“The café is closed,” Carol said. “You can use the vending machines.”

The latest batch of guys who wanted to meet the new girl had shown up after Wonder and Carol had been done with the cleaning.

It had been like that the entire day, guys coming to check her out and introducing themselves.

Wonder felt like a monkey in a zoo.

“Hi, I’m Ruben,” one of the four introduced himself.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Wonder.” She smiled thinly as she shook his hand.

The other three took turns shaking her hand and telling her their names, but there was no way she was going to remember them. She’d met so many.

“Shoo.” Carol waved her hands at them. “Wonder and I need to get going. You can come back tomorrow.”

After the four mumbled something about stopping for lunch the next day and left without getting anything from the vending machines, Wonder released a relieved breath.

It had been a long day, and it wasn’t over yet because Carol wanted her to accompany her to the training center, which meant meeting more people and smiling politely while pretending she didn’t get the hints or see the covetous looks.

But that was also where Anandur was, and she wanted to see him. Heck, she needed to.

“Come on. I have ten minutes to get to the center and change clothes.” Carol glanced at her watch. “My class starts at six.”

The blond walked as briskly as her short legs allowed, which meant a leisurely stroll for Wonder. “You said that you’re teaching a beginner self-defense class, right?”

“Aha.”

“Do you take advance training classes yourself?”

Carol was in decent shape, but in Wonder’s opinion not good enough for a fitness instructor.

“Yeah, I do because Brundar makes me. I’m a sharpshooter. I don’t need to know how to fight hand-to-hand.”

“Brundar is your instructor?”

“Kind of. He is more like the one in charge of my training regimen. With the new Guardians, there is a lot of shuffling around going on. Everyone is busy with retraining the guys and making them combat-ready for this century, so I had to take on the beginners’ classes because we are short on people. I was a trainee myself not too long ago.”

Wonder followed Carol into the pavilion. “Maybe that is something I could do? I mean after I get some training?”

“I thought you said you didn’t like violence.” Carol pressed the button for the elevator.

“I don’t. But teaching self-defense is not the same as actual fighting, is it? I can think of it as dance moves with a purpose.”

Carol laughed. “That’s an interesting way to look at it.” They stepped into the elevator. “Fifth floor,” Carol said, and the elevator lurched down.

“I’ve never been in a voice-activated elevator.”

“Yeah, not one of William’s brightest ideas. It gives the Scots hell. It can’t understand their accents. It’s good that there are also buttons.”

They exited into a wide, well-illuminated corridor lined with doors.

“Do you want to participate in my class?” Carol asked as they entered a locker room.

“Sure, I can start with that.” She watched Carol change into a workout outfit. “I’m not dressed for it, though.”

Carol put her work clothes inside the locker and closed the door, but there was no lock, probably because there was no need for one.

“You can just watch today. Maybe check out some of the other classes.” She smirked. “Anandur’s is right next to mine, you know. You can take a peek.”

Wonder avoided Carol’s smiling eyes. “He is training Guardians. I’m sure his class is too advanced for me.”

“You can still take a look. Unfortunately, all these hunks are my cousins, so I can’t enjoy watching them, but you can.” She winked.

“I think I’ll start with watching you and your students. I’m curious to see what shape ordinary immortals are in.”

Carol laughed. “Prepare to be disappointed. They are a bunch of couch potatoes who get winded after twenty minutes. Not that I was any better a few months ago. But at least I worked at it. Most of the civilians come to the classes to socialize. Very few make an effort to get in shape.”

The blond didn’t look like someone who belonged in a gym, let alone as a self-defense instructor and a sniper. She was too small and cute and soft for it, evoking feelings of protectiveness even in Wonder.

Males probably went crazy over her.

Then again, Wonder knew all about appearances and how deceptive they could be. Carol could have a heart of a tigress trapped in her small body, while Wonder had a gazelle’s trapped in a powerful one.

“What prompted you to take up training?” she asked as they entered Carol’s classroom.

For a split moment, Carol’s cheerful demeanor was replaced by an expression that was almost vicious. “It was when I realized that charm alone can’t get me out of every kind of trouble. Sometimes the only choice is to fight.”

“I guess.” The thugs who’d attacked Wonder in Alexandria were a good example of that. If not for her strength and natural fighting skills, things would have ended much differently for her.

Imagining it, she felt a shiver run down her spine.

Carol patted her arm. “No need to get upset. My motto is to leave the crap in the past and focus on the future.”

“Yeah.” Wonder sighed. “You’re right.”

Carol turned to her students and clapped her hands. “Line up, people.”

The six females and four males arranged themselves around a sparring mat.

“This is Wonder, for those of you who haven’t met her yet, and she is only going to watch today. So don’t embarrass me.” She winked and smiled.

A few words of greetings were exchanged, and then the lesson began.

Leaning against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest, Wonder pretended to pay attention to the class for a few minutes, but all she could think about was that instead of watching a bunch of out of shape beginners fumble around the training mat, she could be watching Anandur.

A trained Guardian teaching other Guardians would no doubt be magnificent. And not any Guardian, but Anandur, with his hulking, muscular body, and his charm.

Would he act all tough with his trainees? Or would he stay true to his character and joke around with them?

Wonder was itching to find out.

Right, as if that was the only thing she was curious about and not the sight of all those magnificent muscles of his in action.