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“Right, everyone, let’s get started,” my brother said.
At Kyle’s prompting, I joined him in demonstrating various training techniques and exercises. We started our workout session by incorporating a basic circuit warm-up set. I didn’t need to be reminded of the moves; it was an old dance, one I’d done hundreds if not thousands of times when I was in training.
Kyle looked out at the curious shifters, his voice steady, and it carried out across the clearing, “First, Tori is going to begin with thirty seconds of jumping jacks to get the heart rate up and the blood flowing through the body.” He glanced at his watch and nodded.
As I moved, I heard some of the shifters around me grumbling and complaining. “This is a joke. The hunters aren’t going to let us warm up before they take us down,” one of the shifters grumbled.
Kyle soon put him straight. “It’s important to start with the basics and do them right. If you don’t have a fundamental understanding of your body, if you don’t warm up properly, you’ll injure yourselves easier, and then you can’t learn the more specialized movements. You won’t be able to even run from a hunter. I’m not saying you’ll get a thirty-minute warning of an attack so you can warm up and be ready—we all know that’s not the case. But muscle memory comes into play in a fight-or-flight situation. The fitter you are, the better chance you have to get away from your attacker, or take them down without injuring yourselves. I’ll instruct you, but only after you’ve mastered the fundamentals.”
Kyle gave me a signal, letting me know the thirty seconds were up, and I moved into the next exercise in the set. With every new movement, Kyle explained the reasoning behind each one. “Arm circles help to mobilize and warm up the shoulder joints. To prepare the lower body, Tori will demonstrate leg swings. Leg swings are effective in stretching and activating the hip flexors and hamstrings. Last, torso twists, moving ten to theleft and ten to the right. This exercise works the oblique muscles and improves spinal mobility and flexibility.”
Finally, we moved into a high cardio three by five—three separate exercises, five minutes each. I pushed myself through—five minutes running on the spot, then jumping jacks and finally burpees. It had been a while since I’d done a really physical workout, and I was quickly out of breath, sweat running into my eyes. Kyle was relentless, pushing me. He knew exactly what I was capable of and wanted to show the onlookers exactly what they could expect. As the group engaged and began training alongside me, more and more shifters arrived. I was pleased to see that some were even from other packs.
Kyle moved between each shifter, encouraging them, explaining a technique or a limb placement. Once I’d finished my set, I stood to one side and watched as he began moving into more technical movements—sprawls and short drills. It certainly took me back. In those days, it had been to keep our father from punishing me for showing him up. He’d expected Kyle and me to excel in everything he asked of us. Kyle always did. Me, not so much. With what little free time he had, Kyle worked with me, pushing me relentlessly through the same sets he was teaching these shifters.
Pride swept over me as I watched them learn and practice. I hated my role as a hunter-in-training, and who my father was among the hunters, but taking a proactive stance with Kyle eased some of the guilt rooted inside me. Kyle was right. The shifters needed to understand how hunters operated if they wanted to stand a better chance against them.
Suddenly, desire coiled in my belly as Ridge arrived. I didn’t need to see him to be aware of him—my body hummed whenever he was in the vicinity. What a heady experience it was. Ridge’s mere presence distracted me, making me yearn to have his arms around me.
We only had eyes for each other. As I took in his commanding presence, there was no doubt that my eyes were blazing with lust, or of the sinful thoughts playing behind his. Catching my breath, I imagined what we would be doing if we were alone, but I forced myself to focus on the task at hand and shook my head to clear it of the images of his naked body.
“Really?” Kyle said as he walked up behind me. I turned and caught him rolling his eyes. “You and I should spar. And watch those moony eyes of yours, because fair warning, Tori, I am not going easy on you.”
Past sparring sessions reared up in my head. “You never took it easy on anyone, especially me, during our training sessions,” I pointed out with a laugh.
Kyle’s jaw clenched. I was well-aware of how much he’d hated having to be harsh with me, but he’d done it to make sure I’d be ready for a fight and so that neither of us would have to face our father’s wrath. If Kyle and I hadn’t given it our all, the aftermath would’ve been more dire and gruesome than our sparring sessions.
However, whenever I looked back on it, I was grateful. The training had helped me when I was on the run. There was no way I would have survived if I hadn’t had the training jammed down my throat. It was strange how I’d despised something so much while doing it, only to look back and have an appreciation for it. It didn’t change how I looked at my past and how I viewed my father, but I was thankful for the knowledge.
“Then let’s do this.” He took on a fighting stance. “Do you need to stretch and prep first?”
“Bring it on.” I matched his stance.
We circled each other and did light tapping hits, getting reacquainted with each other. I instigated an offensive hit, and we exchanged blows, ducked, and countered, the thrill of the fight coursing through my veins. My brother and I were nowherenear our normal speed; we danced around and laughed. We both held back our punches, but the shifters watched intently as we sparred, their eyes filled with curiosity and respect.
Ridge’s gaze burned into my skin, and I wanted to show him what I was capable of. I wanted to prove it to everybody here. Despite Kyle’s and my shared past, I focused on my brother’s every move, determined to give it my all and prove how far I’d come.
As our playful fight intensified, Kyle and I continued to circle each other, our movements growing faster and more aggressive. Sweat beaded on our foreheads, but we never broke our concentration. It had been over four years since we had done this, yet it felt like home to me. The familiar dance of fists and feet, the adrenaline pumping through my veins—this was where I belonged. Perhaps I was meant to assist shifters, and that was how I’d ended up at this point in my life. It made enduring my past a little easier to accept.
There was a shift among the wolves watching us, and amid their murmurs, I heard them asking if I had the same training Kyle had. My skills were a testament to the fact I had a better chance of taking Kyle down than Clawson ever had at the shifter meeting the other day. I worried if this could mean my banishment or worse troubles for Ridge, but I didn’t let those thoughts consume me. The shifters’ intrigue was palpable, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off Kyle, not even for a second. We might have been play-fighting, but one wrong move could lead to injury.
“Come on, Tori!” I heard a shifter cheer. I grinned as I continued to trade blows with Kyle, then risked a brief glance over at Ridge.
His gaze locked onto mine, filled with admiration and love. Our connection, our unbreakable bond, spurred me on even more.
“Nice one, Tori,” Kyle said as I landed a solid hit, sending him stumbling back a step. He recovered quickly, lunging forward with a fierce combination of punches. I parried each one, my body instinctively reacting to his movements. My muscle memory was fully active.
“Thanks,” I shot back, smirking as I dodged his next attack. I used his momentum against him, sweeping my leg under his, causing him to lose his balance. He caught himself in time, spinning around to face me with narrowed eyes.
“That all you got?” he taunted, a wicked grin spreading across his face.
I gave him a wicked grin of my own. “Hardly. We’re just getting started.”
With a surge of energy, I launched into another flurry of attacks. Kyle and I exchanged strike after strike as the shifters cheered us on. I was happy to hear that most of them were cheering my name.
“Come on, Tori, you can do better than that,” Kyle taunted again, his smug grin widening as he blocked my kick with ease. He thought he had this in the bag, but I wasn’t about to let him win without a solid fight. He’d have to earn it.
Determination fueled my movements, and I gritted my teeth as we danced around each other. Each strike grew faster and more powerful, our bodies moving in sync like two wolves locked in a heated battle because, with Kyle’s enhancements, it was exactly like that. Sweat trickled down my forehead. I ignored it, focusing solely on the exhilarating fight before me. Around us, the shifters roared, charging the atmosphere with electricity.
