I bristled under the compliment. I felt uncomfortable with the praise and was uncertain how to take it, so I ignored it. Rhys slid his thumbs through the waist of his slacks, pushing them down before standing back up to step out of them. My attention lowered to his thick cock before I turned away from him. I moved up the bed, slipping beneath the covers to lie down, facing the opposite direction.
“You’re upset that I am showing you off?” he asked into the room’s silence.
“I am. I feel like a pet that’s made you proud. I am not a pet, Rhys. I am young, and everything it entails. I have emotions, and while they may seem stupid to you, they’re not to me. You think it is fun to show me off to immortals that want to use me, abuse me, and murder me. Before you, the only immortals I was around were my family, and then at the center at E.V.I.E., where I knew I was safe. Here, I don’t feel safe. I feel like at any moment, everything is going to go crazy, and my life will become forfeited. Either by accident or because my family slighted another’s before I was even born or created. You expect me to sit and be a good pet, but I will run, and I will keep running until I am free. I don’t want to be caged.
“I agreed to work with you, and the first chance you got, you made it permanent because I am naïve, and you used that against me. Cole held me open for you to look at and play with because I’m easy to manipulate, and because every time you get close to me, all my inhibitions leave me. When your mouth touches mine, my worries slip away, and the world feels right. That alone terrifies me because, at the end of the day, you don’t actually want me. You want the magic I wield.”
The sound of clothing rustled in the room, and I silently fought the tears that threatened to fall. My throat tightened while I waited for his reply.
The door opened and closed, and I sat up, staring at the empty room. I frowned, pulling my legs up against my chest to drop my head to my knees. I’d just poured my heart out to Rhys, and he got bored and left. I was marking this one up as one of the biggest mistakes of my life, right next to running in to save him, and waking up on my knees with him between my lips.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Days went by where Nyx and I spent hours in the armory, charged to rearrange it, much to the horror of one knight. He would sigh, frown dramatically, or snort when I moved something. My babysitter, Acyn, would watch every single move I made. Either Cole or Acyn supervised me since the night I’d bared my soul to Rhys, only to have him slip out of the room like it hadn’t mattered to him. For the last three days, other than sleeping beside him, I hadn’t seen much of Rhys.
“You cannot possibly think this is right. There’s a system in place. How will we find anything in a hurry?” the knight groaned. Acyn’s lips twitched, and his stare landed on Nyx, who purposely bent over, showing him that she’d forgone to wear panties today. “I want to speak to the alpha about this before she destroys everything!”
“You have copper bullets mixed in with silver ones. If you were to shoot a wolf with copper, you’d end up with a dead knight assuming he’d made a kill shot, when in reality, all he’d manage to do is piss off that werewolf. You have bronze arrow tips in with the brass, and there are shavings everywhere, clinging to those tips. One single shaving on an arrow can mean the difference between life and death if it affects the arrow’s trajectory when released. A sharpshooter expects his ammo to be in firing shape. Yet your bullets are scuffed, tossed into freaking drawers, unboxed and unprotected. In short, you’re a shit weapons master who hasn’t mastered how to catalog, let alone store his ammunition properly to assist those in the field.
“You literally had one responsibility here. And in case you are unaware of what it is, it is to ensure everything is in top firing order and prepared for the men counting on you to ensure it is so. You have an assistant who orders for you when supplies are short, yet you’ve failed to utilize him since half the supplies are low or gone. There’s another knight who ensures weapons are stored properly, and he catalogs them in every night. They’re cleaned, reloaded, and restocked into the safe, stored in zero moisture because he goes above and beyond to ensure the rice and vapor barriers within the room are changed out every three days. You, on the other hand, are a mess. If they’re doing their jobs, and you’re doing a shit job, their jobs don’t matter. Weapons need ammo, and you are the one responsible for storing that ammo correctly. So either sit your pompous ass down and shut your whining mouth, or get in here and help me to fix your mess, sir!” I snapped crossly.
Acyn lifted a brow to the knight glaring at me, and yet the others didn’t stand behind him. Neither did they argue over what I had said.
“You are what? Twelve? You don’t know shit about what it takes to do my job!” he stammered with a red face.
“I’ve been the weapons master at E.V.I.E. since before my tits reached their full potential. I have used guns and bows since the time I could stand up. I am a Silversmith, and my entire life has revolved around manufacturing weapons, unlike anything this world has ever used or fired before. I could pour silver into bullets and perfected the process before I was old enough to discover my love button or that it had an actual function. I am a marksmanship champion against an entire line of hunters. While I may look young and inexperienced, I assure you that I am not. If you or your alpha intends to add my silver to this shit-hole of a mess, you have inside this armory, then I expect you to do your fucking job, or find another one you can handle.”
“And you thought she might need your help?” Cole’s voice filled the room, forcing my eyes to his before they slid to Rhys, who stood beside him with his arms crossed over his broad chest, staring at me.
“Indeed,” Rhys said, shaking his head as his eyes slid to the knight beside me. “You’re being reassigned to a new post. Acyn, find someone who knows their cock from their hand and send them to Remington to see if they fit her expectations. When I learned that we had a new weapons master in Seattle who was a spitfire, I should have known it was a fucking Silversmith,” he admitted, rubbing his hand down his face. “Acyn, see to the completion of the other preparations as well, and report to me when you’re done,” Rhys announced, his eyes never leaving mine.
Rhys wore a white button-down shirt that molded his muscular frame. The collar was left unbuttoned, and the sleeves rolled up, exposing the colorful tattoos that moved as he unfolded his arms over his chest, watching me as the knight opened his mouth to argue.
“I am being generous, Carson, and considering your laziness has been mentioned repeatedly over the last few months, you’re lucky I didn’t reassign you to Antarctica. Leave now. If I have to ask you again, you won’t like me.” Rhys’s eyes never left my face, studying me through heated blue depths. “I’ll be in my office. When you’re finished here, I’d like a few words with you.”
I stared at him, narrowing my eyes before I went back to arranging his arsenal as his knights helped me. It took more than four hours before I’d finished and stepped back, scanning over every box of ammo and every arrow that now was precisely where it belonged. Turning on my heel, I asked one of the knights where I could find Rhys’s office, and then was escorted there, which had become a new normal.