Logan turned on the colossal Jester, whose fangs were entirely buried in his flesh. His lips peeled back, fangs bared, and gave one stare—cold, feral—made the beast whimper, tucking its tail before bolting to find easier prey.
My fingers clenched around my necklace, tracing the half moon, theLengraved inside.
I understood it then.
Why my pack shuddered at his name. Why Lachlan bristled like Logan was the meteor that would end the world.
Because maybe he was.
“Fucking AlphaCarrion’sson isn’t bad. Not bad at all. Damn him and all his bloodline!” my dad barked, his face blotchy andred with rage. I bit back a smile, because only my dad could praise someone while threatening to murder their ancestors. “I’ll personally make sure to kick his fat ass for raising that irritating son.”
I considered telling my father the truth, but an automatic reply came out instead. “Dad, that wouldn’t be appropriate.”
“Fuck that,” he grumbled instantly, not even noticing that he was answering me.
“Husband!” My mom whacked him across the skull so hard that I heard the smack over the roar of the crowd. “Language!”
Dad’s green eyes whipped to me, contrite. “Sorry, sweetheart, I?—”
And then my mom cupped her hands around her mouth and bellowed, “Come on, Highlander, fuck their shitty asses to pieces!”
My dad and I looked at each other, wide-eyed and incredulous, upon hearing Mother’s words. She just shrugged and kept cheering.
“What? I’m supporting my son!”
Before we could recover, Uncle Andrew jumped right in, his voice booming across three rows. “Yeah! Break their spines, lad, and we’ll use ‘em tonight for toothpicks!”
By then, the Comets had managed to score twice, but the Dark Diamonds had answered with three consecutive touchdowns. Skeleton Man and two other walking tanks had literally dismembered four Comets players.
Was that their strategy? To exterminate players until we were outnumbered?
It seemed so.
Just then, Skeleton Man pinned one of the Comets. He grasped his left hand and bent four fingers backwards. The sickening crack, followed by the player’s scream, made my stomach churn.
“Yeah, that’s right,” Skeleton Man crooned, a madman’s smirk on his face. “Sing for me, you Comety mutt.” The shameless instigator then stood, wiggling his fingers at our section of the stands. He dove in the next moment, tackling Gaius, who’d just caught a flawless pass from my brother.
Makena yelled, hands cupped around her mouth, “Get out of there! Do it for the blow job!”
Gaius heard her, or maybe he heard the B-word. Sometimes men had a special skill—filtering for reproductive reasons. Gaius freed himself from the attack, leaped onto one of the players’ shoulders, and used him as a support to kick the other two right in the face.
“Damn it, Gaius!” Dad roared, nearly launching himself over the railing. “That was a perfect pass! One more wrong move, and I’ll kick you out of the pack! You hear me?Out!”
As I patted Dad’s shoulder to comfort him, I squinted down at Skeleton Man. Again, he looked familiar. A flash of maple-brown eyes…
That was him!Gentle Eyes.
Except, in retrospect, his eyes weren’t gentle at all, and my nickname might have been given too fast considering he looked like the heir of Satan now. Still, I couldn’t be sure, since he wore that ridiculous mask with the laughing skeleton. I thought about asking Makena or Dad if they recognized him, but it wasn’t worth taking my eyes off the arena. Anything could happen, and I needed to make sure it didn’t.
I could finally breathe again during the first break, my lungs deflating in defeat. I needed annual leave just to recover from that first quarter.
While the players disappeared into the changing rooms, I grabbed my phone and fired off a text to Rudy.
Interesting game. Did you see my so-called mate straight up murder poor Sillas? For no reason! That boy’s completely out of his damn mind!
I looked around the enemy stands, half expecting to spot a reindeer staring at his phone, but it was like searching for a tumor the size of a poppy seed in a CT scan.
I was about to trail after Makena and Amaia for food, maybe find an IV drip for me, when my phone rang.
