“Teddy, hold up a moment,” Clint said, as the others began to file out of the office. “What you did back there—” He stood up from his desk. “I’ve never seen a recruit make a jump in training like that before. A month ago, you could barely move a piece of plastic.”
“Clint, I—”
“Let me finish,” he said. “It scared the hell out of me.”
She’d expected him to be proud of her. Not scared. She’d finally done what he’d asked her to do!
“Your ability is erratic at best. These bursts of intense power are followed by periods when you’re unable to replicate the skill on even the smallest level. I . . .” He paused. “I think we need to slow down. You need to focus on foundational work in Dunn’s class.”
“After all that, you’re the one quitting on me?” Teddy said.
“It’s not quitting. It’s reevaluating.”
She tilted her head up, hoping that looking at the sky would somehow stop her tears from falling. She was tired. Exhausted. It was only then that Teddy realized she was still wearing her gear. Her vest was too tight, the straps rubbing her skin raw. Everything felt raw. “You’re keeping things from me, Clint. Not only this kind of stuff. But stuff about my parents. About the theft.” She looked at him, hoping that he finally would fold after months of holding his cards too close.
He looked her dead in the eyes. “You’re forgetting that I’m in charge, recruit. Some information is need-to-know. So fall back.”
He’d never called her “recruit” before. Boyd’s list of acceptable responses ran through her head: Yes, sir. No, sir. No excuse, sir.
Each phrase tasted more bitter than the last. Teddy left without saying anything.
* * *
Later that night, Teddy left her room and wandered down to the beach. She watched the waves crest and dip from the shore. The campus had emptied out over the last few hours, students returning home after their exam results were posted. The first-year class, pending Teddy and Kate’s retake, had passed. Even Molly and Jeremy.
“Mind if I join you?”
Teddy turned, surprised to see Kate. “Free country,” she said.
Kate settled beside her, opened the backpack she carried, and withdrew a thermos. She filled two mugs and passed one to Teddy. “Merry Christmas to you, too.”
“It’s not Christmas yet,” Teddy said, taking a sip. Eggnog liberally spiced with rum. It burned her throat going down, then a gentle warmth spread through her chest. Her unease lifted.
Kate shrugged. “My mom sent it early. I added the rum.” They drank in silence for a few minutes.
“I’m sorry you’re stuck here,” Teddy said.
“Don’t be.” Kate studied her mug for a moment, frowning. “The second I saw you put on that radar vest, I wished it was me going in. Now I get that chance.”
The admission surprised Teddy. It wasn’t like an Alpha to show vulnerability. Maybe she’d been judging Kate too harshly, putting too much stock in the divisions Boyd had created.
“By the way, how’s your friend doing? I heard she escaped to the infirmary as soon as we got back to campus,” Kate said.
Teddy wasn’t ready to see Molly yet—hell, she wasn’t even ready to discuss the incident.
“I mean, I knew someone had to have taken our key,” Kate continued. “I thought it might have been Ben. He’s pretty competitive.”
You’re one to talk.
Teddy remembered how Kate had psyched Molly out in the gym. But she kept it to herself. Better to move on, focus on passing the exam.
“Molly is the last person I’d expect to do something like that,” Teddy said.
“But she was partnered with Jeremy.” Kate shrugged. “Maybe he told her to take the key.”
“Jeremy? I thought you said no one in our class would be capable of that kind of thing.” Jeremy was intense. But Teddy couldn’t imagine him hurting anyone, especially Molly.
“I thought you couldn’t do shit, but I watched you blow a metal door off its hinges today. I wouldn’t dismiss anyone. Especially since someone has it out for you.”
Teddy considered Kate’s words. “How do we know I’m the one they’re targeting?”
A smile flickered across Kate’s face, then she shook her head, suddenly serious. Her brown hair, normally tightly secured in a ponytail, hung about her shoulders. “I can do some neat tricks. We all can. But no one else here can look into someone’s head and see the past. Maybe someone here has something to hide. That makes you a threat, Cannon. And if I were you, I’d find out who.”
A shiver ran down Teddy’s spine. First the lab. And now this. If someone wanted her gone that badly, she didn’t want to think about what could happen next.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
THE MORNING OF THEIR RETEST, Teddy and Kate suited up, determined to take out whatever obstacle came their way (and then take each other out for margaritas at the Cantina). They had reached an unsteady truce, working together in the mornings on the quiet and empty campus, running trails in the afternoon, and watching crappy Christmas movies on an old projector in the library at night.
To dispel any hint of unfairness, Clint, Boyd, and Dunn created an entirely new—and presumably more difficult—set of obstacles for Kate and Teddy to overcome. They did, with flying colors. Even Boyd was impressed. Or at least that was how Teddy interpreted her mild grunt followed by: “Not bad, recruits.”
Buoyed by the success, Teddy felt ready to face Molly in the infirmary, where she’d been holed up since the exam. Teddy was still trying to work out what happened on the obstacle course. She knew there was a chance that it hadn’t been Molly’s fault. She wondered if Jeremy really could have been the one who influenced Molly’s thoughts—or had someone else managed to hijack her mind while she was running the course? Whenever Teddy looked at Jeremy, she saw an awkward kid, someone who wasn’t a threat.
“I wasn’t sure you’d come,” Molly said when Teddy arrived. She spoke so
