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Del was probably going to sign me up for the scrawniest boy he could find. I didn’t care. I’d kick his ass with style and get my ticket out of Southern. I swung my staff around one last time with flair… and hit a tree.
That growled.
“Oh, fucknuggets.”
5
Definitely Not a Tree
FLOR
It wasn’t a tree I’d hit. It was a guy. A really, really tall, angry-looking shifter.
All I could see at first was short red hair and green eyes that were so bright they almost sparkled, like gemstones. His lips were full and looked soft, but his clean-shaven jawline was hard. I’d never even imagined a face as sharp and perfect as his. He was a stranger, not one of my pack, which was a blessing.
I weighed my options. Should I run? Maybe not yet. It wasn’t the hours for the Hunt. And something in my gut said I didn’t need to be afraid of him, even if he was a stranger, and a male. Maybe he wasn’t hunting me. Heck, he might not be able to tell I was a girl.
I backed up a step anyway, taking in the rest of him. “Um, sorry,” I mumbled, trying to lower my voice like a boy’s. “I thought you were a tree.”
I tensed my muscles to flee, in case he didn’t buy it. I wasn’t sure I could run faster than him, though. He looked fit and fast, and his legs were long—he must have been six foot four. He also had on expensive-looking black running shorts, black tennis shoes, and nothing else. I tried not to stare at the defined abs that were flexing right in front of my face.
“You’re tall as hell,” I muttered at his abs. “It was an honest mistake.” I peeked up at his face again. A muscle in his jaw twitched as he stared down at me. He seemed disappointed for some reason. No, disgusted.
The idea of that made my heart pang. Why should I care if some stranger thought I was trash? I was used to that.
“So, you gonna kill me or stare me to death or what?” I asked gruffly, annoyed at his silence and my own strange reaction to him.
“You’re from Southern.” He didn’t ask, just stated it. His eyes flicked to the metal tag on my ear.
“Yeeahh,” I drawled. I guess you couldn’t expect that much hotness to also have brains. “You’re not. What are you doing on our hunting grounds?”
“Running.” He paused, like there was something he wanted to say but decided not to. “Your Alpha gave us free rein to exercise. We’re staying at the Pack House.”
“Dang, you came a long way.” I glanced around the trees behind him. “You alone?”
“For now,” he answered after a moment. “Lots of others are planning to take some pack runs, though. You might want to get back to the compound. A kid on their own? Bad idea with so many strangers coming into the area.”
I noticed he hadn’t said a girl on her own. Maybe my disguise was better than I thought. I stuck out my flattened chest. “I can handle myself. And I ain’t a kid.”
“Sure, kid.” He strode casually across the clearing, glancing at my campsite, such as it was. He picked up another branch I’d found to practice with. “I see you know some bo staff forms.”
“Yep,” I agreed, trying for casual. “I’m gonna join the Games.”
For a split second, his eyes glimmered with something. Curiosity? Concern? I wasn’t sure. He was probably just like the guys in my pack, considering anyone as small as I was to be weak. I hated that condescending shit.
He twirled the branch a few times, testing its weight and balance. “Want to spar?”
I held my breath for a second, then let it out. I’d never sparred with anyone other than Del, and we’d only used mops. This could be great practice. “I’d love to.” I gestured to the clearing. “This work for you?”
“Stay between those three pines?” He sketched a triangle out with his eyes.
I nodded eagerly. “Ready?” My voice squeaked, too high in my excitement, and I repeated myself, trying for a casual growl. “Ready?”
The corners of his lips turned down, but he nodded once. “Fight,” he agreed.
He came at me fast. The force of his hits jarred just a bit, and I winced, wondering how powerful this guy really was. Del always held back, no matter how much I tried to get him to use his full strength. He said until I could shift, he wouldn’t fight me for real, since my healing would take too long, and I was constantly being hunted by the unmated assholes. A shifted wolf could heal almost anything in a few days; human forms took weeks longer, and sometimes couldn’t heal really bad stuff. Human form was what got Enforcers killed, according to Del.
The guy in front of me whirled his staff around for another hit. I returned his blow just as fast and danced away. We circled for a moment, and then I drew my branch out in a swift arc away from my hip, switching to an elegant sword-fighting style Del had begun teaching me a few months before.
