged. It had been a while since he had felt that way. He opened the door to the restaurant to find the place flooded with customers, every table was filled. A small group of people stood at the counter eating, lunch time was on. He didn’t have a chance to take it all in before his roommate Mike tossed an apron at him. He caught it and opened it to look over it. It was bright yellow with a small frill at the bottom. It had dark blue on the front of it in the shape of a smiley face. Mike knew how much he hated this apron, it was the only one in the restaurant that wasn’t just plain and black. He wasn’t the only one who hated the apron, it was why no other waiter wore it. He rolled his eyes and made his w
Royal Chapter 18: Spiral Stairs
Training went by quickly for the three of them. Mike was the main focus that night since she had the most pent up angst from her work day. Both Brooks and Avery helped her. She had always been fast, one of the fastest in the Deadly Dozen so stamina was where she focused. The group had several ways to test her on that. Usually just sprinting back and forth in their back yard with the occasional obstacle thrown at her. One of the many things the two hunters missed from living with their families was the constant access to training facilities with endless amounts of training equipment. It was probably one of the major setback to living in Clear Waters, they couldn't train without being seen. They had bought a large plantation style home at the edge of town, their yard was enormous and gave them enough space to train they even had a decent sized river on their property, a few miles away but still on their property. They had to keep it simple when training though, to not attract attentio
Royal Chapter 19: Glowing Eyes
Mike sat quietly across from her brother Rei playing with the piece of chicken on her plate. It had been months since she last saw him. She had not anticipated for their reunion to be awkward and tense. She and Avery had arrived in Chicago early that morning. Roz and Rei were the ones to pick them up at the airport. Their older siblings decided it would be best for them to go out to eat separately. Roz and Avery had gone to a different restaurant.“So,” Her brother began. He had looked forward to seeing his sister but now that she was in front of him he wasn’t sure what to say. She seemed too different. The way she looked, the way she spoke and carried herself. She used to be soft and introverted. Being on her own with Avery and that werewolf made her buoyant, overly confident. She seemed assertive and vapid compared to how he remembered her. He wasn’t fond of the blonde hair either. She used to be his little sister. Cute and calm. Now she looked like
Royal Chapter 20: Braided Crowns
Avery looked himself over in the mirror one last time before stepping out to head towards the viewing room. He had to make sure he looked perfect. He was one of the top five ranked meaning he was basically a judge for the event. But it being a Royal hunting event it meant that he would be judged himself. Being top five meant he and the other four would be secluded into the viewing room above the training arena to oversee everything. Ten hopeful hunters were going to be competing for the three vacant spots in the coveted group of elite young hunters. It was going to be up to the top five to decide who would be the three to join. As usual fashion and expensive things were a must for hunter gathering. Neither he nor Mike spared expenses. He had chosen a floral printed suit. It was a muted floral print, the kind one would see on couches, with a dark charcoal background. The light colors of the flowers suited his dark olive skin. He paired the suit with a pastel pink button down and a ch
Royal Chapter 21: Inappropriate thoughts
Clear Waters without Mike and Avery was pretty boring. Brooks didn’t have anyone to talk to or anything to do. It didn’t help that he didn’t really know anyone else. He had not gone out for a run in the woods since his run in with the local pack. He had asked what the creatures with red eyes were but he didn’t get an answer. Ivy, the pack leader was very secretive. Brooks didn’t blame her, having a new wolf in her territory was bound to put her on edge. Especially knowing that said wolf had brought a siren with him. She was just being cautious. Being alone for a few days was making the wolf go crazy. Werewolves were affectionate tactile creatures, it was why living in pack worked so well for them. Brooks was missing his pack, his weird, completely unnatural pack.The last time he had spoken to Avery they were cut off by Florence. Florence Battaligna. According to Avery, he and Flo had had some sort of fling before he and Brooks met. However after
Royal Chapter 22: Deadly Tower
The second day of the initiation process started out with a surprise for the top five ranked. The council of course waited until everyone had arrived to drop the news on the unsuspecting contestants and judges. The third and final round of eliminations was usually an individual rescue mission in an obstacle course filled with attackers. This year the council, well mostly the Battaligna’s and their supporters decided to change it up.“Five on five, capture the flag obstacle course.” Mr. Bishops announced. The arena lid up behind him to expose what they had set up the night before. It was huge. Avery didn’t remember the training facility being this big now that he looked at it. The arena had been separated into three sections, two of them were very small with the biggest section in the middle. They were separated by ten foot tall climbing walls. Avery figured that each team would start on one of the small sections and make their way into the middle secti
Royal Chapter 23: Jealousy games
Brooks had not spoken to Wren since that morning. It had all been a mistake. He had let himself give into his desires and next thing he knew they both woke up in a tangle of limbs on the office floor. He had done it out of spite. He had done it to get back at Avery, which was worse than just doing it for fun. He felt his heart drop when he saw the message from the siren, his sudden panic was what woke Wren up. She smiled at him when she saw him. He pulled away from her and rushed out of the office to put as much space between them as possible. He felt dirty. He felt disgusted with himself. He felt wrong. Wren followed him through the restaurant as the two put their clothing back on asking what had happened. He felt her distress when he asked her to stay on the other side of the room. He asked her to leave without an explanation. He waited until the beautiful brunette drove away before he left the building himself. It was a chilly morning, he reached for Avery’s cardigan to put
Royal Chapter 24: Cold shoulder
The bar was empty as usual. Only a few people littered throughout the floor. Mostly after work crowd stopping by to de-stress themselves and eat snacks with friends. Avery walked ahead of the other two as they walked past the bar and towards the spiral stairs leading to the pool room. He didn’t stop to look back to make sure the other two weren’t too far out of reach. He always checked on them, he always made sure they were okay. But not that night. He had been cold and distant the entire day. It was unusual for him to not dote on the others, it was in his nature. It was his role in the group, he was the leader, the caretaker. Now he was just their leader. Everything he said to them was an order. Mike did as he asked because she knew that this would all pass. Brooks did what he said because he wanted to fix everything in any way that he could. Ruining things with Avery, he could lose more than just the relationship, he could lose his new home, his new life, his new famil
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