The Gifted Academy

Combat Training

* * * Max’s POV * * *

Despite all my past training, the reality of the academy and what we are being put through pales in comparison.

Walking into the gym for hand-to-hand combat class and seeing Heracles, a giant of a man who stands seven feet tall and is built like a damn truck, training us, crushes any confidence I had going in. This is in no way going to be an easy class. All my life, I have been training for the possibility of being an Alpha and to defend my pack from attack.

They tell us that those who complete the training and go through the trials transcend to Olympus to await the Great War that is to come. Since I was four years old, my father had started training me in various disciplines like archery, leadership, and hand-to-hand combat. And my parents had sent their prayers to Selene since before I’d been born in the hopes I would become what they deemed made a good Alpha. My father prayed for me to be strong and ruthless. My mother, she prayed for me to be a kind leader who would care for all members of the pack. It looks like Selene chose to answer my mother’s prayers.

“Form a single line,” Heracles bellows, his voice echoing off the dark wooden floors and panelled walls. Everyone rushes to get side by side. My father figure, Jackson, makes sure to get next to me. Raven pushes another girl aside, so she can get in on my other side. The girl can be ruthless, which I don’t like. Surely she knows I’m mated to Amy, but I suppose a person has to be ruthless to get through this training.

I look down the line and spot Amy about ten people away, she’s with Alexandra and Sarah. I’m not sure what to make of Alexandra. She seems so much out of her element, like she doesn’t truly belong.

“The first thing we are going to learn in this class is stance, how to keep your centre of gravity. If you perfect this, you will never be knocked off balance, no matter how you move or what hits you.” He moves to the centre of the floor and puts his left leg forward, toe pointing straight, and his back foot pointing outwards. He bends his legs a little and then puts up his hands to his chest, hugging his arms a little into his sides.

“Now, from here, I can perform any kind of manoeuvre.” He throws a jab, and then an uppercut, then throws an elbow, then he spins on his foot and does a roundhouse kick, coming back to rest in the same position. He moves so quickly, his limbs blur.

Beside me, Jackson sucks in a breath. “Damn. I’ve never seen anyone move so fast.”

“In this stance, nothing can knock me over.” From the far back corners of the room, two six-foot tall dummy robots on wheels roll toward Heracles. Both carry long wooden training swords.

One of the robots rolls in front of Heracles, lifts its arms, the sword rears back as far as it will go, then it swings with all its power. Heracles tucks his arm, tight to his body; the sword smacks him across the shoulder, the cracking sound reverberates off every surface, and snaps in half. Splinters of wood rain down onto the floor. He grins, his whole demeanour changing, as the second staff hits him on the other side, and snaps into pieces from the force of the blow. He straightens and brushes off the small wood chips still clinging onto his shirt.

“Ha!” He pumps his fist in the air. “I am invincible. Nothing can knock me off balance. Now, it’s your turn.” I hear a snicker down the line. I don’t need to look to know it’s Amy.

“You’re seriously going to smack us with wooden swords?” She has her hands on her hips and appears indignant. Her lips are curled in disgust. Heracles shakes his head.

“Of course not. It’s only the first day. I don’t plan to do that until at least week four.”

That got a round of laughs through the group.

“Take up your stances.”

I put my left leg forward, and my back leg turned like I have practiced over and over again, since I was four. The others around me all do the same, as Heracles walks down the line and inspects us.

He speaks to a couple of people, correcting them, and then when he gets to me, he stops. He looks me over and then shoves me hard. I stumble a couple of steps backward, but I don’t break my stance. I don’t lose my balance.

He nods. “Good. Step forward.” I do.

“Name?”

“Alpha Max.” Heracles’s eyes narrow.

“You have experience.”

Yes, I’ve been trained from a young age.”

“I want you to go down the line and try to knock down every person.”

Heracles glances at the rest of the group. “Your job is to not let him.” He points to the far end of the room where a short blonde girl stands. I walk down the line and stand in front of her. Fear clouds her eyes, and I feel bad for doing what I have to. It doesn’t take much to knock her onto her ass. One by one, I push and shove my fellow recruits. Some stay on their feet, most fall.

When I get to Jackson, I have a feeling he thinks I’ll go easy on him. I don’t. He loses his balance after one hard shove.

Raven keeps her feet, even after two hard pushes from different angles. She grins at me in triumph. When I reach Amy, she looks like she is already ready to go to war. The fierce expression in her eyes make my gut clench and my d**k twitch. But I don’t think it has anything to do with being afraid of her. “You ready?”

“Take your best shot.” She lifts her chin in defiance. I come at her from the side and push on her shoulder. She stays pretty much in place. I try again from the front. As I stretch my arms toward her, she steps into me and sweeps my leg. I end up on my ass. A ripple of laughter travels through the room.

Stunned, I gape up at her. She shrugs and offers her hand to help me up. “He said to not let you knock me down. So I didn’t.” I grab her hand, and she pulls me to my feet. I feel the familiar buzz of the mate bond on the palm of my hand. I quickly let her hand go and rub it on my pants. The skin still tingles.

“Oh, I like this one.” Clapping, Heracles walks over. “Name?”

“Amethyst Rose Jones, but I go by Amy.”

“Amy, you’re a dark one. I love it.” He looks at the rest of the group. “All right, everyone pair up. We’re going to learn to spar.” He points at me and Amy. “Congratulations, you two are now partners.”

When he moves away, we gape at each other. “We are going to learn how to jab, cross, and uppercut properly. Three fundamental punches in your arsenal. One of you grab a pair of focus pads from the wall, then we will start.” I look at Amy.

She sighs. “I’ll go get them.” Then she jogs to the far wall and grabs a couple of rectangular pads and comes back. I take them from her.

“You can practice first.” I slide my hands into the holders and lift them up in front of my body.

“Get in your stances,” Heracles instructs. “Then we will practice a jab, cross, jab.”

He demonstrates, smacking huge fists into pads that one of the dummy robots holds up. I’m surprised he doesn’t break the robot with his punches.

Amy gets into position, then jabs my one pad, then does a cross punch with her left, then another jab. Her punches are solid, and I like that she doesn’t seem to hold back.

I nod. “Not bad, baby.”

“Thanks.” She does it again and again, landing every punch with power. I can feel the zing of her fists even through the pads. It’s impressive.

“Switch!” Heracles shouts. I take off the pads and hand them to her. She slides them on and raises them up. I get into my stance and lead with a jab. I may have not put all my weight behind it, and I think she knows because she gives me a disgusted look.

“I’m not fragile. You’re not going to break me into little pieces.”

“Are you sure? You are kind of small.”

She shakes her head. “You really do have a big ego, don’t you?”

I shrug. “No bigger than most.” Her lips twitch, but she fights back the smile. I take up my stance again and jab with full power. Her arm snaps back a little, but then she pushes it forward, so I can hit the pad again. I do. Then I am doing my sequence of punches without any hesitation.

By the time Heracles yells to stop, sweat covers my face and rolls down my back. It’s the same for Amy.

“Woe ho ho, looks like we got ourselves a dream team here.” Heracles grins at both of us. “Keep up the good work.” He smacks me on the shoulder, and I stumble backward, but not before I catch Amy snickering.

“Are you laughing at me?” I give her a searching look.

No, of course not.” Sarcasm drips off her like the sweat drips off her brow. At first I’d been hesitant to be paired up with her. I thought she would slow me down because we are mates and don’t want to hurt each other. But the truth is we make kind of an awesome team. It’s both unsurprising and unnerving.