Page 72 of Knight’s Salvation

Ass.“No, sir. I don’t think this is funny. Not at all, sir.”

“Oh my God,” Eve gasped.

“You think you have this covered?” he asked, challenge clear in his deep voice.

Great. Maybe this wasn’t such a fantastic idea.“Well, I—”

“Front of the class. Time to show the rest of us your mad skills.”

“You’ve done it now,” Meredith mumbled.

Mia moved to the front of the room and waited to see what Chaos would do next. For some reason he had it in for her. She didn’t know what his problem was, but she’d had enough. Zenon had stressed on more than one occasion during their one-on-one sessions that he could take whatever she could dish out, but still she’d held back, afraid she might hurt him. Which was ridiculous. These guys fought demons every day. Seriously hurting Chaos was an impossibility. And right then she kind of wanted to inflict some pain on the guy.

Without warning, he came at her. Taken by surprise, she tried to dodge his strike, but he changed tack, shoved her back then hooked his ankle around hers and swept her feet out from underneath her. The extra momentum had her hitting the mat hard.

While she was still sprawled on the mat, flailing, winded, and gasping for breath, he spoke to the class again like she didn’t exist. Like he’d made his point, made her the example of what not to do.

“You see Mia here? This is what happens when you don’t listen to your instructor.” His booted feet moved to her line of vision. “Up,” he barked in that clipped way that set her teeth on edge.

He sounded like Zenon when they’d first started training.

Anger welled up inside her. She didn’t need his shit. She’d had enough to deal with without this arrogant jerk taking pot shots every chance he got.

Stepping forward, he held out a hand. She went to take it, but then he grinned like he’d won. Like she’d proven whatever unflattering opinion he had of her.

Before she could think about what she was doing, she kicked out, nailing him in the balls. Which was kind of an accident, but whatever. When he doubled over, she slammed her foot into his knee like she had with Zenon then swept his feet out from underneath him. His big body slammed into the mat and she jumped to her feet, stood over him like he had her, and said, “Better?”

He shook his head, still cupping his balls. “You fight like a girl.”

Wrong thing to say. Making a fist like Zenon had shown her, and using the weight and momentum of her body, she dropped to one knee, punching him as hard as she could. Bone crunched—she wasn’t sure whose bones for a moment, her hand throbbed so bad—but then he rolled to his side, cursing and growling, blood spurting from his nose all over the blue mat.

“You’re damned right I fight like a girl,” she said.

The room went utterly silent behind her, and she winced as she turned to face her audience. There was more than one mouth hanging open. The astonished silence was broken by booming laughter.

Zenon must have come in sometime during her little display and now clutched his gut, propped against the wall by the door. Kryos wasn’t in any better shape beside him. And Rocco was laughing so hard he’d dropped to the floor and was gasping for breath and wiping his eyes.

Chaos stepped in front of her and she jumped. The guy obviously had a quick recovery time. He lifted the bottom of his shirt and wiped the blood from his nose, then offered her a huge full-on white-toothed smile that transformed his face from extremely good looking to off the charts. “Nice work.”

Humiliation heated her face to the point her eyes started to water. “I—I ah…”

“But next time, I’d appreciate it if you went easy on the jewels. I prefer them on the outside of my body.”

That statement was punctuated by more of Rocco’s howling laughter.

Yeah, she knew what just happened was a major fluke, never to be repeated. Chaos obviously hadn’t believed she’d go to those extremes and she’d managed to seriously surprise him, but she’d take it. “I’ll certainly take your suggestion on board,” she said, letting her own grin loose.

The session ended, since she’d broken their instructor, and as the room started to clear Zenon walked over and snuggled against her back, wrapping his arms around her waist. “Do you have any idea how hot that was?” he said against the shell of her ear. “I knew you could do it.”

She looked at him over her shoulder and arched a brow. “You liked that?”

“Fuck yeah, I liked it.” Her body heated like it always did when Zenon was near.

Chaos had moved to the other side of the room to grab his towel, and Mia could see him watching her and Zenon, his head tilted to the side like a curious lion.

He pushed away from the wall and came back over to them. “Look, Mia. I’m sorry if I’ve come across as a hard-ass, but you need to be strong. There’s no room for weakness in our world. With the way things are at the moment…” He left the rest of that sentence hanging.

His sharp gaze slid to Zenon, who tightened his arms around her. When Chaos looked back at her, his dark eyes held a weight that looked far too heavy for one man to carry alone.

“We’ve already lost one brother because his mate was taken from him. I can’t…” He ran a hand over the smooth surface of his shaved and tattooed head. “I just wanted you to know that you did good, Mia.”

That one sentence said so much about the hard, controlled male in front of her, and she had to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat. “Thank you. And I’m sorry about the, ah…the…” She motioned to his below-the-belt area.

He grinned and inclined his head, stopping her before she said something really embarrassing, then without another word headed to the door. As he passed her troublemaking friends, they started up with the giggles again. And without breaking his stride, Chaos pinned them to the spot with a dark glare. “Your turn tomorrow. Be ready.”

Their giggles stuttered to an abrupt stop, and it was Mia’s turn to laugh.