Page 42 of His Asset
“Did you see that?”someone hissed nearby.“Reuben has never shown a romantic interest in...anyone.Not before a fight.”
“Didn’t you hear?He kissed her before the last fight too.”
“I bet it’s sex, not love,” someone else whispered.
“Want to bet?This one’s different.”
When Reuben pulled back, his eyes held mine for a moment.He either hadn’t heard the whispers thanks to his humanness, or he’d chosen to ignore them.Or perhaps he just didn’t give a fuck.
His eyes held mine for a moment before his gaze drifted past me to the empty ring below.The whispers and stares seemed to bounce off him now.I guessed he’d gone into that place fighters go before a fight.His jaw tightened, muscles tensing as he studied the arena like he was memorizing every angle.
The announcer’s voice suddenly boomed across the stadium.“Ladies and gentlemen, tonight’s main event!”The crowd erupted, their earlier gossip forgotten as bloodlust took over.
Reuben shrugged out of his fighter's robe in one fluid motion.The silk slipped from his shoulders, revealing the hard planes of his chest, the inked words on his collarbone.Every muscle was defined under the harsh lights.Without a word, he draped the robe around my shoulders, the fabric still warm from his body and carrying his rich amber scent.
“Don’t go anywhere,” he said with quiet intensity, then he jogged down the stairs toward the ring like some gladiator of old, his blond hair gleaming gold under the spotlights.The crowd went wild, screaming his name, money changing hands faster than I could track.
I sank deeper into the plush chair, Reuben’s robe slipping a little from my shoulders as I lifted my drink with shaking hands and took a deep gulp.The alcohol burned going down, but it steadied my nerves.
The lights suddenly cut out, plunging the arena into darkness.The crowd fell silent, an expectant hush settling over hundreds of people.Then came the sounds.A heavy shuffling.A clink of chains.And underneath it all, a low keening that made my enhanced hearing ache.
A single spotlight blazed to life at the opposite entrance.What lumbered into that circle of light barely looked human anymore.Massive shoulders strained against a circlet of chains, hooves scraping against the concrete floor and a pair of wide, sharp horns crowning his dark-haired head.But it was his eyes.They were all animal, rolling and wild, but with something terrifyingly intelligent behind them.
My breath seized deep in my throat, my stomach hardening.Was it possible?Was it another one from the facility?My mind raced, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.My vision swam with tears, my throat thickening until I thought I might choke.I’d only known my bat family, but I knew now there were more like me, yet unlike me.The man with the eagle DNA who’d recently escaped.And now...this.A man whose DNA was more animal than man.
He’d been twisted into something that could barely pass for human.I had no doubt the experiment for him had gone too far and he’d been cast out like garbage.Used for this crowd’s entertainment.
I lifted a hand and gripped Reuben’s robe, the silk a lifeline.How many of us were out there, scattered and broken and supposedly free, and fighting for scraps in a world that saw us as monsters?How many had ended up in places like this blood-soaked ring?
The creature—the bull—lifted his massive head and looked directly at me.For one terrible moment, I thought he recognized what I was.What we both were.
Despicable experiments.Living proof of humanity’s mad science.
The announcer’s voice cut through the darkness like a blade.“Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise for our reigning champion, Chief!”The crowd exploded as Reuben raised his arms, soaking in their adoration.“And his opponent tonight, the beast they call Taurus!”
My stomach rolled.Taurus.So hedidhave bull DNA.I’d devoured enough information from the web to know the name fit the hulking creature who pushed through the ropes and into the ring.Not that it made it any easier to watch.
Nausea threatened to rise up my throat even as another thought hit me.Reuben had been willing to walk away from all of this—from the money, the glory, his title—just to keep me safe from Adam.We’d been running, actually escaping, when Adam and his men had caught up to us.
It didn’t excuse Reuben’s desire for fame, a need to actually exploit others who weren’t fully human.I shook my head.I’d imagined he only fought other humans, other willing fighters.Men who chose to be here, who wanted the money and the glory as much as he did.I’d never imagined—
With my enhanced hearing, I could pick up what the crowd couldn’t.Taurus wasn’t just making noise, he was whimpering.Underneath all that bulk and those terrifying horns and hooves, I could sense his fear, his reluctance.His bull instincts might be there, the aggression when cornered, but his human side just wanted to be left alone.To hide.To escape.
Just the same as me.
My shoulders tensed, my spine snapping tight along with my wings.How could Reuben do this?How could the man who’d kissed me so gently, who’d wrapped his robe around my shoulders like a gentleman, willingly step into a ring with someone who had no choice in the matter?Someone who’d been dragged here in chains and forced to fight?
The crowd’s cheers sounded obscene now.But I couldn’t run, couldn’t escape.I had no choice but to watch, to soak it all in whether I liked it or not.
Two women in gold bikinis with long dark hair pulled into ponytails stepped into the ring and quickly unlocked the padlock to Taurus’ chains.He made the women look tiny, like a pair of fairies next to a large, hulking ogre.
A suited man in the crowd, his eyes shining with inebriation and undiluted passion, wolf-whistled before the women stepped out of the ring with nervous, twittering laughs, their jiggling breasts almost falling out of their tops.
Then a bell rang, and everything changed.