“Ares, wake her up.”
I keep my eyes closed and try not to laugh when Lincoln starts trying to order Ares around. I’d felt the car slow a while back and had heard him chatting quietly on the phone, and I was enjoying that place between being asleep and awake, where the world is still peaceful.
“Ares, wake her,” Lincoln tries again, and I risk a peek. Ares could give the most confident person a complex with his ability to completely ignore you.
“He’s trained only to obey my voice. Don’t be offended, he’s simply doing his job,” I say as I lean close to where Ares still sits.
Even without turning the interior car lights on, I can see more of a sparkle in his nearly black eyes. Ares is feeling better, which means I need to run over some ground rules with my travelling companions.
“Hello, baby.” I scratch behind his ears, and he leans into my touch, his eyes squinting. To anyone else it would look like he’s relaxing, and there’s a high chance he is, but he is also working.
“Thanks for letting me sleep,” I say to Lincoln, my voice still sounding croaky. “We all need to talk about Ares, and how you interact with him.”
“We can do that. Gabriel is just grabbing his bags from where he stashed them. Noah and Valak parked over there.” I follow the direction of Lincoln’s finger and see them both waiting.
Lincoln must flash the lights or something because a moment later, they both hop out and start making their way over. I climb out of the back seat and move to let Ares off the car harness and onto his leash, walking in the opposite direction to give him some time to stretch his legs. Plus, he must be busting.
He sniffs a few trees and does his business, giving Gabriel time to rejoin the others, his arms full of bags. He beelined over to my car, putting everything on the backseat before rejoining the others.
It’s impossible not to compare Valak and Gabriel as they stand together. They most certainly are identical twins but Gabriel is wrong, I can already spot the smallest of differences between them. Besides their clothes, Valak stands differently, like he holds himself rigid while Gabriel is more like a fighter; relaxed but ready to strike. And his thick blue reading glasses are a dead giveaway too. Gabriel also doesn’t pretend not to watch me like his brother does. His brown eyes haven’t left me since he realised I was already out of the car, and the smile on his face is so him, full of teasing fun though there’s a pulsing danger that he gives off.
I lead Ares over to them and unclip his leash.
“Ares alert,” I command and walk off, moving fast to behind Noah’s car, but I keep talking as I go. “Ares is a fully trained protection dog and will only accept commands from me. You can try, but I assure you he will not respond. His only purpose is to keep me safe.”
Without looking, I know that Ares is dropping his head down slightly. It’s intimidating to watch because his black eyes would be drilling into the four of them in case one of them moves towards me.
“Gabriel,” I call over to the only one of them that would want to test the theory. You can see it all over his face. “I’m going to use you to show everyone a few lessons you need to see. Take a step out of line.”
And he does without being asked again. His step backward is more pronounced than it needs to be, yet Ares doesn’t move a muscle, but he doesn’t miss the movement either.
“Okay, good looking, you need to do exactly as I say. You deviate an inch, and that’s on you, but this is how much I trust my dog and how careful you need to be. Run at me and don’t stop, but at the same time, have a little faith in me. I promise he won’t hurt you… too much.” I grin at Gabriel, one of those big ones with all my teeth showing, and of course he laughs and accepts my challenge. The noise he makes has that edge of crazy to it, and I already know he’s got a streak of risk in him a mile long.
Without another word, Gabriel spins and runs right at me. I knew Gabriel would be fast, but he is faster than I expected and Ares is on his ass within a second. Ares takes a running leap to close the space between them both, already seeing that Gabriel is aiming at me.
“Ares, stand,” I say quietly, barely above normal talking volume, and the others don’t hear it as they start chasing after Gabriel, and my dog, probably readying themselves to pick up the missing chunks of the alpha. But Ares changes the landing of his jump, and beats Gabriel to me, taking up a defence position, like a wall. He’s barely puffing and hasn’t made a sound. Yet.
“Ares, clear,” I say and barely a second later, he takes a menacing step towards Gabriel and the others. The low rumble that spills from his chest is full of warning. He’s telling them loudly and clearly to back up and give me space. I thought it would be Gabriel that stays in his place, but he takes a step back as his brother takes another step forward. Perhaps he wants to see how Ares works, or to see if Ares can assess different threats.
I click my tongue quietly while Valak takes another step to me and spreads his arms wide, taking a lunge to one side, doubling back to the other and sprinting. I stand stock still and let everyone see what they need. Ares does his job perfectly, and Valak is the one that ends on his back with my dog standing over him. Hardly a second passes.
“Different commands have different meanings, but Ares also understands hand signals and a series of clicks I do with my mouth. If I wanted you injured, you have to know you’d be like the guy in the carpark. Stand down.” Ares responds, spinning around and coming to sit at my feet. I put my hand on his head, and scratch behind his ears. A reward but at the same time it purposely sends mixed signals to those watching. “You do not touch him, you do not try to get him to act for you because quite simply, he won’t. He will also not accept food from you unless I permit it. If you try to mimic any of my commands, he will appear to ignore you, but trust me, he’s about to chew your ass out. I’m telling you this because if we’re travelling and staying together for a little while, you need to be aware. Ares also sleeps in my room; he stands at the door while I use the bathroom. I also have been trained by weapons experts on how to shoot. Gabriel is right, most of my weapons are not available at your regular gun shop, but I am trained and allowed to carry them.” The four of them are listening intently so I keep going. “Please don’t ever mistake that I need rescuing, and really if you do step in and go all alpha on me, I’ll be gone before you even realise I’m missing. I need help, not saving.”
A slow clap breaks the silence. “That was hot as fuck! Where have you been all my life?” Gabriel smirks from where he stands next to Valak who’s still sprawled out on the ground.
I ignore answering him verbally, but he doesn’t miss the deliberate roll of my eyes either. He’s going to be trouble, the good kind of trouble. And more surprising to me, I’m not freaked out by that realisation.
“What about when you go into heat?” Noah asks, eyeing my dog and me like specimens. I had a feeling he would travel down a clinical path, and since I’m clearly an omega, his question isn’t a surprise.
“We have a routine that works for us,” I reply, holding his gaze, not in challenge but at the same time I’m ending the conversation there. “Can you all leave your egos here, because I know a lot of alphas and people have issues with my size and my genetics, but I’ve done okay up to now.”
7
LINCOLN
There is no quake to her voice, hell, there’s hardly any volume to her either. Even her breathing remains slight as she shores up to four alphas. As soon as she finishes speaking, it’s like a serenity takes hold, washing away her spark of aggression and leaving behind a completely different person. It’s like showing us more of her dog brings a sense of relief to her.
The change she brings sweeps through our impromptu car park display and we go from near attack to companionable silence. The only noise now comes from her dog’s steady breathing. Although he too has altered his behaviour to match his owner. His feral, rumbling growls of warning completely gone, instead, it is the solemn stare and occasional rumbles that tell us he’s still ready to leap to her defence, like she promised.
