Page 49 of Rescued

Sanchez gave her one of his feral grins. “Here. Let me show you one that works for human cream puffs.”

Breanna looked at Mikey, and she stepped back, gesturing to Sanchez to take her place. “This better not be some kind of asshole bullshit, Sanchez. Breanna might not be able to beat your ass, but you know I can.”

Sanchez ignored her and moved onto the practice mat. “This is for if a guy grabs you head-on.”

“Just guys?” Mikey said. “How sexist.”

“Yeah. Just guys.” Sanchez waggled his fingers at Breanna. “Move in. Close enough for me to touch you.”

Being touched by Sanchez was not how she would have chosen to spend her afternoon, but Breanna did it. Sanchez said, “When I grab you, push me away.” He put his palms out, miming the action.

Breanna tried, but of course he was able to yank her in close to his body and pin her arms. He was as strong as a gorilla.

“Yeah, okay, I’m a weakling,” she said. “Thanks for pointing that out.”

He let her go and stepped back. “This time, when I go to grab you, put your forearms against my chest instead of your hands.” He mimed that.

She did what he said, and to her shock, when he grabbed her and pulled, she was able to hold him off, stopping short about a foot or so from his chest.

“Your elbow bends,” he said. “The bone of your upper arm doesn’t, so you don’t need strength to keep me at a distance. Defending with your forearms gives you space to maneuver.”

“Wow,” Breanna said. “Okay. But you’re still holding my shoulders. Of course, I could always knife you.”

“I’m close enough to disarm you. Instead, you have to surprise your attacker. They expect you to try to push away. What they don’t expect is for you to change levels. So now when I grab you, defend with your forearms and then immediately drop to a crouch.”

He made her practice that a few times. Then he said, “Okay, step three. When a guy grabs you, his legs will be apart for balance. So after you drop down, put your arms out like this.” He clasped his hands together and held them out in front of him, elbows straight. “Then stick your arms between his legs, and slam them up as hard as you can into his crotch. If his pants are loose enough, you can follow up by yanking your hand back, grabbing his balls, and twisting.”

“Ouch,” Breanna murmured.

He glared at her. “Don’t actually do any of that to me, by the way. Practice that part on Switch. Please.”

Mikey was murmuring, “Dooo iiit! Do it now!”

Sanchez gave her the finger and said to Breanna, “I swear to all the gods if you bruise my balls, I’m going back and ripping the roof off that fucking cabin.”

He and his cousins had fixed the roof last week, and there was no way Breanna was endangering that. “Got it.”

They practiced the move a gazillion more times, Breanna making sure to stop just short of depriving Sanchez of the chance to ever have wolf cubs.

“All right,” he said finally, when her thighs were aching from dropping to one knee and getting up again. Worse than squats. “Not bad. You’re marginally less likely to die in a mugging.”

“Thanks?” Breanna said.

“No problem.” And he sauntered off.

Chapter 21

Breanna’s legs were trembling from her ball-smashing squats, so they called the session for the day. As they grabbed bottles of water from the cooler and walked out of the practice gym, Mikey said, “I still can’t believe you got the Sanchez cousins to fix your roof by bribing them with cookies that they’re paying for.”

Breanna grinned at her. “What can I tell you? It’s a gift.”

“You do have a gift,” Mikey said seriously. “I’ve been here over twice as long as you have, but you’re the one who’s managed to make friends with the guys. Some of the craziest ones in the pack, no less.”

She shook her head. “Gunn and I have been trying to figure out ways to bring the pack together, make it more of a community, but it’s hard when they keep me at a distance.”

“I can see that.” Breanna toyed with her water bottle. “Look, I don’t pretend to know more about shifters than you do. But I know what it’s like to be an outsider, with only one thing you’re good at.”

She told Mikey what she’d figured out about Sanchez, glossing over exactly what had happened that night in the woods. She didn’t want Gunn to hear about it, and for Sanchez to be in trouble.