Leah had spent every second of the last few days with Matthew and as much as she enjoyed being with him, she was ready to have some time to process everything that had happened by herself. She finally had a chance to look up different martial art dojos and found one that she thought she might enjoy going to. While she wasn’t able to find too much information about who owned and operated it, she saw that almost everyone that went had left great reviews.
Her rank in the Shadows of Tyaos meant that she was a black belt in most forms of martial arts, however, she was always looking for new forms and wanting to keep up with what she did know. A few years ago, around the time she had become an Elder for the Shadows, Leah had been a world-class champion in Tae Kwan Do, however, while the Shadows encouraged learning new forms of fighting, they looked down on Elders fighting in competitions so Leah had had to retire. Her coach was an Elder of the Shadows and was the one to get her into the secret society and when she passed her final practical to become an Elder herself, he promised her partial ownership of one of his dojos when she finally settled down. Becoming a trainer instead of a fighter was a goal Leah had been working towards for the past two years after her retirement and in the last few towns she lived in, she would look for a dojo that was willing to hire her as a trainer at such a young age. With all her experience and black belts, she was hoping this new dojo would be able to offer her the same opportunity.
When she walked into the studio, Leah could see a group of teenagers and young adults in workout clothes rather than in uniform and knew that they were first-timers seeing if they wanted to continue or walk away from martial arts. The receptionist was sitting at her desk, glaring at some of the beginners and not paying attention to Leah who had walked up to the desk. “Excuse me.” The receptionist turned her glare from the students to Leah.
“We’re not taking any new students until next week. You can come back then to fill out paperwork if we have any openings.” Leah was so surprised at the animosity in the receptionist’s voice that she was left speechless for a few seconds before she regained her senses and rang the bell on the desk to bring the receptionist’s attention back to her as she was once again glaring at the students. With an exaggerated sigh, the receptionist started, “I told you—”
Interrupting her, Leah said in her Alpha voice, “I’m not here as a new student. I’m here to speak with the director.” Her tone had the receptionist sitting up straighter in her chair and the students who heard leaning towards her to hear what drama was happening.
This time it was the receptionist who was struck dumb. Never had anyone stood up to her as fiercely as Leah had with those two simple sentences. Leah stared her down, in a similar way as the receptionist had glared at the female students, as the young woman opened and closed her mouth as she tried to find something to say. Finally finding her voice, she said in a slightly milder tone, “The director is busy in his office and cannot be reached at the moment.”
Leah gave her a slight smirk and once again said in a stern tone, “I’m here to see the director. Where is his office?” Leah kept her piercing stare on the receptionist even as the young woman started to become uncomfortable; not many could hold Leah’s eye without becoming distressed. As the receptionist started squirming in her seat, Leah’s smirk turned into a scowl until the woman looked away from the young Alpha.
Finally, the secretary turned away from Leah’s glare and pointed to one of the closed doors at the back of the studio and meekly said, “That’s the director’s office. He doesn’t like to be interrupted unless it’s an emergency.”
Leah’s frown turned into a smile and she said in a sweetly, fake tone full of sarcasm, “Thank you for all your help.” She turned away without another look at the receptionist and headed towards the room that had been pointed out to her. As she walked across the studio, she felt as if she had been there before and a feeling of déjà vu crept across her mind. By the time she reached the director’s office, she had a feeling that she knew who owned and ran this studio. Without knocking on the door, she let herself in.
An old Japanese man was sitting at a small desk with a computer and some piles of paperwork on top. He stopped midsentence, still holding the phone to his ear when he saw Leah walk through his office door. He had heard a commotion outside coming from his receptionist’s desk but wasn’t too concerned about what was happening as he had a security monitor with camera feeds that he could pull up. The old man knew his receptionist had a tendency to irritate some of his members and was going through his video recordings of her actions, planning on firing her while he was on the phone looking for someone to replace her.
Seeming to remember he was still on the phone, the man told whoever was on the other end that he would have to call them back the next day, giving no explanation for the interruption to their conversation. Looking Leah in the eye he said, “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Barging into my office when I told my receptionist I’m not to be disturbed?”
Underneath the old man’s gruff, irritated tone, Leah could hear the note of teasing. Suppressing her smile, she said, “Any old man sitting behind a desk in an office in the back of the dojo doesn’t deserve to be the director!”
Before Leah could blink, the man was standing in front of her indignantly yelling, “Old man! You’re calling me old?”
Smirking at him, Leah nodded her head. The next thing she knew, she was flying backward through the air into the open floor of the dojo, the man still calling out incensed, “OLD? I’m not OLD!”
As she lay on her back Leah started to chuckle. The old man was striding towards her, determined to make her pay for calling him old. When he was just a few steps away, Leah kipped up and in the same movement, threw a series of punches at him, trying to unbalance him before sweeping his feet out from under him. Dodging all her punches, the man felt his left foot start to give out from her kick, and using his right leg, jumped over Leah’s moving limb. As they fought, Leah kept up a stream of insults from the man’s old age to how slow said old age was making him. All the while, the man proved just how wrong Leah’s comments were with each counterstrike and offensive move he made.
The students and instructors who were in the front had gathered around to watch the young woman and old man fight as if their lives depended on the outcome. While the old man was a force to be reckoned with against almost any other opponent, he was quickly being worn down by Leah’s strength and agility. In the blink of an eye, Leah had the man on his back, pinned beneath her limbs and her knife hand heading straight for his throat; a killing blow, with enough force to close the airways. Impossibly, her hand stopped just as it met the man’s neck. The spectators were awed by the incredible display and as Leah stood up and offered her hand to the director, they let out loud applause. Standing face to face, Leah and the old man stared at one another, causing the tension in the audience to once again skyrocket only to be broken as twin smiles stretched across the combatants’ faces and they embraced one another.
“Granddaughter! You never told me you were in town!” Releasing each other from their embrace, the old man started in on Leah. “When did you get here? And how come you didn’t tell me you were coming?” The old man kept asking questions, not giving Leah a chance to answer.
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