36

ONE OF THE larger caverns had been turned into a gym, complete with an indoor track and weights and other toys in the middle. There was even a locker area. I had a pair of black jogging shorts, black sports bra, and running socks and shoes. Nicky came out of his locker area in shorts and a T-shirt that looked like it was straining to hold all his muscles into one tight packet. Fredo had changed to black workout pants and T-shirt, but he wasn't going to jog. He was going for weights and then he'd see who he could get to fight with him. We'd all locked our weapons in the lockers. The idea was that here we were all safe enough that we didn't need to be armed, and honestly if anyone tried to take me here with all the guards, my money was on us, armed or unarmed.

Nathaniel, Nicky, and I were stretching out when I heard the crowd coming down the hallway. There was that sound of boisterous male energy. The guards spilled out of the hallway around us, laughing, and full of that energy that big, athletic men have. Some women mistake it for aggression, but it's not. It's a sort of awareness of their bodies, an eagerness to use them, almost an animal anticipation of it. Their being wereanimals just upped the ante for it.

Ares was in front with Lisandro and Graham. I went back to stretching, touching my forehead to my knee on the floor. This was my first time seeing Lisandro since we'd broken his prohibition on sex. I wasn't sure what to say to him, so I would ignore it if he'd let me.

"Hey, Anita." I rose from the stretch to find Gregory and Stephen settling down by us. They had both put their long blond curls in ponytails. Their eyes were cornflower blue and their faces beautiful; they were girl-delicate, and I'd seen enough pictures to know that they looked like their mother. She'd died when they were little, like mine. They were my height, give an inch here and there. When we were here we ran together.

"Hey, I didn't think you were staying with us, Gregory," I said.

"I heard I missed an orgy." He made a pouty face at me.

"Don't start," I said.

He opened his mouth to say something, but Nathaniel said, "No, really, not today."

Gregory looked at him and something passed between them, because Gregory just gave in, which wasn't his usual. "Fine, I'll leave it alone."

"Thanks," Nathaniel said.

Normally I'd have wanted to know what Nathaniel did to get the other man to behave, but today I didn't care. I was just glad he'd let it go.

They joined us in the stretching. I saw Clay and Bram, near the back. Socrates, who was a werehyena and an ex-cop with skin the color of coffee with a touch of cream, was there as well; his hair looked almost long compared to Ares' and Bram's military buzz. Most of the rest were wererats, then werehyenas. Clay and Graham were the only werewolf guards there. Stephen was a werewolf, but he wasn't a guard. Bram, Gregory, and Nathaniel were the only wereleopards. Again, only one was a guard. Did we depend too much on the rats and the hyenas? Yes. Should we change it? Probably. I pushed the thought away. I was here to work out, that was all. It was all about moving the body. I'd found that exercise helped with the anger, and even helped tire the energy that made it harder to control the beasts.

I knew everyone by name, all the rats. Emmanuel was one of the few blue-gray-eyed Hispanics I'd ever met. His skin was almost a gold color, so that he had the same kind of exotic vibe going that Vivian, Stephen's fiancee, had. The fact that Stephen was still here and hadn't gone home wasn't a good sign for them. I let that go, too. I couldn't even fix my own love life - what the hell could I do for anyone else?

Dino was as dark as Emmanuel was light, but where the other man was five-eight and just nicely muscular, Dino was big. Not just six feet, but almost as wide as he was tall. He ran like a lumbering elephant, but I'd seen him fight and one of my goals was never, ever to have Dino hit me in the face for real. He was one of the few fighters we had who had exploded one of the new heavy bags designed to stand up to preternatural strength.

God's full name was Godofredo. He was actually Fredo's nephew, which made me speculate that Fredo might be short for the same name, but when asked Fredo had given a flat look that made everyone drop the subject. Fredo was slender, not that tall, and honed down to lanky muscle like  the slender blades he favored. God was inches taller, broader, and packed on muscle so that the nickname didn't seem funny when you saw him step into the practice ring.

"Hey, old man, aren't you going to run with us?" God called.

Fredo paused in his weight lifting with a barbell packed with the body weight of most of the smaller men here. He didn't put it back on the rack; he held it partway lifted and answered in a voice without any hint of strain. "When you can beat me in the practice ring, then you can call me old; until then, shut the fuck up." He started doing reps with the bar.

God chuckled, and the sound matched the big chest. They liked each other, but it was guy liking, so there was a lot of cussing and good-natured jibes exchanged. Until I'd hung out with enough men I'd never realized that fuck you could be an endearment of the highest order.

I was stretched out. I stood up and everyone around me got up with me. Part of me wondered if they did it consciously or if there was some metaphysical reason for it. I let the thought go. I was here to run.

The guards who had come a little behind us didn't stretch out as much as I did, but then they were less likely to pull a muscle, so we were all ready to run at the same time.

Ares said, "You're running with us?" He made it sound doubtful.

"I'm using the track at the same time," I said. I looked up all that height to meet his pale eyes in their desert tan.

He had that guy smile, the one I'd gotten most of my life because I was small and usually the only girl. "You can't keep up with us, Anita."

"If I were human, no," I said.

"It's not that." He came to stand next to me. He pointed at where my hip hit his thigh. "Most of us have a much longer stride. We're just going to be faster on the track."

"I'm not trying to race, Ares, just sweat some shit out."

He shrugged. "Just saying."

I felt the anger like a warm wave flowing over my skin. It hit that place where the beasts lived, and I had to take deep, even breaths to still it all.

"I didn't mean anything by it," he said. His voice sounded odd.

I looked up and found that the hairs on his arm were standing up. His face wasn't teasing now. "Its okay, Ares, but just so you know, my control and my mood, not so good today."

He stepped back, nodding. "Sorry, ma'am."

I didn't argue about the ma'am part. I just turned and stepped out on the track. I started at a slow jog. Stephen, Gregory, and Nathaniel fell into pace with me. Nicky started with us, but his natural stride wouldn't keep him with us. The thud of feet sounded behind us, and the crowd of guards spilled around us. I picked up my pace just a touch so we'd all have a good warm-up lap, but I had no illusions about what the pace would be.

We began to split up into two groups. Those six feet and more were ahead in a long-legged pack. The rest of us stayed a little behind them at a pace that worked for us. The tallest person who stayed with us was Dino. Like I said, he ran like a lumbering elephant and would eventually fall behind all of us, but under that layer of hard-looking fat was nothing but muscle. He was built like an old-time linebacker.

I wasn't fast, but I was relentless and I had stamina. When I'd been merely human I'd done a six-minute mile. Now I was faster, but then so was everyone on the track.

I didn't speed up. I didn't try to stay ahead of anyone. When Ares and some others lapped us in a full-out race I just kept running. Nathaniel, Stephen, Gregory, and Dino stayed with me. Somewhere on the fourth mile Dino faded a little so he was behind us, but not much behind us. Running with us as opposed to the other guards had helped him increase his stamina; at least with us he didn't get as discouraged, and we didn't give him a hard time about not being the fastest man on the track.

I concentrated on putting one foot ahead of the other. I concentrated on placement of my body in space on the track. I let the world narrow down to my body working on the track, arms going back and forth, legs moving, all of it just moving. I was aware of Nathaniel on one side and Stephen on the other. I knew Gregory was on the other side of him. I could hear Dino's breathing behind us, but it was all peripheral. I ran, and let everything else go away.

I ran until my hair streamed out behind me, no need to tie it because it wasn't touching my back. I ran until I had no air for talking, or anything else. I ran until sweat trickled down my spine and I heard Nathaniel's longer legs stretch out to stay at my side. Everyone else was bunched near me.

I found enough air to say, "Nathaniel, do it."

He didn't argue, he just stretched out and ran. He was five-seven, and at least half of that was leg. I had a moment of seeing his braid bouncing  ahead of me, and then I kicked it up. I pulled beside him, stretching to stay there. Stephen and Gregory pounded up beside me, and the four of us ran. Dino wouldn't try to keep up now.

We raced around the track and found the taller men on the edge of it regaining their breath. We ran past them and it was all about running. It was all about staying with Nathaniel, keeping that pace. We passed the other men where they rested a second time.

I managed to say, "Kick it!"

Nathaniel kicked it, and we ran. We ran so fast that the gym blurred around me. We ran faster than I'd ever tried to before. We ran and I didn't question that I could do it. That I could keep up, that I could push us all. When we passed the men a third time, I gasped, "Slow it."

He did, and we did a cool-down lap so that we ended with the other men who were still sitting, standing, and watching us. "Not bad," Ares said.

"Not bad?" God said. "Fuck you, Ares."

I was still gasping a little as I said, "It's okay, God. Ares is just mad that he's fast out of the gate but doesn't have the stamina to keep up."

The men made appreciative noises at the comment. I watched Ares think about getting upset about it, and then he laughed. "I guess I deserved that."

"Damn straight," Emmanuel said.

Gregory, panting beside me, said, "I've never seen you run like that, Anita."

I bent back, stretching out the stitch in my side. "Me, either."

"You needed it," Nathaniel said. There was a sheen of sweat on his face. I'd never seen the three of them so winded from running with me. I'd always felt before that they held back because I was with them, but not today.

Nicky came over to us. He didn't say anything, just came to stand with us instead of the other guards.

"I need some tape, some gloves, and a bag," I said.

Nicky turned and went in search of what I'd asked. Was it arrogance to assume that, or had he just taught me that he did exactly what I asked?

"You want to work the heavy bag after that run?" Ares said.

I laughed, still waiting for my pulse to find a normal rhythm. "See, no stamina."

"If you can do the bag after this, so can I."

"Have you seen her hit a heavy bag?" Lisandro asked.

Ares looked puzzled. "No."

"Are you going to try to keep up with her?" Lisandro asked.

"If I say yes, then what?"

"We'll start taking bets." That Lisandro would say it, and not God, or Dino, or Graham, said that Ares had been snotty with more than just me. It wasn't just me being a girl and small, it was him.

"How do we score it?" I asked.

"Stamina," Lisandro said. "Loser quits first."

Ares looked at Lisandro and then to me. He was frowning as if trying to see something that he was missing. "You've never seen me work the heavy bag."

"No," Lisandro said, "but I've seen her."

Again, Ares looked at me. "She can run; that doesn't mean she can hit."

Lisandro shrugged. "If you think you can outlast our negra gatita, put your money where your mouth is."

"What does that mean? Negra is black, but I don't know the second word."

"It means black kitten," I said, with my pulse almost even again.

Ares studied me. "And you're okay with them calling you their black kitten?"

"They're wererats, Ares," I said.

He frowned at me.

"They're not calling me their little black rat. Think it through," I said. I went to find some tape for my wrists and some gloves.

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