“There’s a dead body in the common room and some lady told us to go meet there. I’m scared,” Jay whispered.
Fuck. What the hell was going on? He needed to get there fast. Jay wasn’t the only one among the fighters he looked after and he knew they’d be as stressed as the vampire was. Adri was across the room in less than a second, tucking the big vampire into his arm even though Adri’s head only came up to Jay’s shoulder.
“Come on. I’ll take care of it,” he said, not at all sure he’d be able to.
The first thing he noticed as he stepped into the common room was the overwhelming smell of viscera. A quick glance in the direction it was coming from confirmed what he’d suspected. After years of being an asshole to everyone he met, someone had finally taken Garth out. The vampire’s head was resting on a side table. His intestines had been draped around it like some kind of floral arrangement and the rest of his body had been left slumped underneath.
Well. That was certainly a message. If only he knew what kind.
Tipping his chin in greeting to a couple of the older fighters in the centre of the room, he made his way to the far corner where a cluster of younger shifters stood nervously. They were all wolves, the most common shifters in the city. Jaguars didn’t have packs like wolves, but he knew these young ones needed the reassurance their instincts craved, so he pretended for them. Reaching out, he squeezed their shoulders and scented them before nudging Jay to join them so he could place himself between the young fighters and the rest of the room as they waited in silence to find out who their next owner would be.
They didn’t have to wait long.
Three wolf shifters swept into the room from the direction of Garth’s office and a wave of dominance crashed over them from the one in the lead. Every wolf in the room immediately bared their throat. Adri just glared. He wasn’t a damn wolf and he didn’t owe anyone his submission. He’d never seen the guy in person before, but everyone in New Trinity knew who he was. Six foot five. More intimidating than any fighter in the room. A suit that cost more than Adri made for the fighting ring in a month and that irritating Mediterranean tall, dark and sternly handsome beauty.
This was Marco—Alpha of the Lunetti Pack.
Fucking Rafe. He should’ve known the doc wouldn’t be able to help himself. Rafe must’ve gone running to his Alpha to fix things and now the fucking shifter mafia had taken over the fighting ring. How was that any better than Garth? A criminal was a criminal.
On either side of Marco stood two of his pack—a russet-haired man whose gaze tracked every movement and threat in the room, and a female shifter who oozed her own alpha dominance, although nowhere near the level of Marco’s.
“As you’ve no doubt guessed, the ring is now owned by the Lunetti Pack. Viviana will be managing things from here on. Any debt you owed to that piece of shit vampire is now owed to me. Fuck with me and I’ll bury you,” Marco growled.
The woman at Marco’s side stepped forward as he finished speaking, bowing her head to him before turning to face the room.
“You can call me Viv unless you piss me off, at which point you won’t be calling me anything because you’ll be as dead as Garth. All schedules will remain the same until I’ve had a chance to review them. Any questions?”
Adri bit back the urge to speak. There would be time to sound out their new manager once the Alpha was no longer in the building. Now was not the time to draw any attention and they all knew it. Every fighters’ eyes were trained on the floor as they stood waiting to be dismissed.
“Good. Carter, with me,” Marco ordered.
It took Adri longer than it should have to realise it was his surname the Alpha had called. By the time he did, Marco was already striding toward Garth’s old office without even checking he was following. How had he even known his surname? Adri sure as fuck hadn’t told Rafe.
It wasn’t until Jay pushed him gently that he realised he’d been frozen, rooted to the spot.Fuck. He couldn’t risk angering the Lunettis. Who would look after Jay and all the rest if he was killed? Swallowing his anger, he used his shifter speed to dart after Marco. It meant he made it through the door just as the Alpha took his seat behind the old oak desk. It also meant he didn’t notice Rafe’s scent until it was too late to pull back. Glaring at the man who’d meddled when Adri had told him not to, he stalked forward and threw himself into the only available chair.Fuck Rafe. The doc could stand.
Marco raised an eyebrow but otherwise ignored his rudeness to push a sheaf of papers sitting on the desk toward him. “This is the record of your debt. It’s been repaid in full. You’re free to go,” Marco said.
“What?” he asked, blinking in confusion.
“You don’t owe me anything. You can leave,” Marco repeated.
“What the fuck did you do?” Adri growled, rising to his feet to face Rafe.
The russet-haired bodyguard stepped closer at the move, hovering between him and Rafe with a low growl at the potential threat to his pack. Adri’s eyes flicked to the man and assessed him. He wasn’t quite as tall as the Alpha, but he wasn’t far off. The wolf shifter was packed with muscle, but it was the wary calculation in his gaze that told Adri he needed to tread carefully.If he’d been facing him in the ring, he would’ve had the thrill of knowing he was facing a true challenge of his skills. In this context, with the telltale bulge of a weapon breaking the line of the bodyguard’s suit and the even more powerful Alpha nearby, Adri knew he was outmatched.
Rafe, the asshole, honestly looked surprised by his aggression. As if Adri hadn’t explicitly told him not to save him. As if Adri hadn’t told him to get off and fuck off. Adri couldn’t be bought and he didn’t need fucking saving. He was the one doing the saving. And he was going to keep doing it. No way would he leave Jay and the others to face the ruthless wolf bitch in the other room alone.
Marco’s voice broke the tense silence. “Rafe didn’t ask for anything I wouldn’t have done anyway. I would have stepped into this business years ago if there hadn’t been other priorities for the pack. I reviewed your so-called debt personally. What little of it stood up to any scrutiny was long since repaid by the money you’ve been bringing in. You were Garth’s top earner.”
Why the fuck was the Alpha of the Lunettis reviewing his debt personally? Was Rafe really that desperate for him?
“What about the others?” Adri asked, turning back to face the Alpha.
“No one else is near repayment. They have to stay,” Marco said.
“That’s bullshit!”
“That’s business.” There was a warning in Marco’s eyes that said he was done letting Adrien’s disrespect slide.
