Sondrae Bennett - Worth Fighting For

A sense of failure assailed her. Oscar was hers to take care of. She hadn’t even lasted one day.

“Oscar,” she called, knowing how futile it was. She hadn’t owned him long enough for him to learn his name. But her brain refused to come up with a better option. How would she find him? All she could think to do was stand by the woods and call his name. But what if he’d gone in the other direction? He would run into the road and get hit by a car. Oh God.

“Calm down, we’ll find him,” Cody said beside her.

“But what if we don’t? What if we never know what happens to him? I brought him here to try and protect him and now–”

“Wait, there he is.” Cody cut into her rant, pointing under a bush in her garden where Oscar slept. With his black fur, he blended into the dark soil underneath.

Misty ran over, picked up the fluff ball and cuddled him against her cheek, the soft fur reassuring her he was safe. Oscar let out a small squeak, and tried to wiggle out of her arms. Reluctantly, she set him down in the makeshift playpen. She watched as he circled first one way, then the other, before finally curling up and going back to sleep.

Staring at Misty as she gazed at Oscar with such love, Cody felt…jealous. Which was ridiculous. Misty was his friend but nothing more. He’d never wanted anything more. But lately, for some reason, he’d started questioning their relationship. Whenever he looked at her, he felt a strange heat, almost like desire.

It was crazy. He didn’t desire Misty. He didn’t. But deep down, he knew it was a lie. His eyes lowered to her butt as she leaned down to place a stuffed animal in the pen with her fox. The yoga pants clung to her curves worse than the jeans had, leaving everything and nothing to the imagination at the same time.

A flash of Misty, her eyes sparkling down at him as she leaned in for a kiss, ran through his mind. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear it was a memory. But he’d never kissed her. Not even during a childhood game of Spin the Bottle.

He needed to get a grip. Even if she would be open to something more than friendship with him, he would never do it. There weren’t many girls he considered friends. Acquaintances maybe, but not friends. What they had was too special to ruin just to scratch an itch, which was all they would ever have.

If she was a potential mate, things would be different, but she wasn’t. With all the time they’d spent together over the years, he would have sensed the connection a long time ago. Best for everyone to ignore these sudden urges and keep things light. Which would be a lot easier if she’d put on sweats instead of the clingy…

Cody jerked his gaze away from her butt. Clearing his throat, he tried to concentrate on the task at hand. Self-defense lessons.

“Come on, let’s go over here to get some room.” He put his hand on her elbow and led her away from the makeshift pen. The longing sigh she made as she cast one last look at Oscar sounded almost like a sigh of pleasure. He gritted his teeth and ruthlessly pushed down the images threatening to rise.

“What’s first, chief? Karate, Jujitsu, maybe a little Tai Kwon Do?” Misty jumped away from him and started hopping back and forth like a boxer, reminding him of a little bunny. The image made him smile.

“Easy tiger. Why don’t you show me what you’ve got, first, so I know where to start.”

The hopping stopped. She stared at him with a blank look on her face.

“Come on, you can fight me.” He raised his hands and assumed a fighting stance, having no doubt he could block whatever she threw at him.

“Um…what I’ve got. Okay.” She pulled up her pants and shrugged her shoulders a couple times. Then she did something–he didn’t think he could describe it if he tried–a drawn out “Wwaaa” escaped as her hands circled wildly around her head. Every now and then, one of her legs would lift up in what he had to assume was supposed to be a kick.

Without a word, he gaped at her display for a minute, dropping his hands from their defensive position around his face. It had to be a joke. But even as the thought came to him, he knew without a doubt, she wasn’t kidding. This was Misty’s interpretation of a badass fighter.

His lips twitched as she spun, her hands still chopping through the air in wide, erratic circles. Before she’d gotten her balance back, one foot rose into the air in an imitation kick. She stumbled, catching herself before she fell. Barely.

He tried to contain the laughter. He really did. But a snort slipped past his guard, and that was all it took. Laughter rolled through him, bursting out in a long bellow. Clutching his stomach, he doubled over, unable to stop.

“Hey!” Misty complained, shoving him to the ground. The impact did nothing to stop the roars of laughter. Before long, his stomach and sides ached. He pulled air into his lungs, struggling for control. He blew out a breath, as his chuckles tapered off.

Glancing up, he took one look at Misty, arms crossed and toe tapping as she glared down at him with a furious expression, and burst into renewed cackles. It was as if she’d learned her moves from old Bruce Lee movies. Which, considering who he was thinking about, she probably did.

Once he’d regained control, he sat up, wiping the tears from his eyes. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed that hard. Actually, he could. No surprise, it had been with Misty.

Almost scared to discover her reaction, he stood and turned to her. She certainly looked angry, but the laughter shining out of her eyes told a different story. One of the things he loved about Misty was her ability to laugh at herself. He grinned and gave her a helpless shrug. No one would have resisted laughing at her display, not even a saint, and the twitch of her lips told him she understood.

“I know, I know. Hopeless, right?” she asked.

“Not hopeless.” He weighed his words carefully. “But I don’t think we’ll be able to cover everything in one or two or twenty lessons. Let’s just start at the beginning.”

“Okay.” She dropped her hands to her side. “Teach me, sensei.”

He shook his head and rolled his eyes. “The first thing you need to learn is to stay–” He broke off and stared at her, remembering her ‘moves’ from before. “Actually, in your case, the first thing you have to learn is to never do what you just did. Unless you intend to crack them up and run away while they’re on the ground laughing.”

The glare she threw him told him she didn’t appreciate his humor. “Ha ha ha. Can you quit joking around and get serious?”

“You think I’m kidding, but I’m not. Seriously, the first thing you need to learn is nothing fancy. I’m not going to teach you how to be Jet Li. I’m going to teach you how to defend yourself. No judo chops or breaking cement blocks. Your objective is not to win, it’s to get away.” Disappointment shone from her eyes as her lip poked out in a pout. A pout that made her lips look far too enticing. He found himself unconsciously leaning forward for a kiss, and tightened his resolve. What was wrong with him?

“But I want to be like Laurie.” One of the wolves in Jason’s pack. Not only was Laurie an alpha wolf, she was a superb fighter both with fur and without.

“Honey, no matter how much training we do, you’re never gonna be like Laurie.”

Her sigh was so exaggerated, he had to wonder whether she tried to egg him on. Although he never understood why, he knew she occasionally tried to get under his skin.

“I know,” she said, reminding him of a petulant child.

“All right then, moving on. For the next lesson, I want you to follow my lead, okay?” He waited for her nod before continuing, “Breathe in.” With his hands toward him, he raised them to chest level as he took a deep breath, then lowered them as he breathed out. “Breathe out.”