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She bent over and picked up the broken half. She stood slowly and banged the two pieces together twice before testing their weight. “Huh. This works too.”
And then she was moving again, bringing down the staff in her right hand first. I went left. But she was there with the other staff, and I barely moved out of the way in time. She jumped back, and before I could recover, she moved in again. Against my better judgment, I was impressed. She flung her arm out in a flat arc and I ducked, going down to one knee.
That was a mistake.
She used my position to launch herself off me, her right foot on my thigh as she jumped over me. I didn’t have time to turn before she brought down one of those fucking sticks on the back of my head. I grunted as I fell forward, stars flashing angrily across my vision. I was down on my hands and knees, and she stood above me, pointing a broken piece of her staff at my head.
She was panting, but her smile was wild and beautiful. “Not bad. Still could use some work.”
I nodded, and she held out a hand to help me up.
I took it.
Ox said, “Good. That was good, both of you. Carter.”
I barely had time to recover before Carter bellowed and rushed toward me.
“Oh no,” I whispered before a wall of muscle knocked me off my feet.
Chris and Tanner moved as a team (“An absolute unit!” Rico announced grandly), and it wasn’t hard to see that they fed off each other. They always seemed aware of where the other was, and I thought about pulling my punches with them but was convinced not to hold back when Chris picked me up over his head and slammed me down onto the ground like he was some kind of fucking wrestler. I bounced heavily and lay there, blinking up at the sky. They stood above me, silhouetted by the sun.
“You gonna just stay down?” Chris asked.
“Yes,” I managed to say. “If it’s all the same to you, I think I’m okay where I’m at.”
“Nah,” Tanner said. “I’m not done.”
“Oh. Well, since you put it that way. Fuck you.”
It went on for a few more minutes before Joe said, “Enough.”
By then it had devolved into an all-out brawl, and Tanner had me in a headlock while Chris was trying to climb onto my back to punch my kidneys. We all stopped immediately, staring at the Alphas, breathing heavily.
Ox and Joe were watching me, arms across their chests. Chris jumped off me, and Tanner removed his chokehold. I sucked in a breath, my throat sore. “Are you sure?” I panted. “Because I could do this all day.”
“You’re crying,” Chris pointed out.
“I’m not crying. My eyes are sweating!”
He patted me on the top of the head. “Uh-huh. Keep telling yourself that.”
“Children,” Mark said, looking toward the sky with his secret smile.
Gordo snorted. “You’re just pissed off he got a hit in.”
“Head back to the house,” Ox said. “You’re free for the rest of the day.”
Thank Christ. I wanted to find a tree to collapse under and stay there for the rest of my life. I was probably going to die.
“Not you,” Ox said as I tried to slink away. “Kelly, Chris, Tanner, you all stay too.”
Rico frowned. “Alfa, maybe we should—” He stopped when Ox shook his head. He shot me a glare before spinning on his heels and stalking back toward the house.
“What a little bitch,” Chris muttered.
“Don’t worry about him,” Tanner told me. “He’ll come around. I think.”
The others began to drift away, following Rico. Elizabeth and Jessie giggled with each other, looking back at me before laughing again.
