Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 137004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 685(@200wpm)___ 548(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 685(@200wpm)___ 548(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Moving his hands down to cup her ass, he said, “Wanna go to bed and play doctors?” Chuckling, she punched his arm. “No, I don’t.”
“Sorry, that was immature. How about playing gynecologists?” Again, she chuckled. “I would, but lunch is calling my name loud and clear.”
“Baby, I’ll call your name as loud and clear as you want.”
She kissed him lightly. “Save it for later, big guy.”
“Dick-tease.”
Less than twenty-four hours later, Dante was arguing with her again, and losing at it again. He had wanted to give Jaime another morning free of training to give her extra time to recover, but the stubborn female refused to rest. Eventually he had to concede that she was right on two scores. One, her leg was, in fact, totally healed. Two, he would never have given anyone else extra time. Jaime didn’t want special treatment. His wolf loved her strength.
As usual, they started with their warm-up and did several laps of pack territory. It was no longer necessary to do any exercises on stealth—that had become clear on the morning before last when he had introduced pressure drills. During the drills, he had asked her to close her eyes and rely only on her other senses as she avoided Dominic, Marcus, and Trick, who were skulking around the woods. Not only had she been able to remain undetected, but she was more difficult to sneak up on than a sleeping cat. The guys had soon learned as they attempted to track her through the woods that unless Jaime wanted you to see her, you wouldn’t.
In fact, now, Jaime was physically the perfect enforcer. Not only had she perfected every combat move and mastered stealth, but she was as fit as Dante and as resilient as they came. “You’ve done amazingly well with your training over the past few months, Jaime,” he told her as they finished their laps of pack territory and stopped for a drink at the patio table. Whereas at one time she would have collapsed into one of the chairs, now she stood upright, ready and alert. “But I’m pretty sure you know that.” Her self-satisfied grin proved him right.
“Can I just ask why the guys are hiding in the woods?”
He grinned. No matter how good they were, she always sensed when anyone was around.
“That’ll become clear in a minute. As I said, you’ve done well. And everything I’ve taught you will help you when you challenge Glory. But there’s more to it than combat moves. So now it’s time to address the number one challenge you’ll face when confronted with a threat—which you soon will be. Yourself.”
Jaime’s forehead crinkled. “Myself?”
“You can be your own worst enemy in a dangerous situation if your head isn’t in the right place. Let’s not forget that the challenge will only end when one of you has been subdued or killed.
More often than not, it’s the latter. You might think killing someone will be easy. It’s you or them, so therefore it won’t be a problem, right? You’d be wrong to think that.” In truth, Jaime knew it would be a problem for her. There was no denying that she could be vengeful, but in the past that had always taken the form of practical jokes or maybe knocking someone out cold. But killing someone? This would be a new one. As much as it didn’t sit comfortably with her, and as much as she hoped that Glory would yield during the fight, Jaime strongly doubted that anyone who wanted her dead that badly would surrender.
“There’s another thing that you need to be prepared for, Jaime. As much as you’re confident that you can control your wolf, we both know you’ll have doubts lurking. These doubts will distract you. And if you feel your wolf strongly fighting to surface, you’ll become a little spooked. You can’t afford to do that.”
She didn’t bother denying any of that. “Okay, so tell me how to get over my fear.” Dante looked at her incredulously. “Why would I do that? Fear is a basic survival mechanism.
It helps you stay alive. It’s an automatic response that dumps adrenaline into the bloodstream, which helps us.”
Jaime’s face scrunched up. “Sweating like crazy, having your heart race, and shaking like a shitting dog helps us?”
Dante chuckled. “No, but adrenaline will help with increasing your speed and strength and increasing your tolerance for pain. The time it becomes a problem is when you let that fear become something else—panic. Once you begin to panic, your ability to think rationally often goes out of the window.”
“Right. So how do I do that?”
“Acknowledge what fear actually is—it’s just your brain communicating to your body that it senses danger. Accept fear for what it is, and work with it. That’s when its power disappears.”
“Accept it as a chemical reaction that’s there to help me.”