Once again, I was sparring with Cole in the basement gym and growing increasingly frustrated at my inability to best him. I had been dialing back my strength to a more believable level, but even so, he commented a couple of times that I seemed unusually strong for my size. Even when I did allow a little extra oomph behind my fists, he still won due to his superior training from his days in the UFC. Not to mention the fact that he weighed probably three times what I did, so it would be a little obvious if I were able to pin him easily. It was the weekend, so I had insisted on a much longer session than we had been managing after school during the week, and my body was feeling it already.

“Stop,” he commanded suddenly, even as I gritted my teeth and clenched both my jaw and my fists in frustration. “Just stop. You’re getting all fired up for no reason. I have years more experience than you and significantly more body mass. You’re not going to beat me any time soon, so stop stressing out over it. Besides, I doubt you’ll often come up against someone with my training.”

He considered me with his fierce eyes, and I shifted awkwardly. For the most part during our training I’d been able to avoid his gaze, but every now and then I found myself pinned to the spot by his intense focus. My palms grew clammy, but thankfully he broke his musing quickly.

“I have an idea,” he said before roaring up the stairs. “Caleb! Get down here!”

The thundering of footsteps down the narrow staircase announced Caleb’s arrival, and he bounded into the room with a lazy grin on his face.

“What’s up, big guy?” he asked, flicking a glance at me in my workout clothes.

“I need you to fight Kit. She needs to test herself against someone different,” he rumbled, perching himself on one of the weight machines.

“Sure, sounds fun!” he accepted without an ounce of hesitation, then immediately launched himself at me. The sudden flurry caught me off guard, but he wasn’t taking me seriously. Reacting, I had him in an arm bar within seconds. When Caleb tapped out, Cole huffed a disappointed sigh.

“Should have known you would go easy on her,” he grunted, then turned his face toward the stairs again.

“Austin! Get your ass down here!” he bellowed, and I swore the walls quivered.

The three of us waited while Austin made his lazy way down the stairs then completely ignored me as he looked at Cole. “What do you want?”

“Fight Kit,” Cole ordered succinctly.

Austin raised an eyebrow. “You’re telling me... to hit the princess?” A cruel smile crept over his face, and suddenly this didn’t sound like such a good idea.

“I’m telling you to try,” Cole rumbled, getting comfortable on his perch again.

“Uhh, are you sure about this?” Caleb sounded even more concerned by this turn of events than me, but Cole silenced him with a stony glare.

I stepped back out onto the thin mat covering the concrete floor and tightened the Velcro on my thin cushioned gloves while Austin strapped on the pair Caleb tossed him. Bouncing lightly on my toes, I twisted to keep him in my sights as he prowled around the edge of the mat like a caged tiger. Very different from his twin, Austin didn’t seem to have any qualms about inflicting maximum damage on me.

He seemed to size me up for a moment then, entirely without telegraphing the motion, he darted in and clipped me in the side before swiftly dodging my return strike. I swallowed a groan of pain; he hit hard! Hearing a disappointed grunt from the sidelines, I picked up my game and refocused on the fight with Austin. Channeling my dislike of him into my moves, I managed to land a few punishing hits. Unfortunately, he was quick and very calculating and landed far more punches than I did. His satisfied smirk after each blow left me furious.

Letting my anger fuel my moves, I was able to catch him off guard and sweep his feet out from under him. Down didn’t mean out. Cole had taught me that the hard way. I followed through with a punch to the jaw intended to knock him out, but the slippery bastard rolled out of the way right at the last second. Too late to stop my momentum, my closed fist plowed into the thin mat, and the sickening crunch of bones snapping filled the air.

Letting out a strangled noise of pain, I curled around my damaged hand, breathing hard and waiting for my familiar rush of adrenaline to heal me, but all I felt was anger and frustration. God damn it.

“Oh come on, Princess,” Austin sneered. “Don’t tell me you’re giving up because the floor gave you a boo boo.”

I ignored him, closing my eyes tight and clenching my jaw. Sweat beaded on my forehead, and I took some deliberately slow breaths, trying to manage the pain.

“Shit, Kitty Kat, are you okay?” Caleb rushed over to me and gently peeled my injured arm away from my chest so he could inspect it. “Fuck,” he cursed, seeing the odd angle of my wrist and rapidly swelling fingers.

Tears tracked down my cheeks as he yelled at Cole to check where Wesley was and smoothly swept me up in his arms to carry me upstairs. I was generally pretty good at handling extreme pain with a stiff upper lip, but it had been a really long time since I’d been hurt this bad, and my control threatened to slip entirely.

As Caleb cradled me, careful not to bump my hand, Austin’s indignant anger followed us. “How hard were you planning on hitting me?”