Breaking Beast (Pounding Hearts 4)

“You ready to fight?” he asks Brianna.

She raises her fists and nods her head.

My heart lurches and my stomach twists.

This it. Everything I’ve been training for. All the work I’ve put in over these past few weeks…

“You ready to fight?” he asks, looking to me.

I lift my fists and nod my head.

The ref chops his hand down. “Let’s fight!” he yells out and jumps back, out of the way.

Brianna and I both bounce forward and bump fists before jumping back.

Then we start the slow circle around the cage, jabbing half-heartedly and looking for weaknesses.

The crowd is loud, their excitement charging the air with energy. Our match may be little and of no importance to most of these guys, but there’s a definite lust for blood in the air tonight.

Suddenly Briana darts forward and jabs at my face. I lean back and nearly fall on my ass avoiding it.

She pushes her advantage, forcing me to go on the defensive.

Stalking forward, she throws another lightning fast jab. This time I can’t avoid it and her fist connects with my cheek.

I stumble back.

Vaguely, I’m aware that Alex, Dale and Chase are all roaring shit at me. But I just took my first real punch to the face and I’m a little dazed by it.

It’s not the pain that’s bad, no, I can take the pain any day. The problem is my senses are reacting to what just happened, and it’s fucking me up bad.

I’m a little off balance and my ears are ringing.

Brianna stalks forward and I just instinctively know what’s coming next. The bitch is trying to knock me out, and I know if I try to avoid the next punch I’ll be too slow again.

I can’t go back so I decide to drop my chin and charge on in. I take her by surprise, my shoulder pushing into her stomach.

The sound of her back hitting the floor of the cage hard thrums in my ears. On top of her, I hesitate for a split second and then start throwing punches at her face.

She brings her arms up, blocking me.

I keep throwing punches at her face. I focus too much on trying to get through her arms, though, giving her an opening to push up from the mat and roll us over.

Fuck, now I’m on my back. The last place I want to be.

She starts throwing punches at my face, and she’s so fast, her fists are so hard, it’s everything I can do to keep my arms up to block her.

Wrapping my legs around her waist, I tense up and try to roll her back over but she isn’t budging.

The buzzing of the crowd becomes a deafening roar. They sense my defeat is near… Even I can smell it in the air.

I can’t go out like this, I can’t. If I stay like this I’m going to lose like a little bitch.

Alex will be so disappointed in me.

I’ll be so disappointed in me.

Pushing my hips up, I try to buck her off me but she’s so damn solid she doesn’t move an inch.

There’s no hope for it, I can’t keep blocking her like this. She’s fucking up my arms with her heavy fists.

If I’m going to go out, I’m going to go out swinging.

Throwing my right hand out, I swing for her face but miss. Her own fist slides through the opening I left and connects.

Dazed, I lash out, trying to shove her arms away.

Making contact with her arm, I push it down and trap it between my legs before she can stop the momentum. Then I thrust my hips up again, hooking my leg over her shoulder.

I don’t even think too hard about it, I just fucking do it. Operating on pure muscle memory.

She tries to pull back but I yank her free arm to the side, using it to choke her by the neck. Then I bite down with my leg and sink the choke fully in.

She bucks on top of me, trying to escape, but I’ve got her trapped. Squeezing with my thighs, there’s no way I’m going to let her out of this.

I want this win too bad.

To me this everything…

Eventually, the fight goes out of her and she stills on top of me.

“She’s out,” the ref screams and I release, throwing my arms back, hands hitting the mat.

The ref checks on Brianna and I just lay flat on the floor, staring up at the bright lights, not even completely processing what just happened.

The fight doc rushes in, checks Brianna’s eyes and then helps her off of me.

Slowly I get to my knees, just waiting to see what happens.

Once she seems to be okay, nodding and answering the doctor’s questions, I reach over to Brianna and tell her, “Good fight.”

Our beef is over, no hard feelings. It is what it is.