Keeping his back to me, Liam said through the mind-link,She thinks I’ve forgotten that you’re fair game to attack since you’re infur.
I jerked to astop.
They’re going to go after you. Just keep running, and don’t stop. Run in circles; run around the ring. August will adjust your trajectory. Gotit?
I didn’t say anything, afraid of spoiling our plan, and afraid Liam would hear the tremor building inside me at the idea of being chased by not one, buttwogiantwolves.
Like he’d done in the Smoky Mountains, Liam slid into skin. His muscled form was outlined in moonlight. He turned a little, and I blinked at the amount of blood coating his stomach. Scabs and seeping gashes crisscrossed all over his abdomen. “Shifters, Justin attacked mySecond.”
People frowned. I didn’t think it was in surprise—after all, they’d seen it happen—but in confusion—they probably didn’t understand why Liam felt the need to interrupt the show to explain it tothem.
The tether tautened . . . I glanced over my shoulder at August. His green eyes were steady, his arms crossed in front of his chest, his shoulders pulled in a line. He was ready andconcentrated.
As I twisted around, my gaze collided into Alex’s. His hand was no longer wrapped around Sarah’s, but she still stood next to him, concern glittering in her darkeyes.
“Ness! Watch out!” shescreamed.
Just as Liam predicted, Cassandra and Justin raced in opposite directions, drawing a V around my Alpha, a V that converged on me. I took off at breakneck speed along the edge of the ring, thanking Matt when my lungs didn’t explode and my muscles didn’t give out. Then again, I couldn’t feel any of my limbs, only the wind brushing my fur, whooshing inside my ears. In that moment, I became more bird thanwolf.
Suddenly, my body was hauled almost to the center of the ring, blades of grass ripping beneath my claws, the only things keeping me from toppling over. I whipped my neck toward where I’d stood, and found Cassandra shaking Justin off of her. They must’ve collided, which might’ve amused me had her gaze not locked like a double-barreled shotgun onme.
She must’ve yelled through the mind-link, because Justin squirmed and then vaulted in mydirection.
I took off again, my back paws almost reaching my ears as I ran. A roar sounded at my left, and then a shadow shot out from behind me. Was it Cassandra? I pushed myself harder, sprinting faster than when the rocks rained down the mountain during the first trial. Bodies crashed behind me, and then snarls. Without decreasing my pace, I swung my head toward the ruckus, found a mountain of black fur atop a mountain of darkbrown.
A sharp wince punctured the night, followed by a wetrip.
I was so shocked by the sight of Justin’s blood dripping from Liam’s muzzle that I didn’t see the shape arrowing forme.
Ness!he screeched into myskull.
I froze. A heartbeat before Cassandra crashed into me, August yanked on the tether. This time, I fell as he drew my body toward the center of the ring, mere feet away from Justin’s slackform.
Cassandra yowled infrustration.
My pulse seemed to have penetrated my eyes, because the world beat andbobbed.
Liam trotted out in front of me, head and tail held high, shoulders relaxed, a wall of pure, unadulteratedconfidence.
She’s cheatin’!Morganyelled.
Too bad your referee’s no longer alive to call the duel off,Liambarked.
Wheezing, I climbed back onto my paws, ribs feeling bruised and displaced. The smell of warm blood and wet earth penetrated my nostrils. I kept expecting Justin to twitch, but only his furrustled.
He wasgone.
I could hardly believe how rapidly his life had been snuffedout.
There one minute and gone thenext.
A disturbance in the ring of shifters behind Justin had my gaze springing up. Alex Morgan was elbowing his way toward my pack. I let out a shrill bark, but my mate’s attention didn’t veer off me. I barked again, and still he didn’t look around him, but a groove appeared between his eyebrows. Did no one see Alex approach? He wasn’t freakingtransparent!
Then again, he hadn’t breeched the first line of Bouldersyet.
A snarl had my attention jumping back to the ring where Cassandra was hurtling towardLiam.
I needed to focus onLiam.
