Page 4 of Stealing Mercury (Arena Dogs #1)

She gripped his hand firmly, noting the roughness of calluses that lent credibility to the whip he wore like an accessory. The oil he used to care for the leather tinged the air and wrinkled her nose.

Drake looked her up and down, subtly. Not rude, but not indifferent, either. The personal scrutiny bit at her like a sand burr against her skin.

“We should get out of the loading crew’s way.” His eyes narrowed and something cruel glinted in the soft brown depths. “These three Dogs have caused my boss a good deal of trouble. He wants them gone as soon as we can get them loaded.”

“Of course,” Samantha said. She offered Sevti a restrained farewell, then watched him stride away. She hadn’t felt so adrift since she’d been left on a nowhere planet, staring at the empty platform where her father’s ship should have been waiting.

“You’re lucky, Sam.”

Drake’s comment pulled her attention back to him and the men caged behind him. “Am I?”

“You picked the right Dog to be careless around.” Seemingly unaware of the verbal slap he’d delivered, he strode over to the cage, wrapped his hands around the top bar, and leaned forward. “This is Mercury.”

The man inside tensed, his gaze locking onto a slender green code-key dangling from Drake’s neck.

It was clearly a taunt. The code-key might unlock the cages and, if Mercury tried for it, the cord around Drake’s neck could serve as an improvised garrote.

Resler moved around behind the cage, stun-stick ready and eager to inflict pain.

“Mercury is actually the least bloodthirsty of this lot,” Drake continued. “He’s the thinker. The others look to him. His leadership made their group one of the most successful in the arena.” An undercurrent of bitterness laced his words.

Samantha pressed her hands flat against her thighs, resisting the urge to tighten them into fists. “You call them dogs, but you credit him with leadership?”

He straightened, tucked the cord beneath his shirt, and met her gaze baldly. “I trained them. I know what they are and what they’re capable of, and I know my job. I’ll stick to my job and you’d better stick to yours. Do that and I’m sure we’ll all get along.”

With a flash of teeth, Drake’s expression shifted.

His whole body softened from hard-ass to swagger.

“I sense you’re feeling sorry for them and that’s dangerous, Sam.

Mercury and his pack were champions of the arena until they took part in a pointless insurrection.

Last week they made it over the arena barriers, got into the crowds, and attacked a group of our high-profile patrons.

” Drake strode toward the next cage, motioning her to follow.

“This is Diablo and over there...” He pointed at the third cage where a brawnier male with shoulders as wide as a shuttle and sad eyes howled softly. “That’s Carnage.”

Samantha licked her dry lips. From behind the bars, Diablo studied her with night black eyes.

Red embers flecked the black, making it easy to see how he’d come by his name.

Like Mercury, he was leanly muscled with dark hair and pointed ears, but his jaw was more pronounced and prominent canines pressed against narrow lips.

A large hand landed in the middle of her back with a firm shove.

One minute she was standing there and the next she went flying forward.

Drake’s fist in the back of her pack stopped her short of tumbling into the cage.

A hand full of claws swiped at her so close the brush of air whispered against her cheeks.

Samantha jumped back, colliding with Drake.

She gulped air past the constricted muscles of her throat, heart racing.

The howls of the other two caged men turned into low growls that vibrated through her body.

“A month ago,” said Drake, voice ice cold, “he clawed up another patron, a woman.”

The man in the cage snarled, jerking on the bars with mindless determination.

As her heart rate steadied, Samantha couldn’t look away.

There was rage in him to be sure, but there was something more in those eyes, in the mindless way he struggled against the bars that caged him.

The man they’d named Diablo radiated pain with every movement, every breath.

What had they done to these men?

Samantha spun on her heel, breaking free of Drake’s grip. “You shoved me!”

He grinned. “I also held you back.”

Samantha swung. Her fist connected with Drake’s jaw with a satisfying smack.

His head snapped back. A stifled laugh told her Resler had enjoyed her punch more than she had.

The moment the explosion of rage receded, she regretted it.

He’d likely make her pay for punching him, but oh, did he deserve it.

Drake stroked his jaw and frowned, as if her efforts had yielded no more than a tap. “I thought you should understand what you’re dealing with here. Why Mr. Owens wants them gone. Today.” He spit blood onto the hangar floor.

Samantha watched him thumb the remaining blood from his lip. She had to swallow to dampen her throat before she could speak. “Have your men start loading.” She turned and took a step toward the ship’s crew-entry. “I’ll be clearing us for launch.”

“Sam!” Drake’s shout stopped her before she made it halfway across the hangar. “I’m looking forward to getting to know you better. I love a challenge.”

Samantha should have hit him harder. “You want a challenge, I’ll be sure to give you one.”

***

Confusion churned as Mercury watched the female walk away.

She moved differently from the females of his kind—sensual but not intentionally seductive, full of energy, but not aggressive enough to survive the arena.

His hands could easily span her narrow waist, too small, too breakable to be a fighter, but he’d never be able to resist running his hands down her hips and around to her toned, muscular ass.

Pushing away the unwanted thoughts, he threw his head back and howled. He needed to reassure the others. His pack brothers were hurting.

The whip-master’s taunting had Lo in an unthinking rage and Carn, still weak from their last battle in the arena, was mad with worry for his mate. He’d gone wild when the handlers loaded his cage into the ground transport, and he’d only just recovered from the tranquilizer they’d used on him.

They needed to be alert to watch and listen for anything that might give them an edge.

There had to be a way to get Carn back to his mate.

The mate Mercury had promised to protect with his life.

They all had to restrain the instincts telling them to fight.

Drake was looking for a reason to kill them all, and Mercury couldn’t allow that.

He sucked in air and threw his head back in another howl, willing his brothers to join him.

When he heard the change in their baying, from raw to purposeful, he allowed his thoughts to drift back to the female. He shouldn’t have reacted to her nearness. Shouldn’t have allowed her to become a distraction.

He’d wanted to find out how her skin would feel beneath his touch. He’d wanted to taste her soft lips. He’d wanted to free her gold-brown hair and bury his nose against the pale skin behind her ear, to drag in her feminine scent.

It had been her scent he’d noticed first. Irresistible. Like honey. She smelled... right.

He could no longer see her, but her scent lingered, mixed with the vile stench of the whip-master. She worked with the whip-master. He’d let himself be distracted by a female in league with his hated enemy.

He’d failed his brothers too often. Lost control of his rage in the arena.

Acted on instinct without thought, like an animal.

He’d gathered his brothers together one by one.

Jupiter and Seneca were dead, but Lo and Carn still lived.

Lo, the first of his brothers. They’d been raised in the same nursery.

Learned to take a lashing together at the hands of the whip-masters that had sorted them by aptitude at the age of four.

Carn had joined them later. He’d been an oversized and uncooperative monster headed for a short life in the cage matches until he’d learned to fight as part of their team, their family.

Mercury tugged at the unbending strength of the bars as he watched the red-suited workers load Carn’s cage into the ship.

His belly twisted with the realization that the handlers weren’t going to remove them from the cages until after they left Roma, probably not until their journey was over.

How long would Carn’s mate be left defenseless in the clutches of the monsters that ruled the arena?

For now, all they could do was stay alive.

Stay strong. Ready to act when the masters finally opened the cursed cages.

He had to believe it wouldn’t be too late.

Too late to save what was left of his family.