by Tamara White
Duncan nudges me softly toward his sons where they are all standing, staring at us. “Maybe you should go over there and introduce yourself. Fresh meat might be good for them.”
My father is watching me with a barely concealed smirk. He knows guys aren’t part of my life for obvious reasons, but he’s not too stupid to see that his friend is trying to set me up with one of his sons. I’m not sure which one though. But the tone behind his ‘fresh meat’ comment was said with too much inuendo for me to believe it was an innocent statement.
I can’t afford to get involved with anyone, let alone hunters. It would risk people finding out my secret, and that’s definitely not something that can happen.
I bet my father finds this dilemma utterly thrilling. He’s never going to let me live down my initial reaction to Duncan’s eldest son or the way his father is acting like matchmaker.
Especially not since I’ve made his life a living hell with his girlfriends.
“Jay, I think we should let Eliza here have a round with Ash,” Duncan suggests. “He needs to be shown just how weak he’s let himself become. Maybe if a girl can kick his ass, he’ll actually apply himself when it comes time to train.”
Ash, the guy from my homeroom and the person dating the queen bee of my school, looks over at me like I couldn’t possibly be a threat. “Dad, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I could hurt her.”
I bristle, pissed that he thinks just like his girlfriend. As if I am some weak little twit who’s incapable of protecting herself. “No, I’m good. What do you say, Ash? Think your male ego can handle you getting your ass handed to you by a girl?”
Even fighting as a human, I think I’d be more than capable of whooping his ass, and his arrogant ass definitely deserves it.
Duncan glances between Ash and me with confusion. “Do you two know each other?”
I cock my head, waiting for Ash to explain, only he doesn’t. His cheeks are flushed with embarrassment or possibly anger. But I have no frigging clue why.
After waiting a good minute for him to say something, I sigh and explain, my gaze going meaningfully to my father. “His girlfriend tried to make me her bitch at lunch, but I made sure she understood that would never happen.”
It goes quiet, and I look back at Ash with narrowed eyes. From the death glare aimed my way, Ash either didn’t tell his father that he was dating someone or that the girl he was seeing was a grade A bitch. Not my problem though.
I try to be as honest as I can with my father. If Ash decides to keep secrets from his family, then that’s his dilemma.
Ignoring everyone, I move to the edge of the mat and kick off my flip-flops, ready to deliver a little ass whooping. Since I can’t exactly beat the shit out of his girlfriend, maybe I can channel a little of that rage into this match. Considering he’s already proven himself weak to his family, I can beat him and still lose a fight to his siblings and not have to worry too much about backlash down the line.
I smile at Ash, my body pumping with adrenaline as he moves into position. I raise my fists in the stance Dad taught me and prepare myself mentally to not release the control I have on my wolf. “Ready when you are.”
Chapter Five
I’m bouncing on the balls of my feet as adrenaline surges through my body. As much as I know I have to be weak, my wolf nature is fighting me, wanting me to give it my all.
That’s mainly due to my emotional attachment to this. If I hadn’t met his little girlfriend, and she wasn’t a total fucking snob, then maybe I would be able to compartmentalize my feelings better. Instead, they’re all over the place, which is never a good thing when you’re in a fight.
Dad is watching with a small smile. “You’ve got this,” he mutters under his breath. He knows I can hear pretty much anything and everything being said.
I throw a wink his way.
“One breath in, one breath out. You control it, it doesn’t control you,” he murmurs softly, and I do as he says.
He knows my instincts are riding me hard right now. He’s seen it many times before and knows what to look for.
Most days the wolf side is easy to ignore, but sometimes I can’t fight that urge to dominate people, to rip them to shreds. Maybe once I defeat this guy, then my other side will be a little calmer.
Jayden, the older son, steps between us, his eyes going back and forth between Ash and me. “Ash knows the rules when I’m in charge of training, but since you’re new, I’ll explain them for you.”
I nod, waiting patiently.
“Tyler, off the mat.” The other brother whose name I didn’t know moves off the mat to stand between Duncan and my father. He brushes his soft brown hair from his face and grins at me, mouthing, “Good luck.”
I’m not sure if it’s meant in a sarcastic tone, like he thinks I can’t take on his brother, or if it’s actually an honest well-wishing good luck.
“Right, so the rules are simple,” Jayden begins, drawing my attention from his brother. “As long as you don’t do permanent harm, pretty much anything goes. No broken bones, no head injuries and such. Since the whole point of training is to defend yourself against a wolf shifter, you can use any means necessary to disable your opponent. Bite him, kick him in the nuts, put him in a headlock, it doesn’t matter. Just don’t cause harm he can’t easily recover from within a day or two.”
“Really, Jay? You’re gonna have her kick me in the nuts? I can’t recover from that!”
I snort, doing my best not to erupt into giggles. Poor dude must have pissed Jay off if he’s allowing me the chance to take a shot at his brother’s balls.
“Fine,” Jayden acquiesces with an exaggerated sigh. “No shots to the prince’s royal jewels.”
I nod, a grin growing as a thought pops into my mind. The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them. “If he takes a titty shot, though, all rules are off the table.”
Silence reigns after my statement until my father’s laughter booms from the deck. “Trust my child to be the one to say it,” he comments between wheezes of laughter.
I grin over at Dad. “Well, it was a little sexist to say no shots to his balls if he wasn’t going to make my tits off limits. A shot to the boob hurts. Maybe not as much as a kick to the nuts, but it still fucking hurts.”
Jayden is staring at me like I’m an anomaly he can’t quite figure out. I was always told by others that sometimes I act strangely. Maybe this is what they were talking about? Oh well.
Jayden clears his throat, his eyes roaming over me in perusal. “Well then, let’s get this match going, shall we?”
He backs away, leaving Ash and me on this mat, facing each other. I kind of feel sorry for the guy being forced into training against me. I’m stronger than he realizes, thanks to my other nature, but he doesn’t know that. He probably just assumes I’m a regular girl, therefore unable to defend myself. At least that’s what his eyes say as he studies me.
He doesn’t watch me for long before he lunges.
I roll my eyes, dodging him easily, and end up standing in the spot where he began with him now where I was.
Observing him, I try to figure out what weaknesses he has other than a lack of commitment and a willingness to jump without thinking. His blue eyes narrow on me, his annoyance clear.
Suddenly, he lunges at me again, and I move slightly to the side. I put my foot in his path, using his own momentum to trip him and send him sprawling to the ground. I turn, not giving him my back as I stare down in disappointment. He’s not even a good match for a human.
Jayden whispers to someone, possibly his father. “Should we call it? She did send him to the ground.”
Duncan responds in low tones. “No, this time is different. Ash needs this. He has to understand.”
Hmm, so falling to the mat is an automatic end, but his father doesn’t want the match to be over. What on earth has Ash done to have his father subject him to this?
“You think that will get him to man up? We’ve tried before, bu
t he still hasn’t applied himself.” Jayden’s voice is filled with doubt and concern. He must not like this any more than I do. Training someone to help them learn is one thing, but to put them in a training match just to prove a point is a little cold, even for me.
“He’s never trained with a female before. And this girl is not just a hunter, but a beautiful one at that. If she takes him down, it will eat away at his confidence, and hopefully that will be the tipping point to get him to work so he’s never beaten again.”
Wow. Despite seeming kind when I first met him, his father sounds like a mega fucking douche right now. He wants me to beat his son because being beaten by a decent-looking girl will destroy his self-confidence? Who does that? And the sad thing is, if I win, they’ll continue to bring it up so he’s forced to apply himself in training.
Ash gets to his feet, his right eye twitching in anger. I guess he didn’t expect me to be able to dodge him so easily. I can see revenge in his eyes, but he won’t beat me. He’s too weak, too untrained. He barely knows what he’s doing. And even after what his father and brother said, part of me thinks he truly does need to be beaten. Not for the reason his father thinks, but because I believe that when you’ve been beaten, you learn from your mistakes.
Many times when Dad and I trained, he would always surprise me with something that would have him winning our fights, and I appreciated it because it made me learn.
One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that in a fight for your life, anything can happen.
I pretend to take a step to the right, and Ash immediately attacks. He misses me completely, and I move quickly, grabbing him by the arm and bringing it up and around behind his back. He cries out from the pressure on his elbow caused by the awkward position.
In an instant, I let go and push Ash away from me.
He scrambles around, ready to come at me again. His face is flushed bright red, his anger and embarrassment obvious even without the death glare he’s giving me.
“Stop falling for my tricks,” I growl in annoyance.
He’s making this too easy for me. His family is watching, and the last thing I want is for him to be humiliated, but if the stuff they’re teaching him isn’t sinking in, then I figure it’s probably a good idea if I give him a few tips.
“What?” he asks, stopping short.
“I keep faking, and you keep falling for it. The first rule my dad ever taught me is that wolves are tricky creatures. They aren’t going to act like humans, which means they’ll be unpredictable. He made sure that I learned to be erratic too. Watch the way I move and try and predict where I’ll go based on everything else in my body, not my feet. My old gym teacher, for example. When we played dodgeball, he’d aim at the right side of the room with the ball, but his left hand always twitched when he would aim in the middle of the room. His eyes would focus on the roof if he was going to throw to the left. If you only watch my feet, you’ll miss everything else.”
Ash listened intently to my words and even nodded along as if he understood what I was saying.
Once again I move, pretending to go to the left this time. He watches but is unable to stop me when I attack. He dodges a punch to the jaw, just barely, and stumbles away. He doesn’t let me relax though, instantly going on the offensive. I deflect the blows he aims my way and try not to smile. He’s actually watching me with each punch he’s taking. He’s studying the motions, and now that he’s finally getting the hang of this, I decide to end it.
I let his punch land on my shoulder so he thinks he was actually half good. He’s so thrilled his hit got through my defenses, he doesn’t see my swing coming. Unlike his punch, though, my shot is well placed and hits him square in the jaw.
He falls backwards, landing on his back on the soft blue mat. He just lies there, completely stunned by my hit.
I move to stand over Ash who’s looking up at the porch roof in a daze. “Nice try, dude, but you got cocky.”
“Yeah, but it’s the first time I’ve landed a hit on someone in over a year, so I’ll take that win.”
I shake my head, regretting letting him land the shot. I offer him a hand to help him to his feet, which he gratefully accepts.
I haul him up and let go of his hand quickly when slow clapping starts behind us.
Of course his father is clapping. Seriously, could the guy be any crueler? Why isn’t he teaching his son the basics? The stuff I told Ash were some of the first things Dad ever explained to me. He taught me about action and reaction, that instincts guided most people, and that everyone has a tell. Why was Ash surprised by that knowledge when I told him?
It screams of a lack of training, and it’s really fricking sad. He will die out in the real world if they aren’t teaching him properly.
“Well done, Eliza. I’m very impressed by how much you’ve learned. It seems your father is a good trainer too. Maybe we should have some group lessons in the future? You seemed to have a good effect on Ash, well, at least a better effect than I or his brothers have had. Maybe you could help him learn a little faster,” he muses excitedly.
My wolf is angry for the way this man is belittling his child in front of everyone. Fair enough if he talks down to his son when no one else is around. It’s not my business how he raises his child. But to openly make these comments in front of people his child just met? It’s mean.
While his brothers mock him for losing to a girl, I watch Ash, noticing his expression as it shifts from elation at landing a hit, to defeated at their taunts. It honestly makes me feel sorry for him. No wonder he lets the cheerleader boss him around. If he’s treated like this at home, then he’s probably used to being bullied by others.
I have to wonder if Ash even wants to be a hunter though. He obviously hasn’t applied himself to whatever training they’ve been trying to get him to do, so why force him?
If he truly doesn’t want to be a hunter, his father should accept that and move on already. Clinging to the hope his child will follow in his footsteps and honor the family legacy is just pointless and will only lead to Ash resenting his family for their interference in his life.
He should be free to choose what he wants to do.
My dad answers for me since he can see the anger building within me. My hands are clenched at my sides as I struggle to maintain control of my rage. Dad knows how I feel about bullies, and he knows I’m not one to let that shit lie.
From the corner of my eye, I see Dad turn Duncan away from me so he won’t see the same things my father has. “We can talk about it at a later date. For now, we should leave the kids to get acquainted. I have some business we need to discuss anyway.”
All of the boys look at my father curiously, but I don’t bother. I know he simply wants to tell Duncan that we won’t be available to hunt on the night of the full moon because we already have plans. The story we give every hunter we come across is that we don’t hunt in our hometown unless there is concrete proof of a wolf. We say we don’t like to draw suspicion from the locals unless our talents are specifically needed.
The real reason, though, is that Dad doesn’t like me being in town on the full moon in case I do go wild like my brethren. Not that it’s happened yet.
From all the research Dad has done, it turns out that wolves are pretty much wild animals when the moon forces them to change. My shift at a full moon, however, is different.
It’s a little more painful than a controlled shift for sure, but I don’t go completely rabid. I’m still present in my mind and capable of making choices. I don’t know what makes me different, but I’m glad I am.
Duncan glances around at his sons and me, basically dismissing us with his eyes. “Jay, Ash, and Ty, make Eliza feel at home, would ya?” He gives me a soft smile that I assume is meant to be comforting. “If you need anything, honey, we’ll be over by the grill.” He points at the grill I noticed when we first came out here. “Maybe you boys could show her around the house?” Duncan suggests offhandedly before turning away as if i
t doesn’t matter whether we object to it or not.
Wow.
If my father did that to me, I would be raising some serious hell. None of the guys seem bothered though, like their father dismisses them frequently.
I smile wickedly at the three guys, determined to stop the taunting of Ash by messing with them a little. “So, who’s up for an orgy?”
Chapter Six
All three of them are staring at me, completely gobsmacked.
I put a hand on my hip and tap my foot impatiently. “Well? I don’t have all day.”
Jayden’s mouth opens and closes, but only a squeak makes it past his lips. He’s completely lost for words.
Unable to take it anymore, giggles erupt from me, and I have to hold my stomach to fight full-blown laughter.
“You should have seen your faces,” I wheeze, feeling lighter than air.
“Wait, what?” Tyler asks, his eyes wide and uncomprehending.
“Oh relax, dude. I was only joking.” Kind of. I mean, they are pretty damn attractive, but I’m not going to jump into bed with people I just met, let alone with brothers who happen to be wolf hunters.
Ash lets out a sigh of relief. His eyes suddenly light up and a grin surfaces. “As if you could handle all this,” he teases, his eyes sparkling with mirth.
Jayden and his other brother swing their gazes to him in shock. Whether it’s his words or his playful nature or maybe both, I’m not sure, but I like a joking Ash better than the silent guy who’s hiding behind his girlfriend.
“Sorry, Ash, but I’m kinda already dealing with your girl, so there’s no way in hell I’m going to do anything that will paint a bigger target on my back, thank you very much.”
His expression immediately morphs into a scowl. “Oh, yeah. How do you plan to handle that situation? Hannah is not exactly known for letting things go.”
“Wait, you’re dating Hannah?” Ty questions with a shudder. “Man, what’s wrong with you? Her of all people? You’d be better off dating a sewer rat. At least you’d be treated better.”