Page 50 of The Stone Initiation
SELAS
“You shouldn’t have let him do that,” Orix says.
Let him? “When do we everletSerath do anything?”
“The new cuff works,” Willowman says. “The Yarrow siblings channeled into it too. He won’t lose control and claim her.”
Willowman might as well be an elite. He spends so much time in the tower that he might as well live here. He’s our go-to guy when we need help recharging our psychic shields. The man is an enigma, and we’ve learned not to probe into his past too much.
It’s enough that his power is on our side.
“He needs this,” Prasan says from his spot by the computers. “It’s closure not just for him, but for her too.”
“A halfblood… It makes no sense,” Orix says.
I don’t have to look to know that he’ll be sprawled across one of the armchairs. It’s his hangout spot when we come up here to meet.
“It makes sense to the cosmos.” The moon is an almost full disk in the shadowy expanse of my vision. I can see the forests and mountains beyond the wall as clearly as if it were day, not with my eyes, but with the schematic my mind has captured from my many flights. My sight was taken, but the powers-that-be blessed me with a sonic awareness, a new way to see, and in some ways it’s truer than any picture I could ever have seen with my eyes.
It's a deeper seeing, one that investigates a person’s heart and feels what they feel. Serath has been broken and torn in the past, but he’s always healed and come back stronger. Not being able to claim his mate will be a test of his will and his belief. I suspect that this female has the potential to either be his salvation or his ultimate undoing.
Only time will tell.
But we must let the cards fall where they may.
Another face fills my mind, sandy-haired, bruised, and bloody, but still beautiful in the planes and lines that make it up. He carriedherfloral scent, yes, buthiswas stronger, reaching for me in waves.
I’m dead, aren’t I?His words, said with awe when he looked at me. A smile tugs at my lips. I wonder if he’ll make initiate. I shut down the thoughts. Alpha females rarely find mates, and if we do, they often leave us for omegas. We don’t have fated mates like male alphas, and as far as I know, no alpha female has ever been another alpha’s fated mate. We are born for war, and we take our pleasure when and where we wish. Maybe I’ll take it with the sandy-haired cadet…
“Selas, are you even listening?” Orix asks.
“No. I was daydreaming.”
He huffs in exasperation. “I have a meeting tonight so I can’t be on hand to babysit.”
“By meeting you mean a sex date, right?” Prasan says. “I just want to make sure we’re on the same page here.”
I turn away from the window. “Isn’t that the third this week?”
“Are you keeping track?” There’s a smile in Orix’s voice.
He thinks I’m jealous. We fucked once. It was stress relief. He likes to think it was more. Typical, after all, what has he got to lose? “Yes, I keep track. It’s my job to keep track of you. All of you. But right now, Serath needs us, so cancel your plans. As soon as he gets back, we’re heading out on patrol.”
“Reports of a werewolf den in Night Town,” Prasan says. “Three locals have gone missing. Human law enforcement called it in.”
“What about the local hunter unit?” Willowman asks.
“Not responding,” Prasan said.
“This is a job for general forces,” Orix says.
“Which is why we’re cleared to do it,” Prasan says with a shrug.
We’re a frontline team. One of the strongest forces that the Stone Council have against the graynites. Our five bloodlines are bound to create one fist of power, but we’re a finger short.
With Romi gone, we’re weakened and the next Basque in line is just a child, so for now, we’re stuck here at the academy. Unable to go to the outer sectors and patrol like we usually do. For all we know the graynite threat could be growing to take advantage of our inactivity.
I can’t just sit here and do nothing.
