Fated By Starlight by Krista Street

Chapter 25

~ WYATT ~

The door closed behind Avery as she exited the room, her retreating lilac scent drifting toward me.

“Well, I can see why you want me training her,” Major Armund said tartly. “If that’s how you treat your new recruits, it’s amazing any of them graduate.”

I hung my head, shame washing through me. I’d fucked up. Majorly fucked up. I hadn’t meant to tear into Avery like that, but it scared me to the depths of my soul to think of someone hurting her.

I couldn’t bear the thought of it, and every instinct inside me demanded that I protect her and keep her safe.

Yet I couldn’t.

Once she left here, she would be on her own, and there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it.

“I’m sorry. You’re right.”

Reese looked between the two of us, then checked his watch. “I gotta do a few things before this afternoon. See you guys later?”

We both nodded.

After the sorcerer left the training room, the silence descended around Dee and me. I knew I should leave, get lunch, then get ready for another afternoon with my recruits, but I didn’t move.

My insides were churning.

Major Armund cocked her head, her brow furrowing. “This isn’t like you, Jamison. Want to fill me in?” She waited, watching me, and from the sharp gleam in her eye—

Shit. She knows. I groaned. Of course she knows. Alpha power had been raging from me ever since I stepped in here.

I locked my jaw, knowing if word got back to Wes that I was acting strange again that I would be out of the SF by the evening.

“Wyatt, come on.” She put her hands on her hips. “How long have we had each other’s backs?”

I sighed heavily and ran my hands roughly over my face. My wolf growled inside me. He’d been in constant agitation ever since we opened the door to see Major Fieldstone manhandling Avery. It didn’t help that I’d had to watch him touch her, even straddle her.

Then I’d been forced to spar with her. I’d had to physically exert my dominant side to go along with it, since my wolf’s instinct was to protect her. Even though it was training, it still went against every fiber of our soul.

“Is it that obvious?” I asked.

She sighed, her expression softening, well as much as Dee softened. “To me, yeah. You’ve got territorial wolf written all over you. I grew up in a pack, remember?”

Shit, shit, shit. “Does Reese suspect too?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so, but he will if you’re not more careful. It’s not normal for a commander to be so aggressive when other men spar with his recruits.” She leaned against the wall, her arms falling to cross casually behind her. “Is it as bad as I think?”

I took a deep breath. “Yeah.”

She gazed at me knowingly. Nothing else needed to be said. She knew.

“Wes can’t know,” I said. “I’ll get kicked out.”

“He won’t hear anything from me.”

I gave her a small smile. “Thanks.”

She just nodded, then reached down to grab the empty water bottles on the floor. I knew if I wanted to talk more, she would listen, but she didn’t need to deal with my crap. She’d done enough by training Avery for so long.

I said goodbye and headed out. The concrete halls surrounded me as I made my way to the exterior doors.

Images of how I’d attacked Bavar for simply sparring with Avery swamped my thoughts. Disgust rolled through me that once again I was behaving in a way that contradicted the code all commanders vowed to uphold in the SF.

He was my friend, yet I’d attacked him.

Outside, the midday sun shone down. But it did little to warm my mood.

One thing I knew for certain, in less than two weeks, Avery would be leaving the SF, and not only was I hopelessly in love with her, but I couldn’t have her, and she still wasn’t ready to face a potentially life-threatening situation.

Everything was a mess, and I had nobody to blame but myself.