Page 11

I was back at the fighting pits. This time, instead of massive, roaring crowds, there were only a handful of us: Pierce, Will, Chris, Nolan, a couple of shifters who oversaw the match, and I.

Once again, I was back in chains, one of the overseers holding me in place. Will had argued against it, but women who were to be considered prizes were always chained, no matter what. Just in case they decided to run. Not that running would do much good.

Pierce and Will emerged from either side of the pit. So similar and yet so different from the first time this had happened. Pierce swaggered forward with a smirk. He caught me looking and gave me a wink that nearly made me want to vomit. Will’s eyes narrowed at the sight. His fingers curled into a fist as he slowed to a stop in front of Pierce.

“You ready to die?” Pierce jeered.

Will didn’t react. His face remained as motionless as stone, but the waves of disgust pulsing off him were unmistakable.

“I’m not going easy on you this time,” Will said, his voice soft, dangerous, and unyielding. There was something about the cool certainty in the tone that both chilled me to the bone and sent ripples of intrigue and excitement running through me.

Pierce let out a mocking laugh that quickly subsided when he saw the expression on Will’s face. The smirk turned into a sneer.

“We’ll see about that, asshole,” he snarled. A moment later, he launched himself into the air, shifting halfway through into the massive black wolf I remembered from the first fight.

I glanced over at Will. He hadn’t moved, hadn’t shifted. He kept a level gaze as Pierce charged toward him, not an ounce of fear or worry or concern anywhere on his face, as if this whole thing was as tedious as filling out forms in triplicate. Meanwhile, the great black wolf grew closer, jaws open, ready to receive his apparently willing prey.

One minute, Will was standing perfectly still, almost as if he had forgotten he was in the middle of a fight in the first place. The next, he disappeared, so fast that I had barely noticed him move at all. When Pierce slammed to the ground, he spun. Growling, he glared at Will, who had just appeared behind him.

“Come on, then,” Will said without even a smile. “You were going to kick my ass. Go ahead and do it.”

The great black wolf lunged again, jaws snapping. Will sidestepped as if it were as easy as breathing. What the hell was he doing? Why wasn’t he shifting?

I stared at Will’s face, that cool, impassive calculation, the intelligence lurking behind those eyes almost startling. Every move he made seemed carefully chosen, and yet I could see the anger lurking in him. He was furious with Pierce. I wouldn’t have expected this cold anger from Will, someone who seemed so rational.

Then I realized that he was furious enough with Pierce that he wasn’t just fighting him. He was teaching him a lesson.

It didn’t make sense. Everything I knew about Will told me he was calm and collected, but this wasn’t that. It was strange. I could see that the mere act of doing this, of toying with Pierce like this, was out of character for him. Glancing at Chris and Nolan, who watched with their hands in their pockets, muttering to one another, I could tell they felt the same. I just couldn’t figure out why Will was doing it.

For you, of course, a voice in my head whispered.

I pushed that away. That made even less sense. I was a means to an end for him—I could help with his mission. That was all.

Will barely dodged Pierce’s claws, feet almost stumbling but not quite. I gasped as my knuckles whitened where I was gripping the edge of the barrier.

Shift, dammit , I urged Will. Why did I care? I shouldn’t care after everything, but watching him put himself in danger made my stomach twist and turn. My wolf paced anxiously, wanting to jump in to protect him.

The next swipe, Will wasn’t as lucky. Claws drew down across his stomach. He grunted, gritting his teeth as he staggered back. His eyes narrowed, and he let out a low growl.

Finally, Will shifted. I couldn’t help myself, I sucked in a breath. The last time I had seen Will’s tawny wolf, it had been from a distance. I’d been so far away that his size hadn’t registered.

This time, however, all I could do was gape in awe. He was gorgeous. Every inch of him was perfect, the fur sleek and shiny, so soft-looking that I imagined running my hands through it. Will’s blue eyes were striking when he was human. Now, they were almost electric as they narrowed and focused on his opponent. His claws dug into the dirt at his paws as he snarled, fur bristling, looking and sounding more primal and feral than he had been the first time.

The sight of him tugged at something in my own wolf, and for a moment, I forgot I was supposed to hate him. All I wanted was him.

Pierce swiped forward, claws darting out to scour across Will’s muzzle. Will dodged the blow. The next couple of minutes looked like a dance as they glided across the pit, matching blow for blow. But it didn’t take long for me to realize that Pierce was outmatched.

Pierce realized it, too. His swipes grew more frantic and desperate as he continued moving back. He growled and spat, but I could see the fear in his eyes. Will continued to stalk forward, growling, showing his perfect, sharp teeth. With one perfect movement, he knocked Pierce to the ground, and it was all over.

Will’s claws raked across Pierce’s belly as he bit down on the other wolf’s throat. A yip of pain escaped the black wolf’s throat, then the crunch of bone echoed through the fighting pit. Pierce twitched once, then stilled. Silence filled the pit.

Panting, Will stepped back, sitting on his haunches. His claws and muzzle were damp with blood, and the gash on his shoulder dripped crimson to the dirt below. He waited, staring at the corpse, watching to see if he would leap back up and resume the fight. After several long, silent moments, his tail thumped, and he turned away from his kill.

Without realizing I was doing it, I raced over, the guards no longer holding me back. There was no need. Will’s head tilted, the wolf looking at me intently, his gaze focused solely on me as if nothing else in the world mattered. His tail thumped once again as I raced forward. A moment later, the wolf was gone, replaced by Will. He stayed where he was, watching as I cleared the final distance. For a half-moment, I almost flew into his arms, with that irresistible urge to hold him, to feel his arms around me, consuming me. I pulled up short just in time, trying to hide my own confusion at the temporary insanity that had threatened to drown me.

“Are you all right?” I asked. I couldn’t explain why I cared so much. I shouldn’t. Except the thought of Will getting hurt sent my wolf into a fury and made a pit of unease and dread settle in my stomach.

My eyes went to his stomach, where long claw marks ran along perfect abs. I sucked in a breath without thinking.

“I’ve had worse,” he said when he saw where I was looking.

I shot him an irritated look that earned me a chuckle.

“Seriously. It’s not that bad,” he said.

Ignoring him, I bent to look at the sound. Without waiting to ask, my hands reached out, fingers brushing against hard muscle. I muttered under my breath. Will sucked in a breath, his stomach contorting and shifting beneath my touch. A warm glow blossomed from my hands. A moment later, the glow subsided, and all that was left of the cuts was drying blood.

“Better?” I asked, glancing up.

“Yeah,” he said. “Thank you.”

My stomach jolted as I felt pinned beneath that piercing gaze of his, and I was suddenly aware of the way my hands had lingered on him, unwilling to stop touching him. I coughed and moved away.

“Why the hell did you do that?” I demanded. “Why did you agree to fight him?” Will could have just thrown me to Pierce and walked away. He wouldn’t have had to keep his promise to help Morgan. He could have handed me over and gone back to focusing on his mission.

When Pierce had first shown up, I had expected Will to do just that. It wasn’t the first time I’d been shuffled around like that. But he hadn’t. He’d fought for me. I couldn’t understand why.

He blinked, staring at me as if I had two heads. Like the answer to my question was so obvious, it was ridiculous I was even asking.

“I didn’t like how he saw you as a tradeable item,” he said. “I wasn’t going to let him take you and turn you into property again.”

My mouth parted, but words refused to come out. Over the last few years, I’d been a commodity. As much as I pretended otherwise, or as much as I tried to hide my own thoughts, I had started seeing myself as such. I had half-expected Will to hand me over, if only because starting a fight for a slave he didn’t even want would complicate his mission. When Pierce had shown up at the door, I’d more or less resigned myself to going with him. I hadn’t expected Will to bother. Except he had, because he saw me as a person.

An irresistible urge to kiss him washed over me. I took a step forward, my wolf wanting to do just that. Then common sense prevailed. I coughed again, looking for something, anything, that would distract me from the emotions running through me. My eyes snagged on the cut along Will’s arm, far shallower and in no danger of needing any medical attention, but it was something to do that didn’t involve imagining how his lips would feel on mine. I reached out and healed it.

“How’s that?” I finally managed to say, removing my hands as soon as the spell was over, so I didn’t have to think about how I wanted to run my hands all over his body.

He shrugged, rotating his shoulder. “Stings a bit, but I’ve had worse.”

“I’m sure you have,” a voice boomed from one of the entrances to the stadium.

My skin prickled as alarm bells screamed in my head. My heart pounded as rage and anger began bubbling and rising through me. I knew that voice.

We all turned toward the opening as clapping sounded from the tunnel. Rage washed over me as I saw a familiar figure strolling toward us. Tawny hair, that long, weaselly face with a smug smirk spread across it, a crackling of magic in the air surrounding him. The man who had handed me over to Will just a couple of days ago, and the man who had helped separate me from my sister.

“You certainly seem like a tough customer,” Lucas said, strutting forward. He barely gave me a glance as he sized Will up. “I knew it the first time I saw you fight, but this was something special.”

Lucas continued strolling toward us with that broad, smarmy grin. I let out a low growl, memories of my sister being dragged out of the room replaying over and over in my head. I barely breathed as I stared at him with undisguised, unadulterated loathing.

“You’re the one who won our dear Kendra, are you?” he said as he came to stand in front of Will, looking him up and down with interest.

“Apparently,” Will said. “Is that a problem?”

“No, no, not at all.” Lucas gave a friendly smile. “I just always have to admire a guy who defends what’s his. You didn’t seem the type to roll over and let someone walk over you. Glad to know I wasn’t wrong on that point.” He tutted as he looked at Pierce’s body, blood seeping into the dirt. “I was watching the fight. Pity I didn’t know about it sooner. I’d have charged for it. It was a good one.” He took a deep, disappointed breath.

“He came up to my house earlier today and demanded a rematch,” Will explained, sounding bored but mostly inconvenienced. “No time to send out flyers.”

Lucas sighed. “Ah, well. That’s Pierce for you. Too impulsive.” Finally, he turned his attention to me, and he grinned, showing too-sharp teeth. “How are you liking our dear Kendra?”

If he called me that one more time… I would do absolutely nothing. I couldn’t do anything because of this damn bracelet.

“She’s spirited,” Will said.

Lucas chortled. “She is a wildcat, isn’t she?”

Will tilted his head. “You sound like you know her,” he remarked.

“Of course,” Lucas leered at me as he looked me up and down, not bothering to hide the lust burning there. “Kendra and I go way back, don’t we, Kendra?”

I didn’t answer, paralyzed between rage and fear. He laughed.

“She can be a bit shy, but she’s sure as hell got some spirit,” Lucas remarked. He raised an eyebrow. “Although I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of that by this point, am I right?”

“She’s certainly got a wild side,” Will retorted. “But I manage.”

“Oh, I’m sure a wolf like you doesn’t have any issue getting a woman to follow orders,” Lucas responded. “I don’t know many guys who would be able to take on and beat Pierce twice.” Tilting his head, still studying Will like an interesting new specimen, he added, “You know, I might have underestimated you that first time. I always assumed Pierce was a bit of a fluke, since you didn’t kill him the first time. But after that fight, it seemed more like you just didn’t feel like you needed to be bothered. You killed him easily enough this time around.”

“Well, the first time, I was blown away by the lovely stadium,” Will said. “I didn’t want to get more blood on the pristine floor than necessary.”

Lucas threw his head back and laughed, genuine and hearty. It would have been a charming laugh if I didn’t want to tear him to ribbons. I tried to keep my expression neutral even as I could feel my fingers curling into fists. All I could think about was watching Morgan being dragged away.

“You’re all right. How would you think about being more involved?” Lucas asked, head tilting as he studied Will. “We’re always looking for new talent to help our growing operation, and I can tell you that the benefits are generous, to say the least.”

He gave me a pointed look, making it perfectly obvious that when he said “benefits,” he meant “more slaves.” My fingers curled into a fist, and I imagined what it would be like to slam it right into that grinning mouth of his.

Will managed to keep his cool far better than I did. “I might be interested,” he said. “Depending on the job. I’m not the kind of guy who’s gonna be happy just sitting and guarding a door.”

Lucas gave another amused smirk. “No, you don’t seem the type to be happy on the sidelines.” He rubbed his chin. “I think we might be able to get something for you. Maybe not right away, but play your cards right, and we’ll see.”

“I’m not exactly a patient person,” Will said, his lips flicking downward.

Lucas chortled. “Fair enough. I like that blunt quality you’ve got. It’ll serve you well here. I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime, I think the big guy would be interested in chatting with you.”

I tried to keep my expression neutral even as my pulse quickened and my breath caught. Cain. He was talking about Cain. Lucas was offering Will the chance to get close to Cain, to Morgan. It was so perfect and so absurd at the same time that I nearly burst into laughter. I managed to keep my tongue as I listened with bated breath, glued to the conversation.

“I wouldn’t mind meeting him, for that matter,” Will said. “I want to compliment him on everything he’s set up here. It’s impressive, to say the least.”

“That it is,” Lucas agreed. He tilted his head once again. “Let me see what I can do. I know where to find you once I’m able to. For now, enjoy your prize.” He flashed me an amused smirk that made my skin crawl and my wolf snarl with rage.

“I intend to,” Will said. His hand slipped around my waist and pulled me against him. I knew it was only for show, but I leaned into him almost instinctively, surprising myself.

“Look at that, she really is learning to behave herself,” Lucas said, raising his eyebrows. He grinned. “It’s easy once you know what strings to pull.”

A small growl escaped my throat despite myself, only audible to Will. My fingers turned to claws despite myself, and I had to retract them.

Lucas gave a curt nod, shot me an amused, smug look that once more made me want to tear him to ribbons, and sauntered away, leaving us alone.

“Are you all right?” Will asked after Lucas had left. He stepped away, leaving me feeling strangely cold without his arm around me.

“I’m fine,” I lied, my jaw tight.

But he continued to stare at me, clearly waiting for some sort of explanation as to why I had reacted that way. When I didn’t answer, he finally asked, “Morgan?”

I gave a short, sharp nod. “He was the one who found us the night we escaped,” I muttered. “The one who brought us to Cain. I didn’t know he was also in charge of the pits until he handed me over to you.”

Without a word, Will pulled me tighter against his naked body, wrapping his arms around me in a hug. I leaned against him, taking in the smell of sweat mixed with his normal scent. It was surprisingly appealing. I let myself slump against him, giving up some of my worries and exhaustion, if only for a moment. After a second, he pulled back, and that cold feeling washed over me once more.

“Don’t worry,” Will growled. “He’ll get what’s coming to him.”

“He’s a witch,” I said. “And a powerful one. He isn’t going to go down as easily as Pierce.”

“Leave that to us,” he said.

I shook my head. “That’s not what I’m worried about,” I muttered.

I was worried about what he might do to Morgan if he found out who Will and the others really were. The thought of her being in even more danger because of me once again sent my stomach into somersaults, making it hard to breathe. I couldn’t let her get hurt. She needed to get out of here as soon as possible.

As my thoughts threatened to drown me, an arm wrapped around me, a hand resting lightly on my shoulder as Will pulled me against him. I stiffened for a moment, then leaned into it, taking comfort in his scent despite trying to keep him at arm’s length.

“She won’t be there for much longer,” he promised. “Now that I have an in with Lucas, I’ll be able to get more information on Cain. The sooner I finish the mission and take him down, the faster we’ll be able to get Morgan out of there.”

I didn’t answer, though a nugget of bitter resentment settled somewhere inside me. Of course. He cared more about the mission. What if his mission didn’t call for getting Morgan out safely? What if the two were incompatible?

If that were the case, then I would take matters into my own hands.