Maverick attacked first, throwing a couple of punches which Josie avoided easily. Josie continued to watch Maverick as they circled each other. Maverick threw a few more hits, and Josie continued to dodge. “Come on little mate, I thought you were going to give me a fight.”
“Oh right. Sorry, I forgot we were fighting, considering you’re not really trying that hard.”
Maverick smirked, but started throwing harder punches and kicks. Josie just dodged them until she saw an opening. She easily landed a couple of hits to his torso before flipping him quickly over her shoulder. Maverick coughed in surprise, but Josie didn’t let him catch his breath. She put him into an arm bar, and once he tried and failed to escape, he submitted. She helped him to his feet, “Where the fuck did you learn to fight like that?”
I laughed, “You don’t honestly believe the best friend of The Ghost wouldn’t know how to fight just as well do you?”
She threw her hands up in the air, “Seriously. I’m the second best member on the team. I would hope I fought as well as her.”
“Second best? You’re not even third best,” Jace said as he walked into the gym hand in hand with Finley.
“Not in your wildest dreams, Prince of the Dumbasses,” Josie said.
“Oh Josie I didn’t know you were starting your own clan. It’s an honor to be crowned prince of it truly, but I’m afraid I’m needed with my original clan, your majesty,” Jace shot back with a deep bow.
Finley laughed silently, and Josie started to respond but I cut her off, “Okay knock it off you two.” I walked over to Finley and set my forehead against hers, “It’s good to see you up and about.”
She scribbled quickly on her notepad, It’s good to be up and about. Lavi and Kachina say I’m healing well.
I handed it back to her, “That’s great!” I looked over at Jace, “Has Daniel decided what he’s going to do about Leandra’s glacadh?”
“If he has, he hasn’t mentioned it to me.”
“He mentioned, once Finley gets the all clear, you train her so she can fight Leandra.”
Finley looked startled before scribbling furiously on her notepad, Why me? Why not you? As much as I want to learn how to protect myself and the clan, I don’t think I should be the determining factor on whether someone gets in or not.
“You because you’re going to be queen some day. I can’t as Queen, Niamh bows to no one. It’s just a thought, if nothing else Josie can do it. As an official member of our clan, she can fight as well.”
“Wait, but she’s a fire dragon. Why is she a member of your clan?” Maverick asked, looking over at Josie.
Pain crossed over Josie’s face as she wrapped her arms around her midsection. “My, uh, my clan was dismantled by Daniel and Amaya because the royal family was killing members for the slightest things: shifting outside of designated times, walking near them, or making a face they didn’t like were all killable offenses. Some of my former clan members went to Aaron’s clan, but others, like my older brother, stayed to begin again.”
I started to go to her, but before I could, Maverick pulled her into his chest. “What happened to your parents?” The look on his face said he didn’t want to know because he was afraid he already knew the answer.
Josie’s voice came out thick from emotion, “They were killed after they stood up to the queen in an attempt to save one of the kids from her wrath.” Maverick gently rubbed her back until she pulled back with a small smile, “Anyway now I’m here with my best friend and Daniel was kind enough to add me to their clan.” She walked over and wrapped her arms around me so our dragons could reach out to one another.
“The clan wouldn’t be the same without you Jos,” I told her.
“Wait, does that mean I have to fight glacadh?” Maverick asked.
Josie pulled away from me and gave him a mischievous smirk, “I’m going to talk to Daniel, but hopefully yes.”
“‘Hopefully yes’? You’re joking right?”
We chuckled, “Not even a little. The reason, or the main reason, we do glacadh is because it’s a very big turn on to see your mate earn his or her way into the clan,” I said with a smirk.
Fox pulled my back flush to his front, “Really?”
“Definitely,” I said.
Jace cleared his throat to regain my attention, “I came to see if you wanted some help training Fox.”
“If you want you can, but with Maverick and Josie here, I’m not sure I need an extra set of hands on top of what I have.”
“Actually, I should head back to Arlington. I only took a half day, so I need to head back to the office.”
Josie’s back straightened just slightly, but she didn’t say anything. I gave Maverick a quick hug, “Thanks again for coming down today.”
“I just wish I could’ve helped,” he said.
I waved him off, “Don’t worry about it. He had the votes when he called the meeting.”
Josie cleared her throat, “I’ll walk you out.”
Jace and I exchanged a sly smile but didn’t say anything as they walked out of the gym. “So how do you want to get started?” Fox asked.
“Why don’t you and Jace spar, so I can get a better grasp of where you’re at and where we need to go.”
They squared off at center mat and went back and forth for several rounds. Jace was holding back, but I could tell Fox was giving it all he had. After the fourth or fifth round, I stopped them, and Fox fell to the ground, panting. “Were you even trying?” Fox asked, looking up at Jace, who just smiled down at him, not the slightest bit winded. “I see what you mean about conditioning.”
“Do you need a minute?” I asked.
He shook his head as he got to his feet, “Let’s keep going.”
I gave him a small smile before turning to Jace, “Let’s run through a couple of basic moves.”
We worked for several hours creating a good base from which Fox could build. Over the next week and a half we worked on everything he might encounter if he fought Daniel or Jace. Josie and I were running through a few new movements with Fox when Daniel walked into the gym.
I had been bugging Daniel for the past two and a half weeks about who was going to fight Fox, and he refused to tell me. “Friday at eight. I’ll be fighting.”
“Fuck,” I cursed under my breath.
Daniel smirked, “Jace wouldn’t have been any easier.”
“True, but of the two of you, I would’ve preferred he fight Jace.”
“That’s the idea,” he said before leaving.
Once he was out of earshot, I turned to Fox, “How are you feeling?”
“A little sore, but not too bad,” he responded with a shrug.
“Josie, are you free to keep helping us?” She nodded her response, and I blew out a breath, “Okay. We’re going to keep going until you’re too tired.”
Fox nodded, “I feel ready. We’ve gone through a lot of combination moves. I think I can beat Daniel.”
“I think you stand a good chance of keeping up with Daniel, but you still have a lot to learn before you can definitely beat him,” Josie said.
“And we’ve got a day and a half to teach you the rest of what you need to know, going up against Daniel,” I said with a sigh.
Fox reached out to me, running his hands up and down my arms. “So what happens if I lose?”
“Let’s not think about it because you’re going to win,” I said. “Let’s get back to training.” We worked until Fox was too exhausted to continue.
The next day, we continued pushing Fox as hard as we could before finally ending our training for the day. “I think you’re more worried about the fight tomorrow than I am,” Fox said as we walked to my office.
I blew out a breath, “I know how hard Daniel is to beat. I think Josie and I came up with new moves that will throw Daniel, so we’ll just have to hope that will be enough.”
Author: Kailan Counahan 