Bucking Bear (Pounding Hearts 3)

We are called to a halt, and I wipe my head off with a towel hanging from the side of the cage. It’s hot as fuck in here and we are sweating like pigs.

“You keep charging like that Bear and Marcellus is going to have to give ground or stand. It’s gonna be a fucking war, brother,” Alex says.

Nodding my head, “I plan on the war part. I don’t think this will be a one punch fight.”

This isn’t my first time having that thought, it’s constantly there, on my mind. Since the last fight I’ve been pushing myself as hard as I can. I have to be ready for anything. Anything and everything. His camp has been as quiet as mine about training, he isn’t talking about what he wants to do to me, and I have kept myself as quiet as usual.

It’s going to be fucked up and absolutely awesome as shit. I haven’t been this pumped for a fight since I was in my first fights.

Excited to get hurt, it’s hard to explain—especially to Grace and Hope.

Grace worries for me but she knows this is what I do, that this is who I am. Hope isn’t so sure about it. When I come up bruised or bleeding she gets very mad at whoever hurt me.

She even told Dale off for it one time.

Guy was so apologetic to the little tyrant, but as soon as she turned her back to him the fucker gave me the evilest grin I have seen. Hope doesn’t like me fighting, but she tells me I better win. So I sure as fucking hell will.

* * *

I look down at the scale again to make sure I haven’t gained a ghost pound in the last twenty-four hours. I am still weighing in at two hundred and sixty-four. That’s right in the weight class. Good.

Today is weigh-ins, and I can’t be with Grace when she drops off Hope for Carson’s weekend. She has Mandy with her because they plan on going shopping for things around the house, so she is safe. But I do not want Grace around Carson anymore. Fucking bloody hell, I don’t want Hope to be there with that shithead either.

I pull my gym shorts and t-shirt back on. Right now I’m at two-sixty-five with my clothes on, that’s good. Heading out of the bathroom, I walk over to Hope’s room. She is squatting down, playing with her dolls. Sweeping her up, I throw her over my shoulder. She squeals and giggles as I tickle her.

“What’s my little bear want for breakfast?” I ask as I march us down the hall and stairs.

“Pancakes! I want you to make the blueberry ones!” she yells as I tickle her again.

Heading into the kitchen, my beautiful woman is standing at the island in the middle of the kitchen, drinking her coffee.

“Where in the world do you two get this energy?” she moans as she watches us spin around in a small circle.

“It’s natural in us bears, baby.”

“You bears, huh?” she raises an eyebrow as I set Hope down on the counter.

“Yep, Mommy. Me and Bear are bears!” Hope cheers out before letting a little roar out.

She does it just like I do in the cage. Raising her little fists up in the air, she roars like a little angry bear.

“Oh my god. I have to deal with two of you,” Grace groans before sitting down on a stool.

“Yep, baby, you sure do.” I raise my fists up in the air and roar too. Granted I don’t go full blast on it, but Grace still rolls her eyes.

“You two are incorrigible.”

“What’s that mean, Mommy?”

“Right now? Too much alike and too cute for words.”

Pulling the blueberries out of the fridge, I set the tub on the counter next to the stove. Grabbing the bowls, I look down into the pancake mix box as I say, “I’m really not excited about you and Mandy not having me with you.”

“I know, honey… We will be okay,” Grace says. She isn’t talking about what exactly is going on so that Hope doesn’t hear our displeasure with Carson.

I do not like the idea at all.

“Is there any chance you could do it after the weigh-ins?”