“Fuck you,” I hiss up at him as I struggle nineth his body weight. “Let me up you fucking asshole.”
“You want up?” He smirks down at me. “Then fucking get up, princess. Work for it. No one is coming to save you and there isn’t a stray rock for you to bash my skull in with.”
A strangled howl leaves my throat. Fueled by rage, I shift my hips and buck my body in a vain attempt to dislodge him. It doesn’t take long for me to tire myself out, my side aching fiercely.
Once I am panting and sweating, he eases up a bit, one of his ginger eyebrows raised at me mockingly.
“You done?”
Taking a deep breath, I nod, letting my body relax beneath his. He’s proved his point. I am useless.
“Good.” The smile he gives me in genuine. “Now, I want you to raise your knees and shift your feet toward you.”
Doing as he instructs; I bend my knees until the bottom of my feet are positioned where my knees had been resting. The weight of him digs into my hips a bit harder, causing pain to flare in my side, but I can still focus.
“Grab my right wrist with both of your hands,” he demands. I shift to comply quickly, wrapping my small hands tightly around his larger wrist the best I can.
“The next step is done all at once, understood?”
“Okay?” Despite my strong assurance, I am unsure and vulnerable. This is completely new to me. No one has ever taught me to defend myself before. Why would anyone? Elias wouldn’t have wanted me fighting back when he beat me, neither did Christian. Even Matthias never bothered to teach me self-defense the short amount of time I was with him.
“Using your legs as leverage, you are going to arch your back while keeping your shoulders firmly planted on the floor,” he instructs seriously. “Then, you’re going to suddenly drop your weight while pulling on my arm with your left hand and pushing with your right. If you do this correctly, you’ll be able to roll me off and follow my momentum, reversing our positions. Understood?”
Wow. He is good at this.
Not that I expect him to be bad, but I didn’t expect him to be such a good teacher. Kiernan, I’ve come to realize, is more serious than Seamus. Is it because Liam is grooming Kiernan to take over as head of the family? Having twin sons no doubtmakes it hard for my biological father to decide who will take the crown.
“I think so.”
“Go,” he orders.
I try not to overthink the moves he’s just given me. If I overanalyze I will easily falter and fuck it up. Taking a deep breath, I clear my mind and imagine the weight pressing down on me is an attacker and not my younger brother.
Not that he isthatmuch younger.
Using my legs, I brace them for leverage, managing to just lift my hips off the ground as they strain against his weight. I clench my jaw, my teeth grinding as I try to remain focused. Without thinking, I drop my weight when my knees begin to shake and simultaneously pull and push on his arm, ripping his hand from where he placed them on my neck before we began.
Kiernan lets himself be rolled off me and onto his back. I end up landing on his waistline instead of his hips where I should be.
Whatever, it’s a start.
“Good job,” Kiernan’s voice is filled with pride, a tone I rarely hear in my life.
“Now,” he grins as he tackles me to the ground, his hand back on my throat. “Again.”
Turns out, I am pretty good at defense training.
I’m no John Wick, but between the three of them, Liam, Seamus, and Kiernan, I’ve come pretty far in the last week. Not that the bar was all that high since I started out with zero self-defense skills in the first place. They are all versed in different forms of fighting, and one is often better at a particular aspect of training than the others.
Kiernan is highly adept at what they callDornálaíocht, which is an Irish style of boxing as well asBataireacht, a form of Irish martial arts that utilizes bamboo sticks. This style of fighting has become a staple for me.
“The further away you are from your opponent, the better chance you have,” Kiernan says. “You won’t be able to overpower your opponents. You’re not strong enough, but you can use that to your advantage. You can tire them out while still delivering damage.”
The first few days, the only damage getting dealt is to me. My welts have welts. That’s no joke.
Seamus thrives with knives and weapons. He is also a more patience teacher than his twin. He breaks down each weapon, their purpose, their function, and their pieces, making me take them apart and put them back together several times before he lets me anywhere near a target.
Same for the knives. We spend what feels like days, which is more like hours, working with wooden practice blades, before he finally lets me touch a real one.
