Kyden’s eyes narrowed. “Tell me why you ripped that man’s throat out.”
Now realizing the cornered situation he found himself in, the soft, shocked edge to Jaxon’s features faded away to a callous expression. His stare skipped from Kyden to Nexi, and something about how he watched her made her blood ran cold. As if Kyden weren’t the threat to him, but she was…or maybe that she was the enemy.
Ice laced her veins. “Don’t look at me. He’s the one threatening you.” She’d never met this wolf and she certainly didn’t deserve the evil eye.
Before she could say as much, Kyden punched Jaxon across the face, hard enough to send teeth flying, as he sneered, “Eyes on me, wolf.”
Jaxon spit blood and looked at the hardwood floor.
Smart wolf.
Standing over the wolf, with clenched fists, Kyden demanded, “Answer me.”
Jaxon wiped the blood off his mouth, then he raised his head with a wicked glare. “That killing tonight had been an order.” He looked to Nexi with a sinister smile. “I don’t need to tell you what this is all about. Soon you’ll know.”
She blinked. “What does that mean—”
Without any warning, Jaxon shifted into his wolf form, and he lurched off the floor. He plowed into Kyden’s chest, sending him soaring before the wolf turned to her. Nexi tightened her muscles and she readied her stance, as Kyden had taught her.
Power filled her with the knowledge that now she had the chance to fight a werewolf. No matter that this wasn’t one of the wolves who’d killed her family, he deserved a good beating nonetheless for the innocent life he stole.
Kyden had given her skills.
She wasn’t helpless any longer—the frightened woman cowering away from the snarling wolf. She was a guardian with increased strength. This wolf had nothing on her, and she possessed the rich hunger for revenge adding fuel to her kick-ass fire.
Jaxon lunged for her and when he was only a hairsbreadth away, she drew in a deep breath, catching a whiff of the wolf’s woodsy scent. Then Jaxon smacked into her, and, dammit all to hell, she went airborne.
Kyden watched with a fury that he couldn’t control as Nexi crashed into the wall. Rage stole over his logical mind. He pushed off the ground from where Jaxon had shoved him, and he prepared to rip the wolf limb from limb. Sure, in an instant, he could kill Jaxon with his sword, but all guardians loved a fistfight. To win a battle using his blade against a weaponless supernatural did nothing good for the ego.
Using his physical strength to disable an opponent had always met a primal need in Kyden. Besides, the exercise kept guardians’ sharp and fit. The sword was merely the instrument used to kill quickly, if needed, and to erase any evidence of the supernatural death.
Now with a hot hunger to unleash his force on Jaxon, Kyden stepped forward to attack, when suddenly Nexi yelled, “Stop. He’s mine.”
He stopped in his tracks, regardless that his instincts were to refuse her. He didn’t want a single mark on her beautiful body, but he had a responsibility to train her. Nexi needed to learn to fight in the field and personal interests aside, she needed to experience a true fistfight, or so he forced himself to believe.
Deep down, all he wanted to do was give her a safe path to travel.
Nexi squared her shoulders, took her stance as he’d taught her, and looked ready to decapitate the wolf with her bare hands, making him damn proud. He couldn’t spot nervousness in her expression, only the raw desire to make right a wrong.
With a fierce light in her eyes, she called Jaxon forward with a wave of her hands. “Come get me, fur ball.”
Kyden groaned as the wolf pummeled into her, and she tumbled backward. To her credit, she jumped to her feet and issued a hard blow to Jaxon’s jaw. He reciprocated with his own, and Nexi dropped.
Kyden nearly pounced to teach the wolf a damn fine lesson, when Nexi shouted, “Touch him, and you are so dead.”
Turning to her, he discovered her pushing off the ground. He clenched his fists and fought against himself to help her as she circled Jaxon, who continued to snarl at her. Pride for her filled him, in the face of a werewolf now, knowing her history. She looked unafraid. Her arms were up and ready to defend herself, her stance perfect.
Jaxon pounced and slammed into her, sending Nexi straight to the ground. The one disadvantage Nexi would always have was that she was little, and no training would ever change that. Though Nexi would learn in time how to use this as an advantage, just as Finn used his thin frame to trick those he attacked into thinking him weak.
Now Nexi simply took the brunt of the hit.
Kyden watched Jaxon lean in to bite her shoulder, but there would be none of that tonight. Lurching forward, Kyden kicked Jaxon’s head, getting the werewolf off her. He had hoped he’d trained her enough, but apparently, he hadn’t. Maybe he’d been too easy on her, or too careful, because of his interest in her.
Managing to get to her feet, Nexi scowled. “I said, I’ve got this.”
As much as Kyden knew she needed to experience the fight, he also couldn’t allow it. Watching her be tossed around twisted his guts in a way he couldn’t endure. When Jaxon dove at her again, Kyden had enough and intercepted, slamming his fist into Jaxon’s snout.
The wolf fell.
He grabbed his sword from his scabbard, turned to Nexi and said softly, “More training will get you there. Be proud of what you accomplished tonight.”
“Kyden.” Her back straightened, fists clenched at her sides, and her voice became a low growl. “Back off.”
Hot anger, and a confidence he had never seen in her before, rushed across her face, causing Kyden to raise an eyebrow. He didn’t even recognize the woman before him. Nexi didn’t have the sassy expression threatening to castrate him. Nor did she have any hint of the mortal softness he’d seen, or a hesitation in her next move.
Before him stood a guardian.
One who happened to be royally pissed off at him for interrupting her fight.
Kyden, standing motionless, watched as Jaxon snarled and leapt toward her. With a punch that Kyden didn’t think she had in her, she leveled Jaxon, sending him straight to the ground.
He didn’t get up.
Without pause, she grabbed Kyden’s sword out of his hand, and shocking him senseless, she stabbed the blade into Jaxon’s side. He could only stare at Jaxon in complete surprise, as the magic in his sword dripped into Jaxon’s fur.
After the wolf vanished, along with every speck of blood, Nexi thrust Kyden’s sword back into his hands. She grumbled something incoherent, then threw up in her hands in frustration. “See, this is why you drive me insane.” Pacing in front of him, she huffed. “You go all caveman on me, get all bossy, doing this and that, always being so damn forceful with me—”
Kyden watched her in silent wonder. How had she gained the confidence she had in that very second? She had looked like a supernatural then, not a mortal any longer. Had he been underestimating Nexi and how far she’d come, as quickly as she had?
Perhaps.
Was her anger the key to her strength? Now that he thought it over, she fought the best when burning with hells-fire at him. She had killed Jaxon not for the assignment, but because Kyden planned to show her up. Had she unlocked the final piece to her training without knowing it?
Regardless of that bit of information he’d store away for later, and that he was damn proud of her, something else boiled his blood equally as hot as hers. She had no idea how much he had been controlling that side of his personality for her. How gentle he’d been, when it was not in his nature to take things slow and wait for her to make the first move.
It definitely wasn’t a guardian’s way to wait to claim what belonged to him.
Maybe seeing her supernatural side come out, allowed his to explode. She continued ripping a strip off him, but he heard none of it. He didn’t mind if a woman thought the worst of him, if he deserved it. He’d done nothing to Nexi to deserve it. Was really protecting her so awful?
He wanted her, in his bed, and in his arms.
He’d grown tired of this game.
Kyden took the two steps to close the distance, pressed his body against hers, and he walked forward until her back met the wall. “Listen up, real good, Nexi.” He cupped her soft face, staring in her wide eyes, and tangled his fingers into her hair. “I don’t intervene to belittle you. I don’t like watching anyone hurt you. My only thought is keeping you safe.”
Her lips parted, but only a wisp of air escaped.
He leaned down, his lips inches from hers. “However, since you seem unable to see my true meaning and are already punishing me for being the complete ass you think I am, then I guess there’s no reason not to act like one.”
Without waiting for a response, he pressed his mouth against hers. Shocking him, she kissed him back, with force. Her lips, her taste, were more than he’d imagined. She didn’t fight him for control through his kisses, but melted around him, eagerly accepting his kiss. Each brush of his lips against hers, each slide of her tongue, threatened to consume him.
Kyden forced himself to lean away when her soft moans filled the air. He breathed heavily, as did she. Moving his hands from her hair to her jawline, he tilted her chin up. “That, Nexi, is a man taking what he wants. Overpowering a woman with no care to how she feels or what she thinks. That is a man being an ass.”