“Dominantandgood looking, what’s wrong with you?” another woman asks me.
Animated chatter takes over the table, and I can’t keep track of anything they’re saying as it’s a mixture of English and what sounds like a couple of other languages.
I look to Torrez to defend me against their crazy, but his smile grows wider, and he just shrugs like there’s nothing he can do.
“Well, if you don’t want him, I do,” a large woman announces as she stands at the next table over. She’s massive and looks like one of those heavy weight lifters you see in the Olympics, the ones with the tree trunk thighs and the bulldog face.
“You can’t just challenge me for my mate!” I declare. “He’s mine,” I answer back, my tone a little whinier than I want.
“Technically she can. You aren’t actually mated until it’s consummated, and since you aren’t interested in doing that right now, the challenge is fair,” Fedor tells me and then looks at Torrez. “Brun would make a fine match; she’d bare you nothing but alphas, I’m sure.”
It’s all I can do not to tell Fedor he can shove that matchmaker shit up his alpha ass, but being that I’m already in enough trouble with this pack at the moment, I manage to keep my mouth shut. Torrez nods at the alpha like he’s contemplating the offer of Brun and her alpha baby-making skills. I glare at him. The entire pack is already pushing tables out of the way to make a space in the middle of the clearing where it looks like this fight is about to go down. Brun is already on one side of the clearing, hopping up and down and stretching out.
“Is this for fucking real?” I whisper-screech at Torrez, and I look around to take in the growing excitement of the shifters all around us.
“Looks like it, Witch,” Torrez tells me, with way too much amusement in his voice and sparkling in his eyes.
He’s fucking loving this.
“I should just let Brun have you,” I growl at him. “She’d probably break you in half with just her vagina, and then we’d see how funny you think all of this is,” I grumble, and Torrez just smiles even bigger.
“Kinky,” he retorts and then skips away before I can deck him.
“What are the terms of this challenge?” Fedor yells out, and the excitable shifters quiet down to hear him.
“No magic,” Brun shouts out.
“Then no shifting,” I call back.
“Winner is mated before sunrise, or they’re open to challenge again,” Manya announces, and I shoot her afuck offlook that doesn’t faze her at all.
I watch Brun do the last of her stretches, and look down at what I’m wearing. Skinny jeans and a sweater do not make for the best gear to fight in, and I don’t need to risk my range of motion being limited. I kick off my ankle boots, unbutton my pants and shimmy out of them.
“What are you doing?” Torrez hisses at me.
“Making it easier to move around,” I hiss back.
I pull my sweater off over my head, leaving me in a tank top, bra and underwear. A few appreciative whistles sound off in the crowd, and Torrez releases a warning growl and puffs up in challenge. I can’t help but appreciate the dose he’s getting of his own medicine—and his nice pecs. Torrez sniffs at the air and turns his heated gaze on me.
“Fucking wolf nose,” I grumble to myself, but apparently not quietly enough, because Torrez releases a bark of laughter.
He slaps me hard on the ass and pushes me forward. “Go win me,” he instructs as I move closer to Brun.
I want to glare at him, but I’m too busy explaining to my vagina that we have tonot diebefore we can fuck the annoying smile off his face. I’m pretty sure the scent of my arousal is perfuming the air all around me, and I attempt to mask it with anger as I hype myself up for this match. I assess Brun as I start to stretch out, but I’m mostly chanting in my head about all the things pissing me off at the moment and inviting the rage and bloodlust into my veins.
I go through all the shit with my Chosen and Enoch’s coven, playing back every stupid fight and snipe they’ve made at each other. I tap into Silva and his disgust, and then shovel Lachlan’s hate onto my pile of burning fury. I pick at every question I have that I’ll probably never get the answers to, until they open up and bleed frustration into me. And when I repeat over and over again how this bitch is trying to steal what’smine, my game face slams down, my beastmode in full effect, and my soul cries out for blood and penance.
I go still on my side of the clearing and wait to be set loose. Fedor announces a bunch of shit I don’t pay attention to because, instead, I’m picturing ripping this chick’s head off on repeat in my mind. I’m so fucking keyed up that as soon as Fedor whistles, indicating the start of the fight, I charge.
I sprint toward Brun, who seems shocked by my move, but that’s exactly why I did it. This big ass woman is probably used to fighting others who take their time and look for an opening to counteract her strength and size. But I don’t fucking care if she hurts me, because I know I’m going to hurt her a hell of a lot worse. When I’m a couple feet away from Brun, who is now also running full speed toward me, I bend down as low as I can and tackle her around the thighs. We fall to the ground, and as her back slams into the dirt, I knee her between the legs.
Guys think they hold the pain rights to that move, but it fucking hurts for women, too. Brun shouts out and then growls at me. She uses her brute strength to roll me over, switching our positions, and tries to claim the advantage of being on top. I manage to get my bent legs between us, and when I feel the grit of dirt against my back, I push to straighten my legs and move Brun’s big ass body away from me. I can’t throw her completely off, but I can get her far enough away from me to land some head shots.
I hold her in the air with my legs, in some fucked up Superman pose, and pummel her face and neck with punches. She can’t even manage a swipe in my direction because she’s too busy guarding her head from my attack. She scrambles off of me, and I kip up onto my feet. She wipes blood from her nose and mouth with the sleeve of her shirt and spits blood at me, enraged. The insult falls short of where I’m standing, and I smirk at her. She comes for me, and I crouch down, making it look like I’m going for her legs again. She bends lower so as not to give me the advantage again, but at the last minute, I spring up and throw my arm out to clothesline her.
The hit rattles me, and I’m pretty sure I just fucked up my shoulder and forearm. Brun screams and scrubs at her face, trying to get her eyes clear of the dirt I just threw at her. I’m flung around onto her back from the momentum caused by Brun running and me throwing an unmoving arm in her way. I was trying to get her to go down again, but I can work with this too. I wrap my fucked up arm around her neck, my inner elbow tucked under her chin, and use my good arm to pull the headlock tighter. It fucking hurts, and I’m about seventy percent sure I’ve broken something, but I’ll ride the pain in order to fucking end this bitch.
Brun scratches at my arms, and I bring up my legs to pin her arms down as she falls to her knees. I squeeze harder and feel a couple taps on my calf, but I ignore them. If she thinks I’m going to release her after she tried to take my motherfucking wolf, she’s in for a rude fucking awakening. Brun falls to her side, and I go with her, but I’m locked in tight, and there’s no way she’s getting out of this. I squeeze until I feel her start to go limp, and then I move my hand under her chin so I can snap her neck.
