Dragon's Choice

by Juniper Hart

  Cliff spun around with a fist that connected to Caleb’s head. It was a good fake-out. He’d been sure that Cliff was going to hit him with a spinning back kick, and his legs had started moving to indicate it. He groaned with the pain and felt instantly foolish for falling for it.

  But that hit turned out to be just the fire he needed to finish this fight. It had gone on too long, and he was getting hungry. Plus, it was Friday night and he wanted a drink.

  Caleb threw a front right kick, a front left kick, a spinning back fist that sailed over Cliff’s head, and finally a spinning back kick that caught his friend hard in the sternum. Cliff staggered, his legs about to collapse underneath him. Caleb did not allow his friend to even register anything beyond the pain as he drove a hard roundhouse kick to the side of Cliff’s head, sending him sprawling down to the mat.

  Cliff tried to stand up, stumbling around like a drunken buffoon. He finally gave up, allowing his body to collapse onto the mat to catch his breath and recover from the beating.

  “Well, ladies and gentlemen,” Caleb said, panting for breath, “I do believe he is out.”

  He hustled over to where Cliff was and couldn’t resist a laugh. The guy was such a ham; he would often fake an injury to make it look way worse than it actually was just because he didn’t want to fight anymore. He trained hard, but for some reason, his cardio was just terrible, causing him to often grow weary not too long after the fight had begun.

  Caleb grabbed Cliff’s hand and helped him to his feet.

  “That was a rough one,” Cliff said. He was still staggering a bit, possibly not faking it as much as Caleb had presumed.

  “That’s the name of the game,” he said. “If you had more patience and were less afraid of being hit, I wouldn’t get you so much.”

  “What?” Cliff asked. “Are you like some kind of sage martial arts master now?”

  Caleb chuckled. “Not a master, by any means, but I do have to say I’m much better than you are. Maybe if you work real hard, one day you might beat me.”

  “Hey, I had some good shots!” Cliff argued as they walked towards the showers.

  “Fine, you faked me out once,” Caleb admitted. “I’ll give that to you. That punch hurt more than it should have.”

  “Sorry, bro, I get carried away sometimes,” Cliff said.

  “I think you were just getting flustered and decided to take a cheap shot.”

  “Well, it turned out to be an expensive shot,” he laughed.

  An hour later, they were both working on their second beer and second plate of spicy buffalo wings. It had become a bit of a tradition to come to T-Bone’s, their favorite sports bar, after Caleb and Cliff sparred and worked out. It was located just a few blocks from the gym, and several fighters often hung out there. The place had great music, great food, great drinks, and, of course, it was always crawling with beautiful women. This was usually Caleb’s favorite thing about the place, but this night his mind could only focus on Olivia.

  Something was special about her. He still hadn’t quite figured out what, but he knew that he had a strong connection to her. The mystery of the girl was enough to drive a man wild. He hated to admit he was a sucker for such things, but he couldn’t lie to himself about the way he felt. He had yet to even tell Cliff about her. It was nice the way things were right now.

  He did feel guilty about having lied to Olivia. The truth of the matter was that he had only asked the smaller werewolf packs in Montana if any of them had a missing member, and then he’d asked them to keep the information to themselves. At least he had told her the truth regarding the Manzweils—if they found out about her, they might believe she had told someone her secret, and they wouldn’t ask any more questions before going after her.

  “So, how is everything going?” Cliff asked before taking a huge gulp of his beer. “You’ve been kind of missing in action as of late.”

  “I’ve just been spending time at the cabin,” Caleb answered. “You know, I needed a little time for myself.”

  Cliff laughed. “You’re the only guy who considers running up mountains and hours spent chopping firewood as time off.”

  “If you had any real affinity for nature, then you might know what it’s like,” Caleb chided.

  “Hey, I’m waiting for the right opportunity! I’m running a business. I got… stuff to do,” Cliff said. “I’m working on my professional fighting career.”

  Caleb shook his head and finished his beer. “Dude, you need to face facts. You know how dangerous it is to fight mortals being what we are. Why do you even do it? I know you can tone down your instincts, but it’s only a matter of time before you get stung or angry and the wolf comes out at the wrong time.”

  He reached out to place a hand on Cliff’s shoulder. “I tell you this because I love you like a brother, man. You need to grow up and face reality. I don’t want to see you hanging on to this dream after one more decade.”

  Cliff said, “I guess you’re right. What would happen if I accidentally shifted in front of a stadium of humans? I’d be the target of every lycan in the world for exposing our kind.”

  Cliff flagged their server down and ordered another beer. He stared at her as she walked away, and then he turned to Caleb. He had a faraway look in his eyes.

  The server dropped off a beer for Cliff and another one for Caleb, even though he hadn’t asked for one. Caleb caught her eye before she left their table. She winked at him, and he watched her for a few minutes as she walked away. She was fairly new to the bar, and Caleb could not help noticing her striking appearance.

  The server was tall, slender, and curvy in all the right places. She also had a full sleeve tattoo, mostly designed with flowers. Caleb loved bad girls: they were usually just so interesting, free-spirited, and wild in bed.

  Yet another reason his strong, immediate attraction to Olivia was strange.

  He shook his head to stop thinking about the server. It would never last with her, and he never slept with women that he knew he might have to see again after he broke it off. That was a rule of his. He did not get involved with women who lived in his neighborhood, and he did not mess with women who handled his food.

  Although he tried to be open and honest with every woman he met, occasionally they wanted him to give more than he was willing to, and they were often angry when he said no. This could be a potentially hazardous situation. Caleb was not looking for a relationship right now; it was really that simple. He enjoyed being busy. He loved to create things and make things happen. His lifestyle was not really conducive to a relationship.

  But sometimes the temptation was just too great.

  “I understand, man,” Caleb replied, sipping his beer. “I know the drive, the feeling, but eventually the world will teach you some cruel lessons and force you to adapt or starve.”

  “That’s easy for you to say,” Cliff said. “You’ve made millions, but yet, you choose to live simply. I want more.”

  Caleb laughed. “You’re not a pauper! Your gym is really successful, and you enjoy what you do. Not many people can say that.”

  “Well, I’d still love to be pro fighter,” Cliff said. “Maybe one day we can stop hiding in the shadows and fight wolf against wolf. That would be amazing.” He leaned back against his chair. “Man, if I had one tenth of your fighting talent, I would be the happiest guy out there.”

  “I’m sure you would,” Caleb said, patting his friend’s shoulder. “But don’t sell yourself short, either. And stop with the pipe dreams.”

  Caleb finished the last couple of wings.

  “Dude.” Cliff nudged his shoulder. “There’s a hot girl checking you out.”

  Caleb turned his head and caught the eye of a smoking hot redhead, who held his gaze and smiled. She was perfect: a long flowing mane of auburn hair to just below her shoulders, tight jeans that showed off her slender legs, and a smile that could melt the iciest of hearts. She let her tongue roll slowly over her lips.

  “Well, what are
you waiting for?” Cliff asked. “Go get her, man!”

  Caleb laughed. “In a minute. What about you? Do you have any prospects?” He glanced around the bar. There were a lot of beautiful women, many of whom might have been interested in his friend.

  Cliff laughed. “I might,” he said. “What are you waiting for? Quit worrying about me.”

  “You can learn a lot about being mysterious and not so desperate,” Caleb said.

  He took another swig off his beer and leaned back in the chair, glancing once again at the redhead still eyeing him. She was definitely interested, but now was the time when he liked to make them squirm a bit. After all, he was comfortable and enjoying his beer. Besides, he’d officially taken himself off the market for the time being. He was an old-fashioned guy—Olivia was the only woman really holding his interest at the moment.

  “I don’t understand you at all,” Cliff said. “I would have already been all over that.”

  “Why?” Caleb asked. “You get hot girls all the time. You are an attractive guy with a lot going on. You aren’t at somebody’s beck and call, are you?”

  “Well, no, but—”

  “Just relax,” Caleb said. “It’s just sex. It might be good, it might not be. We might have chemistry and we might not. Right now, all I know is that she’s hot, and I can see that without having to approach her. But at the moment, I’m having a conversation with you, finishing my beer, and possibly thinking about more wings.”

  Cliff raised his eyebrows at him. “More wings? Where the hell are you putting those things? We’ve had two orders already, and you ate most of the last one!”

  “When I treat myself, I treat myself well,” Caleb replied before walking over to the jukebox and throwing a five-dollar bill into the machine.

  When he walked back to his table, he noticed Cliff was hanging out with a beautiful woman.

  Well, that was fast, Caleb thought. The woman was a buxom blonde with a winning smile, and with every passing second, she kept leaning closer and closer to Cliff. Perhaps the guy did have his own style, and that included getting Caleb to leave him the hell alone at times.

  “Oh, Caleb! This is Melanie,” Cliff said as Caleb walked past the table.

  He wasn’t sure why Cliff had called out to him—it was pretty much an implicit rule that he was going to just nod and leave. The party was over for the two of them; Cliff was about to start his own party. Or so he’d thought.

  “Hey, there,” Caleb said with a small wave of his hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Likewise,” Melanie purred. She gave him the once over and smiled. It was almost as if she was inviting him to join them.

  Caleb smiled. He was flattered, of course, but that was not something that interested him. He doubted Cliff would have been into it, but just in case he was wrong, he decided not to linger around any longer.

  “I’m going to take off,” Caleb said. “I’ll see you later, man.”

  Cliff gave Caleb a fist bump and Caleb walked towards the door.

  He was just passing the bar when two burly men, who smelled like they had just shared an entire keg, stepped in front of him. They did not look happy, which kind of made Caleb smile. He wasn’t immediately sure what he’d done to upset these guys, but he was eager to find out.

  “Can I help you with something, fellas?” Caleb asked with a polite smile.

  “You sure this is the guy, Kenny?” the taller of the two asked.

  “Yeah, John,” said his companion. “That’s the guy who was eyeing Stephanie.”

  Caleb saw Stephanie, the girl who had briefly caught his attention, out of the corner of his eye. She was sitting at a table with a couple of her girlfriends, watching him. She was grinning at him.

  Ah. Now Caleb was starting to get the picture.

  “You just made a huge mistake, runt,” John said.

  John was a big man, probably six-foot-five, and maybe about three hundred pounds. Caleb, on the other hand, was six-foot-two, and two hundred twenty pounds. This was one of the few times he’d ever been called a runt by anybody. He felt petty anger surging through him, but this guy was only human. He had to be very careful to keep the wolf at bay.

  “No, I think you just made one,” Caleb said. “But I’ll give you the chance to redeem yourself. Get out of my way unless you want to make another mistake.”

  John smiled. “Oh, this is going to be fun.”

  He swung his big, meaty right hand at Caleb, but Caleb had been expecting that—it was the most common way that drunken morons liked to start fights. The big knockout haymaker was always doomed to fail against a trained fighter, though. And the punch was destined to break a human’s hand if it actually connected with a shifter.

  Caleb ducked under the blow and brought up an uppercut to John’s chin. The man dropped to the floor unconscious, probably never knowing what had hit him or where it’d come from.

  Kenny was shocked to see his buddy go down so easily. A guy John’s size probably won most of his fights through sheer intimidation and the fact that he never fought alone.

  Kenny charged at Caleb with a loud guttural growl. Caleb smiled and sidestepped the charge, tripping Kenny forward by hooking his leg in front of his chins. Kenny fell against the bar, catching himself and stopping the momentum of his charge. Caleb didn’t wait for him to recover before stepping on Kenny’s knee and pinning it to the ground, which allowed Caleb to bring an elbow down on the bridge of his nose.

  Kenny collapsed to the ground, unconscious as well.

  When Caleb turned to Stephanie, she was staring at him with her mouth open in shock. This was probably not how she’d expected this to turn out. He smiled slightly and nodded at her before exiting the bar.

  A fight in a bar always ended up with someone calling the police, and so Caleb saw people running out of the place, afraid of the cops that might soon arrive, but Caleb knew the owner of the bar well, and this was not the first time he’d had to defend himself in a fight. But he was always able to keep the violence and the chaos, as well as the damage he caused, to a minimum. No one ever had any reason to say anything to him.

  As Caleb drove home, he found himself growing tired. It had been a long day, and all he wanted to do was plop down and drift off to sleep. He had to get some work done the next day, and he was already starting to dread getting out of bed in the morning to get his workout in before he did anything else. Even though he was a wolf and would always naturally be in great shape, he found that exercise really helped center him in the morning. It was his everyday routine, and he never deviated from it if he could help it.

  He wondered if Olivia was all right. He hadn’t meant to leave her alone for so long, but he needed to make an appearance every once in a while—otherwise, his pack would start worrying about him. Besides, he’d really needed some time away from the cabin. He was going a bit stir crazy. He could only imagine how Olivia was dealing with it.

  But she was tough. She was special. And as Caleb pulled into the long driveway leading to his log cabin, he knew that he was falling in love with her. He smiled at the thought.

  Love. Who would have imagined?

  5

  The next morning, Caleb awoke just as the sun was rising, put on his running shorts and shoes, and hit the trails. No matter how tired he was, and no matter how much he wanted to take those extra two hours that he devoted to his workouts to catch up on some sleep instead, he rarely ever let it happen. If he did not follow through with his daily routine, he ended up feeling sluggish and half-asleep all day.

  Although his routine was a fairly simple one, he knew many athletes who would have trouble finishing it. Caleb always started with a five-mile run, and then he came home to the gym he had set up in a spare bedroom. Afterwards, he would put work on lifting weights for about another hour. Finally, he would take a hot shower and fix his morning breakfast: a bowl of oatmeal with two servings of peanut butter, a protein-packed smoothie, and a cup of strong, black coffee.

  Ol
iva made her way out of the bedroom just as he was finishing his breakfast. Since she’d been there, he purchased some clothes for her that actually fit. That morning, she wore a t-shirt and sweatpants—and she looked adorable in them. Caleb tried not to leer at her as she grabbed a mug and poured some coffee into it.

  “How’d you sleep?” he asked her.

  Olivia yawned. “Not well. I kept having all these weird dreams. I must have woken up about twenty times.”

  Caleb grimaced in sympathy. “Oh, that’s rough. I hope I didn’t wake you.”

  “No,” Olivia said. “I guess I was passed out when you came in. Did you have a good time last night?”

  “Yeah,” Caleb replied, “I did. It was good to see Cliff again. He’s a good friend of mine.”

  Olivia smiled. “That’s good!” She took a sip from her mug of coffee. “Man, I can’t wait until I can go out and enjoy a good meal. I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve been out of this cabin. But then again, everything before that is a total blank.”

  “Well, you are welcome to venture out anytime you feel up to it,” Caleb told her.

  “I know,” she said. “I do feel a bit stronger today, so I might take up that offer!”

  Caleb smiled. “Are you hungry? I could whip up some breakfast for you.”

  “No, thanks, I’m not hungry.”

  “All right, then,” Caleb said, standing up from his seat. “You ready to get to work?”

  Olivia looked at him incredulously. “You never stop, do you?”

  Caleb shrugged his shoulders. “It’s the only way to get things done.”

  Ten minutes later, Olivia was doing pushups as Caleb knelt down beside her, giving her a few tips. He was impressed with how much more energy she seemed to have today.