Page 43 of His Asset

Chapter Sixteen

It was Reuben who movedlike a predator, circling Taurus with calculated expertise.Gone was the gentleman who’d kissed me.He was replaced by someone I barely recognized.His eyes held no mercy, no acknowledgment that his opponent was anything more than an obstacle to his next victory.

Taurus bellowed with fear, then charged, his massive hooves beneath his tree-trunk legs thundering against the canvas.But Reuben was already gone, dancing away with fluid grace.The crowd roared their approval as he landed a brutal combination to the bull’s ribs.I could hear Taurus’ labored breathing, the soft whimpers he tried to suppress.

But Taurus wasn’t going down easily.Even bloodied, he fought back with desperate fury, his massive fists connecting with sickening thuds.The crowd screamed their approval.This was what they’d paid to see.

Then it happened.Taurus caught Reuben off guard, his horn tearing through Reuben’s shoulder with a wet, brutal sound.Blood sprayed across the canvas as Reuben staggered, his face going white with shock and pain.

My breath caught, my heart thundering in my ears.My emotions were so scrambled, I didn’t know how to think, react or feel.Reuben had been kind to me, had given me shelter and hidden me from Adam.He’d saved me from men who’d been about to do the unthinkable to me.But this man, this fighter, he wasn’t the Reuben I knew.

So why did the crowd recognize him and his violence, his sadistic need to hurt and injure someone—something—else?It seemed he truly was a fighter, a champion, a man who’d do anything to win no matter who or what he hurt.

Taurus paused.Instead of pressing his advantage, instead of finishing what the crowd demanded, his eyes met Reuben’s and something passed between them.Understanding, maybe even regret.Carefully, almost gently, Taurus pulled back, his horn sliding free.

He retreated to the opposite corner, his two hooves clattering, leaving Reuben wounded but alive.

I looked around frantically.Had no one else noticed Taurus’ mercy?The crowd was still roaring, but if they’d seen Taurus’ compassionate humanity, they took it as weakness.Another flaw to exploit.Another reason to cheer when he inevitably fell.

My lip curled in disgust.What was I doing here?I didn’t belong among these people who mistook empathy for weakness, who turned suffering into entertainment.

“Come on, Chief,” someone screamed behind me.“Break the freak!”

The words hit me like a physical blow.That was what I’d been called too, by the very scientists who’d created me.

Reuben ignored his wound, ignored his opponent’s obvious kindness, and stalked toward him before landing another vicious hit.

I squeezed my eyes shut as Taurus’ pain became my pain, the wordfreakechoing in my ears.And suddenly I wasn’t in the arena anymore, I was somewhere else entirely.I was back in my cell at the facility, the antiseptic smell of medical supplies strong in my nostrils, my skin still screaming from where they’d shocked me with live electricity.Testing my pain threshold, they’d called it.Measuring my healing rate via nasty electrical burns.

Adam’s hands had been so careful as he’d cleaned the wounds, his jaw tight with barely controlled rage.“They won’t do this to you again,” he’d whispered, his voice rough.“I won't let them.”

But hehadlet them.Just like Reuben was letting this violence happen now.

The crowd’s bloodthirsty cheers snapped me back to the present just as Reuben delivered a devastating uppercut to Taurus’ unprotected jaw.Taurus crashed to the canvas, that keening sound rising to a wail that made my heart shatter.

I was moving before I realized it, pushing past Seymour’s startled protests before racing down the stairs and climbing through the ropes.The crowd fell silent as I dropped to my knees beside Taurus, gathering his massive head in my lap.His bull eyes rolled up to meet mine, and I saw the intelligence there, the gratitude, the relief that someone finally saw him as more than a monster.

“It’s okay,” I whispered, stroking the tufts of his curling dark hair.“I see you.”

When I looked up, Reuben was staring at me with eyes I’d never seen before.Cold.Calculating.The crowd's champion who’d just been robbed of his moment of glory.