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“You mean…in jail?” Landon’s head was cocked to the side as he questioned me for the fourth time.
We were in Bale’s private training rooms. Cass was with her mother. They’d taken some of the pack to the nearest human city to get supplies and have a girls’ day. I couldn’t think of anything worse, so I hadn’t hesitated when Landon suggested we sneak into his father’s training room and train. Like my brother, Landon had no issue with me learning to be a better fighter.
“If I continue to say yes, will you suddenly believe me?” I snapped at him as I hit the punching bag in front of me with a sidekick as we trained.
“I don’t even know, if you wrote it down and I could see it in black and white, that I would still believe it.” He scratched his head as he looked me over. “Seriously?”
My second kick knocked him off his feet as he was holding the bag, and I watched with glee as he barely caught himself in time to land gracefully in a crouch.
“By the Goddess, Kez, there’s no need to be violent,” he exclaimed as he straightened himself. “I get it. Your brother’s a hairy ball sack.” Landon approached the punching bag again, looking at me warily. “Kicks and punches to the bag only, okay? Leave a friend’s body parts alone.”
Scrunching my nose as I looked him up and down, I cocked my head to the side, mimicking his earlier pose. “Friends?”
“Mercy, you must definitely be close to your heat,” he muttered as he took hold of the bag. The force of my combination punch and kick had him stepping back from me. “I’m done, I’m calling it. Go find someone else to bruise!”
“Chicken.”
“I can kick your ass,” he warned as he sized me up. “You know I’m bigger, better, and stronger. I’m not being a dick. It is what it is.”
Maybe I was close to my heat because I knew what he said he believed to be true, but it didn’t stop me from grinning as I took a step forward.
“Don’t pull your punches, and I won’t pull mine,” I told him, eager for him to say yes to this. Normally, I would acknowledge he could beat me to a pulp without even trying, but today? Today, I could almost smell the spilled blood on the mat before it was even shed.
Landon looked at me, the speculative gleam in his eye letting me know he was considering it. He quickly glanced over his shoulder, checking we were alone in the training room. The pack was in a flurry of activity for the forthcoming visitors, and my brother may be a colossal ass, but he had let me off duties, citing it was unnecessarily cruel to let me pitch in and not be able to enjoy the festivities. The shaman had tested me again this morning and confirmed my heat would likely land at the same time as the ball.
Because he was Landon, he had somehow talked his father into agreeing it was unwise to let me wallow in misery alone. I wasn’t miserable. I was joyous. The pack was thrumming with activity, and here I was in the training rooms, alone and unhindered, allowing me time to sharpen my skills with no prying eyes or judgment from my peers.
Okay, I was with one of my best friends, but Landon didn’t count. He never judged me for being who I was. He didn’t care that I’d been wild and untamed when I joined the pack. He didn’t care that I was a miserable hunter when human because he knew I more than made up for it when I was free with my wolf.
“You’re thinking about it,” I said with excitement as he turned to look back at the door again. The training rooms were below ground. Secluded. Passers-by wouldn’t see us.
Landon gave me a mischievous wink as he crossed to the training room door. “You tell anyone, I’ll deny it,” he warned as he turned the simple lock.
He was really going to do it!
He was going to spar with me in human form as an equal. My nerves felt pulled too tight, and my heart fluttered too fast with adrenaline and fear, but the exhilaration was already wrapping itself around me. I was bouncing on my feet as he walked over to the center of the room, taking off his T-shirt and tossing it to the side.
His abs caught my attention, and I shook my head. When in the name of the Goddess had I ever been interested in Landon’s abs? He was like Kris, a brother, only Landon was marginally more tolerable. But as the artificial light showed off his body, I watched as the light played off his shoulders, over the curve of his biceps, and across his pecs. When did my best friend grow into this man?
“You’re having doubts?” Landon said to me in disappointment as he stopped himself from kicking off his sneakers. “I knew you’d bail.”
Snapping my eyes off his six-pack, I wagged my head rapidly. “No!” I shouted and cursed myself when his eyes widened at my outburst. “No, I’m just wondering if we should strap our hands?” I held up my hands, and Landon laughed at me.
“Hell no, bare knuckles, girl. If you want to take on a man, then you fight like a man,” he teased as he tossed his sneakers to the side. “Unless, of course, you want to stop?” Landon straightened, and once again, my attention caught on his physique.
Seriously, this was Landon. Why was I noticing the fine golden hair lightly scattered from his belly button to his shorts waistband?
“Kez, why are you looking at me like that?” he asked me hesitantly as he looked down at his chest. “What’s wrong?”
“When did you get buff?” I asked as I finished taking my strappings off my hands.
Landon laughed hard. “Buff? What the hell?” He pulled his arms back as he stretched. “And who are you saying is buff? Have you seen the abs you’re sporting? Or those biceps? I may feel these punches,” he told me good-naturedly.
“Feel them?” I taunted, “I’m going to make you bleed.”
Landon’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “First one to bleed wins?”
As if. “Pfft. First one to tap out loses.”
