And that about sums up our options. None. Zip. Zero.
I swallow nervously and turn my head so I can see Raquel. She’s gone pale, a slight greenish tinge to her face. She meets my eyes and inhales shakily.
“Any ideas?” she asks quietly, her voice cracking.
I shake my head and send a pointed look at the two other shifters before tapping a finger against my ear. My friend has only had a crash course in shifters, but I did explain that our senses are heightened—especially hearing and smell—and I don’t want to discuss anything the other two might overhear.
“Just stay back for now,” I say. “We’ll see how this plays out.”
She presses her lips together and nods in understanding.
I run my gaze over the setup again, searching desperately for anything at all that might be a way out, but there’s nothing. I don’t know why I thought there was a possibility things would be any different. Doyle’s little shifter fight club clearly isn’t new, and he’s obviously put plenty of time and thought into how to keep the fighters in the ring and away from the audience. And the exits.
What’s worse, in a way, is that the spectators aren’t only shifters. There are humans up there too, and given how things are set up, the people in audience are going to know the fighters are shifters. That is, if they don’talreadyknow.
Exposing our secret to humans is punishable by death if the triumvirate finds out. The fact that Doyle seems to have no issue withdoing exactly that is… disconcerting. He’s either paid people off to look the other way or he’s been getting away with this for so long he thinks there’s no risk. Either way, the odds the triumvirate’s forces are waiting in the wings to raid this place are pretty much zero.
Escape isn’t possible and rescue isn’t coming.
Raquel and I are on our own.
And we’re probably going to die.
I take a deep breath, letting it out slowly and trying to calm my racing heart. Then another. As long as I’m breathing, there’s a chance, and the last thing I need is to set off someone’s predatory instincts by smelling like fear.
A speaker crackles to life and an announcer’s voice reverberates through the space, the words drowned out by the shouts and cheers of the bloodthirsty crowd. Seconds later, the volume of the audience increases to an almost ear-splitting volume as the steel gate across from us slowly begins to open.
The spectators don’t seem nearly as bored with Doyle’s champion as he implied.
But that doesn’t matter now. My only focus needs to be keeping myself between Raquel and the other shifters. I’m the only one here who can protect her. Or, rather, the only one who cares to protect her. Even if my wild fantasy of a triumvirate raid came true and a bunch of praetorians busted in right this second, we’relocked in here, and the massive alpha wolf stepping into the ring across from us looks like he could rip us apart in seconds.
Doyle’s champion is a hulking brute—the largest wolf I’ve ever seen—with pale golden fur edged with brown around his face. Scars crisscross his sides, a story of brutality and violence written on his body, and a thick metal collar encases his neck. The lower edge of the metal rests near his shoulder blades, the ring of sparse fur and raw skin making it clear the collar has been on for a very long time.
As the larger gate slides closed behind the wolf, I keep my eyes on the ground, only darting glances up at the alpha to keep track of what he’s doing. So far, he hasn’t moved from where he entered the ring and he mostly seems bored. And maybe tired.
His gaze comes up to check out his opponents, and I quickly avert my own. The best thing to do right now is to do everything in my power to not piss him off. As long as the alpha doesn’t come after me directly, there’s a chance the two overconfident volunteers looking to make a name for themselves can take care of him or at least weaken him. But that also assumes that the two betas will injure themselves enough while taking on the larger wolf that I can handle them.
And all of this before anything happens to Raquel who’s basically helpless against any of them.
I take a small step backward, moving closer to my best friend. Eyes wide, her breath comes in quick pants and she’s pressed herself even closer to the wall as if she can sink into it if she tries hard enough.
I eyeball the alpha again, careful not to meet his gaze in case he takes it as a sign of aggression. The two doofuses to my right are displaying enough aggression for all of us. They’re puffing out their chests and bouncing on their toes like boxers, baring their teeth at the alpha who’s barely paying any attention to them at all, instead he’s staring at me.
That can’t be good.
“Just stay back, Raquel.” The weight of the alpha’s gaze on me seems to intensify, and I dart a glance at him before fixing my eyes on the concrete floor again. “I’ll do what I can to keep you safe, but the second I have to shift, things might get… interesting.”
She makes a questioning noise, but I shake my head, not willing to lose the small chance my secret might catch them all off guard.
There wasn’t a whole lot of time earlier to explain what me being an omega meant—thank goodness for Raquel’s fanfic obsession that she already knew the basics of the three designations—but I can at least be glad no one else is in wolf form at the moment. Well, besides the alpha.
Once I shift, my designation will be obvious to anyone else in wolf form or who is close enough to their wolf that their senses can pick up on my omega scent. I have no idea how the fact that I’m an omega is going to go over, but I’m hoping the element of surprise might work to my advantage.
Not that I have any idea how…
The noise of the crowd nearly drowns out the bell signaling the beginning of the fight, but the two betas immediately move into action. I don’t know if they knew each other before all this, but they seem to be working together, both of them advancing on the alpha and quickly shifting into their wolf forms: one gray and one dark brown.
Put together, the two beta wolves might be equal in size to the alpha, but as individuals they appear almost tiny compared to the alpha’s bulk. The gray one darts forward, snapping his jaws at the alpha while the other circles to the side, coming up on the alpha’s right flank.
