Werewolves Be Damned - By Stacey Kennedy Page 0,31

he’d taught her, and looked ready to decapitate the wolf with her bare hands, making him damn proud. He couldn’t spot nervousness in her expression, only the raw desire to make right a wrong.

With a fierce light in her eyes, she called Jaxon forward with a wave of her hands. “Come get me, fur ball.”

Kyden groaned as the wolf pummeled into her, and she tumbled backward. To her credit, she jumped to her feet and issued a hard blow to Jaxon’s jaw. He reciprocated with his own, and Nexi dropped.

Kyden nearly pounced to teach the wolf a damn fine lesson, when Nexi shouted, “Touch him, and you are so dead.”

Turning to her, he discovered her pushing off the ground. He clenched his fists and fought against himself to help her as she circled Jaxon, who continued to snarl at her. Pride for her filled him, in the face of a werewolf now, knowing her history. She looked unafraid. Her arms were up and ready to defend herself, her stance perfect.

Jaxon pounced and slammed into her, sending Nexi straight to the ground. The one disadvantage Nexi would always have was that she was little, and no training would ever change that. Though Nexi would learn in time how to use this as an advantage, just as Finn used his thin frame to trick those he attacked into thinking him weak.

Now Nexi simply took the brunt of the hit.

Kyden watched Jaxon lean in to bite her shoulder, but there would be none of that tonight. Lurching forward, Kyden kicked Jaxon’s head, getting the werewolf off her. He had hoped he’d trained her enough, but apparently, he hadn’t. Maybe he’d been too easy on her, or too careful, because of his interest in her.

Managing to get to her feet, Nexi scowled. “I said, I’ve got this.”

As much as Kyden knew she needed to experience the fight, he also couldn’t allow it. Watching her be tossed around twisted his guts in a way he couldn’t endure. When Jaxon dove at her again, Kyden had enough and intercepted, slamming his fist into Jaxon’s snout.

The wolf fell.

He grabbed his sword from his scabbard, turned to Nexi and said softly, “More training will get you there. Be proud of what you accomplished tonight.”

“Kyden.” Her back straightened, fists clenched at her sides, and her voice became a low growl. “Back off.”

Hot anger, and a confidence he had never seen in her before, rushed across her face, causing Kyden to raise an eyebrow. He didn’t even recognize the woman before him. Nexi didn’t have the sassy expression threatening to castrate him. Nor did she have any hint of the mortal softness he’d seen, or a hesitation in her next move.

Before him stood a guardian.

One who happened to be royally pissed off at him for interrupting her fight.

Kyden, standing motionless, watched as Jaxon snarled and leapt toward her. With a punch that Kyden didn’t think she had in her, she leveled Jaxon, sending him straight to the ground.

He didn’t get up.

Without pause, she grabbed Kyden’s sword out of his hand, and shocking him senseless, she stabbed the blade into Jaxon’s side. He could only stare at Jaxon in complete surprise, as the magic in his sword dripped into Jaxon’s fur.

After the wolf vanished, along with every speck of blood, Nexi thrust Kyden’s sword back into his hands. She grumbled something incoherent, then threw up in her hands in frustration. “See, this is why you drive me insane.” Pacing in front of him, she huffed. “You go all caveman on me, get all bossy, doing this and that, always being so damn forceful with me—”

Kyden watched her in silent wonder. How had she gained the confidence she had in that very second? She had looked like a supernatural then, not a mortal any longer. Had he been underestimating Nexi and how far she’d come, as quickly as she had?

Perhaps.

Was her anger the key to her strength? Now that he thought it over, she fought the best when burning with hells-fire at him. She had killed Jaxon not for the assignment, but because Kyden planned to show her up. Had she unlocked the final piece to her training without knowing it?

Regardless of that bit of information he’d store away for later, and that he was damn proud of her, something else boiled his blood equally as hot as hers. She had no idea how much he had been controlling that side of his personality for her. How gentle he’d been, when it