Jetta - Raven Kennedy Page 0,57

all careful to keep their gazes averted. Shifters are the worst offenders of eavesdropping.

“I know,” Addie tells me. “But—”

I cut her off. “I don’t want to talk about it, Addie.”

She looks disappointed that I shut the conversation down...again, but I don’t want to do this tonight. Not when I just got myself relaxed and in a better mindset so that I could try and catch some rest for a change.

I turn and leave before anyone can trap me into any more talk and hurry upstairs to my room. I shut and lock my door, ignoring it when someone knocks.

I am done peopling today.

These misfits are tricky. I got lured by a diaper-wearing nose picker, for motherfuck’s sake. Now, if I don’t teach him some ninja moves or help the wary females, I’ll be the worst sort of person who lets them down.

Sighing, I strip down naked and then crawl under the covers, burrowing myself beneath.

I’ll teach them once. Just one stupid lesson—a lesson that people probably won’t even show up to other than Spawn. They’ll see that I’m no good as a teacher, and I can be left alone.

Yep, just one small, tiny lesson.

13

Jericho

This is Jetta’s fifth lesson.

The first time she did it, we just gathered in the gym. Janie managed to round up some other of our pack’s more timid females, and Freddie came of course, decked out in a cape and superhero costume.

Freddie was her star student, much to Jetta’s dismay.

But the class didn’t peter out like she thought it would. Which was also to her dismay.

Instead, it’s grown. A lot.

Igor, Collins, and I stand, leaning against the short wooden fence that goes around on the outdoor training ring behind the gym. Jetta’s class went from a few timid females and a toddler, to forty shifters gathered around, male and female, following her every move with rapt attention.

Thud.

Jetta takes down one of the males in her class—Gunter—with an impressive move that has the bearded dragon shifter landing flat on his back, somehow throwing off his equilibrium as she tossed him over like a stunt in a movie.

Collins winces. “That sounded like it hurt.”

Igor smirks. “Yep.”

I give him a sidelong look. “You’re enjoying this too much.”

He grunts, but the smirk doesn’t leave his lips. Igor is a big bastard, and he’s a scary son of a bitch when it comes to training. He doesn’t give you an inch and will push you until you’re nothing but a pile of sweat and melted muscles.

Everyone dreads meeting him in the ring. He’s undefeated just as much as Alpha Hugo is, but without the pep talk at the end. But Jetta is good. No, not just good. Her performance background is apparent with every move she makes.

She moves like a dance, everything graceful and yet somehow brutal when it needs to be. She makes putting someone in a chokehold look downright artistic.

Everything she does seems effortless, but I appreciate how many years it must have taken for her to be this good. When she’s in the zone, she’s a beauty and a beast all wrapped up in one.

People from the class clap, and Jetta looks away awkwardly. It’s interesting to me since I know she’s been a performer all her life. I never considered that she might be shy. It doesn’t seem possible, since she always wears that I don’t give a shit attitude like a second skin, but that’s just another reason I find myself so drawn to her. She’s complicated. Multidimensional. Every hard edge of her has a soft one that she’s hiding underneath.

Jetta scowls, not even breathing hard by the time class ends, even though she’s gone through two hours of moves, showed people one-on-one how to attack and counter-attack, all while slowly bolstering the timid females a little bit more.

“When’s the next class?” someone calls out.

Jetta frowns, looking slightly exasperated. “This is the last one,” she declares.

Everyone chuckles, like she’s joking, and they wave and start walking away, all of them thanking her or nodding to her in respect as they go. It just makes her scowl harder.

“Thanks, teacher!” Freddie says, his chubby arms wrapping around her leg.

She glances down at him, looking so damn awkward that it’s just fucking delightful. The way her face scrunches up and her horrified expression that the kid is hugging her is downright comical. It doesn’t surprise me, considering she doesn’t like to be touched, but it’s clear that this kid keeps pushing the limits and she doesn’t know what to do