“Not fair,” he mumbled.
Her faces appeared over him. All three of them. “Which part? My foot in your face, or the loss of your pride?”
“Both.” Blinking, he tried to get all the tripled figures to merge again while the idiots around him almost choked on their laughter. “Shut up, needledicks.” The order didn’t help.
“Beaten by a woman,” Zan observed with a snort.
“By a cop. Got his butt served up, too!”
“That’s ’cause he was too busy ogling the package to see the dynamite!”
The four bumped knuckles and Aric sat up, glaring at the group. “Who wants to take her on next? Nobody? That’s what I thought. Losers.”
“Are you all right?” Rowan asked.
“I’m great.” To prove it, he stood. His brain swam, but damned if anyone would guess.
“Why don’t we go again, and this time keep your attention where it should be.” she suggested, flicking her ponytail over one shoulder.
Fuck if she didn’t make him half-hard! Thankfully, the loose sweats hid his problem. “Whenever you’re ready, officer.”
Determined to save face, he concentrated on her stance, how her muscles bunched. Anticipated her move before she stepped into his body and pushed, trying to unbalance him and get a foot hooked behind his ankle. Instead, he grabbed her hands and using her momentum as leverage, pressed the outside of his left knee to the inside of her right leg and twisted his upper body to the left. She was thrown off balance and easily overpowered in this type of hand-to-hand contest. He put her on the mat, but hung on to one hand to lessen the impact when she hit. No matter their deal not to pull their punches, he wasn’t capable of unleashing his full strength on his mate.
Oh, God.
“Way to go, dude,” Ryon said, and the others echoed the sentiment. “Go for the best of three.”
Suddenly all he wanted was to be alone with her, away from all these curious eyes. “Nah,” he said, giving her a hand up. He focused on Rowan, who dusted off her seat. “How about we go for a run?”
She brightened. “Sounds good. Then I won’t have to let you win again.”
The guys laughed and Aric rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Come on, let’s ditch the idiots.”
He let their comments and speculation roll off as they put their shoes back on. They were whispering, but he heard. Already, they wondered what was up. None of their biz. Aric led her from the gym. In the corridor, he absently rubbed his jaw.
“Is it bruising?”
Meeting her gaze, he saw the concern in her eyes, and he’d have been lying to himself if he pretended not to like it. “Maybe some, but it’ll heal pretty fast.”
“I’m sorry. I only meant to take advantage of catching you off guard, not really cause any damage.”
“You played by the rules we set, that’s all. Stop fussing.”
“Okay.” She sighed. “I’m not typically a worrier. Seems I’ve done nothing but worry since I’ve been here, though.”
“You’ve had good reason.”
“That’s the understatement of the universe. I never dreamed any of this existed,” she said, waving her arms to indicate the compound and its inhabitants. “It’s a bit much, even for an L.A. cop, and I’ve seen some weird shit.”
Then and there, he knew he’d made the right decision. He could never add to her stress, tie her to this life or the dangers in it. She could not find out about the mating bond waiting to be forged between them, and he would never claim his mate.
The truth stabbed his gut, but he didn’t let his despair show. All his life he’d been good at hiding his sorrow behind a mask, and he just had to keep it up until she left for L.A.
“As strange as that?” he asked, pointing to the end of the hallway.
Rowan stopped dead at the sight of Kira and her furry little friend coming their way. “What the freaking hell is that thing?”
Aric chuckled. “That’s Chup-Chup, or just Chup for short. Kira named him after the noise he makes when he’s happy. We’re not really sure what he is, so we call him a gremlin.”
“He looks like something from a Steven Spielberg movie.”
“I suppose.”
As Kira approached them and stopped, the gremlin turned rounded eyes to Rowan and Aric, scuttling behind Kira and clutching at the leg of her jeans with tiny paws.
“Cute!” Rowan said, smiling. “Does he bite?”
“Only when he’s afraid,” Kira replied. “Want to meet him?”
“I’d love to.”
“Okay.” Bending, she picked up her charge, who immediately nestled into her arms with a contented chup. From the safety of his perch, Chup peered at Rowan curiously. Kira spoke softly. “Reach out, nice and slow, and let him smell you. Like you would with a strange dog.”
Rowan did, curling her fingers inward to present the creature with the back of her hand. Aric thought that was pretty smart, to reduce the risk of losing a finger if the little thing got scared. He’d bitten Jax once, and according to his friend it had hurt like hell.
Chup stretched forward as far as he dared, clinging to Kira for safety. Then he sniffed for a few seconds and, apparently liking his new acquaintance, rooted under her hand with his head, making his demand clear.
“Someone wants a scratch,” Rowan cooed. Chup ate up the attention like honey, purring and making his funny noises. She looked at Aric. “Want to try?”
Shrugging, he offered the back of his hand for sniffing, and swiftly got a low growl in response. “I think he still doesn’t much care for men,” he said, dropping his arm.
Kira nodded. “It’s taken him a long time to warm up to Jax. Could be he was abused by a male figure, but I guess we’ll never know.”
“Poor guy. Who would do something like that to you?”
The gremlin knew how to work it, for sure. He went back to purring and Aric swore the creature knew exactly what he was doing. He possessed more intelligence than the average dog, in his opinion.
“Well, I need to find Jax,” Kira said. “I’ll catch up with you guys later.”
“He’s in the gym.” Aric hitched a thumb in the direction from which they’d come. “Go get your man.”
“Thanks.” With a wink, the blonde hurried to find her mate.
Aric turned to watch her go, and a wave of sadness swept over him. His mate might hurry to him one day, if only he’d—
“Aric?”
He shook himself. “Sorry. Ready to go for that run?”
“After you.”
His route took them through the rec room, where Kalen and A.J. were playing a game on the Wii. Seeing the sorcerer without his pentagram pendant, he wondered again why it was now hanging around Mackenzie’s neck. Next chance he got, he’d ask Nick or one of the guys. Seemed he’d missed a few things while he was a guest in the motel from hell.
They exited through the door that opened straight to the outside, to the grassy lawn and a field beyond that. He pointed. “We play football, soccer, and other sports out here when we need to blow off some steam. You should see a bunch of shifters and a Fae prince out here playing ball and trying not to cheat. Funniest damned thing ever.”
“I’ll bet.” She laughed, as though imagining it. “I want to get a game going sometime, if the others are up for it.”
“Oh, they will be. You’ve never met a more competitive group of people than the ones living here.”
“I’m starting to get that idea. Which way are we going?”
“There are several great trails, but my favorite one starts over there,” he said, pointing to the far end of the cleared land, where the forest began. “I know I said we’d jog, but I wouldn’t mind walking if you want. Easier to talk and enjoy the view.”