Page 36 of Little Fury

“Yup,”Sebastian tells him.“Okay Little Fury, you’re ready. Don’t take any shit in there from his bitchy ass, okay?”

“Okay.”

I walk to the ring and step in. Marcus does the same.“Living Dead Girl”by Rob Zombie blares over the sound system. I glance over at Theo and shake my head at his early morning choice. He just gives me a“what”shoulder shrug. I chuckle and then refocus.

“Okay, you two, let’s get a move on,”Harry calls out to us. I look at Marcus and nod; he does the same, and we move toward each other.

We don’t take it easy on anyone in the ring, we aren’t allowed to. We need to be able to take a hit, block a hit, and return one. But the first swing Marcus throws is somethingelse. Had I not dodged it, the hit would have knocked me to the mat.

“Jesus Marcus, what the fuck is up your ass today?”I snarl at him.

“Nothing at all Ava. Just here to spar. If this is too much for you feel free to leave the ring.”

I scoff at him, if he wants to do it this way fine, let’s do it.

Fuck him, and his shitty mood.

I step toward him again, keeping my hands up watching him, letting him decide his move first. Marcus is strong and if he lands a hit, it hurts and it can break a bone or knock someone out. So, my speed is beneficial against him. I see him drop his left as he changes his stance, signaling that he’s going for a kick. I drop to the mat to avoid taking the hit and sweep his supporting leg out from under him. I make the choice to let him get back to his feet.

It was the wrong choice.

He comes at me again, fast. He grabs for me, barely missing my arm. I spin away from him, landing a blow to his kidney. He grunts with the contact. I get back in front of him and land a punch to his abdomen.

Marcus responds faster than I expect and that is my first mistake. He grabs me by the neck of my t-shirt. Wearing a t- shirt in the ring was my second mistake. I know better but Marcus never usually spars with me like this. He wrenches back hard on the neck of my shirt, choking me as he flings me down to the mat. I hit hard; my breath knocked out of me. He smirks at me as he steps back. Catching my breath I get back to my feet.

“We done?”He asks me, the smirk replaced with satisfaction. I see the tension leave his body as he extends his hand to me, calling a truce.

“Fuck that,” I say to him.

He smiles at me.“Ok let’s keep going.”

I take my T-shirt off, flinging it over the top rope and onto the floor. Looking around, I see everyone is watching us.

“Good time with Tommy last night, Ava?”Wes smirks at me.

“I guess, why?”

“Just, ah, you’ve got a couple love bites there,”he chuckles.

“What?”He nods at me, and I look down. Sure enough, I see small fingerprint bruises and bite marks on my stomach.“Ha, look at that. Didn’t realize he did that. Bull riders, ya know, strong hands.” I say with a chuckle, moving the waistband of my shorts and seeing the fingerprint bruises disappear down my hips. My third mistake was taking my eyes off Marcus to talk to Wes.

“Fucking motherfucker.” I hear him growl. I see Wes’s eyes go wide. I turn back to Marcus just as he lets a fist fly. It connects with my cheekbone, and it drops me to the mat. My brain is rattled from the hit, and it slows me down; I leave myself open, and Marcus uses it to his advantage, getting himself on top of me.

I manage to get my arms up to block the onslaught of punches he's raining down. He’s landing blows to my arms, trying to hurt me, hoping I'll drop them and allow him to hit me in the head. I fight to keep my wits about me as my head starts to clear. I hear the guys yelling our names, but I keep my focus on my best friend as he tries to knock my fucking head off. My vision clears, and now I’m mad. This is not what we do in this ring. Marcus and I have never tried to really hurt each other. But right now, he is trying to hurt me.

Marcus is always all reaction and emotion in the ring, even when he isn’t trying to kill his opponent. His second mistake (his first being trying to hurt me) was scrambling on top of me so quickly that he placed himself too low on my pelvis. I bend my legs, getting my feet flat, and thrust myhips up with all my strength. It's enough to throw him off balance, and he leans slightly to the right side to place a hand down to stop himself from hitting the mat. That little bit of space is what I need. I roll to my side, allowing myself enough room to get my left leg free and thrust up again, but this time, my goal is to get my leg between us. Small and flexible is the best thing my body is right now. I get my leg between us, my foot on his chest, and I push him off me.

He falls backwards, stopping himself before hitting the mat. He recovers fast, but I’m pissed and react faster. My ass is planted on the mat, and I kick him in the face. Hard. He hits the mat, his hand going to the side of his face, and I just see fucking red. I’m on him fast, but unlike him, I pin his arms down to his side under my knees. Hit after hit, not pulling my punches; I let my fists reign down on him. I only stop when I’m pulled off him. I struggle against the arms holding me, trying to get back to the asshole on the floor.

“Ava!”I hear Harry yell behind me. I don’t stop; I keep struggling.

“Little Fury, you need to take a breath. I’m not going to let you go, so I need you to breathe and hear my voice.”Sebastian calmly speaks into my ear.“Calm down, Ava. Breathe. Breathe Ava.”

I take in a breath.

“Good, take another,”he tells me. His voice is low and calming. The red over my vision starts to abate. I take a couple more breaths as Sebastian continues to hold me.“Good, little one. A couple more calming breaths, and I’ll let you go, okay? Can you do that for me?”

I nod at his words. I take a couple more breaths and feel his arms relax. My body follows his lead, relaxing even more.

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