Chapter 21: He's My Friend

I finished exercising on the treadmill and got off the machine. Something was bothering me.

Then I glanced over at the women who had talked about Zander. They continued to talk and didn’t even notice I had listened in on them. There was no way I was letting them get away with talking about him like that. It was despicable.

I felt an urge to stand up to these women, since he wasn’t there himself. We had finally gotten connected enough to be friends. Maybe we had been friends for a little bit, but I was fighting it.

I shared more with him than I had shared with anyone, even Ash. Something about Zander was more special than what I had with Ash. Our being mates might’ve given an advantage that Ash would never understand.

No way would I let these girls trash talk him and who he was as a person. He wasn’t the person they believed he was. I had to set the record straight or else I’d regret not sticking up for Zander.

The redhead woman was the first one I needed to talk to. She had made my blood boil the most when I heard what she said. I headed for her treadmill that she continued to exercise on.

“Hey, I need to talk to you.”

The redhead said, “What for? I don’t even know you.”

I put my hands on my hips and said, “I heard you gossiping about my friend, Zander. How dare you talk about his reputation like that?! You’ve got no right!”

The redhead glared at me and said, “I can talk about Zander however I please. You can’t tell me what to do.”
I ignored what she said and added, “All of you women should be ashamed of yourselves. You’re tearing down someone that you don’t truly know. Zander is a guy who’s been through a lot, and he doesn’t deserve people like you talking about him. So, piss off!”

“You shouldn’t have said that bitch,” the blonde woman told me.

“Why don’t we settle this with sparring? I’ll keep my mouth shut if you one of you wins. But if I win, you have to apologize to Zander like the adults you are.”

“You’re so on,” the one black haired woman told me.

“Who wants to fight me first?” I asked the question in a brave and confident tone.

“I will gladly,” the redhead said.

We all moved to an open space in the gym. I stood facing the redhead. The other women sat off to the side and whispered to each other. Adrenaline ran through my entire body.

The redhead threw the first punch but I dodged quickly. She was so mad that she lunged for me and put her arms around me and tried to throw me to the side. I kicked her swiftly before she threw me.

I wouldn’t let the redhead get the best of me. When she let her guard down, I kicked her in the side and caused her to fall down.

I let her get up and then grabbed her arm and raised it behind her back in an uncomfortable angle. She yowled in pain and said, “Okay you win. Let me go.”

“I’ll take down this bitch,” the brunette said.

Her friend moved to be with the other women. I swung my fist at the brunette’s face, but she escaped from my reach. She was faster than the first challenger.

I got a sharp hit to the jaw and swayed backwards but didn’t let myself fall. The brunette didn’t wait for me to get steady and kicked out towards my chest. I narrowly avoided her kick and jumped out of the way.

The fight continued longer than the first woman. Sweat dripped down my forehead and neck. I had to try to move faster than this girl to avoid harsh blows to the face and throat.

Finally, I got a great hit to her jaw and knocked her on the ground. Before the girl could block, I held her down and punched her with a couple good hits to the face. Blood gushed out of her nose.

She got up and walked away from me. I felt so powerful winning so far. Adrenaline coursed through me and my heart beat incredibly fast.

The next girl that came up to face me was the black haired woman. She looked me in the eyes and said, “I’ll knock you out before you know what hit you.”

She immediately did a roundhouse kick to my face and knocked me down. Then she grabbed my hair and pulled me up to look at her. She asked tauntingly, “You’re not that tough now, are you?”

I let out a primal growl and a sudden burst of strength rushed through my veins. I brought my fist back and gave her a good uppercut punch to the side of her jaw. She stumbled back and freed me when she lost hold of my hair.
I took the opportunity to run over to her and jumped on top of her. We rolled around for a while and kept swinging punches at each other.

At one point, she put her hands around my throat and started squeezing. I had to do something fast. I felt around for something to hit her in the head with. It seemed highly likely that she’d kill me. My hand touched something with a wooden handle, and I raised it to hit the girl on her head.

She tumbled off me and lay unconscious on the ground. I checked to make sure she was breathing. Relief flooded over me when I saw her chest rising and falling. Her blonde friend looked horrified and ran out of the gym. I almost smiled at how strong that made me feel.

The rest of the women left while carrying their unconscious friend and didn’t look me in the eyes. It felt great to have won against all of the women. All my training had paid off.

My heart continued to race fast, and I was out of breath. I sat on the floor and tried to get my heart rate back to normal.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps approach and they got closer and closer. I was ready to fight another woman if I needed to. But it turned out that my new company was Zander.

I asked, “Have you been here the whole time?”

He nodded and said, “I was at the elliptical area near the treadmills but kept my distance. I heard what they said and how you defended me.” He gave a crooked grin and asked, “So, I’m your friend, huh?”

I looked up at him and said shyly, “Yeah we’re friends.” I got up and added, “I’ll help you find the Rogue wolf. I promise you. We'll take him down.”