“Balls bigger than brains,” Matt chuffed, glancing back.
I followed his gaze. The Firelizard Dires had fallen back among an onrushing sea of gleaming gold and bronze eyes. Focused, but not on the path ahead.
I shivered. Suddenly, I felt as though I was being hunted. I blamed my overactive imagination. But when I glanced over to Matt, his face was rigid, and his eyes hadn’t settled back to human.
“Let’s…pick it up,” he said.
Instead of answering, I did so. We were about halfway around the lake now. My body was moving easily, even with the extra weight I carried.
A howl rose behind us, and others took up the chorus. My pulse pounded with worry. The sound was too intense to be joyful. I glanced back again. The Dires were closing the gap, and I didn’t think it was my imagination that they were focused on me.
I transferred my gaze to Matt. His brows were low, his eyes gleaming out from beneath their shadow. When he lengthened his stride, Talakai and I went with him.
“We can outpace them,” Talakai panted, his voice quite clear despite his exertion. “They are too accustomed to being beasts.”
Matt shot him a look, and then nodded. I wondered why outpacing them mattered—surely our instructor wouldn’t put up with... What? Why did I feel hunted during a group run inbroad daylight? But if I was honest, I wasn’t keen on letting them catch us, either.
I looked to where Darius and Aaron had passed Team Manticore, and were now running behind Sebastian. There were five Dires in Manticore. Their lone Cryptid hybrid ran at the rear of their team, but his legs wobbled ominously. With still over a mile to go, he was almost done.
I glanced back again. Those behind us hadn’t gained any more ground, and, in fact, quite a few had fallen back. Their expressions shriekedfrustration, but Talakai was right. They were too accustomed to running on four legs rather than two.
We caught up to Team Manticore. The Dires now formed a solid wall of panting male muscle. Irritated, I ran right up on their heels.
“Move,” I breathed sharply.
“Run with us,” the Dire on my left wheezed, shooting me a gleam of bronze beast eye.
“Let us by,” I panted. It was getting increasingly difficult to speak.
The Dire simply ignored me, until Talakai forged ahead to push him away, and Matt did the same on my other side.
Dire eyes gleamed on each side of me as we passed by. I did my best to ignore them, keeping my focus on Sebastian.
The Bellati’s upper body barely moved as his long strides ate up the ground. Braided steel-gray hair was tied back from his face, the ends swaying back and forth to his waist. He seemed totally focused on the path ahead. How aware was he of the rest of us?
I had the reserves to catch him.
We emerged out of the forest and back to the meadow. Behind Sebastian ran Darius and Aaron. Aaron trailed his alpha by a few feet and wobbled as he ran. He was done.
The beta Dire growled as we moved up on him. “No bitch passes me,” he wheezed.
I took a deep breath. “Just watch,” I said as I pushed ahead, my eyes fastened on Sebastian.
As we came up behind Darius, the alpha’s breathing wheezed. What did he hope to prove by this? Sebastian had made it clear we were racing ourselves, not each other.
Should I ask myself the same question? Because here I was, doing the same damned thing. Was I really that competitive?
I had no idea.
We approached Darius as a unit. Matt pushed into my shoulder, placing himself between Darius and me. The alpha snarled as he bumped hard into Matt.
“Don’t pass,” he hissed, and then the alpha energy swept over us.
For the first time, Matt’s stride broke. He growled in denial, but it dropped him back from us, leaving me running alongside Darius.
He wasn’t the only one affected—a ripple ran through every Dire in the group. The run dissolved as students slowed down. From behind me, Matt’s desperate snarl cut off as Aaron flung his tired body to tackle him. Chaos erupted as they went at each other.
Rage swept through me, and something undefinable came with it, an energy that restored my breathing, flowed into my words, and deepened my voice. I focused on the cause and glared at the alpha. “Back the fuck off…Darius.”
