Wicked Cravings (The Phoenix Pack #2)(72)
Author: Suzanne Wright

Dante chuckled. “No, but adrenaline will help with increasing your speed and strength and increasing your tolerance for pain. The time it becomes a problem is when you let that fear become something else—panic. Once you begin to panic, your ability to think rationally often goes out of the window.”

“Right. So how do I do that?”

“Acknowledge what fear actually is—it’s just your brain communicating to your body that it senses danger. Accept fear for what it is, and work with it. That’s when its power disappears.”

“Accept it as a chemical reaction that’s there to help me.”

“Yes, because if you don’t, if you let it control you, then you’re, to put it bluntly, f**ked. You can be killed. And that’s not acceptable to me. Yes, you’ve kept your wolf under control during training, but sparring with me is very different from what you’ll be facing in reality.”

“I know, I know,” said Jaime flatly. “I won’t be in a safe environment fighting one of my pack, I get it.”

“No, I’m not sure that you do. Glory won’t want a fight, Jaime. Her objective will be to kill you as quickly as possible, particularly since you’ve overpowered her once before. I very much doubt that she’ll shift, because she knows how dominant your wolf is. She’ll come at you so swiftly you might not see it coming. She won’t want to give you a chance to use any of your moves on her.

Even if you manage to land a lot of good blows, that won’t be all it takes. She will have moves of her own. She’s been in countless fights before. She’ll be used to being hurt and ignoring the pain to carry on.”

“I don’t think she’ll stop until one of us is dead,” she said quietly.

He repeatedly clenched his fists. “Neither do I. This is why it’s imperative that you’re able to switch quickly from one mind-set to another—namely, that you can be prepared to kill. That kind of thing isn’t easy. Throughout your entire life, you’ve had morals instilled in you. You have a conscience that interferes in every choice you make. It’s similar to brainwashing, in a sense. None of that can matter, Jaime. Even in the context of self-defense, you still can’t fully justify killing a person to your conscience. It is what it is. You need to be able to accept that rather than make excuses for it.”

“Like you?”

“Like all the enforcers, but yes, like me. I have a very fierce sense of right and wrong, but when it comes to defending or protecting this pack, I’ll cross over any lines I wouldn’t otherwise cross. You need to be able to do the same. It doesn’t mean you have to stop being a good person and that you have to harden. But like it or not, it will change you in some ways. You can still be the person you are now, but with an ability to cross right over any ethical lines when you need to. When you’re involved in a fight with Glory, you will need to. So, can you do that?”

“I can do it.” Jaime set her jaw.

“I don’t know how long it will be before Glory finally appears again, but I think we can be pretty sure that she will. So until then your training won’t involve exercises or practicing. I’m going to be asking you to do something much harder than that. From now on, there’ll be no more sparring.

There’ll only be attacks. Not just with me, but with the guys, too.” Jaime smiled evilly. “Good.”

“You might be thinking that this will be fun, but believe me when I say that they won’t go easy on you. They will hurt you, and they will continue until you either yield or pass out, unless you can give as good as you get. You can’t afford to care that these are your packmates. You can’t afford to care that hurting them will be hard. In fact, hurting people close to you would pain you ten times more than hurting Glory. You do everything I taught you—you fight dirty, you cheat, you make them bleed.

They’ll do exactly the same to you, as will I. Are you ready for this?” After a few moments, she finally replied in a strong voice. “I’m ready.” Jaime had done better than Dante ever would have imagined. He was pretty sure the guys were just as surprised. While Jaime was hesitant and awkward during her first fight, Marcus hadn’t held back at all. She had therefore learned the hard way what happened when she let her feelings distract her. After that, she had been merciless. She hadn’t said one word at any point, as if she had taken herself into some sort of zone where the only thing that mattered was survival—and that was exactly what Dante had been hoping for.

He had purposely left Dominic until last, knowing how close he and Jaime were—something Dante would never be happy about. Although there had been the briefest flicker of unease in her expression, it had quickly disappeared, and Jaime had fought just as dirtily as she had with Marcus, Trick, Ryan, and Tao. As expected, Tao got it the worst. The second it was all over, the enforcers enveloped her in a hug. Not a comforting act, but a show of respect.

Trey, who stood a short distance away and had observed the entire thing, looked truly impressed with Jaime. While the enforcers were still fussing over her—all of them tended to joke with her as if she was one of the guys—Trey approached Dante. “You did good with her.”

“I can’t take all the credit. She worked hard. She only tried to kill me twice.”

“She’d make a good enforcer. But…I think she’d make an even better Beta female.” Dante’s gaze shot to his. “What are you saying?”

“Just that I’m no longer so troubled about her staying. I admire anyone who shows that much strength and determination. And she puts you first. You don’t put yourself first to anything. You’ve been too focused on your role as Beta—you deserve to have something of your own too, and I know you want to imprint on her. Although you don’t need my approval or blessing, you have it.” With that, Trey turned and walked away.

That had been a surprise. Trey was right, Dante wouldn’t have sought his approval, but he was glad to have it. Now all he needed was Jaime’s approval. Dante swerved his head to see the female in question— his female—jogging over to him, smiling. She was bruised and covered in scratches and bumps. If he hadn’t known they would heal in a matter of hours, he would have freaked.

“My wolf’s feeling really smug right now.”

He returned her smile and pulled her to him. “I’ll bet.”

In response to the strange look on his face and the strain in his voice, she cocked her head.