Dave didn’t answer, Justin’s observation slicing too close to the bone.
Justin settled more comfortably against the wall, but didn’t say anything else. He just watched the cage, thoughtful.
For a moment, Dave remembered his concern that Justin was here to get information out of him. But it vanished almost as soon as he’d thought it. For one, he’d been the one asking most of the questions, and Justin just didn’tfeellike that. He wondered again why Justin was still part of this pack if even his alpha knew he didn’t like fighting. Perhaps his mate was here. Or perhaps he had nowhere else to go.
The fights went by in a blur of shouting and blood, the surge of energy around the room even hotter and thicker than usual. There’d be fights among the crowd before the night was over, Dave was sure.
Then Christian was called. Dave moved forward to see better, Justin coming with him and watching as Christian entered the cage. The opponent was a non-shifter. Taller than Christian, he was built like a freight train. But Dave saw the way Christian was prowling around the cage, assessing his opponent, and he knew he’d win. Even if he came out damaged.
They circled, testing each other, and then Christian moved, fast and precise, and the fight began.
Justin whistled low under his breath. “Damn. He’s a machine in there.”
Dave didn’t argue. He just watched, tension coiling tighter with every strike. Christian was clean and efficient, and when it was over, there was a fierce grin on his face and a satisfaction in his eyes that Dave never saw in any other situation. And yet, somehow, hunger too—as if however much he fought, it wasn’t enough. He’d always want another fight.
Dave swallowed, his throat aching suddenly.
When Christian stepped out of the cage, he swiftly disappeared from Dave’s sight, swallowed up by admirers, strangers who only saw the blood and brilliance. He wanted to push through thecrowd, to be with Christian, staking his claim. But trying for more always felt like asking for too much.
Instead, he let Justin draw him into conversation about places to visit that were on his bucket list. As they compared notes—and found they were both planning on going to Machu Picchu before they got too old to make the trek—he almost managed to stop those other thoughts going around and around his head. Fruitless ones about him and Christian, which had been laid to rest by the day they’d had, only to pick up pace again as soon as they set foot in this place.
When Christian finally found him, Dave smiled. “You were good,” he said. It was true, but his heart wasn’t in it, and he knew Christian would hear that.
Christian shrugged, accepting it as if it were his due, but his eyes flickered with something for an instant. Hurt, maybe. Then he looked at Justin, just long enough to have Dave ready to intervene, before turning back to Dave.
“Ready to head out?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Dave said, turning to Justin, who was watching them closely, eyes slightly narrowed as if trying to work something out. Like something didn’t quite add up. “See you around,” he said, before following Christian’s path to the door.
He didn’t look back, but he could feel Justin’s gaze tracking him all the way, thoughtful and considering.
* * *
The motel room door clicked shut behind them. Christian peeled his shirt off in one fluid motion and disappeared into the bathroom. The shower turned on a second later.
Dave sat down on the edge of the bed. He fancied he could still feel the warmth on his thigh where Christian’s hand had restedas he’d driven home. A touch that somehow managed to be both casual and possessive, and grounding for them both. Like a tether between them, even when their heads were in different places.
Dave stared down at his hand, resting where Christian’s had been, but it didn’t feel the same. Nothing was the same as Christian’s touch.
Christian had been incandescent in the cage. Not just strong and skilled butlit. The kind of focus that made Dave forget to breathe. And that sharp, focused fire—Dave might not have lit it, but he was the only one Christian ever let close enough to see it after.
And that was what Dave loved most about Christian, not the strength, or the sex, but the way he let Dave in to where no one else could tread. The way he gave Dave an unspoken yet profound trust beneath all the growling and gruffness. And something in that held Dave close, let him know he was seen and valued.
There’d been a moment before the fight started when Christian had turned to look for him in the crowd. Just a flick of his eyes, quick and instinctive, and Dave had felt that tether pulling tight between them. Even with what he was about to do, he was still Dave’s Christian. But something inside him had only really comealiveonce the cage shut.
Dave sighed softly. He didn’t pretend to understand it, this pull toward the fight. But he was starting to understand the shape of it. It was the same look Christian got sometimes when the kitchen at the ranch was too crowded, or when people expected him to read between the lines instead of just saying what they meant. Dave had learned that frustration in Christian turned into aneedto burn it off.
Christian didn’t handle change well. Dave knew it in the way he kept repairing old boots when replacing them would have been as cheap, and had the same breakfast every day. Knew it in the wayhe took the same path on his morning runs, loop after loop like a ritual.
And now the place they’d called home for the last five years was changing. Not only that—it was happening fast. First Jesse, then Riley, and Colby. And each of them had brought some kind of bigger change with them, not only in pack dynamics but some form of threat toward what used to be a peaceful pack. Everything had changed almost overnight, with no warning.
From the little Dave knew of Christian’s past, he’d spent years being yanked from one place to another, expected to adapt, to behave, to survive. The sudden, repeated reshapings of his home these last few months had scraped something raw inside him.
Dave rubbed a thumb over his jaw. Christian had looked happy today. He’d joked and laughed, even eaten something green without complaining. But that shine in his eyes for the fight, that was something Dave couldn’t put there.
He played with his phone, wondering. Part of him wanted to talk to someone about it. Bryce, maybe. For all his exaggerated flirting and jokes, he was a safe harbor emotionally—always open, warm and calm. He didn’t judge, and Dave knew he’d take any confidences to the grave.
But telling anyone felt like a betrayal of Christian’s trust. As for the thought of admitting he wasn’t enough for his mate…
