CHAPTER 22: ABOUT THAT BET

Lachlan didn’t say anything when he found her behind the main building of Ironhide Gym. He just crossed his arms, leaned against the frost-bitten brick, and watched.

Seraphina was crouched low, stretching with slow, deliberate movements. She’d found an abandoned strip of field just beyond the last row of trees, the ground packed flat from winter frost and the occasional maintenance vehicle. Her coat lay folded nearby, and she wasn’t wearing any gloves. But at least she remembered a hoodie.

"You know," Lachlan said finally, his breath fogging the air, "most people warm up before they sprint through the woods like some type of feral fairy or something."

Sera didn’t answer right away. She rolled her shoulder, straightened up, and glanced back at him over her shoulder. "I’m not most people."

"No kidding," he scoffed, looking her up and down. "Dare I ask what you are trying to do?"

"Like you said, I was trying to sprint through the woods like some type of feral fairy," Sera replied, a smile on her face that was all teeth.

He chuckled low before he pushed off the wall and walked toward her, his hands in his pockets. There was something relaxed about him today—less of the uptight boss she had come to know and more of an older brother who’d taught her how to drive in a parking lot at midnight when she was underage.

"I was thinking," he said, "we should spar sometime. Properly. Just to test reaction time, muscle memory, that sort of thing. I’ve seen you studying the guys as they do a round in the rings, I’ve seen how you try to copy the motions behind the desk. The only way you can get better is to actually get in the ring with someone you trust."

"Yeah," Sera sighed, finally turning to face him fully. "You do have a point." The wind tugged at the hem of her hoodie and the wisps of hair that were trying to escape her bun. Her face was unreadable. Calm. Almost disinterested. "But I’m not fighting you."

Lachlan’s brows rose slightly like he was insulted by her statement. "Why not?"

"Because you’d hold back," she replied, her voice soft. "And I don’t know if I would be able to. I don’t want to hurt you. Not if I can help it."

The answer wasn’t cruel. It wasn’t arrogant. It was simply true. Sera said it with the flat clarity of someone who knew exactly what she was now—and didn’t need to prove it.

Lachlan didn’t argue.

Instead, he nodded once and scanned the surrounding field, his eyes settling on a group of students near the edge of the building. It was a mixed crowd—military students, maybe some of the new transfers who hadn’t quite integrated yet. One of them stood out.

He was tall with wide shoulders. His hair was buzzed too close to the scalp. Not particularly remarkable, until you looked closely. Something in the way he stood—too still. Too quiet. Watching everything but never moving. His clothes were regulation, his boots clean, but there was something predatory in the set of his jaw.

Sera was already walking toward him.

"Wait," Lachlan said, catching up. "You sure?"

She nodded with a bright smile on her face as she looked over her shoulder at Lachlan. "I’ll fight him."

"You don’t even know his name," sighed Lachlan in exasperation. He didn’t even know the guy’s name, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know the type. And he was... protective of what he considered his, and whether Sera knew it or not, she was on that very short list.

If that recruit so much as looked at her wrong, Lachlan won’t hesitate to pound him into the dirt.

"I don’t need to," assured Sera, giving him a wink that was definitely not normal for her. "I just have to fight him."

The guy didn’t blink when she approached. His eyes tracked her like a hawk tracking a mouse—casual, curious, and a little amused.

"Want to spar?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

The man looked her over. Not in a leering way. More like he was assessing her body like a threat chart.

"I don’t fight girls," he said, voice low and thick.

"That’s convenient," Sera replied with a shrug. "I don’t lose to men."

Lachlan winced behind her, but he didn’t step in.

The man smiled, cold and sharp. "Your funeral."

The group of twenty or so people walked into the gym, and Sera and the recruit entered the ring. Since the guy didn’t say anything about wrapping their knuckles or putting on boxing gloves, she didn’t either.

The rest of the guys, including Lachlan, circled the ring. His was the only serious face in the crowd while all the others wore a confident smirk.

"Twenty bucks says that Roch will have her on the ground within ten seconds," called out one of the other men.

"I’ll give her a minute before she’s crying," called out another. "Maybe this is just her way of flirting? I mean, to each their own, but there has to be less painful ways of being turned down."

Lachlan let out a low growl as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Watch what you say, mate," he grunted, his lips twitching in a snarl as his Country A accent came out full force. "She’s not interested in your boyfriend. You don’t need to worry about that."

As the other recruits sputtered and stammered, Lachlan studied Sera in the ring. "If he hurts you, he fights me next."

"It’s okay, Papa Bear," teased Sera as her muscles relaxed and she realized that she was having fun. "If you scare him too much before the match even starts, then he’ll just say that he went easy on me when he loses."

"I promise, girlie, I don’t go easy on anyone," snarled Roch as he cracked his neck from side to side. "Are we fighting or what?"

"Start when you’re ready," announced Lachlan, his eyes narrowing on the scene in front of him.

Sera didn’t hesitate.

She lunged forward like a bolt of lightning, only to have to pull herself back just a bit. She was moving faster than any human had the right to move, and she didn’t want to raise any alarm bells. This fight was just for fun; she didn’t need the zombie coming out and ripping the guy’s head off.

No matter how much he was bugging her on some level.

Her bare hands cut through the air, her weight already shifting into the next motion as her foot skimmed just above the ground. The man reacted, but even at half of her normal speed, he was still not fast enough. She was inside his reach before he could lift his arms to block.

Her elbow struck his ribs. She felt something give.

He grunted, stepped back, and countered with a hook meant to break teeth.

She ducked, slid past his punch, and twisted behind him in a half-spin that ended with her heel slamming into the back of his knee. He hit the ground hard.

Sera didn’t move in for the finish. She stood over him, breathing steady, pitch-black eyes locked on his.

He stared up at her, stunned. Not just by the hit, but by the realization that she could have ended the match with a knockout within seconds.

She could’ve killed him, and she chose not to.

"Well, gentlemen," purred Lachlan, his trademark smile back on his face as he looked at the men around the ring. "What were you saying about the bet?"