‘Yeah, but he’s afraid of me.’
Scarlen’s eyebrows lifted, showing amusement. ‘You the leader around here?’
‘Some might say. Me? I mind my own business. Let them use whatever labels they want.’ He pointed at the ground. ‘Now, get on your back down there.’ She chuckled as she did as she was told.
Looking up at him, Scarlen said, ‘Why am I the one on my back?’
Straddling her, but holding his weight off, he replied, ‘Because you’re the one who needs to learn how to scrap.’
‘Scrap?’
‘Yeah. Your technique is a bit … military.’
‘Is that so?’
Bear leaned over her, pinning her hands, her breath close to his face, her eyes locked with his. He cleared his throat, then jerked his chin towards her left hand. ‘You don’t know how to backyard fight.’
‘Like an alley cat, you mean?’ Her lip curled upwards in one corner. ‘Or like a bear?’
‘I hear both can be vicious,’ he whispered next to those curved lips so close to his own. He pulled back, knitting his brows. ‘So, what would you do now, in this position?’
‘I don’t know. I’ve never had a man on top of me before.’
A lump came out of nowhere to block his throat as something twitched somewhere in his stomach. ‘Well, what you need to try and do is lower your elbows, flip up your hips, and hook one foot over his to stop his leg from balancing out when you try to roll him, which you’ll be able to do if he stumbles over your head after you’ve jerked him forward and grabbed his back.’ He sat up. ‘Switch, I’ll show you.’
Scarlen straddled him, pinning him in place, and that lump was back in his throat, so he focused on the moves, showing her with precision each step to try, as there were a few ways her opponent could pin her once more.
‘You don’t always want to focus on strikes. There’s a time for fighting, and a time for breaking free. Being on your feet is the best place, and if you ever get into a fight outside of here and you break free, you don’t have to stick around to attack, you can just run. There’s no shame in it. It’s a matter of survival.’
Scarlen looked to be studying his eyes. ‘Who taught you how to fight?’
‘My mother. Who taught you?’
‘A friend.’
That was unexpected, as he thought she would have said her father, knowing who he was.
‘I was never taught to run away though,’ she added. ‘And I don’t like the idea of being chased down by someone.’
He had so much he wanted to teach her. ‘If someone is chasing you, and they’re about to catch you, right at that moment, you drop down into a ball, tuck your head in tight, and they will fall straight over you, then you get up and run again.’
‘That’s handy to know.’
He suppressed a smile. ‘Not done it myself, but I know it works. Been told.’
‘I guess you’d change into a bear if someone chased you.’
His smile was hard to bite back now. ‘I shift to my halfling before anyone has a chance to chase me, then I find it is they who run.’
Scarlen’s quiet laugh reached into him a little. ‘Not sure you’d fall over the top of me.’
‘If I were running fast enough, then, yes, I would, because I wouldn’t be able to stop myself.’
‘Let’s hope I never have to try out that move.’
‘Hmm. We should stick to what’s allowed on the mats. Improve you there.’
‘You and Judd didn’t stick to the rules.’
