The Panther's Second Chance (Book 10 of the Regal Eclipse Pack Series)

Chapter 28

The four of them took the elevator down to the gym, and walked inside. Ragnar was waiting for them and he smirked. "You two are sparring too?" he asked Kai and Dom.

"I'm not even surprised that you know that," Kai muttered with a roll of his eyes.

"This morning will be very interesting then," Ragnar said as he walked over to them. "But Dom and Natalia are still first."

Natalia groaned. "Do we have to?"

Ragnar just raised an eyebrow at her. "Warm up."

She sighed and followed Dom over to the mats. She was not looking forward to this at all. Dominic was calm though, which surprised her.

He turned to her. "Natalia, I'm going to block you out from feeling my emotions. It'll make this easier for you and less of a distraction. You can't hold back, either. I'll be fine."

She sighed but nodded. "You can't either, Dom."

He didn't like that. She could feel it before she suddenly lost it all. She frowned. She felt like a piece of her heart was missing, like there was a dark hole where he had been. "I don't like it," she muttered.

"What?" He frowned at her.

"It feels like a piece of me is missing, like there's a hole where you were," she said softly.

"From me blocking you out?" He studied her quietly.

"Yeah. It's weird, but yeah," she admitted.

"It's temporary," he reminded her.

"I know. But I meant what I said, Dominic. You can't hold back either. I can take it. You know that," she reminded him.

He turned to her and nodded, though she could see the conflict in his eyes. He sighed. "I don't like this either."

Soon, they were back in front of Ragnar, ready to go. Cassidy and Malachi were sitting off to the side, watching.

"You two ready?" Ragnar asked.

"As I'm ever going to be," Natalia grumbled.

Dom nodded.

"Begin."

She watched him warily for a moment, hoping he'd make the first move, but he didn't. That didn't surprise her. This wasn't going to be easy for either one of them. But after several long moments, she knew she needed to start or they were never going to get through this. She didn't want to drag it out any longer than necessary.

She steeled herself, shutting off her thoughts and came at him, and the fight began in earnest. Dominic was graceful and his reflexes were different from what she'd expected. He moved easily and played defense for a while. Cat, she reminded herself. She wasn't against another wolf. She was a bit surprised Ragnar hadn't used him more for training.

"Stop holding back," Ragnar shouted and the game changed.

As difficult as it was, she forced herself to not think of him as her mate, as the man who had been making love to her less than two hours ago, and she went after him with a vengeance. She was glad he'd shut her out, or she wouldn't have been able to do this at all. Being connected to his emotions would give her an unfair advantage.

He finally seemed to shut off his own thoughts and attacked her, going on the offensive. For someone who she'd never seen spar, he was actually pretty good at it, and she groaned as his fist connected with her side. She ignored the pain and delivered her own blows.

Dominic did have one other advantage. He'd been in the gym plenty of times when she had been sparring. He'd seen her, though she wasn't sure how much he'd watched her. She'd been aware of him though, even though she'd never openly watched him. But Dominic was incredibly hot, and she couldn't help but notice him. He'd been one of the few single guys in the pack.