“Lose another child?” I repeated, feeling so hurt and exhausted at this point I could barely stand. “You didn’t lose me, Jenny. You threw me away. I suggest, if you don’t want Bowman to go through the same experience I did, you leave this sick, twisted place and take him somewhere safe.”
My mother began to sob, taking Bowman by the hand. “Whatever happens to your brother is on you, Millie! It’s on you!”
I wanted to spurn her words, but I couldn’t. While the rational part of my brain knew she was lashing out at me because of her fear for her son’s safety, the little girl in me wanted to curl in a ball and cry.
When the door closed, Flint was already at my side. Pulling me in his arms, he gave me the loving hug my mother should have. “Ignore what she just said, Millie. Jenny’s a fucking brainwashed idiot. None of this is your fault. This is what happens with pack politics and power-hungry men. Women and children always pay the price for their greed. It’s a tale as old as time.”
Tears streamed down my cheeks, and I let Flint hold me until his phone chirped with a message.
Swearing, he checked his cell and frowned. “It’s about to begin,” he told me.
“Where?” I choked out, already feeling like I’d been through nine rounds at Madison Square Garden all before noon.
Nudging his chin in the direction of the window, he said, “Out there in the courtyard.”
Picking up my purse, which I’d tossed on the couch when we entered, I began to walk toward the door. When he didn’t follow, I asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Ethan says they don’t want you at the fight. He’s been informed that you’re watching from inside this room. Malcolm is demanding it. He intends for you to be safely tucked away for when he believes Osyrius will win and he’ll want to indulge himself in the spoils of war.”
My eyes darted over to the bed in the corner of the room and I nearly gagged. “What?”
“Don’t worry,” Flint spoke calmly. “That bastard’s never going to get the chance to come within a hundred yards of you, Millie. Ethan and I planned for this. In fact, separating you from the crowd was exactly what we hoped he would do.”
I trusted both Ethan and Flint’s judgement implicitly. If they had a plan, I knew I was safe. However, I suddenly felt a tingling at the base of my spine that made me a bit unnerved.
When that fateful tingling spread to my legs, I turned to Flint and said, “Okay, I think there’s a new problem we didn’t foresee.”
Cocking his head, Flint asked, “What’s that?”
Swallowing hard, I realized that I’d inadvertently found my trigger. My shifter trigger.
Ethan had told me every ware finds their trigger in their own way. My mate’s was surrendering to the peace, harmony and tranquility in the natural world around him. Mine was fear and anger, apparently. A shit ton of it. Go figure. Between my mother, the fight, and Osyrius’s sexual threat, I was about to do something I couldn’t control. Something that could put everything we’d planned for at risk in the worst kind of way.
“I’m about to shift,” I informed my companion, as I started to rip off my clothes in a blind panic.
CHAPTER 19
Millie
“Now?” Flint hurled back, looking absolutely thrown by my admission.
“Yeah,” I panted, feeling my muscles contract as I pulled off my pants in one fell swoop, modesty be damned. I had bigger problems than nudity in front of a fellow pack member right now.
Flint’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head, and not because he was excited to get a glimpse of my white cotton panties.
“Fuck, Millie. Are you sure? I mean, a lot of things can feel like a shift to a new ware, but?—”
Before he could finish his thought, I dropped to my knees, and my spine began to bend in a way that no humanspine should.
“Shit, this is happening,” Flint finally accepted as he reached for his own shirt.
“What are you doing?” I breathed through the pain and another sharp contraction of my spine that momentarily robbed me of my sight.
Smiling roguishly, Flint dropped his cargo pants to the floor. “You know what they say, cuz. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”
Ethan
I was actually grateful that Millie was watching the fight from a secondary location. The last thing I needed right now was to witness the fear on my mate’s face as she witnessed me and another ware fight to the death.
