"Wait till it's finished," he assured me. "Ready?"
I lifted my gaze to my men, and they all stared back at me with supportive gazes that made me smile proudly. My loves, my support system, my rocks in the thrill of a storm. From this moment onward, we'd be marked with the reminder of how far we'd come, and even the realms of death would never destroy the sheer force of this connection I admired in the depths of my heart.
"Ready."
From this moment on, we're marked for life.
16
Training To Be The Best And Ours
~BRIANNE~
* * *
"Ten more reps, Bri."
"Easy...for...you...to...oh fuck this," I groaned and collapsed onto the matted floor. "This is abuse!"
I lifted my head to give my muscled teddy bear a glare of defiance as he finished the last set of shoulder press reps he was doing with a set of fifty-pound weights. He was just wearing his black short tights - the rest of his body glimmering with sweat as beads of water ran down his chiseled chest, muscled legs, and hot face.
I'd be lying if I didn't acknowledge that Connor was getting hotter every damn day. Even though his practice didn't start until next week, he'd been putting in the work all this week, doing two-hour workouts in the mornings before our classes - an hour and a half on weight training and the rest being swift cardio and a few magic exercises.
He was becoming known as the wall of protection for our group because that was basically what he looked like when grouped with us. Jax was definitely putting on some muscle with him normally working out with Connor to "keep him company" or whatever, but his frame would pretty much remain in a slim build in comparison to Connor, who could very well become the next Rubin in a few years.
I'd asked Connor if I could join him for one of his workout sessions this week since cheer practice would be starting next week and I had to be in peak shape to train the others. I could have trained with Mia and Miya, but they were being trained by someone from Korea in the mornings to help them with their individual strengths.
That's why it only seemed logical to hop in with training with Connor, especially today when Jax had some council work to do. He went early with Kaito, who was having some private lessons with Master ZenSu.
As for Finnick, he was still sleeping after staying up to work on some side paintings. I loved seeing him so dedicated to fulfilling the vision he had in his mind. It must be chaotic in his mind, trying to piece all the images and inspirations together like a ripped-up map.
I'm sure it was stressful to sort creativity with having to study as well, but he was doing an amazing job balancing it all.
School thus far wasn't difficult. We'd taken a few days off because of the tattoos. Not only were they an ultimate pain in the ass to get them, but we were all tired as hell and could barely use magic for the rest of the week.
The other groups that chose their aisles hadn't gotten that great of rewards. Those who choose the book literally got a blank book, those who picked the staff with a floating ruby got a rock, and those who got a shield at least got vouchers to a newly opened gym on the other side of campus.
A lot of them were asking what we'd gotten since our absence was rather obvious, but I think many were beginning to put one and two together as the school blogs began circulating the newly seen tattoos on each of our wrists.
I swear we had some hidden paparazzi or something because the pictures circulating on social media were at the perfect angles that made us look like some sort of celebrities. My picture had been the first, taken during a track session I had with Miya and Mia a few days ago when I was lifting my hair up to tie it.
I wasn't wearing anything special either - a white crop top and black sweatpants. It was still winter obviously, but I hated training in long sleeves, so it seemed only logical to wear a crop top so I wouldn't drench my shirt, but I guess it was attractive as hell with the image emphasizing my six-pack, apparent flawless face even though I was dripping with sweat, and the new visible NOTORIOUS FIVE tattoo resting on my left pulse point.
I'd yet to open the emails I'd been receiving from modeling companies who apparently wanted me to model for the approaching Witchling Games campaign. I mentioned it to Aurora so she could look into it to make sure it was legit, and sure enough it was, and she thought it was a pretty good opportunity for me and the school.
I'd have to bring it up to the guys to see if they would be down with it, even though it didn't mean I needed their permission to do it. I respected each of them, and when it came to certain things, I wanted to make sure we were all on the same page.
The only thing I haven't shared yet is about Elijah.
Regardless of everything, it was becoming clearer to everyone that I was in a solid relationship with Jax, Connor, Finnick, and Kaito, and people were really beginning to dig it. Some students were even making fanfiction and stories about us in a parallel universe where we're a part of different organizations and somehow come together to take control of Witchling Manor, which was the "dark" code name for the city in the story that would be similar to busy high-end Dubai.
I was just glad everything was beginning to fall in place, even though I still carried an underlying fear of what the future had to bring to us.
"You definitely don't know what abuse is all about, Red," Connor teased as he lowered his weights and walked over to me.
"My arms feel like jelly, I'm sweaty as hell and smell like leftover socks, and I know you're going to tell me to do another fifty push-ups for fun!" I complained. "So yes. This is abuse."
He crouched down before me, and heavenly witchling, this man was going to make my poor heart stop with how it went from rapid to marathon drumming against my chest.
"Well, I was going to let you do twenty-five more push-ups for giving up when I didn't give you permission to," he began as he admired the horror that washed upon my face. He reached over to tap my ass, making me squeak while his grin spread and his eyes darkened. "Or, we can opt into you lying on my lap so I can give you ten ass smacks."
I gawked at him as my whole face went red.
"You can choose." He winked and rose up. "I'm gonna clean up. You going to start those push-ups?"
"I'd rather have my ass tapped to oblivion than do one more damn push up." The words left me before I slapped my hand over my mouth while Connor actually looked at me with shock.
MARIANNA!
Say what you want and be rewarded.
"T-T-That wasn't me!! It was Marianna!" I complained before I was on my hands and toes and going right into push-ups. "Ignore me! I'm just doing my duty and AH!"
My body was lifted a second later before I was literally hanging over Connor's shoulder.
"Where are we going?!!"
He didn't say anything as we entered the private changing room. We were in one of the shower stalls a second later. He lowered me before the shower was on and drenching us in cold water.
I tried to shriek at the frigid stream of punishment, but desire to scold the living hell out of Connor went downhill as he hooked his arm around my waist, pulled me against him, and kissed me like he was desperate for my lips.