4 hours later…

Everything hurt as I sat down to eat lunch. “How can you guys do this every day?” I complained.

Frank smiled. “You’ll get used to it. I’m surprised you can even keep up.”

I rolled my eyes. “Is that a dig at me being a girl?”

“Never.” He said while he was stuffing his mouth.

“What he means to say” Robbie was coming to Frank’s defense before he dug a hole too deep to climb his way out of “is we’ve been training for a while, so for you to be able to jump into our routine right away surprises us.”

“Mhmm.” Like I believed that, I thought bitterly. But I decided to let it go. I had plenty of time to tease them later. “So what’s going to happen after we eat?”

Frank shrugged, “Probably some sparring.”

I groaned. “I don’t want to add bruises to my sore ass.” I took a huge bite from my food. I was starving.

“You’re sure not ladylike, are you?” Tommy muttered looking at his food.

I narrowed my eyes on him. I threw a biscuit at him. “What gave it away?”

“You’re stuffing your face like this is the first time you’ve eaten in days.” Frank was trying to hide a smile, but he was failing miserably.

“I’m starving. We ran for like 30 miles.”

Frank laughed. “You’re exaggerating. We only ran for like 13. That’s easy.”

“That’s a half marathon!” I shot back.

“You’re easy to provoke.” His amusement with me made me unhappy.

My eyes narrowed even more.

“Your flirting is making me sick.” Robbie muttered beside me.

I turned my narrowed eyes onto him. “Do you want me to turn my attention to you?”

Robbie rolled his eyes. “You don’t scare me.”

Before I knew what I was doing, I smacked the fork right out of his hand that had been bringing the food to his mouth. He turned his face to mine.

“What the fuck!” Tommy shouted in the background when the food and the fork hit him.

Robbie didn’t scare me either, so I wasn’t going to back down from him.

“You’re going to be my sparring partner today.” Robbie made it sound like a threat somehow.

“Come on man.” Frank complained now. “She’s still new.”

Robbie narrowed his eyes on Frank. “Just because she’s new doesn’t mean she can do whatever the fuck she wants.”

“She doesn’t need to be beaten up on her first day.”

Robbie smirked at Frank before he looked back at me. “I won’t beat her up.” Robbie looked back at Frank. “I’m just letting her know what she’s messing with.”

“Maybe I’m amazing.” I muttered taking another bite of food. “You never know, maybe I can whip your ass."

All the men at the table started laughing.

“Yeah, right.” Tommy’s laugh was obnoxious. “Robbie’s the best fighter here.”

I rolled my eyes again. “Whatever.”

I didn’t say a word to any of the men until we got back to Chris. We were supposed to meet him in the compound. Robbie let us in. Apparently they trusted him enough to give him his own codes and access to the palm scanner. Robbie led us to the huge gym. The hardwood floor was covered with padding. They had spent a lot on this place. I wondered how they got away with spending so much money without calling attention to what they were doing out here.

Chris was talking to Grayson and Mason when we all walked up together.

“What are they doing here?” Frank asked.

“Not like the head honcho’s?” I teased.

Frank looked at me and growled. It was cute, so I pinched his cheek. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered.”

“Jerk.” He muttered and looked back at the newcomers.

I couldn’t help but smile. When I looked back at Mason, he was staring at Frank. When his eyes met mine I automatically knew he wasn’t happy.

Usually Mason being unhappy meant that my training was going to suck ass. Now that he wasn’t training me, I didn’t worry about his foul mood affecting my training.

“Pair up.” Chris shot at the group and turned his attention back to Grayson and Mason. They were talking very quietly. I couldn’t hear them, but I knew from the look on some of the group’s faces that they were eaves dropping.

Frank nudged me. “Pair?”

I nodded while I was still looking over the group. Maybe a quarter of them were listening in on what Chris was talking about to the Alpha and his Beta.

A large arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me into the air. There was only one guy in the group big enough to lift me to his hip like you would carry a toddler.

I squealed in surprise. “What the hell Robbie?”

He smiled, “I told you that you’re with me.

“Awe, come on.” I tried to support my own weight. His arm dug painfully into my hip. “It was just a fork.”

“But it was my fork.”

He dropped me into our own little area, away from the rest of the group. “Let’s get started.”

I glanced back at Mason. I could see his backside.

Robbie cleared his throat. “You ready to get started or do you want to keep staring at his ass?”

I shot him a dirty look. “You don’t know what I was looking at.”

He smirked, “Sure I do.” He took a defensive stance. “Come at me sweet cheeks.”

“Don’t call me sweet cheeks.” I threatened.

His smirk grew. “Don’t like it huh?”

“What gave it away?” I asked spitefully.

When he opened his mouth to talk, I pounced…and ended up on my back with him standing over me.

“You really don’t know what you’re doing.” Robbie gloated over me.

“You’ve been doing this longer than I have.”

He helped me to my feet. “I’ll help you get better. I promise.”

“Is my payment going to be made in bruises?” I rubbed my ass. I really hurt.

He looked at my ass rubbing. “Really?”

“What?" I asked innocently. "You hurt me.”

He shook his head, “You’re distracting the guys.”

I looked around. I was getting not-so-subtle glances my way.

“Rubbing my sore ass earns perverted glances?”

He nodded, “This group hasn’t gotten any in almost two months. Now that there’s a woman here, they’re going to be paying attention to you.”

“Guys are perverts.”

He nodded, “Yes, but we’re not ashamed of it. You went bright red when I caught you staring at the Beta’s ass.”

“Jerk!” I smacked him as I felt my face heat up.

“There is goes again!” He teased.

“Kiss my ass.”

“Just bend over sweet cheeks.” He pursed his lips at me.

That’s how it was when surrounded by a group of guys. I didn’t see Mason much after the first day of my training. I’d seen him in passing, but that was about it.

Something was happening, I just didn’t know what. If I wasn’t so exhausted from training with the group of guys, I might've tried to figure out what the huge secret was.