He gasped in mock offense and hopped up on the beam facing me, swinging his stick around. “Rude, Zee.”
“What’s wrong? Your big, bad ego can’t handle it?”
“You’re about to see exactly what my big, bad ego can handle.”
The side of his lips curled up in a smirk I planned to wipe the floor with.
The pugil sticks were about six feet long with dense foam padding on either side that had grown worn and lumpy with age. As Mackiel and I squared off, he aimed his weapon at me accusingly. “No shots in the junk. I mean it.”
Fighting back my grin, I nodded. “Okay, fine. Boobs are off-limits, too.”
His gaze predictably dropped to my chest, and I used the distraction to attack. Sliding in under his outstretched stick, I whacked his front leg and jumped back. He countered in time to barely graze my shoulder. When I straightened, he winced.
I shrugged my shoulder. “Was that supposed to hurt?”
“Not yet. I’m just warming up.” He launched himself at me.
I threw my stick up in time to deflect. The instant his downward motion halted, I jabbed, nailing him in the arm. With no momentum, my attack didn’t have enough force behind it to do any damage. He countered, and I took a blow to the hip.Ouch.That one stung. Time to stop messing around. He swung his stick around, but this time, I blocked. Reverberations jarred my arms.
“Really?” I asked, surprised by how much weight he’d put behind the strike. “That’s how you’re gonna play it?”
He grinned. “If you can’t handle the heat, feel free to step out of my kitchen.”
“Yourkitchen? Not today. In fact, not ever.” I threw a stiff jab at his stomach. He blocked, knocking my stick away and testing my balance. As I wobbled, he attacked again, but I recovered and ducked. He overextended, and I swung upward, grazing his chin.
I fought him for more than an hour, but in the end, Mack won, and I was all too happy to admit defeat.
A SCIENCE EXPERIMENT
Ziara
Before the war, Aunt Sereana lived on the east side of I-5, in a suburb that was now on the Mondeine side of the boundary. When mages fractured the land and outlawed magic within Mondeine territory, Sereana fled her home, trespassing into our district while it was still covered in deadly silver dust. The pack would normally slay anyone foolish enough to breach our borders, but the need for someone capable of neutralizing and removing the toxic powder outweighed the offense. The witch had taken the job in exchange for Pike Place Market, where she’d lived ever since. Between fully equipped restaurant kitchens and a workable rooftop garden, the once-thriving downtown storefront fulfilled all her nefarious, witchy needs. As a bonus, it also offered a breathtaking view of Puget Sound, the estuary connecting Seattle’s rivers to the ocean.
Mack let out a low whistle as the old market came into view. By necessity, I begrudgingly darkened this doorway once a month, but as far as I knew, Sereana had let no one other than me, Dad, and his beta enter. Tonight, Mack had been ordered to accompany me, and while he’d known about my monthly visits for years,the idea of him getting a front-row seat to the torture of my binding had been steadily twisting my gut into knots.
Surely Dad wouldn’t let Mack into the shed….
Judging by the apprehension in his scent and the way his shoulders grew progressively tighter the closer we got, Mack didn’t want to be here either.
I eyed him. “Maybe you should ask the alpha if you can sit this one out.”
“Not a chance.” Determination straightened his spine. “But I’m not gonna lie. This place creeps me the fuck out.”
“As it should.” I hitched my backpack up on my shoulders. “Sereana’s not exactly sunshine and rainbows.”
He snorted. The hair on his arms darkened, and I could almost see the shadow of his wolf, hackles raised, a snarl tugging at his lips. “My skin feels like it’s about to crawl off my body. How the hell do you fight your instincts every month to go in there?”
A humorless bark of laughter escaped from my throat. “You think this is bad? You’re in for a long night.”
His attention snapped to my face. “You’re serious.”
“I am.” I headed for the front door, as a lump of concern settled in my gut. Not for myself—I’d been through this shit-show too many times to count—but Mack would need to show a level of control I wasn’t sure he possessed.
He caught up before I had crossed the street.
I kept my expression blank, wondering what Dad had been thinking by sending him to witness this horror. Would my boyfriend look at me differently after tonight? Would he ever want to touch me again? Hell, would he even survive the ordeal?
Stopping in the middle of the street, I laid out expectations. “No matter what happens, I need you to be cool.”
