Page 86 of Can't Be Love

“Wanda Larken is ruthless. She’s going to come at you with all she’s got, and she won’t be looking to play fair,” Clay added.

“We’re here to make certain you’re ready,” Emmett explained.

“Yeah, I was talking to Thomas this morning, and our boy is losing his shit over this battle. I’m sure you’ve trained for this, probably your whole life, and no offense to Lizzy, but walking through basic combat moves isn’t going to cut it. We need to see for ourselves where you stand. We won’t go easy on you because Wanda won’t tomorrow. We have less than twenty-four hours to guarantee you are ready, and make no mistake, you will be ready,” James said. I suspected he was trying to intimidate me, like they didn’t think I was taking it seriously or anything. I’d show them.

“You’re on. Who’s up first?” I challenged, to their surprise.

“Austin,” James said. “Enjoy your lunch, warm up, and prepare to fight Austin. I’ll referee. Austin, when you hear that whistle blow, you back it down immediately. Are we clear?”

Austin nodded with a smirk. I quickly assessed he was a cocky show-off. I suspected by his build and easy gait that he was agile and likely quick on his feet.

“Wait,” I said, as I was strategically thinking through the scenario. “Are we fighting in human form or wolf?”

“You’ll be expected to fight in wolf form tomorrow,” James reminded me.

“So wolf it is then,” I said, finishing the last bites of my sandwich and getting up to stretch out the kinks of my morning workout. My wolf was already primed and ready to be set free. Austin might not go easy on me, but he had no idea what I was truly capable of either. I already knew that my biggest advantage was their underestimation of me and I was counting on that being the case with Wanda tomorrow as well.

Austin warmed up mostly by flirting with a few cute girls who were watching. I rolled my eyes at him, but didn’t let it dull my concentration. When the time came, I stripped out of my clothes and shifted quickly to my wolf as I watched him do the same. He had a large grey wolf. I knew most of the wolves of Collier Pack were grey, making my white one stand out.

Our makeshift arena was a round, fenced in area they used to break in wild horses. James called us to the center and had us bow towards each other since it was too late to shake hands. He listed off some safety rules, clearly favoring the reminder towards Austin, the biggest of which was not to kill me.Thanks, James.

When he blew his whistle and jumped back out of the way, I hung back and let Austin come to me. As I had predicted, he was fast on his feet, showing off with quick movements meant to intimidate me. I held my position and waited. He looked towards the girls for only a second and I sprang into action. It took no effort to pin him to the ground and sink my teeth into his vulnerable neck with just enough pressure to let him know I wasn’t playing around.

James blew the whistle to end the match as I backed away. Austin’s eyes were filled with confusion when he stood and shifted back to human form, to the delight of his fans. Emmett jumped the fence and came our way.

“Mama wants to play, we’ll play. I’m next.”

I nodded as Austin left the paddock to face his friends, who were already heckling him for losing so quickly to a girl. I ignored them, focusing instead on Emmett, who had already shifted. His wolf was much larger than mine. From size alone, I knew he wouldn’t be as fast on his feet as Austin had been, but he was far stronger.

When James blew his whistle this time, I didn’t stay put. Instead I began circling Emmett slowly, assessing his movements and watching for his weaknesses. He wasn’t going to go down easily, that much I was certain of. He started following my lead, and I grinned. He wasn’t a leader. I could lure him in and take advantage of that. I tested my theory first and sure enough, he followed my lead the entire time, watching for my weaknesses. Too bad for him, he didn’t realize that my only weakness and distraction was Thomas and that was something I was trying to come to grips with for tomorrow’s battle, knowing he had to be there.

I didn’t want to put the burden on Thomas, but if he lost it and they had to restrain or remove him, I wasn’t sure how my wolf would handle the situation.

Emmett finally made his move, but as predicted he was slow and I easily sidestepped his attack, ducking and dodging as he came after me again and again. I saw his weakness with growing clarity. He was easily frustrated when things didn’t go his way. I used that to my advantage and continued thwarting him until his movements became sloppy, then I went in for the kill.

He wasn’t easy to take down, but I managed well enough, and regretted the slice across his front shoulder in the process. James blew his whistle, and Emmett was bleeding a little when he shifted back.

I tried to relay how sorry I was, but he looked at his shoulder, wiped off the blood, and smiled at me. “Good move, mama. You’re a hell of a lot tougher than you look, I’ll give you that.” I nodded my thanks, waiting for my next opponent.

Wyatt jumped the fence, then leaned back over to kiss his mate as she cheered him on. I watched him closely and waited. Wyatt was a lot tougher to read. He was the largest of the six-pack, taller even than Thomas, and clearly strong from the obvious signs of his defined biceps and chiseled waist. I gathered from a few looks Clay and Austin shared that they had not expected Wyatt to challenge me. I only hoped he hadn’t seen some weakness I wasn’t aware of while fighting the others.

One thing Mom had always told me was to never fight the same fight twice. Every opponent was different, and a good opponent would vary their attacks and battle strategy, so I had to also. Even if Wyatt thought he knew what he was coming after, he didn’t. I was ready for him.

I didn’t hesitate with Wyatt. He was too big for me, so I figured I had two options: One, strike quickly before he knew what was coming, or two, toy with him until I wore him down some. I opted for option number one.

Where I had held back on the whistle even with Emmett, I made my attack swiftly and immediately with Wyatt. I plowed into him with a force great enough to send him flying into the air and lose his footing on the landing. I heard the crack. I knew he had broken something, but I pinned him quickly anyway and forced my teeth down against his neck as James quickly blew the whistle, running over to us.

This time I shifted immediately. “I’m so sorry, Wyatt. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Austin, Clay, and Emmett stood there laughing at him.

Kate jumped the fence and was by his side before he could shift back. James thrust my clothes at me as I forgot I was still naked. It didn’t bother me, but we both knew Thomas wouldn’t like it. His wolf was too unstable right now for me to egg it on, so I got dressed while Kate checked Wyatt over.

“You changed your strategy. Why?” he asked, clenching his teeth in pain.

“I’m so sorry, Wyatt. I was trained to always change my strategy. Every opponent is different. Assess his or her weakness and go in for the kill when they’re most vulnerable. Your wolf is huge. I could have worn you out or struck quickly and unexpectedly. I went for the surprise element, just didn’t expect it to workthatwell. Is it broken?”

Kate felt his leg and found the break. “His leg is definitely broken, but he’s tough, he’ll be okay. This wasn’t your fault, Lily. You can’t let this psych you out for tomorrow.”

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