Chapter Four
Asher
Evelyn was the only one in the gym when I arrived the next morning. She was up on the track, walking. From my vantage point, I could see sweat glistening on her skin, so she must have been doing interval training, and I didn’t want to interrupt her.
I also wasn’t quite ready to talk to her again.
The air between us changed last night after my declaration, and I’d be lying if I claimed to dislike it. Her breath had caught, her pupils expanded, and there had been a slight hitch in her steps.
Good to know she was still attracted to me, but there was another layer underneath. One connected to the anger running through me.
I didn’t like the anger, didn’t like what put it there, but it was good motivation and something I could work through later.
Unrolling a yoga mat in an empty corner of the gym, I shook out my thoughts and started my routine.
As much as I wanted to hit the weights or run to get my heart rate up, there wasn’t a lot that would do in the short time I had.
Centering my focus and working a different kind of cardio seemed to be the smartest position for me, so that’s what I worked on.
Who knows, maybe flexibility would end up helping me.
It wasn’t long before the door opened and Mason walked in. He looked from me on the mat to Evelyn above. She was running now.
I didn’t like how his eyes tracked her, but he was respectful.
From his posture and the scent coming off him, he wasn’t leering at her.
It was a simple observation. Measuring her speed?
I knew very little about Mason outside his competitiveness.
He’d won the last three years, and each time, he’d been most proud of winning, not the runner he’d ‘won’ each year.
It was different for each minotaur. Sure, there were some who were exactly what Evelyn had claimed we were all those years ago, a bull eager to chase down and rut as brutishly as possible, all for the sake of getting their own rocks off.
But the Promnestride had worked extensively through the years to weed them out, continuously improving their screenings to find the right athletes.
Some of the sleaze still entered, but at least they kept the ones looking for unethical CNC to a minimum.
Mason, from everything I’d seen, wasn’t part of the sleaze. He was in it for the game, not the prize, and he was an impressive competitor from the start.
Gavin, on the other hand, was the one I was actually worried about. If Mason won, I wouldn’t like it, but I could trust him to be respectful of Evelyn. Gavin? I held no such conviction.
I’d stared at my ceiling last night wondering why I cared so much.
Evelyn had been the ghost haunting my tail these last five years, always waiting in the back of my psyche to taunt me with what could have been.
What I could have had if I hadn’t ever joined this stupid race as soon as I was old enough.
I’d thought I knew what I was doing, had considered it from every angle.
I’d had no idea that whole swathes of human communities were sheltered from the actual truth of the race.
Granted, I hadn’t been looking for human partners then. I wasn’t looking when I first met Evelyn, but nothing could have kept me from her after that first night.
It was hard to think of something to keep me from her now that a new possibility was here.
What was she going to do? If I asked her if we could start over again, would she come with me and settle down in my new home, figure out what kind of life we could build together now that we’d had years apart?
Or would she take her money and run again? Take her first moment of freedom and vanish to never be seen again?
She’d always been a wild spirit, fiercely independent and not looking for any kind of attachment that felt like a weight. What had happened in the past years to find her in this position?
I blew out a breath and moved into a bound triangle, shaking out my thoughts again.
The Landers were awful. Born rich, lived rich, the family had everything they could want and a lot they didn’t.
Pompous, arrogant, full of themselves, believing they owned the world just because someone in their ancestry had the luck of finding oil when they moved here hundreds of years ago.
It was impossible to work or live here without dealing with them, even as a minotaur.
Privately, they were purists, willing to do business with other races but still keeping everything personal to the humans in their family.
I’d been careful to keep my business from mingling with theirs, but that didn’t mean I was blind to the harm they caused in the way they lived.
And while I hadn’t watched Killian go down the same path his uncle was well known for, I wasn’t surprised.
It had to have been hard on Evelyn. Even with everything we all knew, the town loved the Lander family.
Money clouded a lot of things, and people were jealous.
It wasn’t hard to imagine that people justified how she was potentially treated because she wouldn’t want for anything that money could buy.
People were assholes. I’d learned that a long time ago.
Mason headed toward the body weight machines and started working his core there.
Good choice. I focused back on my routine.
I was starting to really get into it, my heart rate rising, and my muscles starting to burn with the stretch.
Evelyn was on a walk break, but I kept my eyes firmly on my mat.
I couldn’t afford that distraction, especially when her sweet scent from last night was still fresh in my mind.
The door slammed open, pulling all our gazes onto Gavin as he strutted in. He was the last person I wanted to see, but it was to be expected, considering how close the race was.
He was a bigger showboat than Mason as he picked his corner of the gym, heavy hooffalls louder than they needed to be as he stomped over to the free weights. He paused in the middle as he caught sight of Evelyn, his muzzle breaking into a grin.
“You ready to be chased down, yet?” he yelled up at her, impossible to ignore.
I already didn’t like how he looked at her, and now I really didn’t like the way he spoke to her.
Evelyn didn’t respond, just tapped the side of her headphones and started running again.
Gavin groaned. “Look at that ass move,” he said, far too loud. “It’s going to feel so good to fuck when I catch her.”
My balance shifted, my anger almost getting the better of me. I closed my eyes and pulled in a breath, finding my stability again.
“I bet she’s a screamer,” he continued to no one and to everyone, his pace slowing way down as he continued across the gym. “Hopefully she’ll put up a fight and make it really good.”
Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out.
“Maybe I should send her a butt plug, get herself ready so I don’t tear her if I decide to fuck that hole.”
I dropped into downward dog, not a smart decision with my blood pumping, but at least my heartbeat would be louder and help drown out some of his shit.
“Although the shrieks would—”
“If you’re not here to work out, get the fuck out.”
I looked up, surprised to see Mason squaring off with the asshole. This was an unfortunate part of the routine, and it wasn’t often that athletes pushed back on it.
Gavin seemed just as surprised as I was, his gaze flicking to me before returning to Mason. “What?”
Mason didn’t budge. “If you’re not here to work out, get the fuck out.”
“I don’t know who you think you are—”
The large bull stepped up, his shoulders broader and his horns reaching higher than Gavin’s. “We’re here to work out. If you’re just going to be a distraction, I’ll remove you myself.”
Evelyn was watching the scene, quietly backing toward one of the exits from the ring. I took her cue and began rolling up my mat.
The longer I stayed, the more likely I’d get in a fight—which was what Gavin wanted. I didn’t bounce back as fast as I used to.
“You really think you can?” Gavin said, puffing his chest up in a hilarious display against the reigning champion. “You’re barely better than the old man is,” he continued, jerking a thumb over his shoulder in my direction.
I grabbed my water bottle and headed for the exit. That was obvious bait, and I wasn’t going to fall for it.
“See? Even he knows his place and is walking away,” he called after me. “If Gramps knows what’s best for him, he’ll enjoy a leisurely stroll on Saturday. It’s not like he has a chance.”
The door closed behind me, but I was more tense than I was when I went in. Even knowing his intention, knowing better than to get roped into a stupid fight, I still wanted to charge him with my horns.
The door down the hall opened, and Evelyn raced out, skidding to a stop before she realized it was me.
“Do you want an escort to your room?” I offered, smelling her apprehension in the air.
She nodded. “I don’t trust him.”
“I don’t either.” I hoisted the mat on my shoulder and led her out of the hallway. “Let’s go, before he comes looking for me.”
“Looking for you?”
I nodded. “Easy way to get rid of an athlete,” I explained. “Pick a fight with the legacy competitor, and you have a good chance to cause an injury of some sort. Most returning bulls aren’t in the same shape, so it’s easier to take one of us out.”
She followed me down. “You were his target?”
“Yes.”
“Mason wasn’t supposed to respond?”
“Nope.”
She was silent as we approached her door, pulling her key from her pocket. She looked up at me before unlocking it. “Why would you react?”
I leveled her with a hard glare, eyes narrowing. “I know it’s been quite a few years since we’ve spoken, but surely you haven’t forgotten everything about me.”
Pink dusted her cheeks. “I just meant—”
I took her key and pressed it to the scanner, unlocking her door. Pushing it open, I held it for her to go through. “I know what you meant. I didn’t react because I can’t afford to lose.”
She stepped in, taking the weight of the door off my hand.
“I think there’s a private gym you can access,” I told her. “Call the front desk, and they’ll be able to show you around so you can avoid Gavin.”
Evelyn nodded, her body relaxing as I took a step back. And it took everything in me to take that step.
“Don’t worry. Even if I don’t win, which I will, I’ll make sure he loses.”
She gave me a sweet smile, and I waited until her door closed before I headed back to my room.