Cage became silent. The weight of the decisions felt like an intense pressure in his head, and he had no way to relieve it.
“I won’t lie to you, Ren. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“I trust you to do the right thing,” she said, and then she kissed him.
CHAPTER 20
REN
Ren knew it was dumb to walk alone at night, but what was the point of learning to defend herself if she had to still live in fear? She’d made Cage put the training sessions with her on hold this week leading up to the fight with Mal. She needed him to be focused. She still worried he’d try to kill Mal during the fight. She’d meant what she’d said—she really didn’t think she could be with a man who killed to solve his problems—but she didn’t know what she expected Cage to do instead. What did she expect the two of them to do? Cage would force Mal to leave town, but for how long? Did Mal leaving town mean he didn’t have his cronies in town to harass or endanger them? Would Lisa be safe with Mal alive?
She didn’t have an answer, but she knew that encouraging or even allowing Cage to just kill him was not a solution. She thought she’d want him to kill the mugger if they ever saw him again, but she’d felt such a huge wave of relief when Cage and Mickey had let him go. So they had to let Mal live too, despite what he’d done.
As dumb as it was to walk alone at night, Ren at least stayed on well-lit streets. She had originally just wanted to clear her head, but she got hungry after walking aimlessly. She took a path home that would pass by a place with really good Cuban sandwiches.
The place wasn’t as crowded as usual. It was a literal hole-in-the-wall, with a small little window where you placed your order. There were no seats or tables outside, so the customers were usually sipping beers and eating their sandwiches or bowls outside. Ren decided at the last minute to get a bowl over a sandwich. It had wonderfully seasoned ropa, rice, black beans, and three fried plantain slices on top. The plantains were what had made her order the bowl over the sandwich.
She debated whether she should eat outside the booth or just take it home. It was about a twenty-minute walk from here, so by the time she got home and sat down, the food would be just cooled down enough not to taste as good. Especially the plantains, fresh from the fryer, which would lose most of their magic after twenty minutes.
She ate standing but walked around a bit as she ate. She started to wander aimlessly and noticed soon that she was no longer in a well-lit area. She turned back around and headed toward the restaurant again. Her food was almost gone, so she’d throw it away and then go home.
Just as she started to walk back, she heard a scream. It was a woman’s scream, and she was pleading for help.
She remembered Cage’s training. She should run and get to safety. Self-defense was about protecting yourself, not being a hero. If she dropped her food and ran, she could get some people from the restaurant back here in two minutes or so. A lot could happen in two minutes. She pulled out her phone and dialed 911.
“There’s a woman being attacked,” she started, and she gave the address.
The dispatcher said an officer would be on his way but no one was in the immediate area.
Ren hung up and rushed toward the screams. Cage had told her to run, but Cage himself wouldn’t run, so neither would she.
Both the woman and the man looked like they’d been clubbing. The woman had on a tight miniskirt, but one of her heels was a few feet away. Had she thrown it at him? The man had way too much gel in his hair, and he had big biceps but no ass and tiny chicken legs. He was pulling at the woman’s hair and groping her.
“I called the police!” Ren shouted. She wasn’t going to run in and head butt this guy. She’d do everything she could to defuse this situation for the woman.
“What the fuck?” The man looked up across the street at Ren.
He gave her a double take and then let go of the woman’s hair.
“I’m fine!” the woman said. “I was just overreacting earlier. You can go.”
The man coiled up his arm and then snapped a backhand across the woman’s face. “Dumb bitch! Don’t speak for me.”
She crumpled to the ground, sobbing, and suddenly the man was approaching Ren.
If she ran, the police might not find her, and he might hurt the woman even more. If she stayed, she might take the brunt of his fury.
“The police will be here any minute,” Ren said. “I’m not bluffing.”
“This bitch is so whipped,” he said, “that she’ll tell them everything’s fine. I’ve got her trained like that. She’s called the police herself a few times, but the story always has changed by the time they get here.”
He burped and swayed back and forth, and he spoke in a slurred garble.
Ren put down her ropa bowl and ran toward the woman sobbing on the ground. The man stared in surprise as she passed him but made no move to stop her.
“Are you hurt badly?” Ren asked. “What’s your name?” She bent down and swept the woman’s hair out of her face. It was matted with blood from her mouth and nose.
Her sobs slowed and then stopped, and she said, “I’m Jewel. I’ve taken worse beatings before.... You really called the cops?”
“Yeah,” Ren said. “I’ll wait here and tell them what I saw.”
“I’m scared,” Jewel said.
Ren squeezed her hand, but moments later Jewel began to tremble.
“You gotta run!” Jewel whispered. “Run!”
Ren looked up and saw the man stumbling toward them. His face was red, and he was huffing with labored breaths.
Ren stood up and said, “Don’t touch her.”
“I’ve already taught her a lesson,” he said, hiccupping. “But you seem like you ain’t ever had a man teach you what’s what.”
She’d trained so much these past weeks. This drunk only had experience battering defenseless women, so she could spot his punch coming ages before he even balled up his fist.
She started to duck even before he swung. She couldn’t afford to dodge without a counterattack. This was the kind of guy that would be enraged and insulted if she fought back. She needed to end the fight before it started. He had no expectation that she’d fight back, and she needed her first hit to be the last. There was one clear thing that would do that in this situation. His gut was huge, but a gut punch wouldn’t end it, and he was too tall to hit in the face. His stance was awful, however, and he was completely open for a kick to the balls.
Ren ducked the punch, and before the surprise could register on his face, she kicked with the full power and weight of her body right between his legs.
A shrill grunt escaped him, and he collapsed onto the ground. He hit the concrete like a felled tree, and he writhed on the ground as the police sirens wailed in the distance.
“You’ll be okay,” Ren said, squeezing Jewel’s hand.
“Damn, Lady,” Jewel said. “You should teach a class or something.”
***
“And I could feel his tiny little balls crunch under my foot!” Ren said, breathless. “It was amazing!”
“What if it had been a shifter?” Cage said. “And why the hell didn’t you just wait for the police? Did you forget everything I taught you?”
“I got the guy arrested, Cage,” she said. “Jewel’s going to press charges, and I’m going to testify against the fucker. How cool would it be if Lisa were the recorder? She’d be so proud of me.”
“You could have been killed!” Cage said, gripping Ren’s waist.
“I didn’t even get scratched,” Ren said, “because I did what you taught me. Well...almost. It’s like...I had this training and knew I could do something to help. It wasn’t self-defense, but how could I just leave a poor woman like that to get beat on by a piece of shit like that?”
Cage sighed. “I taught you so you wouldn’t get hurt...not so that you’d stick your neck out for other people, which risks you getting hurt.”
“Life is about more than keep
ing me safe. You’re allowed to sacrifice everything to keep Lisa and me safe, but God forbid—”
“I’m proud of you,” Cage said, his fingers running down her face. “I wish I could have seen the look on that guy’s face when you dodged his punch.”
Ren’s face lit up. “It was so good!”
“Just one thing,” Cage said. “Did you really have to kick him in the balls? Of all things?”
“I hate to say that Mal’s lessons had some merit...but I think maybe God gave men balls so that women could kick them if they got out of line. Why should men have so much more size and strength with no downside? So there’s these tiny little things hanging loosely in a sack—”
“Okay,” Cage said. “I get the picture. My balls hurt just thinking about it.”
She reached down and slide her hand beneath his jeans. His dick was warm and semi-hard, but she reached past it and cupped his balls. “You know I’d never hurt these, right?”
He grunted, and she felt his cock stirring against her forearm.
She ran her hand up along his ever-growing shaft, and she felt the big veins warm against her palm.
“So you knew?” he said, undoing his belt. “But now you’ve seen what Mal’s really like. You know I was in the right.”
She began stroking up and down his shaft. “Of course I know that now, but at the time I felt like you were being a bit of a dick.”
“Mm,” he said. “Dick, yeah, that feels good.”
She smiled, realizing he was feeling what she was doing to him much more than he was listening to what she was saying. He threw his belt aside to the ground, and she quickly unbuttoned his pants and pulled them off. The cock she’d come to love so much sprang up like an obelisk, and she caught herself just staring dumbly.
She continued to stare but pulled her T-shirt off as she took in Cage’s body. He pulled his shirt off and jumped on top of her.
Ren fought to get her pants off. She wanted them both to be totally naked and pressed up against each other. Cage’s scent overpowered her as his chest pressed against her cheek, and the warmth of his cock rubbed up against her stomach.
She grabbed his butt with one hand and let out a heavy breath. After over a month, it still felt too good to be true that she could squeeze that beautiful ass whenever she wanted. It was hers. She ran her hand up his back and felt the muscles in his back rippling and heaving as he pulled the pants right off her.
As soon as she was totally naked, he moved down. She felt his cock slide down across her stomach, and a little trail of glistening pre-cum coated her skin.
“What’s your bear thinking about?” she asked.
“This,” Cage said, and suddenly his dick slid against her clit and then across her wet lips. She moaned.
“I’m glad all three of us are on the same page then,” Ren said.
Cage rubbed his warm head across the outside of her lips, teasing her. She reached out and cupped his balls. Then she applied very light pressure.
“Come on,” she said. “Put it in.”
“Are you threatening my balls?” he asked. “After just saying how you’d never—”
She squeezed a bit more, and he froze.
“Okay, ball crusher—that’s my new nickname for you. I’ll put it in.” He slid the head right to her opening, and she gasped.
“Like you don’t want to do it anyway…” she said, but her voice trailed off as he began to enter her.
She locked her eyes onto his. The green in his eyes seemed to glisten as he entered her, and his blond locks hung down and tickled her nose.
“I like looking you in the eyes,” he said.
“Me too.” Ren started to smile, but she gasped instead as he slid a few inches up inside her. He was a big guy, and months of making love with him had gotten her somewhat used to taking in such a big piece of man, but his size shocked her still every time.
She grabbed hold of her own breast with one hand as he began to thrust in and out. She clasped tightly to him with her other hand, and he buried his mouth in her neck.
He went deeper and deeper with each thrust, and Ren became soaking wet inside. She looked down across her body and saw his cock plunging in and out, and she saw just how wet she was. Her wetness was coating his dick, and soon she could hear it loud and clear as Cage picked up speed.
She wrapped her legs around him and dug her heels into his back. As good as the pure physical sensation was, this sense of togetherness was what made sex with Cage more than just fucking. The lines between the two of them blurred, and she felt not just close to him, but part of him.
A sudden heat overtook her, and she rocked her hips into him with each movement. The orgasm rose up in her body with startling speed, and she felt her insides clench around Cage’s cock. They were even more together now, and Cage’s breath became hot and heavy on her neck.
Ren started to scream, and Cage grunted like an animal as she came all over him and he came inside her. His cock surged and swelled with each blast, and the warm wetness of his seed filled her up. She felt it flowing all around her insides as Cage stopped moving. They held together for a few blissful moments as Ren’s orgasm faded to blissful afterglow. When Cage pulled out, she could hear the wet sound of their combined cum, and she could feel it drip down and out of her.
When Ren finally caught her breath enough to speak, she said, “Now what is your bear saying?”
“Nothing,” Cage said. “That shut him the hell up.”
CHAPTER 21
CAGE
It was the night of the big fight. The fight to end all fights. Cage had Mickey and a few of his friends sit with Ren, just in case. He’d have preferred they sit with her miles away from the fight, or maybe in another city, but she wouldn't have that. Did she want to see him win? Or did she simply think he was less likely to kill Mal if he knew she was watching?
He still hadn’t decided what he’d do. He wished Jack were still around. It was good to have Ren acting as something of a moral compass, but fighting without a real couch was stupid. Cage just couldn’t bring himself to replace Jack. He’d heard, a year or so after fleeing, that Jack had passed peacefully in his sleep. Another thing Cage wasn’t there for.
The announcer screamed and got the crowd booming. Cage couldn’t hear the announcer’s voice clearly through the double doors, but he knew that he was making this fight out to be the second coming of Christ. At a muffled yell from the announcer, one of the attendants in the locker room with him signaled that he should make his dramatic entrance.
Cage walked through the doors in human form and stepped up to the cage. He locked his gaze on Mal and didn’t take it off. He focused his hate and rage on his opponent and spared nothing for the audience.
Mal was still working the crowd, and he pointed at Cage, mocked Cage’s serious expression, and then looked back at the audience and shrugged. Cage heard laughter from the crowd, but Cage wasn’t laughing.
Mal would need to take this fight seriously, because Cage was out for blood, and if his opponent wasn’t on the same level, he’d stand no chance.
The sound and energy of the crowd was usually a huge advantage to Cage. He internalized it and made it a part of his own energy, and when the crowd blew up, so did he. In this last fight of his life—and either way, win or lose, it would be his last fight—he had all the energy he needed. More than he needed. It was hard enough to contain and focus what he already felt; he didn’t need to feel more.
Mal looked huge, bigger than the last time Cage had seen him, and bigger still than when he’d first run into him in the woods. Could he possibly have been training harder than Cage? Every vein is Mal’s body popped out. His muscles seemed permanently flexed, and his face was red. Mal’s eyes were glowing yellow. He was ready for a fight.
But so was Cage.
Both fighters walked into the ring, and Cage felt his heart beating between his ears as he took the final steps toward Mal. He was on edge, expecting Mal to forego the customary circling a
nd evaluating of the opponent before the first round began. He expected Mal to lunge at him straight away, and so he was ready for anything.
But Mal did circle, and Cage eyed him for weaknesses. Were Mal’s hands trembling? Was he scared? No. Did he have any visible injuries? Cuts? A limp? No. Did he seem overly cocky? Was his guard down and stance weak? No. All the cockiness from his crowd-pleasing performance had melted away. His stance was ready, and he looked 100 percent focused on the task at hand.
“I’m juicing,” Mal said, licking his lips.
Unbearable Cage (The Grizzly Next Door 3) Page 11