If he tried something, they might not be enough.
There was always the possibility of being killed in here. Most packs had strength in numbers, so you could be the best fighter in the fucking world and still end up a corpse.
But in a one on one fight, without any tricks? There was only one guy here who I worried could beat me.
Ozias Harper.
He spent more time in the rut fights than I did.
His aura was massive, oppressive. Volatile. We’d gone up against each other in those cages a hundred times, and the betting was always split down the middle. He’d knocked me out as often as I’d put him under, and people liked to make up stories about our rivalry.
We’d never fought outside the cages.
No point, really. My pack never had anything he wanted.
But now…
My growl grew into a snarl as he pushed off the wall and strode toward me. He favoured his left side ever so slightly—he’d taken a nasty kick to his right leg in a fight the other night.
Bug tried to stand, but I shook my head.
No offence to him, but he’d be useless.
I stood my ground, keeping eye contact with Ozias until he stopped a table’s-length away from me.
“Hear you’ve got something I’m interested in.” He crossed his arms over his chest.
It would be so easy to start the fight before he could ready himself—and if he was talking about Crescent, I fucking would.
She wasmine.Ours. Not for anyone else’s eyes. No one else in this hellhole was even worthy of speaking about her.
But as my aura’s energy felt like it was crackling inside me, I tried to channel my inner Phantom. Be rational about this.
If he was about to say he was interested in my omega, he’d be a lot less casual.
Because he knew that would start a fight to the death.
“What?” I clenched my fists until my nails dug into my palms and ground my teeth until I could hear the grating.
Every muscle in my body was taut.
Bastard had the gall to smirk at me. “You got some painkillers the other week, right? How ‘bout a trade?”
…Painkillers?
Last week I did a job for the Archiva pack.
Went badly when the target’s pack got involved—one of them died in the fight. Obviously we stole everything of value before we left. He had a nice ring on his finger that I’d pinched—not that I had a need for it. But one of the Leo pack alphas had caught wind of it, and traded me for painkillers, mentioning needing a gift. It was just a small bottle of pills, and the kind that barely took the edge off.
Ozias was probably only bringing it up to fucking antagonize me.
To make me think he wanted my omega.
Maybe it was a good sign that I hadn’t immediately jumped to ripping his head off. Usually I couldn’t actually channel my inner Phantom, even though my packmate technically lived inside my head. Maybe Crescent was balancing me more than I thought.
“What do you have?” I asked.
Meds like that weren’t a high value item. Wouldn’t win us protection or an alliance or anything substantial. But maybe he had something… Hm, maybe I could get a gift for Crescent.
