Page 84 of Bear
Bear said Morpheus was a midnight black lion who supposedly had a thick, black mane. I had a hard time seeing it since his head was shaved, but if Morpheus said he had a mane when shifted, then he had a mane.
“I think we should wait longer. Not even a quarter of the club have mates yet.” Morpheus handed Bear the next rope, who then stretched it and tightened it, checking for its stability.
Bear grunted and sat up, wiping his forehead. “We won’t start fights yet. It’s just for practice for those who have their mates. Don’t worry, we won’t start official fights until you get your female.” Bear slapped Morpheus on the back. “Want to make sure my biggest rival gets a piece of this.” Bear flexed his chest and arm muscles to Morpheus, who scoffed.
Bear glanced at me and had a playful look in his eye. I couldn’t help but blush and pull up the hood of the hoodie I was wearing to hide my face.
The others lifting weights, always looking and watching Bear and me, took notice.
“Oh! Look at her blush!” one called out. “I hope my mate blushes when I talk about her!” The one man had tattoos running up his neck and had a leaner, athletic build. It made me wonder what animal he shifted into.
Another guy nudged him. “More than likely she’s gonna have a collar around you, and you are going to be kissing her feet.”
It was then his turn to blush and mumble something, slinking away to the locker room.
Bear barked out a laugh and grabbed another rope to finish the boxing ring.
“You guys don’t look like you are into boxing. You look like you are just into beating each other up.” I spoke up as Bear and Morpheus finished up.
Morpheus lifted his head in acknowledgment. “That’s right, we aren’t. We use our fists, teeth, and claws.” He held up his fists and kissed them.
My face paled. “What?”
“Don’t act so surprised. We are a bunch of animals, sweet thing. It’s how we train. Before we lost part of our souls, our packs and prides would do it all the time. When we moved here, well, we learned quickly we couldn’t do it the same way. We lift, run, use a punching bag, train with guns at the shooting range…” He frowned. “It’s only natural for Grim wanting to get this ring back up. He wants to spar like old times.”
They were animals. They had a lot of testosterone, animal-driven instincts to fight and defend their territory. I guess it was only natural that they wanted to fight with each other. But could they at least do it safely? With some gloves?
“Little bee, we heal fast once our souls are healed. A scratch can heal in seconds, bones minutes to hours. Our pride, well, that might take several days,” Bear joked.
It was a new concept, one I was going to have to get used to. I was sure I would become better acquainted with this new culture of shifters as time went on. I knew my body was changing. The growling and my shortened temper was already tested.
Over the days sitting in the gym, I’d come to know several of the other men, from a distance anyway. No one could come within five feet of me, or Bear’s claws would be out in mere seconds.
Bear was extremely territorial over me, a warning he had given me coming down the mountain from his cabin. I knew this, but it still surprised me when he gave everyone else a completely opposite personality to the one he gave me.
Kind and sweet versus grumpy and grouchy.
The brothers of the club very much looked like the typical biker gang. They all had tattoos, piercings, vests that they call cuts that had the club’s logo on the back, along with their road names on the front.
A lot of the guys go shirtless in the gym where Bear and I had been the most since he owned it, and he had been toying with the idea of making a new rule to make everyone wear a shirt when I was in the building.
I talked him out of that one because it was insane to enforce a rule like that. I just needed to make sure I was always looking at their faces, but sometimes, that was hard when they had these nipple piercings staring at me when I was so short.
Despite everyone having tattoos, piercings, strange haircuts, weird colored hair, and deep scowls on their faces, they all had a story. They had their jokes and unique personalities. They were waiting for their second chances.
Some of them even smiled when they saw Bear lifting me from the padded seat he carried around and made me sit on while he worked in his gym because he wouldn’t let me out of his sight. His single brothers wanted that, too.
It was both sweet and heartbreaking at the same time.
“Don’t call my mate sweet thing,” Bear grumbled and pushed Morpheus away. “Why don’t you go flirt with that punching bag over there? Your chest and muscles need a workout.”
I looked down at Morpheus’ bare chest. He didnotneed to work out. He had some major man boobs going on.
He flexed one man boob, then did the other, making them jiggle.
My eyes widened, and I looked away.
“I think your mate was admiring my body. I don’t think I need to work out.” Morpheus ran his hand down his torso. “I take that back. Let me do some pushups right here.”
