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He peeled off his hooded sweatshirt and sweatpants, heading towards the ring in nothing but boxing shorts.

There were no gloves, no shoes, and no holds barred. Fights continued until someone was knocked out of the ring or was down for longer than ten seconds. Julian slipped in a mouth guard and stretched, stepping into the center.

The other alpha approached, a male I recognized but didn’t know personally. He looked to be in about his mid-forties, his body large but soft.

Julian had this, easily.

I reached through the bond and touched base with the rest of the pack. We were all nervous, but Marlowe sent a wave of love andaffirmation to reassure us.

Julian and the other male shook hands, and the Priestess stepped to the side.

“Begin!”

25

MARLOWE

Isat on the edge of my seat, watching as the alphas circled each other, Julian’s eyes carefully assessing the other male’s movements and tracking any weak spots.

“We will deal with your insubordination when this is over,” Roland said, turning towards me. “That stunt you pulled with the crying won’t work again. Youwillsubmit to us.”

The male took a swing that Julian easily dodged, giving him an opening to attack the male’s unprotected left side with a sharp punch to the kidney. The male groaned, stumbled, and dropped to a knee, allowing Julian to quickly be done with him. A swift kick to the temple and the male was out cold.

Thirty seconds and not a drop of sweat on him—so far, so good.

“Competitor two has lost. Competitor three, please enter the ring.”

The male was carried out by his grumbling pack and another male took his place, the next fight beginning immediately.

I wanted to watch, to let Julian know I was here to support him for putting himself through all of this just for me. But the stress was eating me alive, and I wished I could just close my eyes and skip to the end of this as soon as possible. Keeping my gaze towards the fight and away from Roland, I disassociated and instead pictured my reunion with the pack tonight. What would we have for dinner? Did Nolan have something special in mind, or were we just going to get take out since we’d be too exhausted to cook? Did they already eat allthe ice cream Cam had bought for me?

“Did you hear me, omega?” Roland snapped.

I sighed. “Yeah, I’m just not too worried about it. Julian is going to win and then this whole nightmare will be over.”

His jaw tensed, his hands balling into fists over his knees. “Nightmare?Do you haveanyidea what an honor it is to serve the Conclave?”

“If it’s such an honor, then why are you forcing me into it?” I replied, my voice flat and disinterested.

Roland growled menacingly. “Do you know what we can provide for you?” he asked, his hand whipping out to grab my wrist and pull me towards him. “The money? The status?”

I tried to pull back but his hold was too strong. “Yeah, how does your wife feel about all of this? Or your daughter, isn’t she around my age? Do they even know?”

Linda and her friends had given me a lot of information about the Conclave. All of them, aside from Torin, were already married with kids, and it made me sick. Brennan’s adult daughter had apparently heard about this whole thing and had sent me a DM, calling her dad “an asshole of the highest order” and apologizing for what he was putting me through.

“Leave my family out of it!” he barked, but it didn’t affect me in the slightest.

When I’d first arrived here, before I’d known fully what it was, alpha aggression and dominance could make me flinch or obey instantly. I still jumped to attention when my pack barked at me, but they did it mostly because sometimes I liked it when they took control. Especially since they always tookmybarks seriously, even if there wasn’t any “oomph” to them. It was all about respect and trust.

Roland’s did nothing for me and nothing to me.

“You attacked mine first,” I bit back.

Julian unleashed a relentless assault against his current opponent, sending him flailing outside of the ring. I moved to stand up and cheer, but Roland threw out his arm, preventing me from leaving my chair.

Brennan leaned forward and spoke from Roland’s other side.

“Our wives will be happy that we’ve found an omega, a female who can finally satisfy us as our nature intended.”