King Hall (Forever Evermore, #1)(93)

His scowl intensified, his eyes rocking in her direction, and he grumbled, “You think I’m a man-whore, too?”

Immediate. “No. I don’t.” A short pause, then she whispered, “But, I do think you fill your bed to forget.”

Silence.

His jaw clenched.

Damn, I hadn’t even had the balls to say that.

Gideon cleared his throat loudly. “Who wants to finish watching the movie?”

Quickly, Nikki stated, “Let’s put the other one in. It’s a comedy.” She busied herself doing just that, talking a mile a minute with her soft voice to fill the strained hush.

Ezra turned his head away from the television and shut his eyes, the action so desolate, hiding his face like that.

My heart swelled even further for him, knowing the obvious pain he tried to hide.

His hand had slacked in my hair, and I moved up, placing a gentle kiss against the corner of his mouth. His eyes opened, and I saw his pain there as he stared back. It was deep. So much more profound than he let on, keeping it tucked away much better than I fared.

His lids drooped closed, and he murmured, “Shift. I’ll scratch your ears.”

Shaking my head, I kissed his temple this time, whispering, “No. I think I’ll pet you instead.” I did just that, running my fingers through his spiked hair until he fell asleep.





Chapter Nineteen


Awakening.

If I had thought I was nervous before in the past four weeks, well, that was a joke.

Today, I had actually barfed three times throughout the first half of the day. With my stomach in knots, I had only stared at my pizza at lunch. Now, my friends were, literally, yanking me down the deserted hallways after failing to talk me into moving from the cafeteria bench when lunch was over.

“I’m gonna puke again,” I mumbled, jerking with the tug Pearl gave my left arm.

“Again, huh?” Jack murmured, hands on my hips, shoving me from behind. “I thought she looked pale.”

“Pale?” Ezra snorted, yanking on my right arm. “She looks like shit. The Kings are going to notice.”

“I should run now,” I mumbled, trying to plant my feet, which didn’t work because Jack kicked the back of my knees, making me move forward. “Really. I should just go before I get anyone in trouble.”

Pearl jerked my chin around. “They’ll catch you if they think you’re just trying to skip out on being Queen.”

I blinked, my feet stumbling forward with their insistent hauling. “Are you saying they won’t catch me if they think I’m running because of something else?”

“There’s a real possibility of that.” She nodded. “They’ve gotten to know you. You’re someone to them now, not just a type.”

Ezra rumbled, “They’d at least give her a head start before they let the hounds loose.”

I whimpered, attempting to plant my feet again.

Ezra was done with this. He sighed heavily and moved too fast. The next second, I was over his shoulder with my stomach firmly planted against his shoulder, my head and arms dangling over his back.

Jack and Pearl were both left blinking as he marched down the hallway.

He swatted my butt when I started squirming. “You’re going. Hold still and try not to puke on me.” The puking thing was a real possibility upside down like this. He smacked my butt again. Harder. “That’s for being a *.”

Jack and Pearl caught up with us as he stalked toward the gym, where the Kings waited.

With four Mys, one of each faction, ready to be Awakened.


The first four days of the week had mainly been used to train us…to keep a blank face.

Seriously.

The Kings had pretty much done everything possible, magically, or not so magically, to get us to crack and show emotion. It was very important not to show any type of reaction to someone’s power level — no hurt feelings — after their Awakening, which was damn ironic with the way they had reacted at mine.

But, I was “unique”. How special.

Also, I had been given a book to study in my off time. It was a book on Earth’s animals worldwide. A Shifter’s Awakening could result in any animal that was a bird or mammal as long as its primary habitat was land based, so I was required to know what they were in case there was ever any question.

We had also been educated on the reasons why an Awakening wouldn’t work. Mainly, pregnancy for a Shifter woman. The reason for the overabundance of abstinence talks in my sex education class last year, even though Mrs. Fowler had still harped about it this year.

A possible pregnancy was a perfect example of the necessity for a blank face as a Shifter male tested a Shifter woman for pregnancy. I would never forget the stories the Kings had told us about multiple males — only the father of the baby knows by scent — being called for one female when the Shifter had been a smidge too promiscuous. In other words, forget blood tests. It takes too much of our precious time, so instead, we do it by good ol’ fashioned scent if the pregnancy wasn’t apparent, with no compunction for the embarrassed woman and man or men. In my opinion, Shifters got the bum end of the deal for Awakenings compared to any other Mys faction.

There was one other reason a Mys might not be able to go through an Awakening: if they were just too weak. I had never heard of this, and the Kings emphasized that in their entire reign they had only come across it three times. Ostensibly, there was no rhyme or reason for it. The explanation they had given was a comparison to the Com’s infant mortality rate. Sometimes, nature just grabs hold and takes innocents.