Chapter 17: Chapter 17

Chapter 0170 +25 BONUS “Nice of you to finally show up,” Noah grumbled, turning away to rifle through his own bag Drake huffed as he set his stuff down on the bench. “Sorry,” he replied casually. “Hit traffic. Are you all warmed up, Hannah?”

“I only just got here myself.” I shot Noah a glance, but he wasn’t looking-his broad back now turned to me.

“We’ll start off slow, then.” Drake slipped his feet into his training shoes, not taking care to tie them tightly like Noah had, and then grabbed his gloves out of his bag. He nodded toward the ring as he slid them on. Let’s go.”

With a deep breath, I rose from the bench and followed Drake to the ring. I climbed under the ropes and up onto the squidgy rubber mat, slipping on my own gloves as I did so. There, beneath the spotlight, I felt almost blinded-and far more intimidated than I expected.

Drake, noticing my hesitation, slid up onto the mat beside me and patted me on the shoulder. “Hey, it’s just training. We’ll go easy.”

I nodded stiffly, trying to ignore Noah’s piercing eyes on me as he leaned on the ropes. “Alright.”

With that, Drake and I got started. We began with a simple exercise, Drake holding pads in his hands and directing me to do various punches. I remembered the basics from my training as a kid, right and left hook, uppercut, high kick, that sort of thing.

“You seem to have this down,” Drake said, setting aside the pads. “We’ll try some hand-to-hand.”

Noah scoffed from the sidelines. “She’s not ready for hand-to-hand.”

I shot Noah a withering glare, but Drake cut in before I could speak. “Don’t worry, Noah. I’m not gonna hurt her.”

Noah pursed his lips and looked away, the tips of his ears reddening ever so slightly. Was that what he was worried about? Me getting hurt?

“Alright, Hannah,” Drake said, “let’s start with some basic grapples...”

Over the next few minutes, Drake and I practiced various grapples, both on our feet and on the mat. I was a bit more rusty with this, and although Drake was patient and gentle, it was a bit intimidating; he was a lot bigger than I was, and I was paranoid about accidentally hurting my stomach where my baby was safely nestled.

But it didn’t matter, because it was cut short anyway, just as Drake was teaching me how to get him into a standard headlock, Noah cleared his throat loudly and caused us both to stop.

“Drake,” he grumbled, hopping over the ropes, “this is ridiculous. She needs to learn more self defense maneuvers, not how to put someone in a headlock. She should know how to get herself out of something like a headlock.”

Drake, disentangling himself from me, sat up. “It’s best for her to know how to put someone in the maneuvers before learning how to get herself out. That way, she’ll understand how the different components work.”

Chapter 10 +25 BONUS Noah narrowed his eyes and placed his hands on his hips. “Yeah, right. Like an attacker is gonna follow all these standard grappling maneuvers. She should know how to escape any hold, then how to f***** someone up and run.”

“How can she know how to ***k someone up if she doesn’t even know the basics?”

“She knows the basics. You’re treating her like a m**n Tm not. I’m just taking it slow,” Drake retorted.

Noah scoffed. “Is that so? Or is it just that you’re not as skilled as you’re making yourself out to be?”

By now, Drake was on his feet, his chest rising and falling rapidly. Still on my knees, I gaped up at the two men-their noses were practically touching. “Guys-” I began.

But they didn’t hear me. Drake was already pulling his gloves off and tossing them to the floor between their feet.

“Since you seem to be an expert,” Drake growled, “maybe you and I should just fight instead and decide who’s more qualified that way.”

“Guys-”

“I think that’s an excellent idea,” Noah replied, ignoring me. “I’ll show you how to really fight.”