The Sixteenth Moon: A Rejected Mates Romance

Chapter 23: Be Prepared

Sweat pouring down her face, Kana glared at Sachiharu.

"Again," he ordered, taking up a now familiar stance, hands up, legs spread, body low to the ground, every muscle in his strong, wiry body tensed for movement, coiled and ready to spring at her.

And he would spring at her, just as he had the last several weeks of training. He was preparing her—for what, he still hadn't said, only that if she wasn't ready for what was coming, she'd die. The fact that her injured leg made her slower and her movements less than smooth was a problem, but with the forced daily workouts...she was actually getting better. She didn't need to do the PT every morning like she had been since her recovery, which was a good thing, until you considered that her PT had been replaced with what her uncle deemed "preparation."

Death was not on her to-do list for the foreseeable future, which meant that she needed to suck it up, do what needed to be done, and hope she came out unbroken in the end.

Raising her hands into the stance he'd shown her just that morning, Kana moved—quick, loose, using what was left of her shifter strength and speed since losing her wolf. When she'd first started her training, she dragged her bad leg. She'd fallen on her ass many times when her uncle used her weakness against her. After weeks of that, she learned and adapted. But her uncle, who had no such disability, was quicker, stronger, and skilled. The man had hundreds of years of training under his belt, and she'd only been learning hand to hand for four weeks. Before that had been conditioning—she'd run more in those three weeks that she had her entire life, and still it hadn't been enough. Even now, Sachi woke her up before the sun, made her run ten miles, then put her through her paces in the dojo. So by the time she clocked into work every morning, she was already exhausted, beat to shit, and mentally begging for ice cream and a hot bath—not at the same time, of course.

It had been two months of the same thing, and she was starting to actually see an improvement. She could feel her body responding faster, growing stronger, getting tougher, and yet...something was missing.

"That's enough for today," her uncle declared, moving to the benches along the perimeter of the thick sparring mat to grab two towels. He tossed one to her, then rubbed his own head, face, and chest. His bare chest. For a man who was coming up on four hundred years old, he was cut—lean muscles everywhere. If he weren't her uncle, she'd admire him like that, but since he was, she kept her admiration familial. Who didn't like having an uncle who could kill five men in three seconds? She most certainly did.

Unbidden, images of men, dressed in black, staring down at her with murder and hatred in their eyes flashed through her mind.

And with those images came the usual fear, anger, and finally disgust. Disgust at herself for putting herself in that situation. If she hadn't fallen for Cole and his lies....

Shaking her head, she pushed those thoughts, and the memories they fired up, to the back of her mind, looking at her uncle once more. She only hoped that, after all her training, when she was his age, she'd look as good.

"Dinner?" she asked, drying her face and chest, then tossing the towel toward the hamper. The dojo was a local martial arts academy that her uncle rented out. The place was usually empty in the mornings, since the classes were in the afternoons and evenings, so they made use of the space every day. Thankfully, since he was paying money to use the place, the owners made sure there were always clean towels for them to use.

"Yes," Sachi replied, grabbing his t-shirt and donning it, before heading toward the door. Now that the morning routine was done, he'd disappear for the day. He never told her where he went, but she could guess that he was doing clan business, whatever that was. He'd told her one of the first nights they'd spent together that he was in the US on special dispensation for the clan head, but he still had to conduct business. Kana had no idea what business needed conducting in her town, but she could guess it required...Sachi's special skills.