Page 97 of Reforging Onyx

Onyx was breathing hard, but he was honed in in a way he’d rarely shown Shane. Maybe it was from fighting for his life earlier or that day, or maybe it was his anger at the situation; he didn’t really know, but he found himself throwing everything he had into the combat.

When he knocked Shane down, surprising a stunned grunt of pain and disbelief into the wolf’s expression, Onyx went to follow it with another blow. He pulled it at the last second because while he was angry, he wasn’t angry at Shane. He wasn’t going to try to kill Dominic today. There was no sense in making this a fight in deadly earnest.

Instead, he took a step back, regarding the werewolf with that same cold, aloof expression. “You underestimated me,” he noted. Either that, or Onyx had gotten lucky.

Shane slowly climbed to his feet, keeping his eyes on Onyx like he expected Onyx to attack again. “No, I didn’t,” he replied, breathing heavily. “I laid everything out and you dropped me. Well done.”

Onyx watched Shane carefully, and he found himself surprised at the sincerity in those words. Had he dropped Shane fair and square? He’d certainly been putting all he had into it, and it was a nice feeling to know that he could actually get one up on Shane.

“I’ve had good teachers,” he said carefully, keeping his distance from Shane even as he dipped his head in acknowledgment. He was dripping with sweat, but it was worth it for that moment.

It almost helped his mood, knowing he’d earned that.

He walked over to the side of the ring to a cooler and pulled out two bottles of water, offering one out to Shane before cracking the other one open to drink it down.

Shane accepted the bottle of water and drank it while Onyx finished his own bottle of water and tossed it into the recycling bin.

He was feeling marginally better, but he wasn’t ready to go anywhere with Dominic yet. “Staves?” he suggested. He smirked. “Or are you too tired?”

Shane studied Onyx for a moment, his gaze flicking in the direction of the doors of the room, then back to Onyx.

Onyx didn’t follow his gaze, knowing that Dominic was there but wanting to ignore his presence entirely.

Shane met Onyx’s smirk with one of his own. “Staves,” he agreed. He climbed out of the ring to fetch the two practice staves.

Onyx took one of them with a nod. He adjusted his grip and his stance, ready to go through one of the katas that Shane had taught him.

Anything to avoid being alone with Dominic.

That wasn’t to say he didn’t want to do the lesson, but… he was tired, and ordinarily, he’d have called it there. But he did not want to be alone with Dominic.

So staff practice it was.

Shane had Onyx run through the kata, correcting his hand positions, his footing, and how the blows were angled. After several of those, he switched and showed Onyx a series of formulated blow trades. They worked the same way that a traditional spar did, with a set known of trading strikes and blocks until one of the opponents broke form and the spar started in earnest.

Strike-block, strike-block. A slow cadence to start with, Shane had explained, while the pattern was still being learned, but it gave the fundamentals of what would eventually turn into sparring with the staves.

Onyx half-expected Dominic to step in and stop them, but the Bancroft witch left them alone — and Onyx was beyond relieved by that as they continued their training.

By the time Shane signaled to call it off, he was drenched with sweat all over again.

“You did very well, Onyx.” Shane held his hand out for the staff. “I’m proud of you.”

Onyx stared openly at Shane. He wasn’t used to that kind of sincere recognition. Paul and Marcos had never given it to him. Shane gave him praise here and there, sure, but this felt like more. To know that at least one of his teachers thought he was worth something…

He handed the staff back to Shane. “I… Thanks."

Not knowing what else to say, he fled for the showers to clean up. He took his time, soaping up and washing his hair with the shampoo Dominic had left even there. When he finally finished and dressed, he returned to Dominic, though he was wary and even skittish about being near him.

Dominic was standing alone in the gym, and Onyx felt the heat of his gaze as Dominic studied him. Then he held out his hand in silent invitation.

Or demand.

Onyx looked at the outstretched hand, his eyes narrowing. No one else was around, but he was always leery of refusing Dominic outside of the bedroom. They had appearances to maintain, and just like Dominic didn’t push Onyx down and fuck him where anyone could see, Onyx didn’t push back either.

He took the hand, for all that he didn’t want to. “Thank you,” he said grudgingly.

Dominic smiled. “What would you like for dinner?” he asked in a voice that was weirdly soft.