Blood Legacy

10

"Wait, isn't that the men's locker room?" There were some things I'd rather leave to the imagination.

"Yeah, but you walk into the football team’s private gym first." He grinned at me. "Afraid you might see something you like or don't like?"

Okay, this guy officially gave me the creeps. "Uh... I don't think Liam would take me seeing anything all that well." That was the best thing I could come up with at the moment.

"Oh, yes. Your mate." He headed down the hallway and opened the gym door for me. "After you, princess."

I hurried into the gym and almost sighed with relief when my huge-ass trainer came into view.

He was lifting some free-standing weights. It looked like he was lifting three-hundred pounds without breaking a sweat or straining at all.

This room didn't have any machines. It was full of weights and a huge mat for only God knew what.

Evan turned to me and nodded. "Good. You listened."

"You may want to warn her about being aware of her surroundings." The Coach headed toward a desk in the back of the room. "I caught her by surprise; and I wasn't being quiet at all."

"Yeah, she's got a lot to learn." He shook his head and sighed. "Is your shoulder healed?"

"Yeah, it's fine." I had finally healed by Wednesday morning. Thank God for quick healing shifter genes.

"All right." He pointed to the mat. "At least Kai had you build up some strength, so that should bode well for you. Let's begin with some basic stances. Coach, I'll need your help."

"Okay." He put down his drink and headed over. "What do you need?" "Grab one of the punching bags." He pointed to a bag laying against the wall.

"Got it." He walked over and picked it up.

"Why is he here?" It struck me as odd, and I couldn't get past it.

"Well, one … Technically, it’s his gym, but the main reason is that he's the only one who can fight against me if I need to do a demonstration." He shrugged as the coach carried the bag over to us.

The coach placed the bag in front of us. "There you go."

"All right. So, watch me." He got into a fighting stance where his hands were in front of his face.

"Wait. Don't we need boxing gloves?" I glanced around, expecting to find some.

"We're wolf shifters, not p*****s. Come on." He pivoted on his toes and punched the bag, making it fall into the coach.

The coach pushed it back upright.

Okay, so he was here as his helper. That was kind of interesting.

"Now, it's your turn." He waved his hands in front of his face. "Get in a fighting stance, and pivot with your right foot as you swing your punch outward. Remember to lead with your elbow."

It all seemed to run together, but I did the best I could. As I punched the bag, it barely moved. "What the hell?" I'd expected at least a small swing or something. It was like I didn't hit the damn thing.

The corners of Evan's lips tilted upward, or at least, I thought they did. His expression was always a mask of indifference. "It just means we have a lot more to make up for than I realized.

Again."

I WASN'T sure how long I kept hitting the damn thing, but it felt like days at this point. My arms were like gelatin, and the only thing I worked on today was punching the damn bag. He did have me rotate between my left and right side, which I wasn't sure if it was better or worse.

"You have to make it tilt on the edge before you can leave today." Evan met my eyes, challenging me.

Even though I'd never taken kickboxing before, I knew humans could move the damn thing. Why the hell couldn't I? I lifted my arms back up, ready to take the damn thing down. I didn't care if I had to go all Tarzan, straddling it to make it go down. I wasn't sure how much more of this I could take, and technically he didn't tell me it had to be with my arms.

I took a deep breath and steadied myself. I pulled deep down within and connected with my wolf. She purred in response. As I struck out, I pivoted on the bottom of my foot and led with my elbow.

When my fist connected with the bag, it fell over to the ground. What the hell?

"Hot damn." A proud smile filled Evan's face. "You did it."

The coach shook his head and grabbed it, lifting it to stand it up. "How the hell did she do that?

She had almost the same force as you."

"She channeled her wolf." His smile didn't falter when he stared into my eyes. "Your wolf is way stronger than I gave her credit for. Good job. You're done for the day."

He was breathtaking when he smiled. Not that I wanted to act on it, but I hadn't realized just how handsome he actually was until now. "That's it?"

"Yup, you channeled your wolf to knock the bag down." He nodded his head.

"Wait. Why didn't you tell me to do that in the first place? And how can a human knock down something like that when it took me all day."

"You didn't tell her this was made specifically for a gym full of wolf shifter football players?" The coach smirked and shook his head. "Damn."

"She didn't need to know. She had to get frustrated in order to figure the rest out." He reached over and patted my arm. "Besides, you need to learn how to fight with your wolf, and you needed to figure it out on your own. Now go on and get out of here. You’ll want to take a hot shower; you'll be hurting in the morning."

I wasn't sure what else to say, but the information hit me to the core. I'd grown up around more humans than wolves, so I never had to fight someone stronger or bigger than me. It took being here before I figured it out.

As I walked out the door, I heard the coach mumble to Evan. "She shouldn't be that strong. That's damn near impossible unless she was one of the elite alphas."

I shut the door as I tapped into my wolf. I could barely make out Evan's response.

"Yeah, something doesn't seem right, but I'll get to the bottom of it."

Maybe having Evan train me was a bad idea. He could figure out my secret. I had to go talk to Liam now.

M

y body felt like it was numb—that's how damn sore I was, and I hadn't even made it halfway back to the dorm. Maybe Kai was right; I could've used a couple more months of weight

training.

As I approached the dorm, I heard some voices that made me pause.