5. Donovan

Donovan would normally have been pretty blown away by the kind of training facility he found himself in. Donovan loved to work out and prided himself on being the fittest, strongest player on the ice each and every time he skated on game day. And to see the high standard of equipment and attention to detail in Danilo's academy so far, Donovan knew that he was in a great training environment.

There was, however, one problem.

And that problem came in the shape of Taine Crash.

Taine was arrogant, gruff, and clearly thought he was the bee's knees.

Donovan was still smarting from what had happened in the elevator. Donovan was slightly taller than Taine, and he was certainly the bigger man overall. But the way that Taine had baited him and then so easily manhandled him in the confined space was hard for Donovan to swallow.

As Donovan placed his bag on the floor and paced around the large training mat, he cast his eye toward Taine as he collected some protective headgear and striking gloves.

Taine's an asshole.

He tricked me into lashing out.

That's the last time he'll catch me off-guard…

Donovan felt furious with himself that he'd allowed Taine to so easily provoke a reaction out of him. But there was something else in Donovan's mind too. The feeling of being put under Taine's control so effortlessly might have made him angry, but Donovan also couldn't deny how incredibly intense the situation was too.

The feeling of being so completely vulnerable and helpless had sent Donovan into a feverishly intense Little moment. Knowing that Taine could have hurt him, fondled him, or done whatever he wanted had made Donovan's submissive side flare up out of nowhere.

As much as Donovan didn't enjoy what happened in the elevator, he also couldn't deny how hot it had been too – no matter how much he would have liked to pretend that the whole thing hadn't happened.

But Donovan didn't have any time to contemplate exactly how he felt or how he was going to avoid a similar situation arising in the future.

‘Okay, headguard and striking mitts on,' Taine said, casually tossing the equipment down onto the mat. ‘We'll be taking it easy, but I want to see how you move in combat. The kinds of people that Danilo might send you to face won't be dumb ice jocks. They could be trained killers. I need to evaluate what you can and can't do.'

‘Don't worry about me,' Donovan said, putting his headguard on. ‘I've taken down some of the toughest assholes in hockey. Which you'd know about if you looked me up.'

‘Pffft, like I said… this ain't hockey,' Taine replied, clearly unimpressed with Donovan's bravado. ‘And in the gym, you should probably drop the tough guy act. I can see right through it.'

Donovan steeled himself.

There was no way he was going to let Taine walk all over him in the octagon.

‘Let's go,' Donovan said, fixing his mitts in place and taking the lead by stepping into the training octagon. ‘Maybe there's some stuff you don't know about how we can throw down in hockey.'

Donovan watched as Taine removed his top and put his headgear on.

Taine's shoulder was covered in a beautifully inked tattoo of a samurai warrior, but there was something else there too. Two circular, deep scars took their place just off to the edge of the tattoo – they very much looked like bullet wounds to Donovan's untrained eye, but as Taine stepped into the octagon, Donovan's eyes were far more focused on Taine's lean, muscular chest and stomach.

‘I'm old, but there's still plenty of fight in me,' Taine laughed, provocatively circling Donovan and firing out a few rapid-speed jabs to either side of his head. ‘Okay, show me what you've got.'

Donovan had a competitive edge to him that had marked him out as a winner on the ice, and he wasn't about to change his approach. Taine might have had the career as a fighter, but Donovan wasn't going to duck the challenge. Donovan hated losing more than anything else and if he had to come off worse against Taine then he was determined to give as good an account of himself as he could.

‘Close, close, but not close enough,' Taine taunted as Donovan launched a jab in his direction. ‘I know what you're going to throw before you. Think smarter. Watch my feet.'

Donovan banged his fists together in frustration and attempted a jab followed by a right cross. But yet again, Taine was gone before the punches even got close. And this time, Taine fired back a couple of swift jabs that caught Donovan at the top of his headguard.

‘Fuck!' Donovan exclaimed, his frustration yet again boiling over.

‘You weren't watching my feet,' Taine said, shaking his head. ‘If I tell you to watch my feet, you need to watch my damn feet.'

Donovan fired another jab and missed yet again.

He was determined to land a blow without having to listen to Taine's advice. But if Donovan thought that sticking to his guns was going to work, he was sorely mistaken.

‘Every miss in a fist fight could prove costly,' Taine said, admonishing Donovan before landing a lightspeed one-two combo to Donovan's exposed midsection. ‘Now take you're fucking time and watch my feet.'

Donovan grimaced from the body-shots and ploughed on.

After missing with seven shots, Donovan was breathing heavily. Fitness in the octagon was clearly very different to fitness on the ice. With his mouth open and gasping for air, Donovan barely saw Taine's next attack as he came in with a shot to the body, one to the head, and then back down to the body once more.

With a stumble and his body sapped of air, Donovan fell backward and landed ass-first on the octagon floor. Donovan immediately felt the familiar sting of hurt pride hit him too.

Urgh. This sucks.

Why didn't I listen?

This might not be for me. This whole thing might be wrong for me…

But just as Donovan was starting to feel sorry for himself, he looked up and saw Taine standing over him.

‘Come on, up on your feet,' Taine said, offering his hand. ‘Up. Now.'

Donovan took Taine's hand and hauled himself up. Quickly letting go of his apparent trainer's hand, Donovan took a big gulp of air. It hurt to have his ass handed to him so easily, but Donovan was no quitter.

‘Let's go again,' Donovan said, steeling himself for more. ‘And this time I'll watch your feet.'

Donovan waited for Taine to respond.

Taine was handsome, a little scary, and definitely still had it when it came to his fighting skills. But what Donovan truly wanted to do was prove to Taine that he had a fighting heart. However as far as Taine was concerned, they were done…

‘Nope, we've done enough for now,' Taine said. ‘This was a little intro. I needed to see who you were, how you moved, what kind of character I was dealing with. We're all done for the day. The real down and dirty training starts tomorrow. Now go. I need to work the heavy bag. Danilo will be expecting you upstairs.'

With that, Taine turned away and wandered over toward the heavy bag that was hanging from the ceiling over in the corner. Without even a second look back toward Donovan, Taine washed his hands of him and quickly got to work landing some thudding shots onto the bag.

‘Asshole,' Donovan muttered under his breath. ‘If he thinks I'm going to be a pushover, he can think again.'

With that, Donovan grabbed his stuff as quickly as he could and made his way toward the elevator. It was time to find Danilo and tell him exactly what he thought of Taine Crash…

‘What do you mean Danilo's gone?' Donovan said, a look of disbelief on his face.

Donovan had made his way straight from the elevator and headed toward the room where Danilo, Tommy, and Oliver had gone to. Expecting to see Danilo, Donovan had prepared a whole series of arguments as to why training with Taine wasn't going to work out.

But as he stood in front of his two new teammates, it seemed like he wasn't even going to get to voice his thoughts to Danilo, let alone work toward any kind of solution.

‘Danilo said he had some business to attend to,' Oliver said.

‘He kind of does that a lot,' Tommy added, smiling sweetly. ‘You can hang with us though?'

Donovan frowned.

‘Sure, why not,' Donovan said, walking toward Oliver and Tommy and taking a seat on the large couch in the corner. ‘One question… why are you two sitting on the floor?'

Tommy and Oliver both giggled.

‘We… uh… we were kind of playing a little game,' Tommy said, a hint of nervous energy in his voice. ‘You can play too, if you want?'

Donovan wasn't sure how to react. But as he looked down toward where his teammates were sitting, he saw some Lego, a six-pack of juice boxes, and a box of colorful protein bars.

No way.

These two aren't… Littles…

Are they?

The look of confusion on Donovan's face must have been obvious. But if Donovan was surprised, he also couldn't hide his delight at seeing the Lego.

‘Yeah, I… like Lego,' Donovan said, hauling his hefty frame off the couch and sitting on the soft carpet next to Tommy and Oliver. ‘I kinda like juice too… hint-hint.'

‘Hehe, a juice for the big man,' Oliver said, his infectious laugh making Donovan smile. ‘Don't worry, we're cool. You can be yourself around us.'

Donovan nodded but wasn't sure whether he should say anything.

After all, Donovan had guarded his identity as a Little as much as he could over the years. A couple of players knew, including of course Joshua who was now his teammate again at the Ice Bears. But Donovan had only just met Oliver and Tommy, and he wasn't sure about coming forward too quickly and opening up about his personal life.

‘Thanks guys,' Donovan said, not giving anything away or offering any further hints as to his identity as a Little. ‘What are we building?'

‘I'm thinking we go crazy and build a space castle,' Oliver said. ‘But Tommy wants to build a unicorn palace.'

The two Littles fixed a stare at one another like siblings who were about to engage in battle. But Donovan had an idea that might just please both of them, and him too…

‘Okay so how about a unicorn space castle?' Donovan said, laughing and reaching over toward the red Lego box. ‘And maybe we can make a little spaceship for the unicorns too?'

‘Let's gooooo!' Tommy squealed, clearly delighted with Donovan's idea.

‘I'm saying yes!' Oliver giggled. ‘I think even if this academy thing is tough, we at least know that we can have some fun together too.'

‘We'll see about that,' Donovan chuckled. ‘Something tells me that Danilo's got plenty more in store for us. But for now, let's play.'

Donovan knew full-well that he still wanted to confront Danilo about Taine, but for the moment at least he was happy enough to play with his new teammates. Tommy and Oliver were excitable, enthusiastic, and had an unmistakable youthful naivety. But that was cool. This was a great opportunity for them. However from a purely Donovan perspective, Donovan knew that he had plenty of questions that needed answering.

Danilo needs to give me some serious answers.

I need him to explain himself – and explain this place too.

But most of all, I need him to deal with Taine…