Bucking Bear (Pounding Hearts 3)

My hormones were already amped up this close to a fight, but now they’re fucking raging with the need to cause violence after that fucking runt thought he could lay a hand on my woman.

Little bitch that he is didn’t even see how treating a woman like that is wrong, and I can’t even begin to think about the kind of damage shit like that can do to a little kid like Hope.

Shit like that can give some girl problems later in life, like thinking it’s okay to get beat up on. Fuck that kind of shit.

I head into my laundry room off of the kitchen and grab my workout bag. I need to hit the gym and then the dojo today.

I have zero doubts about the upcoming fight, but technique work is always worth the extra effort. Shit, Reaper, the retired heavyweight champ, was proof of that. I tried doing his routine but something felt off about it with my body. So I switched around the cardio to squeeze the most out of my body. Had to build my body and cardio up to get to how I want to feel.

Fuck, Reaper leaving the company when he did left a gigantic void to fill. When Reaper refused to fight any more, he got wise to the fucked up but interesting situation the rest of us heavy weights were left in. He set up a small tournament with four guys, me being one of them. Got it set that we battle it out to see who becomes the next champ.

Back before Reaper retired, I was getting closer and closer to a title shot—especially when the challenger lost twice to Reaper. I probably would have gone up against Reaper himself but he retired before it ever came to that.

That would have been fucking awesome though. I love fighting and I mean it. I love proving myself and I love the competition. I would have loved to go up against Chase. If you ask me, it would have been the fight of the century.

Tossing my bag into the passenger seat, I pull out of the garage and hit my bluetooth button to connect it to my phone. Pulling up a music list, I switch to one of my favorite songs to get me motivated, Britney’s Work Bitch. Yeah, I love her music, can’t help it. She’s got the voice of a siren.

She’s about it for pop music though.

After her I switch Slipknot. Yeah, I need to keep up the boil of anger in my stomach. I want to punish the weights today. I want to push past the walls of endurance and keep working.

I reach the gym and slip my earbuds in. Aggressive rock is slamming into my ears as I push hard with the bench pressing.

I have to push big motherfuckers off me so I push the weights up and down, up and down. It burns like a motherfucker doing it but the burning means it’s working.

Next, my running is on point, the sweat is just pouring off of me.

This is a real gym I go to, we don’t have a shit ton of mirrors or people fucking primping around the weights trying to look good. We’re not working out here for fucking body building or flexing in front of the fucking mirror. No, we are working out here for pure fucking power.

Running for fifteen minutes, I hit the weights for sixty then back to cardio—doing wind sprints outside in the grass training area.

I am pretty damned tired but I can’t stop now.

I drive over to the local YMCA and start doing laps in their pool for thirty minutes. Today is feeling good, my muscles are fucking aching with all the punishment I am putting my body through but it’s worth it.

Hard work now equals success later.

The sun is gone when I finally get to the dojo.

I started out late, spending so much time with Grace and Hope, but I don’t mind and I certainly don’t regret it.

Walking into the gym, I see Brett is working hard in the practice ring with another guy close to his weight class.

Brett, the Demon, and Chase, the Reaper, are my two best friends, and seeing them both at the dojo makes me happy. It’s like a brotherhood here and we try to make sure we take care of each other.

I head into the locker room for a quick change of clothes then out to the second practice ring where Chase is at. He’s talking to a small group of older teens about the importance of keeping a steady balance in life.

Seeing me standing on the outer ring, watching him talk to the kids, Chase yells, “Bear!”

The kids turn to me and start waving as he asks, “What did you do today? What was your routine?”

“Hung out with two really cool chicks, played with them a bit, and then kicked my own ass at the gym and then the Y.”

Chase stares at me for a full minute before he shakes his head. “I was trying to teach these kids about keeping a healthy balance of fun and work, Max.”

Grinning, I say, “Oh yeah, totally forgot this is a teaching moment. I sat in my solarium reading Tolstoy while I contemplated man’s suffering as a whole. Then I went to the gym where I trained my body to accept mistreatment for the sake of having better cardio. When I was through there, I went for a swim at the local men’s swimming lanes.”

I try to stand up with really good posture as Chase looks down to the floor and heaves out a loud sigh. “Go away.”