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“Well, here they are, the Elite’s top three pilots of the year. If you’d all help me in giving your fellow trainees a round of applause, I think we can all agree they have proven their place here amongst the finest pilots to ever grace the sky.”
As the room exploded in applause, Gucci got to his feet and let out a loud whoop. Houdini brought his fingers to his mouth and gave a wolf whistle worthy of any top alpha. Even Utah gave a slow clap of appreciation—all the while glaring Solo into the ground.
“Each of you have shown impeccable skill both in and out of the sky over the last twelve weeks, and when it came down to the runner-up and winner, the points between the two places was minimal at best. So without further ado, I’m proud to announce that in the runner-up spot is none other than Lieutenant Tia Castenada.”
Whiplash gasped as she looked to Solo and then myself, her eyes wide with disbelief. But Whiplash was one of the fiercest competitors I’d ever come up against, and she deserved that spot. She was a kickass pilot who had fought tooth and nail like the rest of us to get where she was today. She’d probably even fought a little harder merely because she was a female.
But…shit. That meant it was down to me and Solo, and while I would’ve liked us to be the top two, that wasn’t going to happen.
Solo and I broke position to congratulate Whiplash and give her a hug. She shook Levy’s hand, thanked him for his time and tutelage, and then stepped back in line, where Solo and I awaited our fate.
My pulse was racing, my palms sweaty as the class quieted down and Levy took center stage.
I could feel Solo watching me. I glanced his way, and he mouthed, “You nervous?” When, I nodded, he said, “Don’t be. You deserve this.”
If I wasn’t already madly in love with him, that would’ve done it. He, like me, was ready to hand over the prize he’d come here to win, and if that didn’t speak volumes, I didn’t know what did.
“For the first time in the history of the Elite, we have a tie for the top spot.”
Solo and I whipped our heads in his direction, and my head began to buzz.
“It’s not impossible, but has certainly never happened on my watch before. However, after tallying up each of these two men’s points, there was just no way to separate them.” Levy paused. I was struggling to keep up with what he was saying, but then he spelled it out crystal clear.
“The joint winners of the Elite program this year are Lieutenant Grant Hughes and—I can’t believe I’m going to say this—Lieutenant Mateo Morgan. Congratulations, men. I have never witnessed such polar opposites work with such synchronicity in the sky straight out of the gate. The two of you are an unbeatable combination.”
As the deafening roar of boots on the floor joined the hoots and hollering, my heart nearly exploded as Solo tugged me to him and wrapped his arms around me.
“Well, if this isn’t fitting, I don’t know what is,” he said, then clapped me on the back and kissed my temple. “We both like it too much on top.”
He pulled back from me, his wicked grin guaranteeing I’d be thinking about that for the rest of the afternoon, and then the rest of our class engulfed us in a bone-crushing hug.
Life was good. Hell, it was close to perfect. As I stared at Solo over the crowd of people offering up their congratulations, I knew that with him by my side, there was nothing but clear skies ahead.
35 Panther
I NEVER UNDERSTOOD why we were given a whole day to pack up our gear before leaving the barracks. As Navy people, we knew the importance of packing light, and considering most of our belongings could fit into one bag, it didn’t take more than an hour to get our stuff together—unless, of course, you were Solo.
After our big win yesterday, we’d spent the night out with the rest of the trainees celebrating, and soon after crashed in my room wrapped up in one another.
It’d been the perfect end to a whirlwind twelve weeks, and I hadn’t seen hide nor hair from him since dawn when he’d crept out of my bed. His excuse had been he had a lot to do today. But as I stared at my stuffed duffel on the floor at the end of my bed, I wondered what exactly could have kept him so busy for the last few hours.
Tomorrow was graduation day, and I still couldn’t believe that twelve weeks had passed by so quickly. It seemed like just yesterday we’d arrived. Well, that wasn’t true—I’d changed a lot in that time. At the beginning of all of this, I’d been single in both mind and focus, and then Solo had stepped into my path and my entire world had shifted on its axis.
