Signs of Cupidity (Heart Hassle Book 1)

Yep. I want to die.

Everything hurts. Even worse than when I fell onto this island, and that’s saying something. But does Ronak give me a break? Oh no. He makes me fly and run again the very next day, and the next, and the next. Every day, for hours and hours, all I do is train.

         I have bruises over bruises and my muscles are so sore that I don’t even remember what it felt like to not have them hurt. I’m lucky that at least Evert can heal my cuts and scrapes. I get a lot of them.

At night, I usually collapse on the rug in front of the fire, and I don’t wake up until Ronak is barking orders at me at the crack of dawn to get my ass moving. Yeah, I pretty much hate him.

A week since starting training, I wake up and go through the painful motions of stretching my muscles before attempting to stand. It’s embarrassing how long it takes. Ronak stomps around the main room for a minute before telling everyone to hurry their asses up and get to the training yard.

“I’m going to smother him in his sleep,” I grumble.

Sylred smiles and passes me a piece of fruit to eat. “He’s rigorous, but we’re a stronger covey because of it. Ronak knows that the stronger we are, the safer we are. It may not seem like it, but him drilling and pushing you is his way of caring.”

“Huh. Could’ve fooled me. I thought it was his way of torturing me.”

Evert smirks, coming out of his room. “Oh, it is. That asshole loves being an asshole.”

Sylred shakes his head and turns back to me. “Emelle, I have something for you.”

“What is it?”

He goes to his chair and picks up a pile of fur pelts and hands them to me. “When Ronak hunted last week, I took some of the pelts and made you some clothes out of them.”

“You did?”

“It’s nothing fancy,” he says, scratching the back of his head. “Just thought it might be more comfortable than what you have now,” he says. “I tried to fix your dress, but it was pretty ripped up, and the fabric was too fragile.”

“Thank you! I’m going to go try them on right now. You’re totally in first place now.”

I rush into his room and quickly strip off Evert’s shirt. I’ve only been able to spot clean it a couple of times, since I have nothing else to wear, so I’m ready to be rid of it. I’ve definitely smelled better. The clothing is the same dark gray color of the beasts that Ronak killed. The hair is sleek and shiny, and the leather is supple from the sun. I lay out all the pieces and see that he even made me panties that I can wear under the skirt.

I pull those two pieces on first. The skirt stops about mid thigh and my lady bits practically sigh at the soft cover of the underwear. Then I work on putting on the top. He made it so that it can be tied up in the back, so as not to interfere with my wings. I put my arms through the sleeveless top and then tie the back, securing it snugly across my boobs. This will be much better to run in. The shirt nearly makes it to the top of the skirt, showing just a peek of midriff. Overall, I look like a fur-wearing badass.

When I come out of the room, the guys have already left, so I take Evert’s shirt and wash it before hanging it outside to dry. I’m sure he’ll want it back, although it’ll be sad that I won’t be able to look at his bare chest anymore. Oh well, at least there’s still Sylred.

When I get to the training yard, Evert looks over and whistles at me. “Gotta say, you look a hell of a lot better in that fur than the beasts did.”

“I know, right?”

Sylred walks over, looking me over. Unlike Evert, he doesn’t look at me like he wants to undress me. His look is assessing and polite. “It fits.”

“It’s perfect,” I tell him. I stand on my tiptoes and peck a kiss on his cheek. He gives me a dazzling smile.

“What the fuck?” Evert calls over with a scowl. “Why does he get a kiss?”

“Because he’s a gentleman,” I retort.

“Fuck that. You’d like it rough.”

And…my new fur panties are wet.

I sashay my ass over to the running track, but Ronak heads me off. His black eyes flit from my feet to my head, but he doesn’t comment on my new outfit. Instead, he surprises the hell out of me when he says, “No running the track today.”

I let out a relieved sigh. “Oh, thank gods. I knew you’d see reason sooner or later and stop this madness.”

           I start walking away to sit down in the shade, but Ronak grips my upper arm and steers me toward the obstacle course. “Oh no. Nope. Uh uh. No can do, Not-First. I just crossed over to barely-sufficient in the walking/running category. I am not ready for obstacles in my wake. I have obstacles enough as it is.”

“You’ll do the obstacle course three times, then you’ll practice flying, then you’ll get a break, then you’ll run, and then you’ll fly some more.”

I wrinkle my nose in displeasure. “Yeah, I need to talk to someone about my schedule, because it sucks.”

“Get your ass over there, demon.”

“You know, for someone who quote, unquote, ‘hates me’ you sure do talk about my ass a lot.”

“Do you ever just shut up and do what you’re told?”

“I’ve only been conversing for like, a week, so…no.”

He growls under his breath at me. “Sylred! You deal with her.”

Sylred nods and puts his spears away before walking over. He’s already sweaty, but sweaty looks pretty sexy on his shirtless self.

He waits for me by the obstacle course as I make my way over. When I reach him, I look over my shoulder to see Ronak with his arms crossed, watching us.

       “Okay,” I whisper. “Just act natural. Pretend I’ve said something hilarious and start laughing.”

           He just blinks at me.

         “Okay, good enough. Now, I’ll hop over that first obstacle log thingy and when I give the signal, you pretend like I’ve just broken my ankle or something and swoop in to rescue me. Then we can both go back to the cabin and relax while gorging ourselves on food all day while these schmucks work out. Sound like a plan?”

His lips twitch before he looks over my shoulder and shouts, “Evert!”

Evert tosses down his makeshift sword and saunters over with a smirk. “Can’t handle her, Tune? Don’t worry,” he says, clapping Sylred on the back. “I’ll take it from here.”

“Tune?”

“You know, his power.”

“Ah.”

“Come on, Scratch. You’ll do the obstacle course with me.”

I sigh. “Ugh, do I have to?”

He continues guiding me forward. “Think of it this way. Ronak thinks you’re a useless, inexperienced weakling who’s going to end up on the chopping block. Prove the fucker wrong.”

Okay, his pep talk is much better than Ronak’s was. “Fine.”

He sends me a wink. “That’s my girl.”

His girl? My stomach just flipped over and started writing Mrs. Evert in its diary. I have to remind it that we’re supposed to be playing hard to get and that I’ve been put on their no-sex list because of their covey link thingy.

The obstacle course has six parts. The first one is a series of logs lined up one after the other that you have to jump over. Then it goes to a wooden structure that’s tilted so you have to climb up it using some notches in the wood. From there it’s a long jump to the ground, where you have to crawl on your stomach under a bunch of crisscrossing ropes, before you have to haul yourself up again and race to a tree trunk set in the middle where dangling ropes wait to pull yourself up to the top. The last two are a balancing board and a crude looking ladder where you climb up one side and down the other before reaching the finish line.

           In a nutshell: It looks like torture.

Evert takes a swig of water from his waterskin and I watch his Adam’s apple bob up and down underneath his dark beard.

       When he finishes and wipes his mouth with his forearm, he catches me looking and winks before tossing it to me. “Drink up, Scratch.”

I do, all too aware that his mouth was just where my mouth is now. When I finish and put the waterskin down, he lines me up at the start of the course. “Try to keep up.”

“Psh. I’m totally going to beat you.”

He chuckles. “On my count. Three, two—”

“One!” I shout, cutting him off.

       I sprint forward as fast as I can, leaping over one log after another. I hear him shouting at me about being a cheater, and my grin widens. I actually manage to jump over every log without tripping. It’s a cupid miracle.

         When I get to the climbing board, Evert is right on my heels. I stick my feet into various notches in the wood as I climb, and for once, my bare feet actually help me along. I can grip much better than Evert can with his huge boots. Once I reach the top, I jump down, using my wings to bring me softly to the ground.

          Evert overtakes me as we rush to the crawling section, so I’m forced to watch him ahead of me as we crawl on our elbows and bellies through the soft dirt. “Stop looking at my ass!” he calls over his shoulder.

“I’m not!” I am. “Besides, your ass isn’t that nice to look at!” It is.

Once we pass under the last of the ropes, Evert and I jump to our feet. The tall tree stands sentinel, with ropes dangling from the very top of it. Evert grabs the first rope, and I go around the side and grab the other.

        Using his impressive upper arm strength, his muscles bulging nicely, he effortlessly pulls himself to the very top, tapping it before he slides back down. I’m still dangling from the bottom. Try as I might, I can’t pull myself up. My upper arm strength is exactly zero.

I try to use my legs as leverage, but it doesn’t work. Every time I try, I fall right back down without getting more than a couple of feet off the ground. Instead of continuing the course, Evert comes to stand behind me. “Come on, Scratch. You can do better than that.”

I blow a piece of pink hair from my face and stand up. I grip the rope again, ignoring my stinging palms, and try to haul myself up. My arms start shaking before my strength gives out and I go falling down again. This time, instead of landing flat on my ass, Evert catches me. “Hmm. We’ll work on that one,” he says, his hands on my waist.

“I can’t wait,” I say dryly.

He releases my waist and smacks my butt, making me yelp. “Don’t get mouthy. Now get your ass to the next obstacle.”

I rush toward the next one, stepping up onto the very thin balancing board. I have to concentrate to put one foot directly in front of the other, but I’m slow going and I fall off almost immediately. I try to use my wings to help me balance, but if anything, they make me wobble even more because they’re so damn heavy and big. Evert makes me start over at the beginning every time I fall. I have to do this six times before I make it all the way to the end without falling. Walking in a straight line is seriously harder than it looks.

The last obstacle is the ladder. I climb it up one side and down the other, my leg and arm muscles shaky from exertion. When I make it to the bottom, I practically fall across the rope on the ground that marks the finishing line.

Evert walks up, hands in his pockets like he’s just taken a nice, leisurely stroll, while I pant like I’m about to die. “I hate you,” I mumble.

He laughs and helps me up. “You’re not very good at this.”

I give him the evil eye before trying to dust myself off.

“But,” Evert continues. “You’re not hopeless, either. You did pretty well for the first few obstacles. You just need to work on your upper arm strength, balance, and stamina.”

“My wings make everything harder,” I complain. “I think I could’ve pulled myself up the rope, but my wings are too heavy.”

Evert nods, studying my red wings as he raises his hand and traces a finger along the feathers at the top. The sensation instantly shoots a shiver down them and my feathers ruffle up involuntarily. I slap his hand away. “Stop that.”

He looks at me, amused. “Touchy, touchy.”

Before he can catch on to what I’m about to do, I bend down and grab hold of his tail, petting it gently. He flinches back in surprise and his tail flicks out of my grasp. I tsk. “Touchy, touchy,” I say with a smirk.

He narrows his eyes and takes a step forward, forcing me to tilt my head up to look at him. “Touching a genfin’s tail isn’t a good idea, Scratch,” he says, his voice dropping to a near whisper.

I have to unhinge my tongue from the roof of my mouth. “Why’s that?” I can feel the heat emanating from his body and smell his arousal.

He leans over until his lips are nearly touching my ear. His warm breath tickles the side of my neck, making goosebumps spring up over my skin. “I’ll tell you,” he says huskily. “…when you make it to the top of the tree obstacle.”

He steps back and crosses his arms, and I’m left swaying where I stand, my emotions going haywire and my body flushed from head to toe. I have to blink several times before my mind can form coherent thoughts.

I swallow and narrow my eyes. “Asshole.”

He chuckles, flashing me his dimples and perfect teeth. “Just giving you the proper motivation, Scratch. Now come on, let’s do the course again before Ronak crawls up our asses.”