Page 206 of The Queen’s Shadow

“Whatever Kyro, I have a right to ask why there’s a fucken daemon here.” The first shifter replied, and I pursed my lips. The way he said daemon implied that it wasn’t a good thing.

Suddenly, Rycon had Riko by the throat and was slamming him up against a tree. I winced at the sickening crunch that sounded as the young shifter’s windpipe crushed beneath the force of Rycon’s grip.

“Kasha is here as my guest.” He snarled as Riko coughed and wheezed. “If you so much as look at her the wrong way, I’ll rip off your cock and feed it to you. Are we clear?”

Riko couldn’t answer with his throat crushed, but he nodded, which I had to imagine hurt like hell. The rest of the K’aalpa-kah had fallen deathly still and quiet. No one seemed to be interested in risking Rycon turning his attention on them.

He dropped Riko, who immediately curled onto all fours; coughing violently as his throat healed itself.

“Anyone else have a problem with Kasha being here?” He asked, the threat in his voice clear as day. The K’aalpa-kah collectively shook their heads and took a small step away from where Koda and I sat.

“Good.” Rycon turned to Kyro, his lip curling up in what should have been a smile but was somehow much more sinister.

“Alright Little Cub, time to show me what you’re made of.” He sneered, turning back to look at Riko, who was getting to his feet. “Prove to me you deserve to move up the ranks. Fuck this little bastard up.” He growled, and Kyro’s eyes sparkled. He looked like he wanted nothing more than to do exactly what Rycon had ordered.

“Ready, set, GO!” Rycon bellowed and the panther shifters launched into battle with their paired partners.

“Remember!” Rycon shouted as he moved through the fighting pairs, watching as each shifter ruthlessly tried to murder their counterpart. “Nothing is off the table; you can use anything in your arsenal to win. If you choose not to kill your opponent, I want to know why. If you decide to murder them, I. Want. To. Know. Why. Your answer will be taken into consideration when I reorder ranks at the end of this exercise.”

“For Origin’s sake.” I breathed to Koda. “This is ruthless.” I winced as Kyro and Riko launched themselves at each other. Kyro was tearing a chunk out of Riko’s neck with his teeth in his human form, blood spurting down his bare chest.

Koda shrugged his shoulders. “No, Little Sprite. This is standard. There is no room for weakness in shifter communities. You are either strong enough to survive, or you are considered a liability. Each leap, clan, pack and flock is only as strong as their weakest member. We are all aware that each day we draw breath could very well be our last.”

“That seems like an extremely stressful way to live.” I murmured, frowning as I watched the shifters continue to tear into each other with gusto.

“It is our way. We spend our days savoring each moment as if it may be our last. We do not waste time on things that do not satisfy us.” He looked at me, his brown eyes shining with an emotion I couldn’t quite place. “It helps one to realize how precious life is and makes it impossible to take even the smallest things for granted.”

The longer the fights went on, the more consumed by bloodlust the shifters seemed to become. I was reminded of how Rycon’s pupils had blown when I had turned my back on him the other day. He seemed to have been possessed by his desire to hunt, and seeing the way these shifters snarled and tore into each other, I realized with a shiver that Rycon must have been fighting off a similar type of impulse when he had pinned me down beneath him.

It should have disturbed me, but it didn’t. My heart rate sped up and I wondered what it would be like to come up against him one day.

The energy and the excitement of the fights before me were contagious, and I had never missed the tingle of power in my palms more. I could understand what Koda had said about dying to live. I loved the rush of battle. Fighting for my life had always made me feel as if I were in control of my own fate and given me the power I craved to defend and protect myself.

Maybe daemons and shifters weren’t so different. There was a primal, powerful part of myself that slept in my chest, too. It pricked up its ears for the first time since I had been saved, and I suddenly wished I was strong enough to participate in the training that was unfolding before me.

“Before I lost my powers, I was a force to be reckoned with.” I whispered to Koda, rubbing my palms together between my knees, as if the mere act would encourage a quasar to bloom between them. He smiled at me and nodded, looking back at Rycon who was barking orders at his K’aalpa-kah as they fought each other.

“I imagine to tame the Rhoan of Olkuyrbe, you would need to be.” He replied sagely.

I snorted. “I haven’t tamed Rycon… look at him.”

He was watching the bloody massacre as if the sight of the violence got him off. He had that look in his eye that told me he wanted to jump into the fray himself and tear someone limb from limb, for no other reason than he liked the way it felt to kill. He was wild, unpredictable, and volatile. Nothing about him said tame.

Koda chuckled but shook his head.

“I have known Rycon for a long time, Little Sprite, and believe me when I say you have come closer to taming him than I would have ever thought possible. He wants to be better for you. I have never seen him even attempt to care for another person the way he is trying to care for you. It is not in his nature to be kind or nurturing, and I will be the first to admit that he is not very good at it.”

I huffed a laugh at that, thinking of all the times he had already tried to manhandle and control me since he had saved me.

“You could say that again.” I muttered. Koda shrugged, patting my hand gently with his massive palm.

“Rycon is not perfect. However, he has come a long way from the angry little cub who wanted to punish the world for hurting him. If you let him in, I know he will take care of you in the best way he knows how.”

I looked up into the kind face of the bear shifter, and wondered why he was telling me all this. He was acting like Rycon loved me or something, which was crazy. Rycon didn’t love anybody, other than maybe himself.

I knew he was currently obsessed with me for some reason. His possessive behaviour made that clear, and so did all his hints at wanting to sleep with me, but that was predictable. I was used to males wanting me for my body. He wasn’t any different.

I was sure that if I gave in to him and let him have what he wanted he would grow bored with me and toss me to the side in favor of a shiny new conquest. I wasn’t delusional enough to think I had something worth loving long term. I was broken and used, and no one wanted to keep secondhand playthings: especially, not someone as wild and free as Rycon. He would never want to be tied down to someone like me.