I look up, calculate the distance needed and then say, “Can I stand on your shoulders?”
There’s a sharp huff of breath that puffs over the top of my head, but then he’s crouching down, with his back braced on the pole, me facing it. Using the pole for balance, I clamber up, onefoot on either side of his head. His big hands circle my ankles, holding me as steady as he can as he carefully slowly stands up.
“What are you doing, mate?” I hear Courtland call over to us, sounding concerned. For me or his packmate I can’t be certain.
“Do not fall, Florence,” Thayer growls up at me, instead of answering him.
“I won’t,” I reassure him. And I won’t. I might not be a dancer anymore, but I’m still strong. Still have excellent balance. Still remember what it’s like to put my trust and wellbeing in my partner.
When he’s fully standing, I stretch to reach the bag. My fingers brush the bottom of it. But I can’t get a good hold on it. I push up to my toes. Thayer grunts. “Still okay?” I call down to him.
“Yes. But please hurry, Ren. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
On my toes I can grip the bag, but I can’t unhook it from the pole.
Fuck.
“Hey, Thayer?” He grunts, but he’s steady as a rock under my feet. “You familiar with cheerleading at all?”
Another grunt that I take to mean yes. “Great. You know that move where a girl stands on the guy’s palms and his arms are straight up?” I think it’s literally called in the hand, but I’m not sure that’s going to help. “We’re going to need to do that. Just for a few seconds. Can you manage?”
He huffs like he’s insulted that I think he might not be. “Ready?”
“Yes.”
A second later, he’s all but thrown me in the air with his impressive strength, and I’m balancing on his palms as he straightens his arms. It gives me more than the extra inches I need and a second later I’m unhooking the canvas sack. Whichis a good thing, since my knee chooses that moment to give out. And then I’m falling, and someone screams, maybe me? But then warm strong arms are wrapped around me, cradling me against a broad chest for the second time today.
“Thanks again, professor.” I beam up at him. He scowls back. I pat his chest, hugging the burlap sack to my stomach. “We should get going.”
He scowls more and then he’s moving, carrying me as he all but barks at the rest of our team to keep up.
“I can walk you know,” I say as he sprints toward the gate, the final part of the physical challenges.
“But can you run?”
Ouch.I frown. Here I’d thought I was doing a fairly good job of masking my discomfort, but apparently not. Or maybe he felt the way my knee gave up the ghost. That’s more likely.
Not able to contradict him, I settle against his chest as he sprints carrying my weight like its nothing.
We reach the gate ahead of the other teams. A glance over my shoulder shows they gave up on moving all the barrels and followed my example. The alphas lifting one of the smaller omegas on their team to get the puzzle pieces.
I watch as there’s a scuffle between Isadora and Gwen over who is going to be lifted by the prince. Isadora wins naturally. She lets out a delighted squeal when he catches her in his arms, but unlike Thayer he sets her on her feet right after, and they rush toward their gate, three canvas bags in tow.
The alpha carrying me sets me down carefully, hands gripping my hips to ensure I’m steady, while eyeing the barrier. Odette and Joan give me some serious stink eye, gazes lingering on the wide palms framing me, still holding me in place.
I’m not even sure he realizes he’s doing it, his brain focused on the next obstacle. I step away from him, his palms scrape over my yoga pants before falling away, and I swear I see his fingersflex in an obscene gesture that brings to mind Mr. Darcy and makes my already weak knee a little weaker.
A squeal from one of the omegas on another team pulls be back to the task at hand. The barrier is simple enough, just a fake bamboo gate, with pillars on either side. On each pillar there’s a touch screen with four empty boxes on it.
He frowns. “It must need some kind of code.” He looks at the rest of us. “Look around to see if you can find any clues.”
Petal and I glance at each other, exchanging knowing smiles. Without a word we each move to one of the screens. “I have one through four,” she calls over to me.
I nod. “And I have five through eight.”
“I start with yellow air, right?”
I call back with the affirmative, already typing my symbols into the screen. I frown when I hit the enter code and the screen flashes red. “It didn’t work,” I call to Petal, who makes a sound of agreement. We step away from the screens, converging together. “Maybe it’s what side the signs were on?”
