Chapter 5
Nina felt a thrill go through her at watching the two GCFA fighters in the cage. She had not been to a GCFA event yet but all six of her sisters had. They were jealous of her when she told them that she had gotten a job as the GCFA event coordinator. If her sisters could see her now, surrounded by all the hunky male GCFA fighters, they would blow their gaskets.
She watched as Hammer, the largest male she had ever seen except for the Plutian, in the cage going up against Rage. They had their shirts off, their muscles gleaming with sweat, and were circling one another. This was so exciting.
“Are you following the match?” Stone, the fighter to her left, asked.
“A little bit. I don’t see how this could be a fair match. Hammer is much bigger than Rage.”
Jet, the male fighter with black hair stood to her right, laughed. “Rage is a Beastial. Do you know anything about them?”
“They have anger issues?”
Both Jet and Stone laughed. Stone answered her. “Most that I have met do have short tempers. Only, when Beastials feel strong emotions like anger, they can increase their size.”
“Not just their body parts like Plutians?”
Jet shook his head. “It’s all over.”
She turned fascinated eyes on Rage and, sure enough, he seemed to be getting bigger all over. He didn’t get to be the size of Hammer, though. She didn’t think anyone was that big.
Rage kicked at Hammer’s knee. He missed the first time, but he kept at it until he landed one and made Hammer bend slightly. Rage wasn’t as big as Hammer, but he did move more swiftly.
Hammer landed a kick in return, but Rage was ready for it and it bounced off of him harmlessly. If that had been her, she would have gone down with a broken leg.
Rage then tried to shove Hammer back toward the cage, but his attempt looked like he was hitting a brick wall. Hammer used his knee to hit Rage in the stomach, then shoved Rage away. As soon as Hammer moved away from the bars, Rage was on him.
“What is he doing?” she asked.
“Rage is trying to attempt a rear bodylock,” Stone explained
“Hammer’s not going to go down that easy,” Jet noted out loud.
Now she wished she had watched some of the fights before taking on the job. She felt clueless. She watched as Hammer stood strong, but Rage was determined to not let him go. Just when she thought Rage would give up, Hammer went down to one knee, then both knees.
“Come on, you two are too well matched. We’ll be here all day and I, for one, want lunch!” yelled out one of the other fighters. She glanced to the side. It was Zen the Sin. She didn’t have to be a GCFA fan to know who Zen was. He was gorgeous.
“So, you’re going to play matchmaker for Esan?” Jet asked, bringing her attention back to him. Stone was watching and waiting for her answer.
“I might need a little matchmaking,” Stone teased her.
Jet put an arm around her shoulders. “Hey, get in line. She’s matching me before you.”
“I’m prettier though,” Stone said with a wink.
She laughed at the two males flirting with her shoving Jet’s arm off of her. “I’m only planning his gathering event. He will have to choose his own mate.”
“Will there be a party with lots of available females?” Jet asked hopefully.
“Yes, but they’ll all be for Esan.”
“That’s a waste of a bunch of good females right there,” Stone commented.
*****
Esan came down to the training center fully prepared to send Nina packing. Then he stepped through the doors and caught sight of her. She was standing next to fighters talking to them with ease. Her beauty and grace hit him like a punch to the gut. He didn’t approach right away but walked slowly around so he could get a good look at her. She wore a short skirt and red blouse with a low cut that showed off her ample cleavage. Her chestnut brown hair was twisted up in a bun, which enhanced the curve of her neck. When she smiled or laughed, her face glowed and it seemed to make the room a little brighter.
He couldn’t stop thinking about their amazing kiss the previous night. Esan had tried to shake off thoughts of her, but that kiss plagued him through the night. This morning, he had tried to downplay the memory of her in his mind. Standing there watching her made him remember the taste of her lips and the feel of her curvy body pressed against him. His body responded with desire.
For fuck’s sake! He couldn’t be with a full human; he needed to mate a Reptan. He was getting his reaction to her under control, but then Jet, one of the new GCFA fighters, put his arm around her shoulders and began caressing her arm. Jealousy rose up inside him and before he could stop himself, he growled. It caught the attention of all the fighters and they turned to look at him curiously. When Nina saw him, he was pleased to see her shrug off Jet’s hand and approach him.
“Esan, I was about to come and find you,” Nina said with a friendly smile.
“How convenient. I came to find you.” His voice was a bit gruff. He knew he sounded harsh but he wasn’t a soft-speaking male. Hell, he rarely spoke unless it was a sarcastic remark. Sersan called him the ultimate smartass.
She frowned. “Is something wrong? Have you talked to Sersan?”
“You know what’sss wrong.”
“Hey Esan, I hear your sister and Nina are going to play matchmaker. We might need to come to this party just to make sure the females know what a real male is like,” Jet said, winking at Nina.
Esan growled again without thinking twice. “You’re not invited.”
“Perhaps I’ll keep Nina occupied while you’re meeting your mate-to-be.”
“What?” Nina sounded confused.
“No!” Esan stepped up to Jet. They were inches apart.
“You don’t have a claim to her.” Jet folded his arms over his chest.
“Hey guys, this is getting weird.” Nina made a move to step between them but they wouldn’t budge. “Guys?” Nina asked again.
Esan wasn’t listening. He was growling again and Jet returned the challenge with a growl of his own. If Jet wanted a fight, Esan was happy to give the newbie exactly that.
*****
What in the hell was going on? Nina had been enjoying her time in the gym. The fighters were sweet — perhaps a little flirty, but it had all seemed harmless. Then Esan stepped through the door furious with her and now he was ready to have a fight with Jet. She had to do something to stop this madness.
She tried again to reason with them but they were both growling. Nina gasped as she was grasped from behind and lifted up high in the air and away from Esan and Jet. As she felt herself set down carefully, she tilted her head to look up at the huge fighter named Hammer.
“Sorry, Miss Sinclair. I didn’t mean to scare you but you should never get between two males on the verge of a fight.”
She couldn’t see around the big guy. “Why are they acting that way? Is someone going to stop them?”
Hammer kept her pushed back with one large arm as he turned to glance behind him. “Rage is handling it. Let’s get you out of here. It might calm things down.”
“This isn’t my fault,” she insisted as Hammer escorted her out of the gym.
“No one is saying that. However, when two animals are fighting over a bone, removing the bone sometimes gets the tension to die down.”
“Are you saying I’m the bone?”
Hammer chuckled. “In this situation you are.”
She was not to thrilled to be referred to as a bone. “Look, Mr. Hammer…”
“Just Hammer.”
“Right, Hammer, I have a job to do. Could you go get Esan for me?”
“No need, he’s on his way out now.”
Just as Hammer said that, the doors to the gym swung open and hit the wall hard. Nina winced at the loud sound it made. Esan looked like a madman as he glanced around looking for something. Then his eyes landed on her and she couldn’t help but take a step back out of fear.
Hammer once more stepped between her and Esan. “Calm down, Esan, you’re scaring the female.”
“Get out of the way, Hammer.”
“Not until you take three deep breaths.”
Nina couldn’t see what was happening, but Esan must have taken the breaths and calmed down because Hammer relaxed and moved out of the way. Esan did look less angry but she wasn’t going to get too close to him.
“Leave. Nina and I have thingsss to discusss.”
Nina moved to step closer to Hammer. “Hammer can stay.”
“Then we’ll leave.”
“No.”
“No?” Esan looked confused and furious.
“I’m not sure I want to be alone with you.”
Esan ran a hand through his flat hair. “Why not?”
“You’re angry.”
“Yesss I am, but I would never hurt a female no matter how angry I got.”
She wasn’t sure she believed him. She glanced over at Hammer. He gave her a nod, trying to reassure her, but she wasn’t feeling reassured.
“I ssswear on my sssissster’s life I would not harm you.”
She looked into his dark dangerous eyes. He exuded violence but not toward her. She believed him when he said he wouldn’t hurt her. She turned to look up at Hammer. “It was nice meeting you, Hammer.”
“You should come over for dinner while you’re here and meet my mate and the kids.”
Esan quickly took her elbow and moved her past Hammer. “She’ll take a raincheck on that. The kidsss would take her down in lesss than thirty minutess.”
“Hey, that’s insulting!” Hammer yelled at him.
“But it’sss true!” Esan yelled back.
“Where are we going?”
“Sssomewhere private.”
Her mind immediately went to her bedroom all the wonderful things she had fantasized about the previous night. She felt her body heat up at the thought. Down girl! He just wants to talk.