“Yeah, yeah,” Oliver replied, shrugging off the beta’s hand as he tried to lead him towards the middle of the room.
“Can you guess which is the new guy? I’ll give you a clue. He’s six-foot-something, with cheekbones that could cut rock. Oh, and great hair.” Rhys self-consciously touched his own rapidly receding hairline. Oliver refused to spare yetanotherglance at the alpha, but he had to admit that the description of Lucas was accurate enough.
Residential coaches generally didn’t remain at the club for long, as the initiative was meant to bridge the gap for high-level fighters who were staying away from home. Thankfully, Lucas wouldn’t be tied to the club and could return to whichever Metropolitan borough he’d come from without a moment’s notice.
“Come on, I’ll introduce you,” Rhys said, squeezing Oliver’s shoulder.
Oliver pulled away for a second time. “N-No, that’s alright. I’ll talk to him when he’s free.” Because, the number of times he’d been introduced to the alpha was rapidly becoming comical.
“Oh, come on! Get over there.” Rhys gripped his shoulder even harder, yanking him towards the group. Oliver clenched his jaw, resisting the urge to fold Rhys up like a pretzel as he reluctantly allowed himself to be led. Lucas’ eyes dropped to the hand on Oliver’s shoulder, his lip twitching slightly as the two of them approached.
“Coach Lucas!” Rhys said, pushing to the front of the group. “This is Ollie. He’s a colossal pain in the arse, but we still love him.”
Nodding, Lucas’ eyes trailed down Oliver’s body, pausing momentarily at his bare thighs. “Nice to meet you,” he said, before turning back to another conversation in an unnecessarily flippant manner. Oliver thought he’d have to do the whole‘we’ve already met’thing again, but this was better, less explanation.
Rhys’ mouth opened and closed a few times before letting go of his shoulder. “Sorry, Dai, he was more chatty a second ago.”
Shrugging, Oliver plodded to the pile of kit bags and fished around for his hand wraps. Digging them out, he began coiling the material around his thumb and fingers. Just as he was about to move onto the other hand, tension prickled along his spine, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He needn’t have looked up to see who it was.
“Hi, I’m Oliver,” he said, a sarcastic grin splitting his face as he turned to look up at the alpha.
The smile faltered when he realised Lucas had pulled his mop of black hair into a topknot, revealing two little hoop earrings at the apex of his ear. The alpha’s top lip peeled back, showing off the two sharp canines spearheading his wolfish grin. Oliver sniffed, and thought he looked very much like an Italian mafia boss.
“Hello Reed. Have you read the paperwork?”
Sucking his own non-fanged-teeth, Oliver replied, “Believe it or not,sergeant, I’m actually off duty at the moment. But I would be more than happy to pick this up with you tomorrow morning. Preferably after eight o’clock. You wouldn’t like me much before eight.” Oliver would never normally dream of baiting an alpha with rank, but he hadn’t dragged himself to the club to talk about work.
Something flickered across Lucas’ gaze, filling his hazel eyes with a heat that wasn’t there before. Oliver realised—with no small amount of distain—that he was probably about to get his arsehandedto him on the mats.
Lucas,as expected, put them all through their paces with drill after drill of cardio, followed by unending rounds of pad work. Sweat poured down Oliver’s face when the alpha finally allowed them a water break, and he’d clocked Lucas’ sadistic smirk all the while. However, Oliver tried to remain as aloof as a tabby cat throughout the entire ordeal, because he’d be damned if the rank-chasing city-boy broke him at his own club.
Huffing, Oliver flopped on to one of the tatty sofas in the corner of the hall. He resisted the urge to chug down a boatload of water, knowing that drowning himself would only make matters worse. After a few moments—to Oliver’s surprise—Lucas, sunk onto the sofa next to him. The alpha’s shorts bunched up, revealing a serpent tattoo snaking its way up his thigh, andhell’s bells, if that wasn’t one of the sexiest things Oliver had ever seen.
Lucas’ nose twitched as his eyes dragged over Oliver’s sweaty face. “You know,” the alpha began, “You’re pretty good. Ever thought about competing in county matches?”
The compliment caught Oliver off-guard, and he almost choked on his water. “Um…no, I…”
He tried to think of a creative way to explain that entering competitions required one to confirm their secondary sex, and declaring to the world he was a sigma could open up an entire world of complication. Not to mention,wherewould they put him? Certainly, omegas had their own competitions, but they were few and far between. Betas also had matches, but his advanced sex hormones would put him at an unfair advantage. He could always compete with the alphas—sure they were bigger, heavier and could hit harder. But Oliver was so fucking fast he surprised himself sometimes.Eh, but the alphas could get so damned competitive that it was easier not to bother at all.
A tap on his right leg snapped his thoughts back to the present. “Sorry, pardon?” He said, eyes drifting to Lucas’ fingertip as it rested on his knee.
“I said, is it because of this?” He tapped his knee again, but then dragged his finger up the silver scar that coiled from the top of his shin to his knee-cap. An old injury, but one that still caused him grief in the winter. Andgoddamnif that brief touch didn’t send a bolt of interest to Oliver’s cock.
“Yeah.” He lied. “Tore the ligament.”
That part was the true, but it wasn’t the reason he didn’t compete. So as not to encourage his cock even further, he snapped shut the lid of his bottle and hopped to his feet.
“Surgery?” Lucas replied, also standing.
“Yeah. But it’s mostly good now.”
Nodding, Lucas readjusted his shorts. “So you’ll have no issue sparring with me?”
Oliver hesitated, before saying, “None whatsoever.”
Lucas’ voice grew low as he dipped his head, pressing his mouth close to Oliver’s ear. “Then put on your pads and prepare to be schooled.”
And his cock…Oliver’streacherousfucking cockwas having a field day as it pressed itself in a hard line against his lower abdomen. It was impossible to tell if the reaction was because the alpha had challenged him, or because his omega side was wanting to spread its legs. Either way, he pulled on his gloves and tried to ignore the war that was going on inside him.
