Wild and Out of Control

|chapter twenty one|

"The most worrisome sight for any instructor is most definitely when powers backfires. We lost nine cadets my first year to signets that could not be controlled from their first manifestation. Pity."

- MAJOR AFRENDA'S GUIDE TO THE RIDERS QUADRANT (UNAUTHORIZED EDITION)

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|xaden|

This was not what I had planned when I needed a smoke to deal with Sgaeyl's and Azare's escapades. This was not it.

     I watch Danica's retreating form as she walks back through the door to the stairway, my throat flexing as she slips from my sight. The cold air brushes my heated skin, but I don't care, not when something she said bothered me.

     I knew that was coming. But at least it got some of the edge off.

     I clench my fist—the one that has her wetness all over my fingers which doesn't help me at all—knowing exactly what she meant by that statement. She's going to find someone else to get the rest of her edge off.  Find someone else to get her off. Someone else touching her. 

     That's not going to happen.

     My steps are quick as I take the stairs two at a time, stopping at her floor. The hall is empty, or almost empty. Danica is standing in front of one of the doors in the dormitory. Not hers—Liam's. That's not fucking happening. I'm there before she can even raise her fist to knock on the wood, pulling her back until she is plastered against my chest. Her gasp of breath lifts the corner of my mouth before I remember what the fuck she was doing.

     Holding her by the wrist, I pull her back until she's in front of her room, open the door, and push her inside it. She stares up at me, opens her mouth, closes it, then opens it again. "What the hell are you doing, Riorson?"

     My jaw clenches as she reverts back to Riorson. "I think the question is what the hell are you doing?"

     Her nose flares, a storm gathering in those green eyes of hers. "It shouldn't matter to you. You're the one that stopped this." She waves her hand between us. "Look, I'm not one of those girls who will beg someone to fuck them after they stated they didn't want to. Clearly, you don't, but someone else might."

     Not even close to the truth, but she doesn't need to know that. "And you thought Liam might want to?" I'll take him off the job if he did, and give him the same beating I gave Bodhi for laying his hands on her. He might not have known it was her at the time, but it doesn't change anything. Good thing the fucker had a hard face.

     "I don't know." She throws her arms in the air. "Maybe I'll go to R—" She pauses, catching her words before revealing the name of a rider who will have an unfortunate meeting with my fists. "Look, you should go."

     She's kicking me out now? I don't think so.

     "No," I say, sidestepping her as she tries to push me out the door. "You're only feeling this way because Azare's feeling this way." I look at the wall as I rub the back of my neck. "Look, what happened tonight shouldn't have happened. I shouldn't have taken advantage of you."

     "Is that what you think?" Danica's hand grabs my chin to make me face her, but her touch isn't gentle. "You didn't take advantage of anything. You don't think I didn't know about Azare channeling his powers and his feelings? I know to shield against him...it just took me some time. And what we did was...was..."