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Fight

Mercy

He’s strangling me…

The pressure on ainst thehy body

Harder…

The sour stench of his perspiration fills my nostrils, and I start to choke Adrenaline spikes into shift

Fight it…

He would never see it co I’d rip his arms out of their sockets, and the pain would saturate his brain before his eyes even registered what happened

Focus, Mercy

I can’t blow my cover As far as the humans in Woodland Creek know, I’m just as normal as they are My shifter clan is deep undercover, and we have to keep it that way

Scenting the air, I can tell he’s nervous He lacks the conviction of what he’s doing Closing hts, I use the crude hurasp his wrist and jerk it down

Thrusting my elbow sharply back and up, I plant a solid hit to his solar plexus At the sahis wrist It’s a perfectly choreographed escape move, and I execute it with ease

A asping for air I hold his neck and pretend to ja contact

“And that is how you escape an attack from behind” I release Ji

A low irls, and nup sheet for Saturday’s class

S, I turn back to rasp Jie

“It’s okay I’runts

It’s true he’s experienced playing the role of htly with that elbow to the ribs, he doesn’t show any signs of discouy, perfect for our demonstrations

I adjust a pants as the clipboard continues through the s women

“Classes are every Saturday starting at nine am sharp Your life is important and so is ht me “All payments are in advance, and there are no refunds for missed classes”

I’ve just put on a show of being a badass, and the young women watch me, eyes round When I first started this job, it used to e as theer I’ people around, which doesn’tothers mind theirs

“You have to command your class,” Andy had said In tieant

Andy taught me the self-defense moves I now teach them I hadn’t really needed to learn theer than any huood techniques to know

I started hanging around the gy a particularly harsh winter I tried teaching y I’d spent so with zero form or technique After a while, Andy asked if I’d like to take over the self-defense courses at the gym

I like to think it gives irls The truth is, I’od-forsaken town so badly it hurts I want to move to California where it’s always sunny and never snohere I can get a small studio and a pottery wheel, and launch my career as a cera