After dinner the Guardians brought me downstairs to the gym and dojo. I can't say I've ever been down here, but I shouldn't be surprised by the size of the gym based on pack shape.
The dojo is split between boxing ring and a matted area for sparring. There are also targets and dummies for weapon practice.
To say I'm feeling totally out of my element is an understatement. Training with Jude and Sara was always at my farm on the back lawn. The form fitting sports top and work out leggings the Guardians insisted I wear leave me feeling very exposed.
Derek, Dex and Mack however looked totally at ease and in their element. Derek and Dex are matched in thin joggers and tanks, while Mack is dressed like me. All are in Guardian green.
"Right luv, let's see what you've got yeah?" Dex chimes in, looking far more excited then I am.
"Um," I freeze.
"Come on Princess, we need a base line to see how much work we've got ahead of us," Derek drawls.
I sigh, not even five minutes and he's already getting on my nerves.
"We'll start small," Mack says handing me two daggers and nodding to the target.
I gingerly take them from her and test their weight and balance. Then run through the rest of the routine that Derek taught me; switching from defense to throwing grips, and lastly flipping them.
She had me practise throwing at the target then moving up to the dummy. I have been practicing with the daggers she gave me at home so feel slightly at ease and don't embarrass myself.
I'm pretty decent within ten feet or so, but after that my accuracy diminishes greatly. As I practice Mack circles me adjusting my stance or offering constructive criticism. Focusing on the task at hand has my nerves retreating as I throw myself into it.
"Right, that'll do yeah?" Dex asks after a while.
"Yeah she's on par here, we'll work on range and speed, but overall I'm happy." Macks praise leaves me happier than I should be.
Apparently the guys are teaching me close weapons combat. Dex is going to be my assailant while Derek teaches me the moves.
"Stop holding back Princess," Derek growls after I fail for the umpteenth time to pull off the move to his satisfaction.
"I'm trying-"
"No you're not," he cuts me off. "You're faster than this!" He shoves my shoulder to drive the point home.
"Fuck off Derek," I growl.
He shoves my shoulder again causing me to stumble as I clench my jaw.
"Sara said you were better than this," he snaps pushing me again. "What's the matter Princess?" he jeers. "Nothing to say?"
"Fuck this," I snap as I turn away from him. In an instant he grabs my shoulder and flings me backwards.
On instinct I tuck and roll, ending in a crouched defense stance that Sara had taught me. I can feel my temper brewing dangerously. "The fuck Derek," I growl.
"That's more like it princess," he says with a triumphant grin. "Tell you what, land a solid hit on Dex and we're done for tonight."
"What about Derek?" Mack asks with a raised brow. "Dex is too nice, you on the other hand, she wants to beat most days."
"Ha, if you can't hit Dex you're wasting your time on me princess," he drawls.
"How's your nose?" I ask, raising a brow.
He clenches his jaw as he takes position across from me. He takes the first swing, I drop and duck, swiping low with the dagger. He easily back steps it and swipes with his foot. I stumble but catch myself before falling.
"Nice of you to finally show up," he grumbles.
He swings his leg again mid chest, I bring my forearms up to block and manage to deflect the hit but the blow still makes me stagger. Another quick jab and left hook has me nearly to the wall.
"Derek ease up some yeah?" Dex cuts in but Derek is on a mission and tunes him out.
He swings again and I'm too slow to deflect properly catching a glancing blow on my ribs. I grab his wrist but he twists pulling me back towards him.
I snap and lash out with my right dagger landing it with a sickening thunk in his ribs. The impact stopped us in our track as he gasps and staggers back.
"Oh my god Derek! I'm so sorry, I just lost control," I stammer, shocked.
"Not bad princess," he gasps as he grips the dagger.
"No, don't pull it out, we need to get you to doc," I say panicked.
"Relax, Mack can handle this," he says pulling the dagger out. My eyes went wide as the blood started to flow freely. Instantly Mack grasped his wrist and I felt the energy shift as she gave him a push. I sunk to the ground feeling a bit light headed.
"You ok luv?" Dex asked kneeling next to me. I just nodded. "We've done way worse to each other, Guardian training is rough. You need to tap into that fire to train. He's right, you're too busy holding back."
"It's all good princess, I'm good as new," Derek says sitting down next to me. I glance up and see the pink skin covering the wound and breath a sigh of relief.
"Sara's right, you hold back so much in training and act completely different in the field," he muses. "Why?"
"I don't know," I say with a shrug.
"I've been pushing you to hit harder all night and nothing, something changed, we need to be able to recreate it," Derek trails off.
"I don't know, I just snapped and reacted, I didn't mean to," I apologize.
"There's nothing to apologizes for, training can get rough, you're going to land hits and you're going to take em. You need to commit and not hold back, your mind is slowing you down." He explains.
"I'll try. It's just hard, the field like you say it's different, I'm just reacting to someone trying to kill me usually. It's hard to purposely hurt someone," I trailed off, feeling embarrassed. They must think I'm pathetic, they do this all the time without a second thought.
"Aw such a tender lass," Dex says with a grin. I just groaned at him.
With that tonight's training was done and we headed back upstairs settling in the living room and watching tv. In no time I was out.
-----
The following morning I woke up in bed, Chris must have put me to bed as I was just in his tshirt and panties. I've never been a particularly sound sleeper, so for someone to carry me upstairs and undress me without waking up feels odd.
I get up and stretch my sore muscles before heading to shower. I think I could just live in this giant stone shower, lord knows it's half the size of my bedroom.
The kitchen is mostly empty apparently everyone's either out training or cleaning up from training.
"What would you like for breakfast?" Laura asks.
"Oh I'm not hungry, I'll just grab lunch later," I deflect.
"I'm afraid alphas orders are to make sure you eat something," she mumbles afraid to upset me. "What about a breakfast sandwich? Can take it out back and watch training?"
"Sure that's fine thanks," I concede. "Where's Claire?"
"She took off after the rush, wasn't much to do and she said she was tired," Kate replied. Odd, Claire lives to be master of the kitchen, I'll check on her before I go.
I take the sandwich and a bottle of water to the training field. Looks like upper class warriors and elites broken into groups of 4, mixed doubles.
"There's my elf," Jace says walking up to me. "I offered to go up and grab you from bed but Chris didn't seem to like that idea much," he chuckled.
"You sure do like to push his buttons," I say seriously.
Jace just flashes me his signature playboy grin before running a hand through his unruly golden brown hair.
"Someone's got to keep him on his toes, now that Jude's part of the pack and you've stopped running, or at least not as often-"
I cut him off with a smack to his gut, truth be told I hurt my hand more on those rock hard abs then he did.
"What?! You took off just a few days ago?" He challenges.
"You're just bitter because I gave you the slip," I deflected earning a frown. "I am sorry about that, I couldn't talk about it and needed to get to Derek."
"Relax, I get it elf," he says with a wink.
"So tell me, what do you see watching the closest group?" He asks.
I recognize Alexis flaming red hair, and Nate but the other man and woman I'm unfamiliar with. They fought in pairs.
"Alexi is baiting, drawing the hits to break the rhythm between the other two so that Nate can make the hard hits." That's the best I can guess.
"Not bad elf," he says leaning in, pointing to the footwork. "Watch the feet, they always give things away. Alexi is baiting but she's over playing, George can tell it so he's holding back afraid of the trap." Sure enough I could see the hesitation.
"How do you even know all of this?" I ask impressed.
"Skillz," he says leaning back with a triumphant grin. "I've been sparring since I was a pup, I picked up a lot watching my old man, now that was a puppet master!"
"Puppet master?"
"Someone able to read and work a fight," he says. "Takes time, but you've already likely got a start." To this I raise a brow.
"Cows," he states cryptically.
"Cows?"
"You help that guy with his cows, like flat out cowgirl shit, kinda hot by the way-" I smack him. "What? How do you get a herd of cows do what you want?"
"You make them?" I say with a shrug.
"But how? A cow is twice the weight of those horses you guys use and there's what 50 or more in a herd? How do you move em where you want them?" He asks leading, causing me to stop and think.
"Half is attitude, the cow lets you win because you act like you're in charge. The other half is catching the moves before they have a chance to get momentum. Like you watch for that cow who steps out before it can break and split the herd."
I don't fully count as a cowgirl but I can sit on a horse and play fill in. The community comes together to help the Baxter's move their herd a couple times a year from pasture to pasture, usually a good party afterwards.
"Same thing happens in a fight, the more you watch the more you'll see. Like how he steps forward on his left foot when he swings with his right." He says pointing out Nate's techniques.
"You can learn a lot by what a person doesn't do too. Like Alexi's a right, but she's using her left, why?" He asks.
"Mmm," I pause thinking. "She's compensating? Maybe an injury to her right? Why else would she be using the opposite?"
"Right you are," he says with a grin. "She took a solid hit on her right hand in the previous round of training. Not enough time to heal up fully but not broken enough for her to want to take a break."
"So how is it if you can read everyone like this that Jude still manages to pin you on occasion?" I ask genuinely curious.
"Because he fakes it, once you can read then you can lead. In some ways it's easier to lead an opponent to win a fight then it is to beat them in brute strength. Watch this," he says with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"Really playboy?" Sara says looking extra annoyed.
"We're having a teachable moment," he says with a smirk. Sara squares off against two guys who tower over her.
"Watch what she does to get them to fall."
The big brunette swings first high, she obviously ducks it but already rolls knowing he was following up with a kick. She strikes out mid roll to boot the side of his other knee taking it out. Blondie is mid lunge when she takes his momentum and flips him off.
"She let's them play their hand," I say pausing. "She does what they expect her to do knowing that they have a follow up move and that's what she acts on." Apparently that was the right answer as his grin widened.
"Ok, stop," Jace says saving the guys. Sara just smirks as the guys limp off.
"Enjoy the show?" She asks.
"Yeah, it makes more sense when someone breaks down your technique. But I was pretty impressed to watch you do it on the ridge." She fought like a pit viper on the ridge pulling down wolves twice her size ruthlessly.
Sara can't suppress her grin so she turns and walks away instead. "Really?" I tease. A complement from me she can't accept, so stubborn.
"Oh," she says, pausing. "Be ready for noon tomorrow."
"Sorry? I thought I didn't have training tomorrow, you and Jude were friday?" I ask thoroughly confused. They were supposed to ease me in after all.
"Not training," she paused as a devilish grin split her face. "Shopping, we've got a long list to cover so we aren't waiting till last minute."
"Um, shopping?" Please god no.
"Yup, you, me and Claire with the Alpha's card, wear comfortable shoes," she says with a wink and strolls off.
"Fuck," I groan leaning back. "I really hate shopping."
"Shame, cause those girls can turn it into an olympic sport," Jace says as he bursts out laughing.
"Is it too late to sign up to train instead?"