Compounding Traumas (Artemis University Book 6)

by Erin R Flynn

  I smiled when we finished, knowing the answer. I communicated it with Chief, and I could feel his and the pack’s amusement, glad they agreed with me. I thanked them for their help and opened a portal to bring Keya back.

  “What amused the dogs so much at the end?” she asked once we were safely in the office again.

  I smiled at her. “After we get the hobgoblins out today, I told them to hunt some natural hawks or birds and let the shifters see them drop them off. Dead. Or eat them in front of them. People will talk on that and assume the fae dogs are helping hobgoblins escape.”

  “Which will have them tell us where the fae dogs are so we get them out, not wanting to admit to that publicly,” she surmised, her tone amused.

  “That, or people will be stupid and take shots at the fae dogs and end up dead,” I purred. “I like either ending if I’m honest. People who abuse hobgoblins and are willing to kill fair folk to keep our people as slaves deserve death.”

  “You won’t get any argument from us, Tamsin.” She let out a happy sigh. “That was some needed excitement. I look forward to our next mission.”

  I threw back my head and laughed. “So do I. I’ll come right after my run, and we’ll meet up with the pack. It’s good cover before Izzy wakes up.”

  She frowned. “People don’t know?”

  I rolled my eyes at her. “You think they’d let me do something so simple without several guards? We’d lose the alibis, and everything else we need, so people don’t get in trouble.”

  “That’s true, but promise me you’ll be safe.”

  “I swear it to you,” I said firmly. “I know my importance in saving Faerie. I won’t fail. I simply can’t keep pushing off the fair folk anymore.”

  “Of course you can’t,” she sighed. “Off with you then.”

  “Yes, dear.” I leaned in and kissed her head to show there were no hard feelings and then opened a portal back to my closet. Izzy was still sleeping when I headed for the shower, so it really was the perfect time to handle the first step. Hopefully, rumors would spread enough that maybe hobgoblins would start packing and be ready to go on their own.

  Then again, there were millions of hobgoblins to save around the world, so that would be a horrible way to live, sitting and waiting for a rescue.

  Then again, some might already be living that way. I would. I’d spent years of my childhood praying to Tinker Bell to save me.

  Funny how I was now the fairy saving others. That gave me the first true smile I’d had in a while. I was making a difference, and my soul needed that.

  It needed a lot of things, but this I could give it.

  9

  When it was time to head back to Australia, I muttered an excuse to Izzy that I wanted food from the vending machines and left our room. She called after she wanted popcorn, but at least she believed me.

  I swallowed a giggle as the urge to hum the Mission Impossible theme hit me. I knew there were no cameras in the dorms besides in the entrances and stairways, so there was no issue opening a portal at the end of the hall.

  Arriving back at that first hawk shifter estate, I immediately used the shadows rune to cloak myself. The fae dogs still knew I was there and I dipped my head to them. I was pretty sure I read something that shadows or cloaking runes didn’t work with them as they could see heat signatures like infrared.

  Cool, but creepy, given how lethal they were.

  I easily scaled the cute estate wall and soundlessly dropped down on the other side. I might have showered after my run, but I’d changed in lounge yoga-ish clothes… Which might be a good default a few days a week during classes if I was going to do this more often. Heels and skirts wouldn’t work well for this.

  Then again, wearing that sort of outfit would throw suspicion from me. I could change fast. A quick trip to the bathroom in the cafeteria, switch outfits, and open a portal. I just needed one big place or to figure out how to keep it under five minutes or I would get caught.

  Fast.

  Chief had already told me where to head at each place, and I quickly found where the hobgoblins were kept. It was hard not to burn the estate to the ground when I opened the door to what was one room off the kitchen that was clearly meant for a cook or chef, and dozens of hobgoblins were living in there.

  On the floor. They had mats for beds. Old and shitty gym mats. Chief and his pack slept on better dog beds in my garage than the hobgoblins that worked at this estate.

  Needless to say, I was livid.

  They couldn’t see me, but they could clearly sense something was going on aside from a door randomly opening. They all hurried to their feet, even if it was after three in the morning there. I opened a portal to the main HAVEN address and knew they would handle things from there and get the hobgoblins to the right place.

  “Thank you,” one of the closest ones whispered before hurrying to the portal. The others muttered the same, but didn’t waste time.

  Good thing, because there were a lot of them. The moment the last one was gone, my magic closed the portal, and I raced out the way I had come. I was over the wall again in under five minutes. So this was perfect.

  I nodded to Chief that I was done, and he led the way to the next place. I hopped the fence they had, and it was smooth sailing until after I got the hobgoblins out. I was halfway down a hallway when two of the guards on patrol came towards me. There was no good path for me because, even if I backtracked to where I had just been, they would hear the door open and close.

  After a few moments of internal debate, I curled into a ball as close to the wall as I could. If they bumped into nothing that seemed to be the size of someone, they would rightly assume a person was there using magic to hide themselves. But hitting something lower, they would assume they simply misstepped.

  It made sense in my head at least.

  Sure enough, the guy’s shin bumped me as he went by and he stumbled.

  “You got more than water in that bottle?” the other guard ribbed him.

  He shook his head, but then glanced back to about where I was. “No, my shoe just caught.”

  “Uh-huh, just pop some gum.”

  They started bickering, giving me the perfect cover to get the fuck out of there. So I took it.

  The next three went smoothly and gave me time to think about the best way to keep with the plan. I axed the cafeteria bathroom idea. It would be weird to go everyday with that many eyes. Someone would get nosy with all the attention I had on me.

  No, better to do it during changing of classes. I could walk into a bathroom or empty classroom, change while covered in shadows, handle what I needed to so the hobgoblins were free, change again, and get back before the bell for lunch even rang. Yeah, that would be best and work up an appetite.

  Perfect.

  The next problem was the second to the last place. They had guard dogs that smelled a new scent that intrigued them.

  Luckily, there was a rune for that.

  Unluckily, that could be seen faster. I used the rune and harmlessly knocked the dogs out before racing for the hobgoblins. I opened the portal and was glad there was only a handful that hurried to leave, as if sensing something was wrong.

  Yeah, it was because a blaring alarm went off right as the last went through and my magic closed the portal.

  Fuck.

  I used the fairy rune to make myself run faster and was at the estate’s wall seconds later. I honestly might want to always use that, just to be on the safe side.

  “Magic,” a deep voice growled. “They’re down with magic. Turn on the floodlights and search the entire estate. Make calls and warn the entire kettle.”

  Fuck. That meant the last place was out… At least for today.

  And next time might be much harder. Chief and the pack were of the same opinion, not wanting to back down and retreat when I leapt over the wall. I nodded and used the fairy rune speed to get to the next place. We could at least check it out and maybe they hadn’t been given the heads up yet.<
br />
  It turned out they hadn’t, and their security were actually distracted, wondering what was going on at the other estate just down the road from them. Awesome. That was just… Idiots.

  When it was over and the hobgoblins were all safe, I didn’t feel the need to celebrate or cheer like I had thought. Instead, I was even more upset.

  And I wasn’t exactly sure why.

  I thanked the fae dogs, listening to Chief that we set it up to rotate areas and groups to extract hobgoblins from going forward. It was a smarter play, keeping people off-balance and not ready for us.

  Opening a portal at the vending machine mecca on campus, I stepped through and let my stomach lead the way. I made sure to grab Izzy’s popcorn and headed back to our room.

  “What took you so long?” she asked, shaking her head when she saw my overloaded arms. “Never mind, you bottomless pit.”

  “I’ve been called worse,” I chuckled, giving her the popcorn and the drink I’d added. I sat on my bed with my haul and found myself pulling up a world map on my phone. There were enough packs of fae dogs that could check things out, and we had a lot of intel on where hobgoblins were as well. We could always get more, but that didn’t help with people handing them over.

  There needed to be a reason why people wanted to let them go instead of us freeing them… I simply couldn’t figure out the puzzle I was looking at. And I needed to. They needed me to. It was frustrating and distracting, my mind on it the rest of the day and making it hard for me to sleep even.

  The next morning I went for my run—without any extra guests—and then grabbed Keya. We didn’t even need the fae dogs this time as she had a request of where to go next. That worked, and we went to Asia, where she had been living before we’d gotten her family out.

  Originally, it hadn’t been that hard, as no one had expected the move or guessed the hobgoblins could have somewhere else to go. But once they did, now others had closed ranks and disallowed hobgoblins from leaving estates, basically keeping them slaves. They could lie about contracts or whatever other bullshit they tried for, but they wanted their indentured servants and were willing to allow slavery for them.

  Once she was done leaving magical messages only hobgoblins could see at two estates and telling me where I needed to go, I took her back. I showered and ate breakfast, but still needed to work out what was in my head. I didn’t want to waste the energy and save it for the rescue.

  After I got the hobgoblins out of those two estates, I went right for the rec center again.

  I had a lot of visuals to cut down with my sword now… So why not use it?

  About twenty minutes in, I realized I’d been so in my head, I hadn’t noticed someone had joined me. I spun to see who it was, but a strong arm blocked mine. Not in a threatening or aggressive way, but simply for safety as he was standing too close to me, and that was how accidents happened. He slid his hand over my arm and cupped my hand holding the hilt as he moved closer.

  “I could watch you run drills all day, kitten,” Lucca whispered in my ear.

  I elbowed him hard, but he simply grunted, annoying me. I went to step away, but he slid his arm around me to keep me there, going further and pulling me against him.

  “I’ve missed you,” he tried again.

  I elbowed him again and slammed my foot on his. It wouldn’t do anything, given my feet were bare, but it should have told him I didn’t want him touching me.

  Except he didn’t back off in his normal Lucca way.

  And for some reason, that really pissed me off. I tossed the sword over by the case on the mats and spun on him, shoving at his chest. He simply grabbed my upper arms and pulled me back, negating any distance I’d gotten. I responded with reaching up and slapping him across the face.

  His bear moved behind his eyes, clearly not liking that, but he didn’t argue or fight me, simply kept me close.

  So I did it again and harder. The third time, he caught my hand and spun me so my back was against his front again.

  “I’ll let you hit me as many times as you want, but my sins weren’t as great as you think,” he murmured, his lips against my ear.

  Making my fucking traitorous body shiver. One of the worst parts of a breakup—and I’d had multiple at once—that no one ever talks about is craving sex. Once you’ve had good sex, and I had lots of amazing sex, your body doesn’t want to go back to not getting any. I ached for it constantly, almost to the point where I’d had thoughts of going out and simply getting laid.

  “You’re punishing me for what you think I knew, and I didn’t—don’t know it,” he murmured, running his nose along my skin. “It’s not like that with bears, kitten. Mates are—” He sighed when I flinched and tried to pull away. “Just hear me out. Please? You need to know this, no matter what.”

  He was right about that, and I settled down, giving a swift nod.

  He cleared his throat. “Mates aren’t common, but are said to be for commoners.”

  That took me a second, and I stiffened.

  “I know,” he sighed again. “I know it’s distasteful and crass, but that’s what elites say all the damn time. I grew up hearing it over and over again.”

  I chuckled darkly. “You know why they say that, right?”

  “Yes, because they sell us elites into matings all the fucking time, and if we could find our soul mates, more of us would rebel and hold out. I put that together a few years ago, but many do not. It’s another form of control. I get it. I just didn’t get it.”

  Huh?

  He seemed to sense my confusion because he tried again. “I didn’t understand what might be going on with us. There are some who believe only shifters can find true mates with other shifters.” He let out a slow breath before brushing his lips against my skin. “And I don’t think I was ready to find my mate at twenty, even if she’s as wonderful as you. That sounds insane.”

  I relaxed a bit. I agreed with him, and I could see that. I could absolutely see that.

  “And on top of all of that, it might be the woman my father wants to control, the last one of your kind alive, and he wants to breed. Like, are you fucking kidding me? Oh, and my best friend is completely head over heels with her. And she has two other men, a comitessa and bears are totally cool with sharing. Yeah, like never. It seemed… Not at all feasible, but absolutely that you were a telepath.”

  Well shit. When he put it like that, I sort of felt like a bitch for blowing up at him. Then again, we should have had this discussion before it all blew up in my face. Maybe not as much of his fault as I had thought, but it really wasn’t mine either.

  His large hand moving to cup my breasts snapped me out of my racing thoughts. Just because I didn’t disagree with how he saw things didn’t mean we were going to simply be okay and… Whatever we were again. Shit was complicated, and I didn’t want to be his mate either.

  And that wasn’t a slight against Lucca. His father was insane, his family complicated, and a list of shit, including our ages.

  So I elbowed him much harder this time, sliding out of his arms when he loosened his hold. Shocked rocked me when I spun away and saw he wasn’t backing down. He was completely turned on and had a wild look in his eyes that my body reacted to.

  Fine, I liked it too. I couldn’t blame everything on my body, but it wasn’t helping.

  He moved faster than I was ready for and pulled me against him, rubbing his hard-on against my stomach. I moved with him, smirking when he groaned and leaned down to kiss me.

  And head butted him.

  He growled and let me go, rubbing his now injured nose as he stared at me with promised retribution. He yanked off his shoes and socks before coming for me again. We’d sparred many times in class, but he’d gotten better over the summer, faster.

  But so had I, so we were surprising each other. He didn’t think I’d be ready to block his grabs for me, and I couldn’t get over how he wasn’t holding back, stronger than I’d thought. And I didn’t think that was new for o
nly over the summer. Shit, that was hot.

  He caught me again and I tripped him, smirking when he went down. He didn’t try to take me with him, but I heard ripping and then felt a cooler air against my ass. I glanced down and saw he had my shorts in both hands.

  In tatters.

  I checked just to be sure and then narrowed my eyes at him. “Seriously? You ripped my shorts off me?”

  “Totally worth the bruise I’ll have on my ass,” he chuckled, licking his lips as he stared at my now exposed body. “Shit, you really are perfect, kitten.”

  “You’re a pervert,” I growled as he rolled to his feet. “This isn’t porn sparring. Why are you pushing and being so aggressive with me instead of normal Lucca? Just because we might be mates doesn’t mean that—”

  “No, it doesn’t,” he agreed, his voice firm and hard to say that wasn’t open for debate. He waited until I nodded, sliding his arms around me so his hands rested on my ass. “Put up a barrier or someone’s going to get a show if they walk in here.”

  I immediately did, shocked I hadn’t already thought of that.

  He tried to kiss me, chuckling when I ducked him. “This is foreplay for a bear, kitten. In the wild, they wrestle and spar, the female making the male prove over and over again that he’s strong enough to give her what he needs. He proves he’s worthy of her before she submits to his loving. So you’re just fucking pushing my buttons and making me harder for you, like always.”

  “That wasn’t what I meant to do,” I muttered, wondering why it was always Lucca I was teasing.

  “I know, but I still fucking love it,” he growled, trying to kiss me again. “And I’m not a normal, aggressive Alpha bear. I grew up seeing how big of assholes they always are, and I couldn’t stand that. My bear hates it too, and we’re pretty chill.”

  “So why are you acting like this with me?”

  “Because animals are all about being fair, and you weren’t being fair to us,” he answered as his lips worked along my neck. “You wouldn’t let me explain. You were punishing me without listening to me.” He kissed my cheek when I went to argue. “I know it was because of your trauma and how you were hurting, but it made my bear and I aggressive. You might be ours, and you were shutting us down.