Covenant Series Extras

Bonus Aiden and Alex Scene

Saturday morning was just way to freaking early for practicing takedowns and other get-your-butt-kicked-moves. Actually, practicing on a Saturday was just wrong on so, so many ways. Unconditional. Sacrilegious. Lame. Borderline—

“Alex.” Aiden’s deep voice broke through my mental tirade and I looked up, giving my best don’t mess with me I might bite scowl. His full, expressive lips—lips I really needed to stop staring at—spread into a half smile. “Dragging your feet won’t speed this up.”

He had a good point, but I so wasn’t going to admit that. Stomping across the mats, I tried—and failed—not to stare at him like a stalker-in training. But gods, he made black sweats and a white T shirt look like a million bucks. It probably had something to do with the way the material stretched over his broad shoulders and chest. Yeah, that was probably it…

Aiden arched a brow. “What are you staring at?”

Heat zinged across my cheeks. “Uh, nothing…?”

The look on his face was part knowing and the other half was something I couldn’t dare put into words. Without saying a word, he reached out and with just the tips of his fingers he brushed a loose strand of hair behind my ear. Such a simple touch, really, but a shiver rolled down my skin and my breath caught.

Aiden dropped his hand quickly and turned his head. Several locks of wavy dark hair fell across his forehead. “All right, let’s get this show on the road.”

As we went through several warm up stretches, my mood improved substantially. Well, at least I was starting to respond in complete sentences. Mornings were so not my thing.

We started with takedowns, which consisted of sweeping the enemies legs out from underneath them if you happened to be lucky enough to be behind them or standing next to them, but since a daimon most likely wasn’t going to stand there and eat cement, the takedowns we were running through consisted of Aiden coming at me like a cracked out linebacker.

“Remember,” he said, dropping his hands on his narrow hips. “You are going to use the weight and momentum of the opponent against them.”

“Uh-huh.” This wasn’t my first time at the rodeo. Sometimes Aiden forgot that.

His eyes narrowed. “Is this boring you?”

Trick question. “Possibly…?”

Aiden cocked his head to the side. “Then let’s do this.”

I opened my mouth, but Aiden took off like a heat seeking missile that had my name stamped all over it. Bracing myself for the impact, I forced my body forward, meeting him halfway. Technically, I should aim for his midsection, using my shoulder and lift up. Like Aiden had said, his own weight and momentum should finish him off. But considering the fact that he probably had abs of steel since kindergarten, I just may break my shoulder.

I slammed into Aiden.

Yep, he didn’t budge.

Backing off, I rubbed my shoulder as I frowned. “Well, that didn’t go as planned.”

He chuckled. “You hesitated at the last second.”

Flipping my ponytail over my shoulder, I sighed. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”

Aiden stared a moment, then laughed again. Louder—much louder than before. “So glad you find that amusing,” I muttered, knowing how ridiculous it sounded.

“Ah, Alex, you’re not going to hurt me.” He walked backward, grinning so that one dimple popped in his cheek. “I think you were more afraid of hurting yourself.”