“Come on, you can hit harder than that. Don’t be a little bitch. Really go at me.”

Hannah Vanderguard shook her head and leaned over, propping her hands on her knees. Sweat dripped down her face as she struggled to breathe, too winded to answer her trainer, Cammie. After a few moments, she straightened up and wiped the sweat off her brow, still panting a little.

“I can’t go any harder than that. I tried.”

“You can and you will. That’s what we’re doing here. Training you so one day you’ll feel confident in your ability to take me, or anyone else, down.”

Hannah snorted as she walked to the bench to grab her water bottle, limping on her bad ankle. She’d never be able to take on Cammie with a bum ankle. She wasn’t even sure she’d be able to if she were whole. Cammie was fierce and on a whole other level.

“Let’s show her how it will go when she improves,” a voice from the doorway said.

Hannah looked over to see Angela walking into the room. Hannah didn’t really know her well; she didn’t even know her last name. But Angela was badass, dressed all in black leather with a don’t mess with me attitude. She’d appeared last week, saying she wanted to train with the fighters for a few days before she left again, but this would be the first time Hannah would see her fight.

She toweled off her face and neck, watching as Cammie and Angela squared off with one another. The women circled each other for a moment, and then Angela kicked out at Cammie. Cammie quickly jumped back, effortlessly dodging the blow. And from then, it was on.

Hannah watched, mouth open in growing shock, as Cammie and Angela went after each other. Every punch and kick was seamlessly timed, every block effortlessly executed. It was like an elaborate dance, and Hannah couldn’t have looked away if someone screamed fire.

If this was Cammie against a worthy opponent, there was no way Hannah would even come close to beating her. She was barely managing to hold her own as it was, and this was about twenty levels out of her skill league.

She squinted, frowning a bit, as she watched Cammie move so fast she blurred. She wondered how she managed that. Cammie was small and quick, true, but that had been a little too fast to be possible. She was concentrating so hard on the fight, hoping to see it again to be sure, that she was unaware of anyone else coming into the room, and she jumped as a throat cleared.

Hannah looked over to see Ian standing in the doorway. He was intimidating, with a fierce frown on his face, biceps huge and straining the sleeves of his black t-shirt. He had a glare on his face, directed at the two warring women on the mat.

She watched with interest as the women immediately separated. Cammie was wearing a slightly guilty expression on her face, but Angela appeared unfazed.

“Sorry, Ian. Just got carried away,” Angela said with a shrug as she strolled out of the room.

Ian rolled his eyes at Angela’s retreating back as he uncrossed his massive arms. He gave Cammie one last disapproving look Hannah couldn’t interpret, and then turned and followed Angela out.

Cammie made her way to where Hannah was standing and grabbed her own water bottle before chugging it. The whole time, Hannah stared at her, feeling a little awe struck. She’d known Cammie could fight, known she was a great teacher, but she hadn’t realized just how good she was.

“What?” Cammie asked, taking notice of Hannah’s stare.

“Nothing, I just… wow. You know, I’m never going to be at your level.”

Cammie scoffed. “None of that talk, Hannah. You’re improving every day. Look at where you were when you first came to me with Kelsey.” Cammie turned to her with a serious expression on her face. “I’ve been fighting all my life, and I’m not trying to brag, but I’m good. And the goal here isn’t to beat me. It’s to learn some new skills, to be confident in your ability to defend yourself, should the need arise.”

Hannah rolled her eyes as she pulled a t-shirt on over her sweaty sports bra. “Slowly learning new skills. Taking in just what I have has taken me months.”

“What matters is that you are getting there. I know it probably feels like it’s taken forever to get where you are, but it really hasn’t. You’re a fast learner, and you’ve done remarkably well.”

For someone like you.

Hannah frowned and shook her mother’s voice out of her head. But speaking of her mother… Hannah grabbed her phone from the bench and gasped when she saw the time.

“Crap. I’m going to be late. I’ve got to go. Thanks for everything, Cammie. See you Tuesday!”

Hannah grabbed her gym bag off the bench and half walked, half jogged, to the door. Her ankle protested the movement, but she ignored it. She had forty-five minutes to rush home, get showered, and changed into something her upper-crust, snooty parents would approve of, and get to their house for the obligatory Sunday dinner. She’d be cutting it close, but she might make it on time. Barely.

She’d never hear the end of it if she didn’t, and the last way she wanted to spend her Sunday night was listening to her mother belittle her and bemoan the fact that Hannah wasn’t perfect. She got enough of that even when she was on time.

Chase MacKeltar stood in the shadows dancing along the edge of the forest, holding perfectly still as he watched Hannah hurry away from the fighters’ house. Well, it was more like she hobbled. He narrowed his eyes, squinting to see as she limped as fast as possible to her Jeep.

His wolf stirred and Chase frowned as he absently rubbed his chest. He wondered why his animal was acting up, but didn’t delve too deeply into it. He was too disappointed that he didn’t get to see her interacting with anyone today. Every little action from her could have a tell, and he wanted to see if his dislike of her was really founded. Some said it wasn’t, but he still believed it was.

He’d never kept his feelings about her a secret. Everything about her got under his skin, setting him on edge. It had always been like that, even back when they were kids, although her behavior in the past had a lot to do with his surprisingly intense negative reactions to her.

Except… his little sister, Kelsey, had cornered him once, after he’d spewed some vitriol at Hannah. The things she said had made him think. Maybe things weren’t as they seemed with Hannah. Maybe, somehow, he’d gotten her all wrong. He still thought he’d pegged her right when they were younger, but maybe, just maybe, she really had changed.

It was the maybe that had Chase watching her closely when she was around. Studying her. Analyzing how she reacted, what she said to others. He kept his distance from her. He still didn’t trust she’d changed, and he still disliked her. But he’d made a promise to his sister that he would stay away from Hannah because he couldn’t control the way he blurted his feelings when he was around her.

And since he disliked Hannah, what he blurted wasn’t always nice. The last time, the one Kelsey and his sister-in-law Parker had witnessed, had been the worst. He’d been hateful when he’d last spoken to Hannah.

Chase rubbed his hand over the back of his neck, fighting down the familiar sense of shame he still felt from that day. Kelsey had reamed him for it, and he deserved it. He’d never spoken to someone like he did to Hannah that day, and he wished he could take the words back, whether they were true or not. Kelsey had been absolutely right when she said it wasn’t okay to talk to people like that.

So while he avoided direct contact with Hannah like she had the plague, he still watched. Still studied. He was obsessed with trying to figure out if she really had changed, or if she was still the cold bitch she used to be.

It had been three months, though, and he was still no closer to deciding who Hannah Vanderguard really was.

He watched with a frown as Hannah peeled out of the driveway, the big tires on her Wrangler spitting up gravel as she took off. First a limp, now fleeing like the hounds of hell were on her heels… something had happened.

Chase strode quickly toward the fighters’ house, a growing scowl darkening his face. He reached the door and pounded on it, the force of the blows rattling the old, rotted wood.

Ian opened the door, smiling when he saw who was on the other side. “Chase, hey. You know you don’t have to knock—”

Chase shoved inside, spinning around to confront Ian. “What the hell happened? I just saw Hannah taking off like she couldn’t get out of here fast enough, and she was limping. Did she mouth off to someone, and they took it too far? Did someone hurt her?”

Ian slowly closed the door, a wry smile on his face. “Well, hey, Chase. It’s nice to see you, too. I’ve been doing well, so good of you to ask.”

Chase growled, his hands clenching involuntarily into fists. “Cut the shit, Ian. Tell me what happened with Hannah. I know she comes over sometimes to hang out with Cammie, but what went down today that had her leaving like that?”

“Now how did you know she comes to hang out with Cammie? You’ve never been here while she was, that I can remember.”

Chase glared at Ian, his feet bringing him within swinging distance without him even being aware, and his nails bit into his palms as he clenched his fists tighter. Ian was a trained fighter, MMA style, with years of experience, and while Chase wasn’t exactly a slouch in that department, he wasn’t on Ian’s level. Ian could kick his ass, but that didn’t register right now. Chase was ready to slug him if he didn’t give him the information he needed, and his wolf was urging him on.

“Hannah comes for self-defense lessons,” a feminine Southern drawl informed him from the doorway, and he looked over to see Cammie there. “She has an old ankle injury, and it sometimes gets aggravated during her lessons. And she was rushing out of here because she was late for something. She’s fine, Chase. Nothing happened and she wasn’t hurt.”

He watched in silence as Cammie walked back out of the room, his mind whirring. His wolf quieted in his chest for the first time since he’d seen Hannah leave, and it made him uncomfortable. He was becoming too invested in trying to learn the truth about Hannah. So much so that his wolf was even joining in. He frowned, a hand automatically coming up to rub his chest again.

He didn’t like that his wolf was getting involved in his obsession. But then again, it probably wasn’t because it was Hannah herself. He’d be this concerned over any human possibly being hurt.

Yeah. That was probably it.

He flinched when Ian clapped a hand to his shoulder, resisting the urge to wince when he squeezed harder than necessary.

“I’m not going to point out that you’ve known me your whole life, Chase. I’m not going to point out you know me well enough to know I’d never let a woman be hurt while she was in my house. Nope. I won’t kick your ass for that. I’m going to let it slide this time. Just don’t let it happen again.”

Ian shook him roughly, and gestured for Chase to follow him to the gym he and his fighters had set up in the converted garage. Chase suppressed a groan as he followed silently behind. So much for not kicking his ass. He had a hunch this wasn’t going to be their usual sparring session, and he’d be in a world of hurt by the time Ian was through with him. He deserved it, though, for basically calling his friend’s character into question.

This was getting out of control. He needed to just let it all go. Continue to stay as far away as possible from Hannah, and stop watching her to see if she’d changed. He’d been worried for his sister and Parker, who were close to Hannah. But at some point, he had to let it go. They could take care of themselves, and he had to trust them when they said Hannah was different now.

Resolve filled him as he pulled his t-shirt off and prepared to get his ass handed to him. He was going to pretend like Hannah didn’t exist at all, and that was that. Ignoring the whine his wolf let out deep inside him at the thought, Chase took a deep breath and faced his pissed off best friend, ready to get this over with.